Jan. 26, 2006 - OK, let’s all get down on our knees—that will work for the hero worship part of this exercise too—put our heads down and breathe slowly and deeply. It has been five days since Kobe Bryant left us breathless by dropping 81 points in a single game on the NBA landscape. By now we ought to be regaining our collective equilibrium.
Only then can we talk about what happened on that memorable Sunday in the Staples Center. And perhaps more important, we can talk about what didn’t happen. Clearly Kobe has established that the long-awaited “next Michael” actually arrived long ago. Of course, we all suspected that when Kobe first demonstrated that he was capable of scoring at will. When he began raining down game-winners from all over the court with defenders draped all over him. When his Lakers (or, if you prefer, Shaq’s Lakers) won their championship three-peat. In the NBA pantheon, it now seems obvious that he will someday stand with his fellow guards—Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson—on the highest perch.
That’s mighty praise. So can we please try to contain the hyperbole? While we have just witnessed a historic performance, it was not, as some have suggested, the greatest performance in NBA history. At the risk of being dismissed as an old curmudgeon and a Kobe-basher, I tell you it’s not even close. Scoring 81 in a largely meaningless, midseason game against a defensively challenged NBA bottom feeder may be a remarkable feat (and bonus points for the L.A. victory), but it falls well short of epic. Indeed it can never be epic when the stakes are nothing more than closing the gap on the Clippers.
Which is why I am not bothering to compare it with Wilt Chamberlain’s record 100 points back in 1962. That was an even-more meaningless encounter, late in the season against the woeful New York Knicks. In the final quarter, it bordered on farce as Wilt’s teammates started fouling immediately to get the ball back and into Wilt’s hands. Kobe’s admirers are quick to point out, rightfully, that Wilt’s was an era of far more prolific scoring. His Warriors averaged more than 125 points a game and the lowest scoring team in the league still managed 110. In today’s NBA, Phoenix’s 106 per game tops the league and the Lakers hover around league average at 98. Kobe’s admirers are not as quick to recall that other scoring binges that might rival Kobe’s occurred before the introduction of the three-pointer. Back in 1977, Kobe’s effort would have been worth just 72 (he had seven three-pointers and two extra foul shots resulting from three-point shots) I suspect that "Pistol Pete" Maravich’s 68-point evening that year might count more like 81 today.
The NBA’s greatest scorers have always been able to put up huge numbers, especially when that’s pretty much all they are shooting for. The legendary Celtics teams of yesteryear were always about balanced scoring. But in March 1985, Kevin McHale had a career night, scoring 56 points to break Larry Bird’s team mark. A few days later, Larry made his point by scoring 60 of them to snatch back his record. Perhaps the best example came on the last day of the 1978 season. San Antonio’s George Gervin and Denver’s David Thompson were neck and neck in the NBA scoring race, both averaging just under 27 points a game. After Thompson went out and scored a career-high 73 points in his final game, Gervin responded with his own career high—63 points to claim the crown by .06 points per game. (Note that the three-pointer wouldn’t be invented until the following season. Also, both players’ teams lost those games.)
High
