LeBron James has never been regarded as a natural scorer but he deserves to be recognised as one of the most potent players the league has ever seen after he notched another impressive milestone.With a jump shot in the final second of the first quarter in the Cleveland Cavaliers' clash with the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night, James reached 30,000 career points.He made NBA history by becoming the youngest player to reach this mark at 33 years and 24 days, surpassing Kobe Bryant who did it at 34 years and 104 days."For me to sit here and be the youngest player to ever reach 30,000, I've put a lot of work into my game," James said, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "It's been a by-product of that."LeBron is the seventh player to enter the 30,000-point club and joins an elite group of legends which includes Bryant, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Karl Malone and Dirk Nowitzki."Just a special moment," James said. "I just started thinking about everything. My journey from being a kid who first picked up a basketball when I was five years old to first playing organised basketball when I was nine all the way up to this point."I give a lot of thanks to a lot of people. This is a special moment. It's something I never set out to do. I'm not even a score-first guy when it comes to playing basketball. I love getting my teammates involved and seeing my teammates be excited about scoring and me getting the assist and things of that nature."The NBA world saluted the Cavs superstar for his achievement as tributes poured in on social media:

Commissioner Adam Silver also praised the four-time MVP on his historical feat.

"Congratulations to LeBron on reaching 30,000 points," Silver said in a statement. "Yet another milestone in an extraordinary career that continues to inspire."

Earlier in the day, the 33-year-old posted an Instagram picture and bizarrely congratulated himself with a long post before the game in San Antonio.

He told reporters he did that to "psych myself out" as he needed just seven points to reach the landmark figure.

Unfortunately for King James, the milestone came in a losing effort as the Cavs once again produced a lacklustre performance as they were beaten 114-102 by the Spurs.

LBJ finished with 28 points on 10-of-23 shooting from the field but he couldn't prevent them suffering a 10th defeat in the last 13 games, which was the one sour note on a memorable night for the best player on the planet.