Late Basketball Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant put on one of the most unfathomable scoring performances in NBA history two decades ago tonight.
Peek-a-boo. 81 points.
Bryant torched the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 22, 2006 to achieve the second-highest scoring feat ever, behind only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game.
He was on a heater. Bryant shot 28-of-46 from the field, including 7-of-13 from deep. He made 18 of his 20 free throw attempts, including the last two with 43.2 seconds left in the game to give him 81 points.
He played 42 minutes.
He scored 26 points in the first half and went off for 55 points in the second half, shattering Elgin Baylor’s team record for points in a game (71).
‘I feel pretty good,’ Bryant said with a smile during his post-game interview in 2006. ‘It hasn’t really sank in yet. We had four days off coming up here. I’d have been sick as a dog if we lost this game. I just wanted to step up and inspire us to play a great game and it turned into something really special.’
Bryant said he never scored that much in a game, not even in elementary school. He went on to say the performance was something that ‘just happened.’
On a day that featured NFL conference championship games, Bryant’s performance overtook the headlines.
Legendary SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott had the right call that night on ESPN:
‘You have to see it to believe it,’ Scott said 20 years ago.
Lakers star LeBron James said, in a older interview, that he ‘watched the whole game.’ Spurs legend Tim Duncan remembers reading Bryant’s 81-point stat line on a ticker. He thought it was a mistake.
Basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, at the time, remembered receiving an email about the game on his T-Mobile Sidekick cellphone.
‘I was like, ‘no way,’ ‘ Wade said. ‘I was at a restaurant so I went right and tuned into the TV they had at the restaurant and he had 71 so I watched the rest of it. At that time I think everybody was a fan of Kobe’s to see this is history right here being made. No one’s scoring 80 points in today’s game. Everyone was a fan tuned in, watching his greatness.’
‘It just said ‘Kobe 81,’ ‘ Kyrie Irving reminisced. ‘I just couldn’t believe it.’
Vince Carter thought it had to be a typo at the time. ’81? or 51?’ Carter said. ‘Unbelievable.’
‘Nobody believed it,’ Dirk Nowitzki said.
‘Man, that’s unbelievable,’ Klay Thompson said. ‘That’s crazy. … 81, that’s ridiculous.’
The game became so legendary that his iconic finger to the sky, signaling No. 1 or pointing to the heavens, was used for his statue that sits outside Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.
Kobe Bryant 81-point game box score
- Points: 81
- FG: 28-for-46
- 3PT: 7-for-13
- Free Throws: 18-for-20
- Rebounds: 6
- Assists: 2
- Steals: 3
- Blocks: 1
- Turnovers: 3
- Fouls: 1
- Minutes: 42
Highlights: Kobe’s 81-point game, 20 years later
Watch every point Bryant scored on his historic night.