Sorry Wilt you are no Kobe? What kind of crap is that? None of us could say anything unless we were there that night. Fire that idiot from writing news reports again! http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/colum...&id=2302749&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines Updated: Jan. 23, 2006, 4:35 PM ET Sorry, Wilt: You're no KobeBy Marc Stein ESPN.com Archive Is 81 enough? Eighty-One, people. I'd say so. I'd say all those pre-Christmas wails about Kobe Bryant ripping us off by hanging 62 points on the Dallas Mavericks in three quarters and then sitting out the fourth can suddenly be recalled with a chuckle. Turns out Kobe's Dec. 20 detonation was not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for No. 8 to make a run at 80-something points. No one was cheated after all. THE COMPLETE KOBE Lakers 122, Raptors 104 Jan. 22, 2006 • Stein: Best ever • Carroll: Stopping Kobe • Hollinger: Kobe's 81 game vs. Wilt's 100 game • Rovell: Kobe's comeback • Quotables • Kobe poll • Game recap • Box score • Shot chart • Play by play • Marc Stein • Stuart Scott • PER: Kobe leaps LeBron Maybe Kobe and his pal Phil Jackson, when they reached that joint decision to stop abusing the Mavs because the Lakers were up by 34, knew they wouldn't have to wait long for another chance at it during an up-for-grabs game. Why not? You can believe anything on a night like this. Kobe's chance dutifully materialized almost exactly a month later, on a Sunday that was supposed to belong to gridiron football. You know. The table-setter for Super Bowl Extra Large and all that. Sorry, NFL. Sunday will be remembered as the best NBA day in a long, long time. There was a nationally televised buzzer beater in Minnesota from Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala to cap a 19-point comeback in the afternoon ... and then Seattle's Ray Allen beat Phoenix with a way-out buzzer bomb at the horn of overtime No. 2 in a 152-149 throwback thriller ... and then simply the greatest individual performance ever recorded: Bryant's 81 points in a 122-104 come-from-behind victory over the Toronto Raptors. You'll recall that, sadly, there's no footage of Wilt Chamberlain rumbling for 100 points in Hershey, Pa., on March 2, 1962. Which makes it tough to commission an in-depth analysis comparing Wilt's feat (scoring 100 of his team's 169 points that day) to Kobe's (81 of 122). But I'll gladly settle for the forthcoming flood of Kobe replays, in which you'll see him haul the Lakers back from a 71-53 deficit against a Raps team that kept the game sufficiently close in the final quarter to keep Kobe out there shooting. Against a Toronto team that somehow held him to 11 points when the teams met in early December -- historic footage now -- Bryant wound up with 55 points after halftime. Fifty-five. For a little perspective, please note that matches the best scoring game in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career. That's the same Abdul-Jabbar who, before becoming a Lakers assistant coach, was merely the NBA's all-time scoring leader. Top 2 Scoring Games in NBA History Wilt Kobe Date 3/2/62 1/22/06 Points 100 81 FG-FGA 36-63 28-46 FT-FTA 28-32 18-20 2nd half 59 55 Assists 2 2 Don't forget, furthermore, that no less an authority than Michael Jordan has been known to say that a perimeter player has it way tougher when it comes to making a legitimate run at Wilt's record. Factor in the ball-handling responsibilities and the energy required to play defense all over the floor and you can understand MJ's theory. This might also help back it up: Jordan himself topped out at 69 points as his one-night best and needed overtime to get there. No offense to the late, great Chamberlain, but he was in a better position to dominate a box score with the size and strength advantage he possessed, especially in Wilt's era. Some of you will inevitably counter with the claim that Kobe had the benefit of a 3-point line, but don't exaggerate. Having the long-ball option added only seven points to Bryant's total. With a mere 74, he'd still have registered the richest single-game scoring output in NBA history by anyone not named Wilt. With 81, so soon after so many opined that he had blown his chance to ever scrape that stratosphere, Bryant has reminded us what we all should know by now about him. Whatever you think about the game's foremost love-him-or-loathe-him face, and the ongoing debate about how much he shoots, you always have to be ready for What's Next with No. 8. Chances are it'll be something to dissect for days and days. Chances are, on the thinnest and neediest team in Jackson's ring-filled history, it won't be the last time Kobe has the forum to fling 40-something shots at history. Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
Yeah I dislike Kobe as much as the next person but that 81....I am still having trouble comprehending how this could happen....but it was insane by a perimiter player which included many jumpshots, not just layups and dunks as I am sure that Wilts records were created by. Not to mention the already known fact that he was playing with people a hell of alot less talented and smaller than him.
