It’s hard to believe a 37-year-old could finish fourth in the NBA scoring race, let alone rack up 2,026 points (25.7 per game) in a single season.
Yet, Kevin Durant did just that last year.
In 78 games played in 2026, Durant finished ahead of agile superstars such as Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, and Anthony Edwards in total points. The only 37-or-older player to ever score more in a season is Karl Malone in 2000, with 2,095 points. Malone needed four more games to do so.
KD’s scoring goes beyond raw points. Nobody at his age has ever combined this high a volume with such elite efficiency. With a 64.1% true shooting on a 2,026-point season at 37, he tops every 1,000-point season by a 37+ player since 1997. That is ahead of Curry’s 63.7% at 38 and LeBron’s 62.4% at 39.
Further, his shooting efficiency has not declined since his age-32 season. From 2021 (age 32) through the present (age 38), his true shooting has sat at or above 62.2%. The peak came at 34 at 67.7% true shooting. While his scoring average has slowly decreased from 29.9 to 26, his shot quality has remained. Simply put, he has chosen to take fewer field goal attempts rather than losing his signature shooting ability.
| # | Season | ts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2008 | 0.52 |
| 2 | 2009 | 0.58 |
| 3 | 2010 | 0.61 |
| 4 | 2011 | 0.59 |
| 5 | 2012 | 0.61 |
| 6 | 2013 | 0.65 |
| 7 | 2014 | 0.64 |
| 8 | 2015 | 0.63 |
| 9 | 2016 | 0.63 |
| 10 | 2017 | 0.65 |
Methodology
Frozen rows from a deep-dig claim verified server-side on 2026-11-07. The SQL ran read-only in the dig sandbox against the canonical corpus and is recorded for review; it is never re-executed. SELECT season, ROUND(SUM(points)/(2.0*(SUM(fga)+0.44*SUM(fta))),3) ts FROM player_game_stats WHERE player_id=201142 AND season_type='regular-season' GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY season
For a 38-year-old star in the NBA, playing long minutes and being available every night should be a player’s hardest challenge. However, for Durant it is like clockwork. At 37, he played 2,840 minutes, the ninth-heaviest 37+ load since 1997. Playing 78 of 82 games last season is his highest game count since 2014, and comes after the year of his Achilles injury that cost him the entire 2020 season, a stunning recovery and rebound. Through the nine games this season thus far, Durant is averaging 33.7 minutes a night, tied for the most of any 37-or-older player in the league.
If this wasn't impressive enough, he also has 337 straight games in double figures, the longest active run in the NBA. The last time Durant scored fewer than ten points in a regular-season game was April of 2021. Since then, his absolute lowest scoring output has been 11 points, putting him well ahead of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who holds the next longest active streak at 224 games. Bad nights are foreign to KD.
| # | canonical name | streak games |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Durant | 369 |
| 2 | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | 272 |
| 3 | Luka Dončić | 240 |
| 4 | Jayson Tatum | 167 |
| 5 | Pascal Siakam | 103 |
| 6 | LeBron James | 71 |
| 7 | Joel Embiid | 51 |
| 8 | Tyrese Maxey | 48 |
Methodology
Frozen rows from a deep-dig claim verified server-side on 2026-11-07. The SQL ran read-only in the dig sandbox against the canonical corpus and is recorded for review; it is never re-executed. WITH g AS (SELECT player_id, game_date, game_id, points, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY player_id ORDER BY game_date, game_id) - ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY player_id, (points>=10) ORDER BY game_date, game_id) grp FROM player_game_stats), s AS (SELECT player_id, grp, COUNT(*) len, MAX(game_date) en FROM g WHERE points>=10 GROUP BY 1,2) SELECT p.canonical_name, s.len AS streak_games FROM s JOIN players p USING(player_id) WHERE s.en >= DATE '2026-11-01' ORDER BY streak_games DESC LIMIT 8
Additionally, he has averaged at least 20 points per game in every single completed NBA season of his career. Only LeBron has more since 1997, with 23. Kobe Bryant had 15, and Carmelo Anthony has 14. Through the first nine games of this season, he is averaging 20.8 points, putting him in the running for a 19th season.
Only three players 38 and older have averaged 20 points in a full season since 1997. LeBron with 28.9, Curry with 26,6 and Malone at 23.3. Durant would be fourth on that list at 20.8, and nine games is nowhere near enough time to bank it.
While he may seem invincible, Durant will not be doing this forever. Most scorers his age have become role players, yet he’s still a top-five scorer, giving him a few more decent years if he chooses to stay in the league. Either way, his place in the conversation is settled. He is already fifth on the NBA all-time regular-season scoring list, and sits among the greatest scorers the league has ever seen. We spend a lot of time arguing about where players rank after they retire, but maybe we give the takes a rest and just appreciate KD’s greatness while we still can.