Nobody has played in more NBA games than LeBron James.
The 22-time All-Star, four-time NBA MVP, and four-time NBA champion made it official when he and the Los Angeles Lakers visited Orlando on Saturday night. By starting against the Magic, James appeared in his 1,612th regular-season NBA game. James broke the all-time total games played record previously held by Robert Parish at 1,611 games.
James did not look like a 41-year-old playing in his 1,612th regular-season game. Less than one minute into the game, James caused a turnover of Orlando’s Desmond Bane, collected an outlet pass from Austin Reaves, and ran like a locomotive in the open court before winding up for an emphatic dunk.
This is James’ NBA-record 23rd season. Earlier this month, James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the recordholder for most made field goals in NBA history. James previously passed Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Feb. 7, 2023. James is also the league’s all-time leader in playoff points scored, All-NBA selections (21), playoff wins, and consecutive games scoring at least 10 points (via Yahoo! Sports).
James’ streak of 1,297 consecutive regular-season games with double-digit scoring ended on Dec. 4, 2025.
It would make sense that James is also the NBA’s all-time leader in minutes played, but it’s still staggering to see 60,675 minutes (and counting) by his name.
“I wanted to be the best player in this league at some point,” James said this week, according to the Associated Press‘ Tim Reynolds. “I wanted to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, to ever play this game. I wanted to be an NBA champion. I wanted to possibly win Rookie of the Year, make All-Star appearances, win a gold medal, win some MVPs — those were some of my goals. But some of the stuff that’s just been happening over the course of the last few years has been super-duper cool.”
The Lakers entered Saturday evening’s game on an eight-game winning streak. During that streak, Lakers All-NBA and All-Star guard Luka Doncic has led the offensive charge by scoring 100 points over the past two games. But James has been dominant, too — and not just for his age.
Against the Houston Rockets on March 18, James scored 30 points on 13-of-14 from the field. He extended his own record as the oldest player ever to score 30, previously surpassing Dirk Nowitzki in December. In Miami the following night, James posted a 19-point, 15-rebound, and 10-assist triple-double.
The Lakers have a stronghold on the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. Debates can be held about their realistic odds to win the NBA Finals, but nobody will want to face a red-hot Doncic and James in the playoffs. Plus, James has been defying odds for decades.
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