I read somewhere that Wilt's defenders even left him wide open on almost all of his 100 points. I could of read that wrong though
Well, the thing is is that we shouldn't be jumping to conclusions because we haven't seen the game and it wasn't recorded in the first place. Who knows what happened during Wilt's game, and plus yes, I agree, maybe Wilt was a monster in his day, but you cannot take away the fact that it was still 100 points. I mean if it was so easy back in the day, how come Kareem didn't do the same thing then?
Wilt didn't play against double-teams. Right there makes Kobe's accomplishment bigger. But Jordan's notion that it would be harder for a perimeter player to make a run at an all-time scoring game is outdated. With zone defenses, and the amount of contact that they allow on the block, it would be near impossible for a big man nowadays to score 80+ operating out of the lowpost. Although these handcheck rules make the feat much easier on perimeter players than even two years ago, so I'd rank the degree of difficulty as follows (1 being hardest): 1. Lowpost player with today's rules. 2. Perimeter players with handchecking, and double teams, but no zone defense. 3. Perimeter players with today's rules. 4. Lowpost player with double teams allowed, but no zone defense. 5. Perimeter player in pre-double team era. 6. Lowpost player in pre-double team era. Actually the pre-shot clock players would probably have it the hardest, but seriously, who cares about the pre-shot clock era.
Of course, I guess Stein didn't take into account that the other team actually TRIED to play defense on Wilt. What the hell happened to the Raptors team that doubled and triple-teamed TMac 5 feet outside the 3pt line? Every highlight I saw was Kobe shooting either a wide open jumper off a pick (HELLO Raps, might want to step out!!) or just one guy guarding him by himself. I mean, the Raps layed there and let Kobe treat them like a Colorado hotel employee. 81 is VERY DAMN impressive, but I'll still take 43 against the best defensive team in the league (with a hurt back none-the-less) than 80 against the sorry Raptors or 60+ in 3 quarters against the defensless Mavs.
See, I am not as impressed by the one-game records as other people. Players can catch fire and have unbelievable fairy-tale type nights. However, when you do something amazing on regular basis, that's what tends to impress the most. Wilt averages 50ppg and 25rbpg!!!!! Not only that, but when he was criticized for not passing, he led the league in assists!! This is a CENTER, not a guard! Wilt was a phenomena that likely won't ever be duplicated. Relevant to his era (which is all you can go by, since you can't compare players from different eras playing under different rules and against different athletes), Wilt was the most dominant ever, not even close. Bryant's 81 points should be taken and appreciated without regards to what Wilt did, it was an amazing performance by a player who will likely be remembered as one of the top 5 guards in history of the league. All Kobe has to do is lead his team sometime during his career to a championship, and if that happens, everyone will concede that he's one of the greatest to ever play, as good as Jordan.
That myth desperately needs to be debunked. Wilt Chamberlain was 7'1" and 250 lbs. His size is comparable to Tim Duncan's. Some of his contemporaries at center: Bill Russell: 6'9" 215 lbs. Walt Bellamy: 6'11" 225 lbs. Walter Dukes: 7'0" 220 lbs. Johnny Kerr: 6'9" 230 lbs. Darrell Imhoff: 6'10" 220 lbs. On average, these guys are about Kenyon Martin sized. Sure, Wilt was bigger, but do you see Tim Duncan ever dropping 100 on Kenyon in an NBA game...even in single coverage? How about averaging 50 points a game?
Yeah, by that logic, shouldn't Yao be averaging at least 30? We could list all the great big men who played in the era, but those names would mean nothing to a lot of kids these days.
