The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Vinnie Goodwill on Kobe's 81-Point Game: A Night That Changed Basketball Forever | 01.27

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

In this episode, Bomani Jones and Vinny Goodwill delve into Kobe Bryant's legendary 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors, exploring its significance in NBA history and its impact on Kobe's career over 20 years later. They discuss how Kobe's perception has changed after the 3-peat with Shaq, the signature greatness that led to this performance, and how this game helped reshape his public image. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is Time Machine Tuesdays.

We got my man Vinnie Goodwill in from ESPN. What's going on, brother? Man, what's going on? At least I don't have the title of Bo's biggest hater. Nah, no, you don't. No, man, because you don't do that. That's not your inclination. That's not, that's not, that's not in your spirit and it's not in your soul.

No, it's not, but I figured given today's topic, for whatever reason, this thing makes people lose their minds. Yeah, so this is interesting. So, you know, we do a time machine Tuesday. Now every Tuesday we go look back as something that is going on in sports and the world. This we are looking at as I want to make sure we got this date. right on January 22nd, 2006. Kobe Bryant put up 81 points, including 55 in the second half over the Toronto Raptors. 81 points.

The significance of the 81 is it is the second highest point total of all time behind Wilts Chamberlain. And what I think is interested about that, like the Chamberlain part, Vinny, is that there's so many NBA records that are like the highest except for Wilp where we just like we just have a host of things where if you get to be the closest person to Wilk then it's like oh okay good enough but normally when that happens it's like Wilk did it eight times or Wilk did it five times and there's somebody else will only scored 100 one time that's the only time that Wilk went over 80 this is the second

highest point total of all time in one game and I think one thing that's interesting about it. And there's so many levels that we could get to about it. In fact, let's build up to the moment, right? Like, let's build up to the game. And I think building to the game requires going to 2003. A couple

of things happened in 2003. One, the Lakers three Pete ended. Right? You follow the end of the Lakers three Pete with the additions of Gary Payton and Carl Malone as the Lakers went to make one more run

kind of an understanding that this is going to be Shaquille O'Neill's last year with the Lakers and probably the first year that Shaq was not truly great anymore was probably that season. That is also the summer of Kobe being charged

with rape in Eagle, Colorado. Okay. 04, that is the ultimate super team didn't make it happen situation in the history of the NBA. I'd say even more. more so than the net situation with Kyrie and Kevin Durant and James Harden, because they were just kind of in it out.

Yeah. There was a pandemic that was in the middle of it. It was a lot. This one right here, we live with the stress for all 82 games, right? Like the Lakers were the centerpiece of basketball coverage. And we watched it not look good. And then we watched Derek Fisher hit the miracle shot against the spurs. And it looked like they were going to turn that around and they beat Minnesota.

and then the Pistons, who from a distance, seemed like they would be no match. You folks in Detroit, I believe, called that the five-game sweep. Yes, that's what is, that is the term right around these parts. Yeah, it's both. And it was, by the way.

It felt like a five-game suite. But was it over, the Lakers won that one game in overtime. Game two. And then the Pistons just kicked their asses. Yeah, like, no, the crazy thing is, like you said, 2003 is a great starting point. Because remember, that was the shack.

I get hurt on company time. I recover on company time. He came in the camp really overweight and just didn't start, right? And that was where you got the glimpse of Kobe being able to carry a team. Remember, he had that 40-point streak. I want to say in January of 03, or he hit like 12 straight games of 40 points. He had the one game, I think against Seattle where he had 12 threes. Now, y'all, I think we have become desensitized about what 12-3s looks like.

but in a nine three-point shooting league hitting 12 threes when you have the complete offensive game that Kobe did and Kobe had like that was amazing and then like you said the precursor to everything in 04 Carl Malone trying to get his one ring

Gary Payton at that point trying to get his one ring it was so weird because remember in the preseason of that year Shaq I think they were playing in Hawaii and Shaq wanted that extension and I forgot screaming at Jerry bus.

Screaming at Jerry bus to pay me because you dunked on Jerome James or somebody. Like that was so, it was very clear in hindsight. I didn't feel like it was clear in the moment, but it felt clear in hindsight. Man, this was going to be the last year of any of that. Like Kobe was going to be a free agent. Those guys were old. And it led up to everything that we're getting to in 2006, which is Kobe as loan act, pulling all of these feet off by himself,

but it's going nowhere in a team construct. And what does that mean to him? Right, because look, Shaq knew, look, when they were not going to extend him with one year left on his contract or whatever they were, come on, man. They told you, and he knew it, right?

