When LA Clippers point guard James Harden was asked about the NBA’s top ten all-time total scoring list, he made it a point to note the only guards on that list were Hall of Famers and Slam Dunk champions Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

“I was looking at the list, and, it’s like, all those guys are way bigger than me, way more athletic than me,” said the 6-foot-5 Harden. “Like, I think the only two guards is Kobe and Jordan. And they were flying.”

Now in his 17th NBA season, Harden passed Hall of Famer and former Houston Rockets teammate Carmelo Anthony against the Minnesota Timberwolves Saturday at Target Center for tenth place on the NBA’s all-time total scoring list. Anthony finished his 19-year NBA career in 2022 with 28,289 points.

How Harden did it

Harden, with his team in the bonus in the third quarter with 4:23 left to play, felt Jaylen Clark’s contact and rose up to draw a foul, making the two free throws to pass Carmelo Anthony.

Take a moment and watch history be made ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/kWUAq8JLvp

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) December 7, 2025

“You look at that list it’s like, there’s no way,” Harden said earlier this week in Atlanta when asked about his inclusion on a scoring list that includes all-time leader LeBron James, center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, power forward Karl Malone, power forward Dirk Nowitzki, center Wilt Chamberlain, small forward Kevin Durant, and center Shaquille O’Neal. “There’s no way that I’d get the opportunity to be a part of this list. It’s literally like a dream come true. The work that I literally put in is coming to fruition. So many things that this game has done for me. And I’m sure for all those guys as well, you know what I mean. Those names are still being talked about, you know, post basketball. So it’s literally a dream come true, and it’s an opportunity and honor to be a part of that list.”

Harden has made a career of buckets since the Oklahoma City Thunder drafted him third overall in the 2009 NBA Draft out of Arizona State. When Harden started his career, he was a bench scorer for a Thunder team that was reaching the playoffs for the first time since the franchise relocated from Seattle, culminating in a Sixth Man of the Year award in 2012 for the Western Conference champions.

That offseason, Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets to be the face of the franchise, where he has scored 18,365 of his points over 10 seasons. Only Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon scored more total points in a Rockets uniform, and Harden’s career-high 61 points (done twice in 2019) is the all-time Rockets single-game scoring record. Harden made the first eight of his 11 All-Star seasons with the Rockets, won three straight scoring titles from 2018 to 2020 and was the 2018 NBA MVP in Houston as well.

Along the way, Harden mixed double-digit free-throw attempts with self-created 3s. In his first season with Mike D’Antoni as Rockets head coach in 2016-17, Harden averaged a league-leading 11.2 assists per game, more assists than any of the other top-ten scorers averaged in a season. When Harden’s career continued in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, he averaged double-digit assists for three seasons in a row, culminating with a league-leading 10.7 per game.

Harden, a product of Artesia High School, arrived in LA in 2023 and sacrificed scoring while playing next to Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook. While his scoring dropped to a 13-year-low 16.6 points per game while sharing the ball with future Hall of Famers, it went back up to 22.8 points during the 2024-25 with Leonard injured and George and Westbrook departing for the start of the 2024-25 season, a campaign that saw Harden return to All-Star and All-NBA status. Harden also joined Stephen Curry as the only players ever to make 3,000 3s in a career last season.

This season has been a thoroughly disappointing one for the Clippers, with Harden trying to lead a team that missed Leonard for most of November, lost Bradley Beal for the season after only six games, and dismissed Harden’s former Rockets teammate Chris Paul earlier this week. But Harden has been productive, entering Saturday with his highest scoring average in six seasons (26.5), highlighted by a Clippers franchise single-game scoring record of 55 points two weeks ago in Charlotte.

Entering Saturday, Harden has averaged 20.7 points per game in his three seasons with the Clippers, and averaged 69.7 games played in the previous three seasons. Harden would likely have a better chance to reach the 30,000-point club next season, but he could pass O’Neal for ninth on the all-time scoring list in early January 2026.

“We’re talking about NBA history,” Harden said. “As a kid growing up, watching Kobe and Shaq and all those guys … shooting Kobe fadeaways. And now, it’s like, number two on the all-time 3-point list, crack the top 10. I’m blessed. I’m grateful.”