Historically, approximately every four and a half years or so, the NBA hits its next million-point milestone. Starting from the scoring of the league’s very first basket in its history – scored by Ossie Schectman of the New York Knicks on November 1, 1946 – the NBA has seen many millions of points scored, as befits the highest standard league in one of the highest-scoring ball sports around.
However, with the way scoring rates have picked up in the NBA in recent seasons given the evolution of the pace and space principles that Mike D’Antoni was trying to teach us all about two decades ago, that “approximately four and a half years” pace has picked up. Now, we should all expect the next million-point milestone – the 14 millionth point in NBA history – to be scored at some point in the first half of next season.
To be more specific, it should happen in about November.
NBA Math! For No Reason!
To estimate when the 14,000,000th point will arrive, the modern era of NBA scoring must be used as the new baseline.
Last season, the average points per game average per team per game (if that makes sense) across the entire NBA was 113.8. This represented a small decrease on the 2023-24 (114.2) and 2022-23 (114.7) seasons, yet for the sake of argument, it also gives a figure that can be used to calculate when the 14,000,000 number will be hit. The combined points per game between both teams is therefore going to be, using the 113.8 constant, 227.6.
It is not immediately clear to the outsider quite how many points have been scored in NBA history to date. However, using the above data points, and the most recent milestone, it can be calculated.
Using the data from Basketball Reference, run through the magic of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and using a degree of patience that would better be served resolving international border disputes, it can be seen that 280,010 points were scored by a total of 560 players in the 2024-25 NBA season. In 2023-24, it was 280,960 points by 562 players. And in 2022-23, it was 282,127 by 534. In total, across the last three seasons, that is 843,097 points, also known as Cam Thomas’s Dream Half.
On January 29, 2022, Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors reportedly scored the 13 millionth point in NBA history. Using that as a starting point, adding the 843,097 value of Cam’s Constant to it, and working out how many points were scored between Barnes’s basket and the end of the 2022-23 regular season (as only regular season points are counted in this running total), we will be able to calculate how close to 14 million the NBA is.
Again using a combination of Basketball Reference and Excel, it can be deduced that 36,729 points were scored in February 2022, 52,082 points were scored in March 2022, and 18,506 points were scored in April 2022. All told, across those three months, that is another 107,317 points.
On January 30, 2022, 2,015 more points were record, along with 1,703 points on January 31 2022. Barnes scored 22 points in his supposed record-setting game, and it is unknown which of those points is said to be the 13 millionth. There were also multiple games taking place at the time (as many as six concurrently), which further muddies the waters as to when the threshold was supposedly broke through the 13 million market. For the sake of argument, then, all points from the one game to tip off after the Raptors game (a 110-106 victory for the Golden State Warriors over the Brooklyn Nets) are said to have come after the threshold was crossed, while the final score of the Raptors’ 124-120 overtime win over the Miami Heat on that date is hereby treated as the moment a perfectly round 13 million was set.
In total, then: 13,000,000 + 106 + 110 + 1,703 + 2,015 + 107,317 + 843,097 – 14,000,000 = there are 45.652 points to go until the NBA hits 14 million.
At a rate of 227.6 points per game, that means the threshold can be expected to be blown through during the 201st game of the upcoming NBA season. The schedule for the upcoming season shows 80 games to be played across the league in October; the 121st game of November is a tie between the Milwaukee Bucks/Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers/Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Clippers/Philadelphia 76ers games that all tip off at 7.00PM Eastern on Monday, November 17. By the math, logic and reasoning of this completely unqualified amateur, the NBA’s 14 millionth regular season point should be scored during one of those games.
Record Progression Timeline
Upon the advent of the 10 millionth in NBA history being scored by Ben Gordon (then of the Detroit Pistons) back in 2010, the league issued a press release of all prior million-point milestones, where they were broken, and who by.
The first three could not be said for certain, as play-by-play data was not documented in the early days of the NBA like it is today; only the date in which the point was scored can be calculated. Nevertheless, the NBA was able to compile the following data:
1,000,000 – Occurred in one of the Detroit-Chicago, New York-Boston, or Syracuse-San Francisco games
2,000,000 – Occurred in either Baltimore-Phoenix or Detroit-Buffalo game (9.01.1972)
3,000,000 – Occurred in one of the Indiana-Washington, Buffalo-Kansas City, Detroit-New York, New Jersey-Cleveland, or Philadelphia-San Antonio games (17.02.1978)
4,000,000 – Moses Malone (18.02.1983)
5,000,000 – Rickey Green (25.01.1988)
6,000,000 – Stacey Augmon (23.03.1992)
7,000,000 – Hersey Hawkins (1.12.1996)
8,000,000 – Eddie Gill (15.04.2001)
9,000,000 – Juan Dixon (28.12.2005)
10,000,000 – Ben Gordon (9.01.2010)
Since then, three more milestones have been hit, by someone, somewhere. (The following are without verification from official NBA figures, but are hereby treated as incontrovertible fact because it is more fun.)
As above, it is believed that the 13 millionth point in league history was scored by Scottie Barnes in January 2022, while the 12 million milestone belongs to Julius Randle, who scored that point as a member of the New York Knicks on February 10, 2018. And the 11 millionth was bagged by Carlos Boozer, then of the Chicago Bulls, on December 9, 2014.