When Kobe Bryant Made LeBron James Crack Up By Trolling Kwame Brown’s Reaction to 81-Pt Game

Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were two of the most dominant forces in all of basketball during the 2000s and early 2010s. While LeBron was an all-around threat, Kobe was possibly the best offensive player during that stretch. Bryant solidified this rhetoric when he dropped 81 points in a win over the Toronto Raptors back in January 2006. But years later Bryant would hilariously troll a former teammate when recalling his performance, and LBJ had front-row tickets to the roast.

Kobe Bryant’s 81-point performance is the second most points scored in a single game in league history, and the most in the modern era. A few years after the incident, Bryant, during a 2013 segment on Sports Center was asked by reporter Cabral ” Cabbie” Richards to circle out the person who had the most fun during his scoring barrage and Bryant chose his teammate, Kwame Brown. This led LBJ and the others present on the occasion to burst out laughing and Bryant even backed his selection by simply saying “He looks ecstatic”.

 

On closer inspection, it becomes clear that Bryant was in fact trolling his former teammate, and seeing that it’s Kwame Brown, it’s understandable why. A Former No.1 pick Brown and Bryant played together from 2005 to 2008 on the Los Angeles Lakers. Brown had a decent time playing Center on Coach Jackson’s Lakers, but it soon became apparent that Bryant wasn’t a fan of Brown’s mentality and even called him out in front of the media on multiple occasions due to his lack of offensive skill.

But despite Bryant’s rude remarks and public chastization of him, Brown helped Kobe more than the Black Mamba might have been comfortable admitting. Standing at 6’11 and over 250 pounds, Brown was an elite screen and roll player, and during Bryant’s 81-point performance did a lot of the dirty work to ensure Bryant reached his goal. Back in 2021, Brown even addressed his efforts on the night of January 22 and shot back at haters for downplaying his role in the Laker’s winning effort.

Kwame Brown hits back at trolls for his 3-point performance during Kobe’s 81-point night.

Kobe Bryant was far from the ideal colleague, and sometimes that led to teammates disliking Bryant and even shutting him out. But since Kobe often had the ball in his hands, any dispute with Bryant would have on-court repercussions. Something similar happened during Bryant’s 81-point game as Kobe took 46 shots himself and assisted on only two buckets.

Regardless the Lakers secured the win but Brown’s 3 points on the night caused him to be trolled, and the hate continued for many years, even after Brown’s retirement in 2013. In 2021, the former Grizzlies player shot back at his haters and asked them what more could he have done on the night of 22nd January 2006. Addressing fans through a live, Brown said,

“Yeah, me and Kobe dropped 82 combined and we won…Let me get this straight. So everybody loved Kobe Bryant and wanted to see him score and wanted to see him shoot. So he scored and he shot and the people around him didn’t get that many shots and they didn’t score and you mad? Didn’t you get what you wanted? Are you not entertained? He hit 81 m****ing points. Did you see the screens I was setting, n*a? What the fk is wrong with you? Are you not entertained? What do you n***s want?.”

Kwame Brown had to deal with a lot of hate over his 12-year career, and most of it was not grounded in any solid reasoning. As the first No.1 pick to directly enter the league from High School, the expectation on Brown was sky high from the start, and when he couldn’t deliver, the hate just kept pilling on. Somewhere along the way, the lines between critique and hate started to get blurred, and that’s where Brown’s story turned into a nightmare.