When ESPN leads Sunday night’s SportsCenter with an NBA game on NFL championship weekend, something is . . . wrong?
When much of America is talking about a regular-season NBA game the next day, regardless of the determination of Super Bowl teams 24 hours previous, our dear planet Earth has changed its orbital path and is hurtling itself directly into the sun.
But that’s what happens when Kobe Bryant lights up L.A. with 81 points in a single, non-overtime game.
Eighty-one? Yes. Eighty-friggin-one!
Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points in 1962 for the Philadelphia Warriors doesn’t seem so unattainable anymore.
"I guess it's possible," Bryant told the AP on Monday. "I don’t know, bro. It's unthinkable."
History will show that Bryant accomplished the feat against Toronto, although in time, those poor Raptors will be reduced to faceless figurines in red jerseys, five people who finished fourth in an Olympic event.
Bryant scored 62 points in three quarters against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005, and we marveled at his athletic prowess. Then, we got mad because he didn’t play in the fourth quarter. All we wanted was to see what Bryant could do in four quarters.
Now we know: 28-for-46 from the field (7-for-13 from three-point range), 18-for-20 from the foul line, 81 points.
In case you went to bed Sunday night before the highlights, or woke up too late for SportsCenter this morning, NBA.com was kind enough to put all of Bryant’s baskets into one 90-second clip. Warning: Site traffic may cause the link to appear broken, but keep trying. It’s worth 90 seconds of your lifetime to see something you may never see again.
Bryant leads the NBA in scoring at 35.9 points per game. He’s averaging 45.5 points over his last 10 games.
When Bryant dropped 62 on Dallas, he downplayed his effort like a good teammate should.
"That's not what we play for," Bryant told the Los Angeles Times that night. "That's not what it's about. It's not to score 70 points. We wanted to win the game, and the game was in the bag. It was in the refrigerator."
Winning is a good thing, especially when you’re one of the five best players in the world and have put your franchise on your shoulders after ousting Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson, the latter only for one year.
But let’s shoot for 100 points in one game. C’mon, Kobe. You know you want to. Say all the right things in interviews. That’s fine. Deep down, you’re an athlete and you think and live differently than the rest of us non-dunking Americans.
Seriously, why not try for it once? He’s proven it’s in his realm of possibility. Bryant has already scored 62 and 81 points in games. How far off is 100?
If he pulls it off, think about how this season will be remembered 20 years down the road. Possibly the greatest ever for one player. The Lakers likely won’t win the NBA championship and many a person will say this summer how Bryant’s season went for naught because of the absence of a ring.
But 20 years from now, Bryant will be recognized as at least a three-time NBA champion and among the best ever to play professional basketball. No sense in not trying to add 100-point scorer to his eventual Hall of Fame bio.
"We are on a journey, and to put on a show like this for the fans here in L.A. is truly something special,” Bryant told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday night. “I grew up in front of these people, and now they are seeing me as an older young man."
They have 81 reasons to fete Bryant today. They want 19 more.