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First of all 81 points in a game shouldn't even be a debate of greatness. Hate Kobe, love Kobe, it doesn't matter. I don't care if a Kobe Bryant lead team loses 81 games every season for the rest of his career, what he did on Sunday is the greatest individual sports achievement in my life and something that will more than likely never be duplicated. We can throw out any performance in football because nothing is done on an individual level in the sport of football, yeah one guy may get his name in the record book, but 10 other guys have to do their job to create history for one on the field. Baseball; we can dismiss a pitcher throwing a perfect game because fielders need to complete the out unless he strikes out 27 batters. Even then does the catcher get a little credit for not letting a ball get by him and for calling the perfect game? Hitters can do great things without assistance in a game but are limited to the number of at bats, and a few hitters have done the 4 home runs in a game, so no single game stands out.
This brings us to basketball and the statistics that help define a great performance. Off the top of your head does anyone know who grabbed the most boards, dished the most dimes, pilfered the pill or swatted shots more than any other in a game? Who scored the most points in the NBA and how many did they score? Scoring is the essence of basketball, players and teams alike are defined by it.
Wilt Chamberlain took 62 shots to score 100 points, Kobe Bryant took 48 shots to score 81 points, but here is my theory and I say theory because I have not seen either game. Why I think you have to acknowledge Kobe's game as maybe the most spectacular feat ever on the hardwood is because Wilt as we have all theorized was to big and to strong for his competition. I'm not discrediting what Wilt did, it still is the most dominate performance in NBA history, but I imagine a man who was physically to much for any other player to handle posting up with a nine foot key to his back versus the 12 foot key in the league today and taking 62 two to seven foot shots probably three inches above the rim. Growing up no one emulated Wilt Chamberlain or Shaq. It has always been about the aerial assaults on the basket, breaking someone's ankles for the easy two or that sweet, sweet jump shot that touches the bottom of the net and nothing else. Kobe Bryant lived out our wildest dreams on the basketball court and he did it with precision not meant to be achieved by a guard taking 48 shots, shooting 60% from the field. Wilt's 100 was dominant, Kobe's 81 was a fantasy. Not that anyone will remember L.A. won the game.
I've never heard an athlete take more heat for being a loser than Kobe Bryant, a loser with three NBA titles. He has been without Shaquille O'Neal for one and a half years, and as a lone gunman failed to make the playoffs last season, the only superstar in the NBA to do so… Oh in that time Kevin Garnett one year removed from the conference finals, the Chosen one LeBron James, the dynamic duo of Vinsanity and Jason Kidd, and Stephon Marbury all failed to do the same thing that Kobe got blasted for, fail to make the playoffs. Oh, they were also coached by an interim head coach that was promptly replaced before the lights at the staples center went out on the season. Half way through the 05-06 NBA season that loser Kobe and his Lakers teammates had an above .500 record and in place for a seventh seed in the western conference. That just happens to be better than Allen Iverson and Chris Webber in Philly, KG again, Jermaine O'Neal, and Paul Pierce. I don't hear anyone question there legacy to this game. L.A. is also only five games behind Kobe's ex, Shaq and his new little buddy Dwayne Wade who play in the eastern conference. The undisputed weaker of the two conferences.
I hear the rebuttal now.
1) "I guarantee Kobe will never win an NBA title by himself" Who has? Jordan, Magic, Bird? All three of those guys have three things in common, they've won NBA titles, they are all on the 50 greatest players list and have a teammate on the list of the 50 greatest. So did they do it alone? Yeah they were the A-List celebrities on there respective teams but that had academy award winning supporting actors at there side. So will history tell us the Lakers belonged to Kobe or Shaq during those three titles? Clearly it was Shaq's team, but all said and done history may also tell us Kobe was greatest sidekick in the NBA.
2) "Kobe is selfish he could have won three more titles with Shaq, now he just wants to put up numbers" The knock on Michael Jordan before the rings, before Scottie Pippen, was he was selfish, an amazing player, but all he cared about was getting his numbers. Michael gets 60 and the Bulls lose was a popular phrase. He dominated individually he got his, then after six years he had enough fun and bought into the team concept and the rest was history. Kobe's career is a mirror image of his predecessor. But unfortunately for Kobe the image in the mirror is always backwards. Unlike Michael who was drafted as the centerpiece of a struggling franchise, Kobe was drafted as an 18 year old phenom to play along side the most dominant player in the NBA and a team knocking on the door of NBA superiority. Before Kobe, Shaq was without any championships. With Kobe he won three. After Kobe in the same time that Kobe has been a loser, Shaq has failed to be a winner. What do you do if you're Kobe? Do you play in the prime of your career shooting spot up jumpers with a center who is on the backside of his career, or do you want that shot to show the rest of the basketball world that you are an unstoppable force capable of doing amazing things as a solo act, like your idol MJ did in the beginning of his career. Don't forget the Lakers having to make a choice chose Kobe and thanked Shaq on his way out the door. Has Kobe really disappointed us by leading the league in scoring and leading a team bound for the playoffs while putting on a show that our children will tell there children about. Is that not NBA greatness?
When the Lakers traded Shaq for Lamar Odom and Caron Butler they essentially started over. Yes the Lakers had a losing season last year. They won 34 games, how many do they win if Kobe isn't on the roster, does Lamar Odom carry that team to 15 wins, 20 wins? Are Lakers fan's talking about Andrew Bogut and how he can be the best center, err, Australian center ever to wear a Lakers jersey. L.A. without Shaq and Kobe was an expansion franchise, with Shaq gone and Kobe a free agent, L.A. was starting over. They decided there best chance to get back to the top was to resign 25 year old Kobe Bryant. Given the choice of Andrew Bogut or Kobe, I'll take Kobe every time and give you Chris Mihm, Smush Parker and still let you draft Andrew Bogut. He failed to take them to the playoffs in his first year as "the man". In Allen Iverson's first year as "the man" the Sixers won 22 games and failed to make the playoffs. In AI's second year they failed to make the playoffs, but the loser tag wasn't slapped on Iverson, because he didn't have a team around him. That seems to be preface we put on these all-world players early in there career on bad teams. "We can't judge them now; they don't have a team around them". Are we that stupid or is Kobe that great, to put the expectations on Kobe to carry a team to the playoffs or in the eye's of some to the NBA finals, but without him that same team would be picking in the top five of the draft for the next two years?
In my lifetime which I hope will last for a few more decades Kobe Bryant will be remembered for two things. Being one of the 10 best players I have ever seen and being linked to a terrible crime that has spilled over into his professional life watering down, right or wrong, his achievements as a basketball player.
Ultimately we are getting old. As we get older Michael Jordan becomes greater, and time will forget that MJ was human and he missed shots, opponents scored on him, he lost games at the buzzer in the dog days of February. Kobe being compared to Jordan is nothing more than a comparison; it is not an attempt to place Kobe above our hero or even next to. Wilt was a measurement, MJ was a measurement (I am a Magic Johnson fan, but I am going to appeal to the masses) and all others fall short. Shaq was compared to Wilt, and based on statistics will fall short, far short of anything Chamberlain did in a season, but he is not considered a failure for it. Kobe Bryant WILL fall short of Michael Jordan. He will not win seven or eight scoring titles, he will not win five MVP's, and he won't win six NBA titles, but because he is the closest thing to MJ since MJ he will be remembered as the mirror image of Michael Jordan the winner… Kobe Bryant the loser and a disappointment, the greatest player to be a disappointment ever.
