JANUARY 22, 2006 KOBE BRYANT
When Wilt Chamberlain scored one hundred points in a single regulation game in 1962, no one thought any other player would ever break his record. And so far, nobody has. But in early 2006, someone came very, very close.
Kobe Bryant had been a member of the Los Angeles Lakers since 1996. In his rookie season, he was groomed to be the team’s sixth man, their strong player off the bench. But he didn’t stay on the bench for long.
While the young guard started just six games in the 1996–97 season and only a single match the following year, Kobe nearly doubled his minutes played in 1997–98, racking up incredible statistics during that time: 242 rebounds; 199 assists; 74 steals; 40 blocks; and an impressive 1,220 points, with an average of more than 15 per game!
Stats like that could not be ignored. When the first match of the 1998–99 season was played in early February (the schedule was shortened due to disputes between the players and the league), Kobe was in the starting lineup. He drained 25 points that night, including 2 out of 3 three-pointers and 7 out of 9 free throws. In addition, he had 10 rebounds to give him his first double-double of the year. By season’s end, he had increased his percentages in nearly all the stat columns.
It was the same in the years that followed. As Bryant grew more experienced, he became an increasingly important member of the Lakers’ team. Together with big man Shaquille O’Neal and his other teammates, Kobe helped Los Angeles win the 2000 NBA Finals—and win again in 2001 and 2002. That “three-peat” cemented the Lakers as one of the all-time great basketball dynasties, alongside the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls.
But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Even before their third Finals victory, there had been rumors of strife between Kobe and Shaq. To the outside world, it appeared to be a case of “this town ain’t big enough for the two of us.” While both players publicly denied the rumors and offered words of support to each other, it was clear that any on-court chemistry they once had was gone. One of the star players would have to go. So, in the 2004 off-season, the Lakers made a difficult decision: they traded Shaq to the Miami Heat and kept Bryant.
It was a decision many soon questioned. Without Shaq in the lineup, the Lakers’ record dropped from 56–36 in 2003–04 to 34–48 in 2004–05, their worst showing in years.
Yet the finger of blame could not be pointed at Kobe. Despite sitting out a month with a severe sprained ankle, he posted numbers equal to or better than those of the previous year. In fact, his average points per game jumped from 24 to 27.6. He had ten 40-plus-point games, and on April 20, 2005, he became the youngest player in the league to reach the 14,000-point milestone.
Still, Kobe realized that he needed to do even more. And he did — Kobe positively exploded offensively right from the beginning of the 2005–06 season. In each of his first four games, he scored 33 or more points! By the end of November, he had posted three 40-plus-point games. Then, on December 20 in a game against the Dallas Mavericks, he hit for an unbelievable 62 points — 22 free throws, 14 two-pointers, and 4 three-pointers — in just thirty-three minutes of play!
Few players have ever reached that number. Fewer still have topped it. Kobe is one of those people who have.
On January 22, 2006, the Lakers hosted the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors were trailing the Lakers in the standings, so many predicted a Los Angeles victory. But Toronto leaped out to an early lead and by the end of the first quarter was ahead, 36–29. Kobe had been responsible for 14 of the Lakers’ points; he added 12 more in the second quarter. Yet nothing he did seemed to boost his team. At halftime, the Lakers trailed, 63–49.
According to Laker Lamar Odom, Bryant “was ticked off” by that 14-point deficit. “That’s when it’s bad,” he added.
As in bad for the other team. When the Raptors and the Lakers met after the halftime break, Kobe Bryant had fire in his eyes and flames shooting from his fingertips. His accuracy went from good to absolutely phenomenal.
Two minutes into the third quarter, he made a layup. In the two minutes after that, he added 4 more points to the Lakers’ side of the board. With 8:14 showing on the clock, he drained his second three-pointer of the night — and at 7:39 put in a third, and at 6:22 a fourth! In less than six minutes of play, Kobe had scored 15 points! His game total stood at 41, and there was still a quarter and a half left to go.
And yet, unbelievably, the Lakers were still behind, 75–65. So Kobe did the only thing he could do: he kept right on making baskets.
He hit an eighteen-foot jumper and was fouled. He made the free throw. Three points. Then he popped his fifth three-pointer through the hoop. Two more points followed, and then, with little more than a minute to go in the third quarter, he slammed down a dunk to give the Lakers their first lead of the game. Moments later, he thundered in a second dunk to end the quarter with an incredible 25 points!
And was he finished? He was not! Free throws, jump shots from inside and outside, and yet another set of back-to-back three-pointers — Kobe hit practically every shot he took! The fans were going insane, and the players, both Lakers and Raptors, were simply in awe.
“We were just watching him shoot,” Chris Bosh of Toronto admitted.
“It’s like a miracle unfolding in front of your eyes,” Jerry Buss, owner of the Lakers, said of Kobe’s spellbinding shooting.
When the final horn sounded and the dust settled, Kobe Bryant had racked up 81 points, the second-highest single-game total in the history of the league. The scoreboard said it all: Los Angeles 122, Toronto 104. Thanks to Kobe’s smoking-hot hand, the Lakers had erased an 18-point deficit to win by 18 points!
“It’s about the ‘W,’” an exhausted but exuberant Kobe reminded the press after the game. “That’s why I turned it on.”
Had he ever imagined he would have a game like that? the media wanted to know.
“Not even in my dreams,” he said. “To sit here and say I grasp what happened, that would be lying… and to put on a show like this for the fans here in L.A. is truly something special.”
Kobe Bryant has continued to give Los Angeles fans “something special” since that night in 2006. While he hasn’t bettered his 81-point game, he has had several 40-, 50-, and even a few 60-plus single-game totals. In 2008, he led his team back to the Finals, where he was targeted by the Boston Celtics and held for some of his lowest point totals of the season. But 2008 ended on a high note for him all the same: after several years of coming close, he finally received the league’s coveted MVP award.