Kobe Bryant burned the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006 in one of the greatest single-game performances in NBA history. As the Lakers scored a 122-104 comeback victory at home, Bryant finished with 81 points on 28-of-46 shooting, including 7-of-13 from 3-point range, and 18-of-20 from the foul line. The accomplishment stunned even Bryant himself.
“Not even in my dreams,” Bryant said. “That was something that just happened. It’s tough to explain. It’s just one of those things.
“It really hasn’t, like, set in for me. It’s about the `W,’ that’s why I turned it on. It turned into something special. To sit here and say I grasp what happened, that would be lying.”
In a season Bryant led the league in scoring with 35.4 ppg, his game against Toronto had even the most seasoned NBA observers starstruck.
Teammates and staff alike were asking Bryant to autograph copies of the box score after the game. Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter was telling fans to save their ticket stubs. Then-Lakers owner Jerry Buss described the game as “like watching a miracle unfold.”
But it was perhaps Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who’d spent nearly a decade coaching Michael Jordan, that put the performance in its proper perspective.
“That was something to behold,” Jackson said. “It was another level. I’ve seen some remarkable games, but I’ve never seen one like that before.”
This coming from the coach who nearly pulled Bryant from the game with the score out of reach after he’d scored 77 points — one point shy of Chamberlain’s 78-point mark set in 1961. Jackson reconsidered after discussing it with Lakers assistant coach Frank Hamblen who told him, “There would be a riot.”
Kobe Bryant burned the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006 in one of the greatest single-game performances in NBA history. As the Lakers scored a 122-104 comeback victory at home, Bryant finished with 81 points on 28-of-46 shooting, including 7-of-13 from 3-point range, and 18-of-20 from the foul line. The accomplishment stunned even Bryant himself.
“Not even in my dreams,” Bryant said. “That was something that just happened. It’s tough to explain. It’s just one of those things.
“It really hasn’t, like, set in for me. It’s about the `W,’ that’s why I turned it on. It turned into something special. To sit here and say I grasp what happened, that would be lying.”
In a season Bryant led the league in scoring with 35.4 ppg, his game against Toronto had even the most seasoned NBA observers starstruck.
Teammates and staff alike were asking Bryant to autograph copies of the box score after the game. Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter was telling fans to save their ticket stubs. Then-Lakers owner Jerry Buss described the game as “like watching a miracle unfold.”
But it was perhaps Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who’d spent nearly a decade coaching Michael Jordan, that put the performance in its proper perspective.
“That was something to behold,” Jackson said. “It was another level. I’ve seen some remarkable games, but I’ve never seen one like that before.”
This coming from the coach who nearly pulled Bryant from the game with the score out of reach after he’d scored 77 points — one point shy of Chamberlain’s 78-point mark set in 1961. Jackson reconsidered after discussing it with Lakers assistant coach Frank Hamblen who told him, “There would be a riot.”
