MILWAUKEE — With the shot clock winding down on a possession two minutes into the third quarter on Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks, Giannis Antetokounmpo faked a dribble handoff to Damian Lillard and drove to the rim for a left-handed finger roll for his latest piece of NBA history.

52nd member of the 20K club. pic.twitter.com/myCIefMf7g

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) March 6, 2025

With the basket, Antetokounmpo crossed the threshold of 20,000 regular-season points in his NBA career. He is the 52nd player in history to score that many points and the first to score all 20,000 with the Milwaukee Bucks.

“I think it’s great,” said Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, who coached Antetokounmpo for 3 1/2 seasons in Milwaukee. “I mean, you talk about one of the best players in the world, and to be able to get to 20K, that’s pretty special. That’s an elite group. I think when it’s all said and done, he’ll be one of the best to ever do it. Twenty (thousand) won’t be the last number.

“But I think besides the 20K, what he’s done for the city of Milwaukee, bringing a championship, and what sometimes goes unnoticed is that he plays hard no matter what. And he’s shown the younger generation that it’s all right to play hard, and he’s a great example of that. But 20K, that’s a lot of points, but again, his journey’s been special and I’m happy for him.”

For Antetokounmpo, it took 12 seasons and 841 games, but at 30 years and 89 days old, he is the sixth-youngest player to accomplish the feat, with only LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan doing it at a younger age.

To get to this point, Antetokounmpo has averaged 25 or more points for each of the last eight seasons and finds himself in the middle of a third consecutive season averaging at least 30 points per game. (He was averaging 30.8 points per game heading into Wednesday’s contest against the Mavericks.)

Teammate Damian Lillard, who became the 51st member of the 20,000-point club last season in a Bucks win over the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 19, 2023, believes that joining the club shows how special Antetokounmpo has been for many years.

“People can get to 10,000, then it’s 12 and get to 15, but once you get to 20, you get into a different company,” Lillard said. “It shows the consistency, not just being healthy, but doing it every night. And if you’re scoring that much, you know the scouting report is focused on you, and teams are trying to stop you. The fact that you’re able to get there, that says a lot about you. So, it’s just great company to be in, and it’s something that people have to respect.”

20,000 points. 20,000 memories.

Keep changing the narrative, Giannis. pic.twitter.com/emriUUrzG3

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) March 6, 2025

Antetokounmpo has been adamant about his desire to play 20 NBA seasons. If he can remain healthy and avoid serious injuries, that means this will be the first of his major scoring milestones, but he knows that is still a fair bit away.

“I don’t know if I’m going to get to 40 (like LeBron), but I might get to 30,” Antetokounmpo told The Athletic when discussing Kevin Durant getting to the 30,000-point threshold earlier this season. “Coming into the NBA, I never thought about 10,000, 20,000, so I’m not going to think about 30,000. I’m just going to let it happen.

“Take it a game at a time. You just gotta be healthy and play games. It’s not about how many points you score, it’s about how many times you’re available. Just be available as much as I can, and hopefully, I can get there one day, too.”

GO DEEPER

Giannis Antetokounmpo works his way to No. 22 in The Athletic’s ‘The Basketball 100’

Though more career accomplishments may seem far off, Antetokounmpo has been able to pull off many things that might have seemed impossible when he first started as a kid from Greece in 2013.

“Listen, man, he has to get so much credit for his work ethic,” Mavericks assistant coach and former teammate Jared Dudley said before Wednesday’s game. “When I had him here, he was 19, he could hardly speak English, he was watching American movies and was so worried about making money to help his family, and now he has all of it in the world.

“He’s gone from a little boy to a grown man. His body, his size, he’s a family man, so to see it, that is the American dream and the story of the NBA. I remember seeing the video of him saying, ‘Hey, maybe someday I’ll have my jersey retired.’ Well, that’s already a conclusion; it’s done. So, for him, I just tip my cap to him. He was a young guy that when I was here, he’d listen to me during the timeouts, never talked back. I feel like I tried to give him the best advice. He’s taken that and done even more.”

(Photo: Benny Sieu / Imagn Images)