Kobe Bryant had 122 games scoring 40 or more points in his career. However, his first 40-point game came against the Sacramento Kings during the 1999-2000 season taking more than three and a half seasons plus support from Shaq for the volume scorer to hit the 40-point mark. As per Shaquille O’Neal, some of these 40-point games were a result of his direction, when Shaq had either hit the club the previous night or he was unable to put up big scoring numbers.
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A Kobe Bryant fan page posted a compilation on X of Shaq urging Kobe before the game to pick up the scoring slack. It consists of interview clippings where the big fella is talking about his former teammate. The compilation begins with Shaq saying,
“Kobe I need 40 tonight. Kobe, free throw is not falling. I need you to go out and do what you do.”
Apparently, it wasn’t just the lack of free throws that pushed Shaq to ask his high-scoring teammate to bag a lot of points. If he had been hitting the club till late, the request would be the same. In the second clip of the compilation, in another interview, Shaq revealed that he asked Kobe,
“Man, I am tired tonight, I need you to get 40, he said ‘okay’.” The former Lakers Center continued, “Hey man, I went to the club last night, I am not doing good tonight, you do it. True story. Like, he had that type of motto.”
Although Shaq indeed asked Kobe to take over games when he was a bit down-and-out, there is no questioning Neal’s dominance during the Playoffs. That’s why he bagged all three Finals MVPs during his tenure with Mamba. During their three-peat, he tallied a range of 33-38 points, 12-16 rebounds, and 2.7-3.4 blocks per game in the finals.
On the other hand, while it is true that O’Neal’s words might have acted as the fuel, considering Mamba’s basketball acumen, he knew when to take over the game. Years after his retirement, the big fella knew what his former teammate was all about so he put Kobe for a challenge during the final game of his 20-season career.
Kobe Bryant stunned Shaquille O’Neal in his farewell game
Three weeks before his farewell game in 2016, during an Inside the NBA segment, Shaquille O’Neal asked Bryant, “Kobe, can you promise me one thing? I need 50 that night[farewell game]”. This brought immense laughter to the Black Mamba who responded, “No! Absolutely not!” Shaq repeated his desire, but Mamba refused to give him such a promise.
However, Diesel wasn’t going to let go of his yearning just like that. Just before the tip-off during Kobe’s final NBA game against the Utah Jazz, he once again asked him to drop 50. The pumped-up shooting guard responded, “Alright, I’ll go for it.” Not only did he drop 60 points, 10 more than his former champion teammate asked for, but he also helped his team win the game.
With a minute to go, he made the key three-pointer on a tough contest that cut the deficit to 1, then he made the 20-foot two-pointer to give his team the lead. He began his career by hitting two free throws and fittingly to get to his 60 points, he nailed two of them again. These free throws and an assist for Jordan Clarkson’s dunk to ice the game brought curtains to what is going to remain one of the most storied careers in NBA history.
