kobe vs. mj
KOBE BRYANT erupted for a mind-boggling 81 points against the lowly raptors last week, and this generated another debate on kobe’s place in the pantheon of basketball immortals, particularly against the Great One himself (Jordan, to the uninitiated ones). i remember that day when i was doing my usual scoreboard-watching before i went out for work, and turned my computer off with the raptors leading LA by almost 20 points at halftime and kobe with a ho-hum 26 markers at that point- on pace for another 40 point game. back from work, i was hoping to find out another laker loss because of a 10 of 100 field goal clip by numero otso. instead, i found myself looking for a stable object to steady myself, my mind and body totally unprepared for the figure that i saw from my computer screen as the website revealed its contents. now you might think that this is grossly exaggerated, and totally expected from a kobe fan. but the weird fact is, i am actually a kobe basher, and instead a true blue (or red, during his bulls days) michael jeffrey jordan fanatic of the highest level. now, 81 points means a lot of things, but what really shook me to the core was the scary realization that maybe jordan’s secure place as basketball’s best scorer is threatened by this accused rapist, insatiable ballhog, and overall selfish basketball player. consider this: mj’s highest ever point total was 69 vs. the cavs in ‘93. didn’t even reach 70. but 81? wilt’s century mark was tainted by controversy, with his team supposedly calling timeouts to ensure his record in the dying minutes of the game, and with the level of competition- or the lack of it- that he faced at that time, he was expected to dominate like he did. and he achieved that by taking 60+ field goal attempts, making roughly half and converting on 28 of 32 foul shots. kobe on the other hand attempted 46 field goals, making 28 and converted 7 threes in the process and also making good with 18 of 20 trips to the line. and he actually rallied his team for the win by scoring 55 points in the second half while playing only 42 minutes overall. no overtimes, unlike mj who needed one to reach his career high. the funny thing was that a lot of people downplayed his remarkable feat, even his own coach who still equated stratospheric scoring as unneccesary icing on the game of basketball. so did tex winter. and jabbar. and all other notable basketball personalities who probably wouldn’t say the same if mj achieved that feat during his time. (to be continued…)
