CHICAGO -- LeBron James moved past former teammate Shaquille O'Neal for seventh place on the all-time scoring list with his 28,597th point Wednesday night.
James has moved from 12th on the list to seventh just this season, passing Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and now O'Neal. The next man up is a moving target, Dirk Nowitzki is in sixth place after scoring his 30,000th point earlier this month.
He praised O'Neal but wasn't in the mood to celebrate after the Cavs lost a halftime lead and lost to the Bulls, 99-93, their fifth loss in seven games.
"Shaq is an all-time great, and the most dominant player to ever play this game," James said. "Much respect, he's like a big brother of mine. Very extremely excited to see him get a statue outside of Staples Center. But I could care less about me passing him. Means absolutely nothing."
James is on the verge on becoming the first player in league history to average at least 25 points in 13 consecutive seasons. He is still just under 10,000 points away from all-time leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 38,387 points.
Were James to stay on his current scoring and playing pace, it would take more than five more seasons to catch Abdul-Jabbar.
James is also two games shy of tying Abdul-Jabbar's streak of 787 consecutive regular season games with at least 10 points.
Michael Jordan holds the all-time record of 866 consecutive games of at least 10 points.
