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Kevin Durant achieved a significant career milestone during the game against the Boston Celtics. He became just the 23rd player in NBA history to score 25,000 career points.
While he celebrated the achievement, he acknowledged that he should have accomplished it sooner. Durant has been injured a lot in his career and there is little doubt that he would have crossed the 25K-mark sooner if he hadn't missed so much time.
When asked about the achievement in the postgame interview, he answered:
"It's pretty cool. I should be at 30 right now but it's cool to reach that milestone and be amongst the greats. I've just got to keep pushing and keep going and see where I end up."
Kevin Durant was 33 points behind the mark before entering the game and ended up scoring 37 points on the night. He now sits at 25,004 points for his career.
Kevin Durant is the seventh-fastest player in NBA history in terms of number of games to reach 25,000 points. He joins Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James as the only active players to achieve that milestone. However, he believes he would have been close to 30,000 points if he hadn't been injured so much in his recent career.
Until his seventh season in the league, Durant was an iron man who never missed more than eight games in a season. His first major injury was during the 2014-15 season, when he played just 27 games. He missed 20 games during his first season ('16-'17) with the Warriors and then 14 in the next season.
Durant hurt his Achilles during the 2019 NBA Finals and he hasn't been the same ever since. He missed the entirety of the 2019-20 NBA season and has randomly been absent for huge stretches since joining the Brooklyn Nets.
Kevin Durant has missed a total of 256 games in his career. He has never scored less than 1,500 points in a season other than 2014-15 and 2020-21. He has led the league in scoring four times and averaged over 30 a game twice.
Even if we consider his career scoring average of 27.1 points per game and account for the missed 256 games, he would have over 6,900 more points by now. That would bring his career total to 31,900 points.
Fans react to Kevin Durant crossing 25,000 career points in the NBA
Kevin Durant gave the fans a "what if he wasn't injured" moment. He has missed a lot of games in his career but has been especially injury-prone since joining the Brooklyn Nets. He has missed more games as a member of the Nets than he has played in. Hence, young fans on social media are especially upset with his injury status.
While he teased the idea that he should have had more points, the majority of the fans agreed immediately.
Meanwhile, some fans took a much more aggressive approach, either roasting or trolling Kevin Durant for the statement.
Nevertheless, it is still a milestone only 22 others have ever achieved in NBA history and it is only a matter of time before he crosses 30K points. Many organizations congratulated 'The Slim Repear' on his accomplishment.
Guess the Lakers players!
