Remembering Kobe Bryant’s 81-Point Game in 2006

Eighty-one. Even in the moment, I can recall being shocked and unable to comprehend that someone had scored 81 points in a 48-minute game of professional basketball. Ten years and a few months later, and Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game is no less shocking.

It was, to date, the second-highest point total in an NBA game. (The most, of course, since Wilt Chamberlain’s astonishing 100 points in Hershey, PA, in 1962.) The Stilt’s legendary 100-point game was eight years after the NBA had adopted the shot clock, and there is no archival video footage of it; an audio recording of the game exists, but even that is only clips from the game’s fourth quarter. The NBA in 1962 was vastly different than the Circus Maximus that the Association had evolved into by the time Kobe hung 81 points against the Toronto Raptors on January 21, 2006.

For many, the outburst crystallized Kobe’s role as the villain, a “me-first” gunner who had chased Shaq out of town and wanted the spotlight all to himself. Bear in mind, Kobe, despite his selfish reputation, had been dragging a moribund Lakers team into playoff contention the only way he knew how: by scoring points.

Bryant, ever the one to lean on a heel’s reputation, had been obliterating teams on his own. A one-man avalanche of offense that had buried the Dallas Mavericks by himself with a 62-point explosion earlier in the season. Yet there the Lakers were, losing to the Toronto Raptors by 14, at home, at the half. And then Kobe happened.

In the third period, down 14 at home, Bryant exploded for 27 points in the quarter while being defended by Jalen Rose. Rose, like a lamb being slaughtered by a tiger, must have been begging to know what he did to deserve this, and could only watch as Bryant willed the Lakers in front for good. He claimed the lead with an emphatic dunk as the clock wound down in the third.

But Kobe still wasn’t done.

With a rejuvenated home crowd and an entire bench sensing the electricity in the air, Bryant played out the fourth quarter as the gobsmacked Lakers home TV announcers reeled off records Kobe was smashing until the only records left were ones owned by Wilt Chamberlain. He crashed through the 70-point ceiling with about six minutes left in the game. Nobody had scored 70 or more since David Robinson had in 1994. Hell, Kobe’s role model and the resident NBA G.O.A.T., Michael Jordan, never cracked 70. Still, Bryant’s points barrage continued.

With two free throws late in the fourth, Bryant surpassed Wilt’s second-highest point total, and with another free throw, he cracked 81. Bryant’s achievement, the win, and the shattered psyche of Jalen Rose all speak to the individual greatness that a singular athlete can reach. Forget “It takes a village”; this was some “I burnt it down and rebuilt it better on my own” type of playing.

It’s too easy to describe Kobe Bryant as the “next MJ” or as some bridging All Father that passed down the whispers and sigils from the old NBA guard to the LeBrons, Stephs, and Durants of today. Kobe, on his own, has been far more human than the Bunyanesque Wilt Chamberlain, more masked than Michael Jordan’s iron will, and far more calculating than Steph or LeBron’s myriad veneers. Instead, Kobe, and his many imperfections, always spoke for himself, and on January 21, 2006, he let the world know what one man could do against five.