Kobe Scores 81 against Toronto

The post-Jordan era of the NBA is a rather dull epoch, with weak offensive results and too much money in the hands of players with a new line of clothing. Kobe Bryant may have sparked something in these basketball doldrums with 81 points in a single game against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. That’s second to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points in 1962, but it is astonishing nevertheless.

Wilt Chamberlain played in a much different NBA. The players were smaller, and Wilt’s 7 foot plus body and his substantial frame (not a bean pole) simply changed the way teams were built. He dominated the league because there wasn’t much anyone could do to stop him. He scored 100 on March 2, 1962, but he also racked up 78 on December 8, 1961, 73 twice (January 13 and November 16 of 1962), and 72 on November 3, 1962. In the 1961-62 season, his average was 50.4 points per game.

These days, a player six-and-a-half feet tall like Mr. Bryant is a guard, one of the little guys. Every team in the league has a giant under the backboard. Moreover, the rules have changed. Mr. Chamberlain’s 100 came without the 3-point shot (one of the improvements to the game brought about by the under-rated and sorely missed American Basketball Association). Mr. Bryant’s 81 included 7 shots from the 3-point line. Under 1962 rules, he would get credit for 74 points, which would still have eclipsed David Thompson’s second best 73 scored on April 9, 1978.

Yet, there is another change from the Jordan era that only a few in the sports media have noted. Marty Burns at Sports Illustrated nailed it when he observed that the rules against hand-checking tightened in the late 1990s to make defense much harder. Mr. Burns wrote, “Bryant is the beneficiary of this new offensive-minded NBA.” He added, “In fact, were it not for Kobe's explosion, we'd probably all be talking this morning about Sunday's 152-149 Sonics-Suns double OT game, the league's highest-scoring game in 11 years.”

Regardless of the rules, the simple mathematical underpinning of the achievement is impressive. Presuming a player plays the full 48 minutes, and presuming he gets one shot off every minute, he must still shoot about 83% to get to 80 points. Three-point shots and free throws alter this only a little. Mr. Bryant went 28-of-46 from the field, 18-of-20 from the free-throw line, and hit 7 of 13 three pointers. He hasn’t reached 30 years of age yet, and that means he can do it again. He may even exceed 81. But can he break 100? Maybe in overtime. On Sunday, he would have needed 10 more baskets.


© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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