Houston’s win over the Miami Heat on Saturday night<\/a> to move past Jordan.<\/p>\nDurant, who was the second overall pick in the 2007 draft, had 21 points entering the fourth quarter and made a 3-pointer with less than five minutes left to inch close to passing Jordan. He did it on his next shot, sinking another 3 from nearly the same spot in the right corner to give him 32,294 points, two more than Jordan.<\/p>\n
He briefly lifted his arms in triumph after draining the shot as the home crowd went wild.<\/p>\n
Durant was asked if had a favorite memory of Jordan or a best interaction with the superstar.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. That\u2019s like asking me do I got a favorite Drake song,\u201d he said. \u201cNo, they\u2019re just all great. MJ has so many great moments. He just personifies iconic god level \u2013 just everything that I believe in, he personifies.\u201d<\/p>\n
He missed a shot that would have won the game for Houston in the final seconds, but Amen Thompson tipped in the miss to give the Rockets the 123-122 victory.<\/p>\n
Thompson, who was 4 when Durant was a rookie, is in awe of the veteran\u2019s accomplishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s legendary,\u201d he said. \u201cJust being on a team with greatness like that, it\u2019s inspiring, for sure. And witnessing him break these records, it\u2019s been cool to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rockets played a video commemorating the milestone just before the final play. It featured highlights of Durant along with some of Jordan as the fans rose to their feet to laud him.<\/p>\n
Durant had already eclipsed Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) and Dirk Nowitzki (31,560) this season before moving up again Saturday. Next up on the esteemed list is Kobe Bryant, who’s fourth with 33,643 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an honor for everybody to be a part of that,\u201d coach Ime Udoka said. \u201cAnd as KD has said in the past, I don\u2019t think he cares much about it in the moment. He\u2019s really focused on the season and what we\u2019re trying to accomplish, but I don\u2019t want to just make it an afterthought. Passing Michael Jordan is obviously a huge accomplishment and we celebrated that with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durant is in his 19th year in the league, but he sat out the entire 2019-20 season with an injury. He\u2019s in his first season in Houston since a blockbuster trade from Phoenix last summer.<\/p>\n
The 16-time All-Star and four-time Olympic gold medalist is a four-time scoring champion and a two-time NBA Finals MVP. He has two NBA titles, was the MVP in 2013-14 and is an 11-time All-NBA selection.<\/p>\n
Durant said he has been inspired by everyone at the top of the scoring list and he hopes to continue to inspire those who come after him. But it\u2019s difficult for him to fully embrace what this accomplishment means to his career and legacy right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool, but it\u2019s hard to take in when you\u2019re still on the journey, when you just care about getting better,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t ever want to downplay stuff like that, but I\u2019ve got to get up and come to work tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 On the night Kevin Durant passed Michael Jordan for fifth on the NBA\u2019s career scoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,295,189,3881,6,68184,68185,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-672060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-heat","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-miamiheat","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-pro_national_sports","15":"tag-pronational_sports","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116271112845999238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}