Over 20 years ago, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant had the basketball world glued to the team’s game against the Toronto Raptors. In a normal regular season game, Bryant had everyone’s eyes on him as he made history by scoring 81 points in the win against the Raptors.
Los Angeles found themselves trailing at halftime, but Bryant erupted in the second half and walked away with the second-highest scoring game in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points. For decades, Bryant’s 81-point game stood as the highest scoring total in the modern era, but that finally was broken after Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo dropped 83 points in a win against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night.
Adebayo has improved offensively every year since entering the league, but no one could have predicted he would be the one to surpass Bryant. Some might point to the fact that the Washington Wizards had no desire to win the game as they look to secure a high draft pick, but it’s still an impressive feat for Adebayo to score 83 points in regulation.
Following his historic accomplishment, Adebayo discussed what it means for him to surpass Bryant’s 81 points, via Naveen Ganglani of Five Reasons Sports:
“To me it’s wondering what he’d say. Seeing somebody…obviously you’ve seen 60, 70 but like to be 83 & you pass him, my mind is like, ‘What would he say to me?’ Cause I’ve always wanted to have a conversation with him. He’ll probably say, ‘Do it again.’ But just a surreal moment being in the company with somebody you idolized growing up.”
Like a lot of other NBA superstars across the league, including Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker who stills misses Bryant, Adebayo grew up watching Kobe lead the Lakers to several championships. Bryant set the standard for competitiveness and coupled it with a relentless aggression that made him a legend for the next generation of players.
The way that the game is played today, it’s only a matter of time before someone ends up surpassing Adebayo. Bryant surely would have appreciated Adebayo’s performance and it’ll be interesting to see who etches their name in history next.
Michael Jordan weighs in on comparisons to LeBron James and Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant is most often compared to Michael Jordan because of their competitive drive and similar play styles. When it comes to the GOAT debate, it often comes down to LeBron James and Jordan with Bryant often being mentioned as well.
However, Jordan weighed in on the GOAT debate and said it’s a meaningless conversation for him because he didn’t get a chance to play against all the greats in his prime.
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