Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Friday. Bosh and Patrick discussed Kobe Bryant and his impending retirement.
When Patrick asked Bosh what comes to mind when he says Kobe Bryant, Bosh responded, “Greatest,” and let the word linger for effect. After a pause, Bosh simply said, “He’s the greatest player of my generation.”
Bosh explained that Kobe Bryant was the one player after Michael Jordan who won — and just kept winning — championships. “He really did it at a young age; when they three-peated he was 21, 22 years old,” Bosh said. He admired how quickly Bryant and the Lakers were able to climb to prominence in the early 2000s.
Of course, it wouldn’t have been a complete conversation unless Patrick brought up Bryant’s 81-point game against Bosh’s Toronto Raptors on January 23, 2006.
Patrick felt the need to ask if Bosh was still in Toronto when Kobe went off on the scoring spree, which he was. Bosh wasn’t a member of the Miami Heat until 2010. Bosh said with his best deadpan delivery, “It was a bad game.”
When asked what it was like to be on the floor in that game, Bosh said, “You kind of get caught in playing and watching, if that makes any sense.” Bosh claimed to not remember the first half, because the Raptors were winning, and Bryant had 26 points — it’s not as though Kobe’s scoring harmed Toronto’s overall performance.
The second half was a different story.
According to Bosh, it got to a point where it seemed somebody was multiplying Kobe’s points. “I didn’t remember everything from 30 to 70,” Bosh said.
Kobe’s 81-point game was simply amazing. Not only did a shooting guard put up 81 points in the modern-day NBA; the Lakers were down 63-49 at the half, and wound up winning by 18 points, 122-104. Kobe scored 55 of his team’s 73 second-half points. That is truly the embodiment of putting the team on your back. In the percentage of his team’s points and in the raw quantity of points, Kobe did something only Wilt Chamberlain could relate to.
The Kobe Bryant farewell tour is in its early stages, and we will undoubtedly continue to hear great things about the Laker legend. Kobe’s contemporaries will share some awesome stories as the days and weeks go by.
The story of his 81-point game rates as one of those stories… as much as Chris Bosh might have wanted to forget it at the time.
