Kobe Bryant between 2005-07 was an offensive monster – there was nobody who could stop him from scoring.
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Right after Shaquille O’Neal left the Lakers in poor taste, Kobe Bryant was out to prove a point. Having heard almost every day that Kobe could not be as dominant alone, he was ready to show the league what he could do. And that is exactly what he did, putting up 30 points a night on average for two straight seasons. Between 2005-07, Kobe Bryant had 16 50-point games and that one legendary 81-point game against the Raptors.
While in both those seasons, he could not go past the first round in the playoffs, in the regular season, he was by far the best player on the court. Having scored six 50-point games in 2005-6, Kobe outdid himself the following season. In this stretch, Kobe was more likely to score 50 than score below 20 points a night.
He was hell-bent on showing the world he was not just a Michael Jordan copy, but the original Kobe Bryant. And that he did, because right after this ridiculous stretch, he switched numbers to 24. After one-upping Jordan on the number front, he went on to win two more championships, putting his name once and for all in the history books.
The closest anyone has gotten to breaking that record has been James Harden. In 2019, the former Houston Rockets SG was notching triple-doubles like they were cotton candy. At one point, he looked like the second coming of Wilt Chamberlain, but then he faltered in the final stretch of the season. He ended up with 9, one short of Kobe’s 10.
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Kobe Bryant appears twice on the list of most 50 points scored in a season – This list is considering records only after the merger
If this list included records before the merger, no one would be able to break Wilt Chamberlain’s record. Unless they play it on easy, then that’s the players’ choice. When a man averages 50 points for a season, you know he’s untouchable. Even with an adjusted scoring pace, Kobe only reaches 39.3 points, a full 11 points below Wilt’s casual average.
Chamberlain should have had more discipline-Bill Russell would not have had 11 rings then. He played the game like a hobby, yet he was so great that records of his still stand. While he was not all he could be as an athlete, he knew he lived his life the best way he could.
For 19 years, Michael Jordan held the record for most 50-point games with 8. And then came his protégé, coming close in 2006. And then he broke the record in 2007, a record which stands to this day. Maybe in another 4 years, one of the Black Mamba’s proteges will break the record. Will it be Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, or Giannis?
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