Carmelo Anthony puts up 28 points, passes Moses Malone for No.9 on all-time scoring list

What better way for Carmelo Anthony to reach ninth in the all-time scoring list than with a much-needed victory against the Grizzlies? He needed just 15 points to surpass Moses Malone’s career total of 27,409. As Lakers coach Frank Vogel said, “he didn’t crawl up to that milestone. He blew the doors off of it.”

Anthony hit back-to-back three-pointers within 48 seconds, and gave the Lakers, who were down by two before, a two-point lead. It was his wing triple that put him past Hall-of-Famer Malone on the list. He didn’t stop there, though. He scored over 12 points in the final quarter of the game and made two free throws in less than two seconds to secure the Lakers’ first win.

Anthony said he is just happy to have maintained his skill level in doing what he loves after 19 years in the league. Malone ended his career at the age of 39. Anthony is currently 37 and averaging over five times the amount of points as Malone was in his last season. His feat is even more impressive when you think that he was out of the NBA for over a year after the Houston Rockets waived him. Anthony continued to put in the work and keep going, and it paid off.

"Scoring the basketball is not easy. We may make it look easy, but it's not easy," Anthony said. "For me, this is 19 years of repetition. And night-in and night-out. Day-in and day-out. Every summer. Every season. I'm reaping those benefits right now because of the persistence that I have in my professionalism. What I bring to the game, how I approach the game. And I want to keep going. That's all that matters to me."