Milwaukee Bucks point guard Damian Lillard just solidified his position in the NBA’s history by entering a very uncommon statistical region. Not that he needs any more evidence that he is among the league’s all-time greatest scorers. Dame made history on Tuesday night by becoming just the 51st player in history to record at least 50,000 career points with his layup early in the team’s home game against the San Antonio Spurs.

With 19,994 points when he woke up on Tuesday, Lillard only needed six more to reach the 20,000 point mark. It will be more interesting to guess where he will rank once his playing career is done on the NBA’s all-time scoring list because that milestone was all but guaranteed for him a long time ago.

Damian Lillard of the Bucks has a lot more left in him

Lillard will not turn 34 until July, thus he is still only 33 years old. He entered the Spurs game averaging 25.8 points on 52.2 effective field goal % and 61.5 true shooting percentage, suggesting he still has plenty of gas left in the tank.

Damian Lillard needed six points to reach the 20k milestone, and the Spurs were never going to stop him from scoring those. Victor Wembanyama is not playing, first of all, due to right ankle pain. The Spurs rank among the NBA’s worst defensive groups as well.

Lillard is now ranked ninth all-time in points scored by NBA players. The Phoenix Suns’ Chris Paul, the Chicago Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan, the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the Suns’ Kevin Durant, and, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James are in front of him.