I can't go so far as to say I agree with the article, but I don't think the article is out of line. 81 points is amazing, even against a team as terrible as the Raptors.
i also agree with the article. I know, i know, there's woulda coulda shoulda.. but i believe Wilt couldn't make 100 in todays nba.
i agree. Wilt couldn't make 100 in today's nba...and, Kobe scored just over 66% of his teams points in the effort while Wilt managed under 60% of his teams scoring that game. c'mon, Wilt scored 100 of the teams 169 points...what teams nowadays score 169 points in a single game??? Kobe took over, Wilts team still played just as good as some teams do in today's nba (scoring 69 points). There was no defense back then and Wilt took advantage of it. You can't hate Wilt for doing what he did, he played within the rules and accomplished a milestone. BUT...Kobe's game was a more spectacular performance.
Man, some people are going through a lot just to discredit what happened last night. Never in my lifetime did I think that someone was ever going to break the 80 point barrier. Not only did it happen last night, but a shooting guard did it while shooting 60%. That's tough no matter how you slice and dice it.
Here is an ESPN insider article written by John Hollinger.... Stats say Kobe's 81 is better than Wilt's 100 It seems at first glance that Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point night in 1962 is far superior to Kobe Bryant's 81-point game Sunday. After all, Bryant still needed 19 more points -- roughly Pau Gasol's average -- just to catch the Dipper. But if you stack the two games side by side, you'll come to the startling realization that Bryant's performance was actually far superior. Breaking the two games down by the numbers, it quickly becomes apparent what a dominant night Kobe had. Consider the facts: Bryant was more efficient. Bryant needed 46 shot attempts and 20 free throws to get 81 points. Chamberlain needed 63 field-goal attempts and 32 free-throw tries to get his 100. Bryant's true shooting percentage for the night was 73.9 percent; Chamberlain's was only 63.9 percent. Bryant's performance was more real. In Chamberlain's game, the Warriors intentionally fouled the Knicks in the final minute of play to get the ball back for another Chamberlain try at the century mark. Only on his third try did he get to 100. At the time, his team was comfortably ahead, as it was for the entire second half, and it won 169-147. Bryant, on the other hand, got almost all his points when they were desperately needed, as his team trailed by 18 early in the third quarter. Bryant needed fewer minutes. If you want to really be amazed, consider the fact that Kobe sat out for six minutes in the second quarter. So Bryant scored his 81 points in only 42 minutes, while Wilt played the full 48 in his 100-point effort. Had he played for an additional six minutes and scored at the same rate (hardly an unreasonable assumption, given how much gas he appeared to have at the end), Kobe would have finished with 93 points. Yes, 93. The game was different. Of all the differences between Bryant's game and Chamberlain's, this one is perhaps the biggest. Chamberlain's game ended up 169-147, Bryant's 122-104. Obviously, there was a huge difference in the speed of play, and that meant Chamberlain had far more opportunities to score than Bryant did. Chamberlain's game featured 233 field-goal attempts versus 164 for Bryant's, and 93 free-throw attempts to 60 for Bryant's. We have no data on turnovers and offensive rebounds for Chamberlain's game, but based on the numbers I just mentioned, we can estimate there were 46 percent more possessions in the Chamberlain game than in the Kobe game. If that's the case, we need to inflate Kobe's numbers by 46 percent to get an accurate idea of what it equates to in Chamberlain's era. The answer? An unbelievable 118 points. And if we add in six extra minutes for Bryant, we end up with the mind-boggling total of 135. By one player. In one game. Another way to look at it is by deflating Chamberlain's numbers by a similar amount. If we change his currency into "2006 points," so to speak, the Stilt ends up with 68 points -- still an awesome performance, but clearly not on a level with Kobe's 81-point outburst. And once you adjust for the 48 minutes Chamberlain played vs. Kobe's 42, you end up with 60 points for Wilt -- or just a bit more than Kobe rang up in the second half. So when our Marc Stein says this is the most amazing performance ever, believe it. Once you adjust for the differences in pace between the two eras and the fact that Bryant sat out for six minutes, even Chamberlain's monumental 100-point game pales by comparison. For basketball historians, Bryant's effort is now the scoring effort against which all others should be measured.
