“2007 Kobe Bryant Was on a Mission!”: Shaquille O’Neal Falls Prey to Misinformation, Misses Wilt Chamberlain’s Legendary 50-Point Games Tally

Shaquille O’Neal was once more popular than any superstar in Hollywood, and is a massive name there, to this day. However, when it comes to Kobe Bryant, the love of the Lakers fans is in another stratosphere. As even Shaq admits, Bryant is the greatest Laker of all time, ahead of Magic Johnson, Jerry West, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Recently Shaq came across a stat on Instagram, which had the list of players with the most 50-point games in a season. In it, Kobe is at the top, with ten 50-point games in the 2007 season, something O’Neal shared on his Instagram story. Unfortunately for the Lakers legend, it was nothing more than a bit of misinformation.

The 2022-23 season saw an outbreak of great scorers in the NBA. Not only did Donovan Mitchell and Damian Lillard score 71 points in single games, but Luka Doncic also recorded a 60-point triple-double in the same season. Further, the previous season saw a total of 25 50-point games and Luka Doncic alone had four of them. Still, not one player came close to touching Bryant’s record, as he scored 50 or more points in 10 games during the 2006-07 NBA season.

Four of these performances came consecutively to one another. Unfortunately for him, what Bryant did wasn’t even close to Wilt Chamberlain’s tally of 45 such performances in a single campaign. 

Shaquille O’Neal shares Kobe Bryant’s ‘record’, despite it belonging to Wilt Chamberlain

The Instagram post in question was by an account called “kobehistory_”. It had Bryant at the top with 10 50+ point performances in a season, James Harden at second, with nine, and Michael Jordan coming third, with eight. The caption said, “2007 Kobe Was On A Mission.” Shaq shared it in his story, likely without the knowledge that the information was wrong. Take a look at the tweet by “What are NBA Celebs Upto?“

Wilt Chamberlain had 45 games with at least 50 points, as mentioned prior. The very next season, he had 30 of these performances, meaning the legend has two seasons with better numbers than Kobe Bryant. However, to be fair to Shaq, he was likely too overcome by his pride in his former teammate to fact-check the post. 

In Kobe Bryant’s season of the best tally, the Lakers finished 7th in the West, during the regular season. While they battled hard, they would go on to lose against the second-seeded Steve Nash-led Phoenix Suns in 5 games, bowing out in the first round.

Only James Harden came close to touching Kobe Bryant’s tally

Offensive players have a special place in the modern NBA’s heart. As the game progresses, there have been efforts to favor offense rather than defense. Due to this, scoring has become a bit easier today and has been going up in the last few seasons. However, since Bryant had 10 games with at least 50 points, the only player who has come close to his tally is James Harden. In the 2018-19 season, Harden had nine such games, followed by Lillard with six in the 2019-20 season. 

At age 24, Luka Doncic already sits just 6 games away from Kobe Bryant’s tally. And given his play style, it is likely that he will be surpassing his own highest tally before long. So, while Harden may be the closest so far, there is reason to believe that the Slovenian superstar may beat out the Black Mamba in this list soon enough.