Mr. Bryant's Video-game-alike 81 Points

Even in simulated video games on XBOX360 a jerk gamer doesn't achieve that often. Mr. Kobe Bryant did it last night in real life.

If you report that number to me as a whole basketball team's score in one night I certainly would believe that, but if it is not, instead you tell me that figure was entirely from a single player in a single game, I definitely would doubt your sanity or whether some witches or clerics have cast the 8th-level raise-dead spell on Wilt Chamberlain to his full HP. That's was absolutely R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S!

I was not even aware of it last night when I was writing the last blog until I kept hearing from Chuck from Toronto Raptors in the background TV window delivering the words "unbelievable", "are you kidding me" and somesuch, then I switch to the window and found the headline on the top the TV screen read Kobe Bryant – 72 points, which I've never imagined to see on a basketball court in my life, super astonished. But that was not the end yet, he kept shooting, dunking, driving to the basket, literally at his own will in every raptor's face. The win/loss of the game didn't matter at all from that moment on, and what mattered was how much points the star could score. Last game the Lakers were with Raptors was in Air Canada Center, where I happened to be there and witnessed the season-worst performance from Kobe, but now look, what a miss and joke.

Take a serious look at these numbers:

Kobe Bryant – 81 Pts, 55 in the second half, 28-46 FG%, 7-13 3PT%, 18-20 FT%, 6 Reb, 3 Stl, 2 Ast, 1 Blk, 42 Min, Lakers 122 Raptors 104, the rest points from all his teammates 41. The 81 is ranking behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point effort in 1962.

I don't know what's in Phil Jackson's skewed triangle strategy and what role Kobe was trying to play in this team. Was he trying to prove something to the world that he was very able to do something Michael Jordan couldn't or wouldn't do in his career, or was he trying to counter-strike those commentators such as Charles Barkley who well-meaningly accused him of too many shot attempts, that he was also able to help his team to a victory and probably more similar victories with his superb individual show and skill? From this night's action, I guess he does have the potential to achieve something MJ was not able to reach, and might have realized them when it's time for him to retire and look back his whole career. Or more likely, in most fans' eyes, the other way around: a mediocre star but not close to a super-star in NBA history with 3 consecutive championship rings around his fingers in early his career together with Shaquille O'Neal, several regular season scoring titles, many NBA 1st team members, plus some miscellaneous hard-to-break records.

Anyway, time will tell.

(The picture: Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers slamdunks the ball against the Toronto Raptors at the Staples Center in California. Bryant scored a stunning 81 points -- the second most in National Basketball Association history -- in the Lakers' 122-104 victory over Toronto. (AFP/Getty Images/Noah Graham))