Not that he needs any more evidence that he’s one of the NBA’s all-time great scorers, but Milwaukee Bucks point guard Damian Lillard recently sealed his position in league history by reaching an exceedingly unusual statistical territory. With his layup early in Tuesday night’s home game against the San Antonio Spurs, Dame became the 51st player in NBA history to have at least 50,000 career points.

Lillard awoke Tuesday with 19,994 points, so he only needed six more to reach the 20,000-point barrier. That milestone was practically in his grasp a long time ago, so it will be more interesting to speculate how high he will end up on the NBA’s all-time scoring list once his playing career is ended.

Damian Lillard of the Bucks has much left in the tank.

Lillard is only 33 years old and will turn 34 in July. He seemed to have plenty of gas left in the tank, as he entered the Spurs game averaging 25.8 points on 52.2 percent effective field goal shooting and 61.5 percent true shooting.

The Spurs were never going to prevent Damian Lillard from reaching the 20,000-point plateau. For starters, Victor Wembanyama is out due to right ankle pain. The Spurs are also one of the NBA’s worst defensive teams.

Lillard ranks eighth all-time in points among active NBA players. In ahead of him are the Phoenix Suns’ Chris Paul, the Chicago Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan, the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the Suns’ Kevin Durant, and, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James.