 January 22nd, 2006, Los Angeles vs Toronto. Kobe Bryant shocked the league and scored 81 freaking points. Now, you wanna hear about a story? I will tell you a story, and the best part about this story is number one is Kobe Bryant. Number two, this is in a game where he scored 81 freaking points, second behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game, but it's almost arguably even more impressive nowadays. And if you don't believe me, you can look it up. If you break it down, now there's obviously debate between Wilt's 100 point game, Kobe's 81 point game. There is debating who's the better. In my opinion, nothing Kobe's is better simply because he versed tougher opponents. He versed, well, it was in a stretch where he was the best player by a long shot. Even Wilt Chamberlain was obviously the best player when he played, but I mean, he was versing white guys that were really bad. He didn't even versed New York starting lineup when he played and scored 81. They kept feeding him the ball, they kept fouling intentionally to get Wilt to the free throw line, and on the other team, they fouled the other team so that their players would get to the free throw line. Like the whole game was messed up. It was literally played to get Wilt Chamberlain 100 points. This Kobe Bryant game was not played to do that. Kobe Bryant just went out, scored 81 points on Jalen Rose, who, I mean, Jalen Rose, it was a pretty good play when he played in the NBA. It wasn't amazing, but it was still good. People know who Jalen Rose is. If you know who a player is, they're gonna be pretty good. Anyway, I mean, just to give you, like, perspective, as good as Kevin Durant, LeBron, James, Steph and Kari, any other player in the NBA have been, well, no one's come close to matching or surpassing Kobe's 81 points. I mean, there's only been six NBA games in which a player has scored 60 or more points, and Bryant has half of them, which is crazy. Now, LeBron, Mellow, Gilbert, Arenas each have won, but the most impressive thing I think about Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points is that not only did he shoot 60% on 46 shots, he went 55 points in the second half of the game and finished with 81. Like, in the first half, he played amazing. In the second half, he got 55, and they were down at the end of the game. He brought them to win the game, which is awesome. So, I guess, look, to be honest with you, I didn't even want to start this video talking about Kobe Bryant and how great that 81-point game was, but if you want to talk about a story about Kobe Bryant and his 81-point performance, you kind of have to get into it. So, obviously, you know the whole thing. Let me hand it over to Kobe Bryant, telling the story, because I want to share my thoughts afterwards because this story is crazy. Now, I do want to quickly note that this story is by Graham Bensinger in an interview with Kobe Bryant. The day that I actually scored 81 was my grandfather's birthday, who I passed away a few years before, and my grandmother, who had never seen me play in NBA just because her nerves can't take it, she flew out to California, and she came to watch me play for the first time, and the only time, and that's just so happened to be the night I scored 81. What was that like for you with having your grandmother the first and only time sitting in the stands watching? It was really special for me, and my grandmother has always been there for me, and we're out of the family, we're probably the most similar in personality, so it was really, really special. I mean, she was one of these grandmothers who, you know, I would play like eight games a day in the summertime for different summer leagues and stuff like that, and she'd be like, boy, you need to slow down, you know, you're getting too tired, you're exhausted, you know, it's just one of those grandmothers was really caregiving, you know, and just a caretaker, so for her to be there at the Staples Center to watch me play at this ultimate level after seeing me play for so many years in high school and summer league was special. So those 81 points in a single game, second, you know, in history, only to Wilt Chamberlain, it should be pointed at, even Michael Jordan only had 69 points in the game, and he needed overtime to get to that point, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, 55 points in the games, what he tops out at it, and you had that in the second half of that game alone. When you're in the zone like that, how do you know? Yeah, it's funny, it's a strange feeling because you know you're in the zone, but you can't afford to allow yourself to know you're in the zone because once you do, then you lose it, you know, because being in that moment, it's all about being in that moment and not letting anything else enter your mind emotionally or psychologically, and you just continue to go and go and go, and, you know, for me as a player, when I get hot, I mean, I get blistering hot, and it's something that I just had to kind of keep going and not take my mind or focus, let my focus shift to something else. What's different about it though, I mean, when you're in the zone like that, relative to an average game? Oh, it's such a sense of calmness and focus, and it's almost a sense of desperation