It’s one of those days that’s on the calendars of all fans of the National Basketball Association (NBA), because exactly 15 years ago, January 22, 2006, the name of Kobe Bryant definitely got into the history books consuming his best performance while defending Los Angeles Lakers.
Everything happened for a packed Staples Center in the state of California. Black mamba led a team without major figures of the gold and purple franchise, where alone Lamar Odom and Slovenian Sasha Vujacic; in front, the Toronto Raptorswho had a young man in their ranks Chris Bosh, a veteran Jalen Rose and to Spanish Jose Manuel Calderon, among other things.
It is true in that 2005-2006 NBA season Bryant topped the list of top scorers, with an average of 35.4 games per game; But not even most experts in the field expected such a day, before the astonished look of 19,000 fans in the stadium and millions on television.
Kobe Bryant’s masterpiece
The songs he recorded on that historic day were epic from where you look at him: 81 points in 42 minutes on the track, Have it right 28 of 46 field goals (60.9 percent effective), with seven of the 13 three-point attempts (53.8%) and 18 of 20 in free throws (90%).
‘Not even in my dreams; that just happened. It is hard to explain. It’s just one of those things. It became something special. Sitting here and saying I understand what happened would be a lie. ‘, Bryant said after the historic game with the Lakers.
The story behind Bryant’s miracle
While the then owner of the lagoons, Jerry Buss, stated that “This was like seeing a miracle happen”, and the Staples Center announcer, Lawrence Tanter He told attendees to keep their tickets as an example of history, what no one can believe is that this milestone was just minutes away from happening.
Is that the then coach of the Lakers, Phil Jackson, Bryant had taken out of the game with minutes to go, when he had 77 points, remains one of the brand Want Chamberlain in 1968; it was then that his assistant Frank Hamblen He warned the strategist if he didn’t put it back “there would be a riot”. This is how Kobe achieved its historical stamp.
In this way, with this feat bringing victory to his team by 122-104, the Black mamba set up a record that could never be matched Michael Jordan, and that hasn’t even been matched by LeBron James.