Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to reach 30,000 career points in the NBA on Wednesday night as he helped the Los Angeles Lakers to a 103-87 victory over the New Orleans Hornets.

With 1:16 left in the second quarter, Bryant drove into the lane and rose to connect on a jump shot, taking his tally for the contest to 14 and for his career to 30,001.

“It’s a huge accomplishment,” Bryant said of becoming just the fifth player in NBA history to reach the milestone.

He joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419).

“It feels good,” Bryant added. “I’ve been very fortunate that I haven’t really had any serious injuries. It’s been a lot of sacrifice on my part and my family’s part – a lot of time away and just working extremely hard.”

At 34 years old, he’s the youngest player in history to reach the milestone. Chamberlain was 35 years old, while Malone and Abdul-Jabbar were both 36 and Jordan 38.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.