where nothing else matters, nothing, nothing, nobody talking to you, not a fan sitting over here, not, nothing is relevant. The only thing that's important is the moment that you're in, and it's tough to find that space on a consistent basis, but I think that's what makes support so compelling. I read somewhere after that game that you said it actually slowed down for you. How so? Well, just because of the fact that I was so hot shooting the ball, I mean, I can pick and choose whatever I did out there on the floor. So it was almost like the defense was at my mercy, and because of that, I could anticipate everything that was going on because I was dictating everything that was going on because I was so hot, and so it kind of gives that feeling that everything slows down. So that's the story. It's pretty crazy in my opinion. It does remind me of a lot of other stories I've heard of in basketball, but not the NBA, because, you know, for me, it really reminds me of the story about Chris Paul. If you don't know the story about Chris Paul, I won't ruin it for you. If you would like me to make a video on it, I can, but you can also just search it up yourself. There's a lot of videos about the Chris Paul story, but honestly, if you want me to make a video on it, let me know. I don't really want to because I think it's already been sort of made before, but this Chris Paul story, just for a recap, he scored 61 points on the day that his grandfather passed away at the age of 61. So it's a pretty crazy story. It's not the same, but it's very similar. Now, Chris Paul scored 61 points, obviously as a way of, you know, I guess attribute. Now, Kobe Bryant, it's a little bit different, but it's also in a crazy scenario because Kobe Bryant, I guess, you know, Chris Paul, it's obviously amazing since he's in, you know, high school scoring 61 points, but that's also it. He was in high school. Kobe Bryant was in the NBA. Obviously, it's a lot less emotional since Kobe, I mean, he obviously loved his grandfather, but it wasn't the day he passed away. It was just his birthday and he sadly passed away, which is also, I guess it's sad, but the awesome part about this is for Kobe Bryant to actually have his grandmother there who never watched him play. As you guys heard in the story, his grandmother just never was there to watch him play in the NBA. She was always nervous, couldn't watch him play, and that's a pretty cool story in my opinion. This story right here, it's pretty awesome because Kobe Bryant, I mean, we all know, when you say Kobe Bryant, like literally the word Kobe Bryant, most people automatically jump to clutch, dunking ability, frobie, or 81 point game. There's obviously a lot, I mean, you can name other things, championships, Lakers, any other word, but for Kobe Bryant, for me at least, 81 point, that kind of word right there, or two words, they come to mind when I think about Kobe Bryant. But obviously we know Kobe Bryant to score 81 points, but now hopefully you know the story, which I guess kind of motivated him to really go after the 81 point performance, because obviously, yeah, like I said, 81 is an amazing achievement by any player, but for a guy who played for his grandfather, whose birthday it was, for a guy that had his grandmother watching who hadn't watched him before, you knew he was gonna put on a show, but did you think he was gonna score 81 points? Now, the reason I made this video is because a lot of people know Kobe scored 81. They know he dominated this game. They know he came, he was, you know, the main contributor to a team that was losing to actually win a game that they weren't meant to win. People know that. People know about Lakers versus Toronto 81 points, but not many people know that the reason behind it, the reason why he ended up scoring 81, because it was a really significant occasion and one of the greatest performances of all time, and that is the main reason he went after the 81 point game, because of his grandmother, because of his grandfather, and I think it's just an awesome story that hopefully you guys now know about that you may have not, because I never knew about this story, so hopefully you guys learned something new. So with that being said, if you guys enjoyed this video and you enjoyed this story, hopefully you guys can leave a like. Let's aim for 4,000 likes. That would be awesome. I'd really appreciate it. If you're new around here and you wanna hear more stories just like this one, definitely hit that subscribe button. I've got a lot of NBA stories coming out, as well as just NBA content in general, so definitely stay tuned for the NBA content, and let me know down below if you guys knew about this Kobe Ryan story, because I definitely do not know about this story at all, and I think it's one of the best stories ever. I think it's just pretty cool. Like, 81 points is awesome, but the way he did it and the reason behind it, man, I could talk about this forever. And also the Chris Ball story. If you guys want me to make a video on that, if you don't know about it, I can, but I think most of you guys probably do know about it, so let me know if you do, if you don't. Yeah, that's pretty much it. So yeah, subscribe if you're new and I'll catch you guys in my next video. I'm out, peace.