Video: Kobe Bryant and his 81-point game against Toronto

22. on January 1, 2006, Kobe Bryant made NBA history by scoring the second-most points in a single game. At that time, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Toronto Raptors 122-104 at home. The now tragically deceased basketball player made history with this feat.

Bryant delivered the best individual performance in the modern NBA era

The absolute record is still held by Wilt Chamberlain on March 2, 1962, when he scored an incredible 100 points in a game. However, in today’s terms, this is basketball’s “prehistoric” era, which makes the performance Kobe put on nearly 44 years later all the more special.

Bryant did it in an era when the NBA was bound by relentless tactics. Defenses were already functioning at a high level and the game had, of course, gotten incredibly faster over the course of a few decades. Chamberlain, on the other hand, had the disadvantage that there were no three-point shots in his era.

Since Wilt Chamberlain‘ s record-breaking feat, the 70-point mark has only been crossed six times and only twice since 1963. David Robinson’s 71-point performance in 1994 seemed to represent the performance ceiling in modern NBA history. The 50-point mark itself was already a great glory. But Kobe Bryant showed that the magical 80-point mark could be broken.

Memorable Los Angeles Lakers vs Toronto Raptors (122:104)

In this game, Kobe made an incredible 46 shots, 28 of which were successful. Including 7 three pointers out of 13 made by the Raptors. He also made 18 free throws out of 20 attempts.

The Lakers were down by 18 points during the third quarter. But Bryant answered with 27 points in the third quarter and 28 points in the final quarter. Thus, of the home team’s 122 points, the legend himself accounted for a full 67 percent of his team’s points.

Initially, towards the end of the game, famed coach and strategist Phil Jackson wanted to pull him off the floor after scoring 77 points, but ultimately decided that it would be unfair not only to the player, but to the team as a whole. After all, Bryant was coming off a 78-point performance by Chamberlain in 1961. And he finally broke the magical 80-point mark with 43.4 seconds left in the game with a successful free throw.

the 18,997 fans at Staples Center witnessed the second-best performance in NBA history. In addition, Kobe scored 55 of his 81 points in the second half, again the second-best single-half performance. Only Chamberlain managed more – 59. The entire arena was chanting MVP, which is the award for the best player of the season. He did win it, but not until a season later.

Source: NBA