Kobe Bryant surpassed Michael Jordan for third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list on Sunday in Minnesota, joined one of his hoops idols alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone as the only players to ever score at least 32,292 points.
He missed four of his first five field goals, but knocked down a 3-pointer midway through the second quarter to pull within two points. He nearly passed Jordan with one of his patented fall-away jumpers from the baseline, but it rimmed out and with 5:24 to play and 24 seconds on the shot clock, No. 24 stepped to the line and calmly swished two freebies to do it.
It took Bryant 1,269 games to reach the NBA's career scoring podium. Jordan amassed his 32,292 points in 1,039 regular-season games.