LeBron James Stats: 5 Achievements The King Was The Youngest To Reach

Toronto Raptors v Cleveland Cavaliers - Game One
LeBron James

LeBron James is one of the greatest players to ever play the game. In 15 years of dominating the world's best basketball league, the King has virtually cemented his place as a great worthy of placing on the Mount Rushmore of basketball legends.

The hype began way before he ever played a single minute of NBA basketball, but there was a reason sportswear giants like Nike were willing to pay millions and millions of dollars in order to sign up the next big thing in basketball.

Ever since debuting, James has been worth every word and action of hype anyone ever took. He has been as much a model citizen off the court as a basketball savant on it, and there's pretty much every reason to count him among the greatest swingmen of all time alongside the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

The fact that he entered the league so early in his career as a virtually finished basketball product meant that he has set a ton of age-based records since 2003.

The following five are the most important of all those records:

#1 Youngest to reach 1000, 2000,.....,31000 regular season points

Cleveland Cavaliers v San Antonio Spurs
James reached the 30,000 career points landmark this past season

LeBron entered the league as the most-hyped high school player of all time and promptly set about demolishing a number of age-based records. He is the only teenager in NBA history to finish a season with averages of 20+ points, 5+ rebounds and 5+ assists, and the Cleveland Cavaliers improved their record from 17-65 in the previous season to 35-47 and a 9th-place finish in the Eastern Conference standings.

En route, he set the record for the youngest player to reach 1,000 career points. Since then, he has gone past the milestone of every single thousand-point mark up until 31,000 as the youngest player to reach those totals. Right now, LeBron is 7th on the all-time scoring list, and could conceivably end up #1 overall if he remains healthy.

#2 Youngest player to be awarded All-NBA honours

Cleveland Cavaliers v New Jersey Nets
Cleveland Cavaliers v New Jersey Nets

James was an All-Star caliber player right off the bat, as he demonstrated right in his first game of the 2003-04 season with 25 points. His second season saw him improve across the board, as he upped his averages in scoring from 20.9 to 27.2, rebounding from 5.5 to 7.2 and assists from 5.9 to 7.2. His shooting percentage also shot up substantially from 41.7% in his rookie season to 47.2%.

He also averaged a career-best 2.2 steals per game that same season. The season culminated in failure to make the playoffs, but LeBron James' greatness did not go unnoticed as he made his first All-Star game appearance, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team that same season as well.

James also finished 6th in MVP voting that same season, accumulating 93 points (although he did not get a first-place vote).

#3 Youngest player to record a triple-double in the playoffs

Washington Wizards v Cleveland Cavaliers
Washington Wizards v Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers reached the playoffs for the first time with LeBron James in the roster during the 2005-06 season, finishing the regular season with a 50-32 record and making the playoffs as the 4th seed in the East. They faced off against the Washington Wizards in the first round, and LeBron, for the first time in his career, got the chance to relish a playoff game first-hand.

He responded emphatically by tallying a triple-double, finishing with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists as the Cavaliers held off the Wizards at home to win 97-86. At the age of 21 years and 113 days, he became the youngest player to ever tally a triple-double in a playoff game, and the only player to do so in his very first game.

The Cavaliers would go on to win the series 4-2 before losing to the Detroit Pistons in the Conference Semifinals.

#4 Youngest player to score 40 points in a regular season game

Cavaliers v 76ers
LeBron James

In his rookie season, The King was setting records left, right and center. He outdid himself by the end of the season, dropping 41 points, 13 assists and 6 rebounds in a 107-104 victory at the Quicken Loans Arena.

James drove to the rim relentlessly, and his drive-and-kick game resulted in great dividends offensively as he shot 10 free throws, making all of them. The drive-and-kick game also led to his assists total of 13, with Carlos Boozer and Zydrunas Ilgauskas as the prime beneficiaries of this tactic.

It is impossible to overstate how good LeBron was right in his rookie season, and this record is just another example of his God-like ability.

#5 Youngest to win 4 MVP trophies

2012-2013 NBA Most Valuable Player Award
2012-2013 NBA Most Valuable Player Award

LeBron's 2012-13 season is comparable to any peak season by any player in history. He won the MVP award in a landslide, with all but 1 of the first-place votes. He also finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting after Marc Gasol. His impact was crucial to the Miami Heat putting together a 27-game winning streak through the middle of the regular season.

This was the peak of the Heat's domination of the league, and LeBron carried the lightest offensive load of his career. The presence of fellow All-Stars and two-way players Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade allowed him to average the fewest shot attempts per game of his career, but he still averaged 26.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game while shooting 56.5% from the floor, 40.6% from the 3-point line and 75.3% from the free throw line for a True Shooting percentage of 64.9% - the highest mark of his career.

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Edited by Yash Matange