On February 12, Beijing time, the Suns hosted the Grizzlies, and Durant officially unlocked the 30,000-point milestone, becoming the eighth player in NBA history to do so. Among active players, only James scored more points (41,623) than Durant.

Before Durant, only seven players in the NBA's nearly 80-year history had reached the 30,000-point milestone: James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe, Jordan, Nowitzki and Chamberlain. Except for James and Durant, who are still playing, the rest have been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Since entering the NBA as the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft, Durant has been a scoring machine, scoring from all positions on the court, winning four single-season scoring titles in the process. This result is third all-time behind Jordan (10) and Chamberlain (7).

Prior to this game, Durant's career 10,331 shots were charted below, with little white space. Green represents the Supersonic period, blue is the Thunder period, yellow is the Warriors' time, black is the Nets' score, and orange is the Suns' score.

A common saying among great scorers is "find my own scoring spot". For Durant, the entire court is "his place."

Durant has the height of a center (2.11 meters tall and a 2.26 meter arm span), guard-like skills, and top-level athleticism, which makes him stand out among NBA scorers.

Even in the so-called "unicorn" era, where the big man's scoring range has expanded to the perimeter, they still can't score in all three scoring zones (inside, mid-range, outside) as easily as Durant. He's a lethal scorer with a fluid style of play.

Looking at how evenly distributed Durant's total scoring is, the only area where he doesn't score regularly is the corner three-pointer (618), which is understandable, as the corner three-pointer is the area where the team's wing role players often shoot. And Durant is by no means a player who is good at one aspect, he can do anything when it comes to scoring.

Among players who have played in at least 500 games in his career, Durant averages 27.2 points per game, which ranks fourth all-time, behind Jordan (30.1), Chamberlain (30.1) and Elgin Baylor (27.4).

With this consistent scoring ability, Durant reached this milestone faster than half of the 30,000-point club. He had 1,101 games to reach the 30,000-point milestone, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the third-fastest player to reach 30,000 points. Only Chamberlain (941) and Jordan (960) are faster than Durant and Skyhook.

After crossing the 30,000-point mark, Durant will continue to climb the scoring charts, ahead of him first at No. 7 with Chamberlain (31,419 points) and then No. 6 with Nowitzki (31,560 points).

While those goals have not been achieved this season, Durant has shown no signs of dipping in form. His current 26.9 points per game is just 0.3 points below his career average. At this rate, Durant would need to surpass Chamberlain in 54 games and Nowitzki in 59 games, meaning both goals could be achieved in 2025-26.