And that led to that level of drama. We find out in the course of that season that Kobe talked about Shaq when he was talking to to police. we had that like it was who there's never been anything more dramatic at least in my life in terms of like it was the perfect combination of modern media coverage plus the glamour franchise of the NBA plus maybe the two biggest names in the NBA plus you add these legends plus you have the Phil Jackson thing but they got their doors blown off in 04

shack gets traded to Miami Phil Jackson gets fired by Peyton's done Carl Malone retires because he suffers the first injury of his whole career because good gracious that man was durable. All those things happened. Legers go through 0405. Rudy Tom Johnovich is the coach. They let go of him in the middle of that year. Kobe's hurt for much of that year.

No, I think he got sick. I think Rudy got sick. Yes, he did. He did. He got sick, but they also wasn't. They weren't bringing him back, but he got, yeah, yeah. Frank Hamlin, I believe, replaced him, which was the precursor to Phil being back.

You are correct. And that's thinking it all. The wheels came off and, There was no bringing shack back, but Phil Jackson, like, you know, when you're dating the owner's daughter, things get awkward, right? When you coach your team and your Phil Jackson, that's a whole show to itself that we don't talk nearly enough about, which is the weird dysfunction of Phil Jackson existing with the Lakers.

But they fired him in 2004 and brought him back in 05. In between, he put out a book where he says that Kobe is uncoached, and now he has to coach Kobe again, except he's coaching Kobe, and I would like to take a brief moment to pull up some names of some players who played on the 2005-2006 Lakers. I could also do this with the 2004,

2005 Lakers if I wanted to, but let's just go to the team for the season that we are talking about. I am going to sort this list by minutes, played, right, or minutes per game. Kobe Bryant was first in minutes. Lamar Odom was second. Lamar Odom, very good NBA player.

Mm-hmm. Third in minutes is Smush Parker, fourth is Kwame Brown, fifth is Chris Mims. We're getting to Devin George, Luke Walton, Brian Cook, Sasha Villichich, Laurent,

a rookie Andrew Bynum. Mm-hmm. Guys, this team was Kobe. into Pips. Kobe and the Funky Bunch. If we keep it in a buck. We ass. This was,

Kobe was out there for Dolo and what it was and then created was the best of Kobe and the worst of Kobe all at once, right? Yep. If you put LeBron James on that team,

especially that era of LeBron James. You put LeBron on that team and LeBron is going to figure out how to get some dudes, some shots, get them into the places. They're going to seem like better basketball players than they ever seemed like. You know what's funny?

That's not the Kobe Bryant approach to basketball. No, no, no. And I will say this. I don't know if LeBron takes those guys to 44 wins. Is that what they had? 45. 45. That's a feat in that particular version of the Western Conference.

Well, so the trick bag in that discussion is the Western Conference variable because we saw LeBron take a roster somewhat similar to that to the NBA finals. I would venture to tell you that Larry Hughes and Zajunis I'llgouskis and Drew Gooden are better than Smush Parker. Lamar Odom, as talented as he was, was inconsistent as hell. and Andrew Bynum was a rookie who showed modicum of flashes and Christmas. I would say, I think, yeah, I get what you're saying,

but I do think that Cavs team had solid coaching and a good defense. These dudes were just dudes that was just kind of happy to be in the league. Yeah, I had a lot of those in Cleveland too, right? Like, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think there's, I think there's room on both sides in the discussion. But the bottom line is Kobe Bryant, was not looking at these guys thinking to himself, I got to figure out how to get more of him.

That out of him, that's not how he did things. He looked at them and was like, how about y'all give me to ball, all right? Kobe averaged 27 shots a game that year. No one else averaged more than 11. What is a triangle? What are you talking about? Well, this is why the last few years

were so important is because Kobe felt like I'd spent all this time sacrificing in the name of Shaq, in the name of this team, in the name of winning. And then we add on, you know, Gary Payton and Carl Malone, you want to get them acclimated and I have to take fewer shots and everything else and, you know, the whole thing. Now it's my time to go for Dolo. Now it's my time to show y'all that I'm really good because at that time and you can remember this, Beau. I don't know what side of this you sat on, if you sat on this side. But at that time, there was reasonable discussion amongst reasonable basketball minds.

Who's better? Tracea McGradier or Kobe Bryant. I bet you that ate Kobe Bryant up inside. Completely ate them up inside. Also add to the fact that there was this young kid in Miami named Dwayne Wade who was coming up playing next to Shaq and playing for more high stakes basketball. So if Kobe knew this team, lack of a phrase, ain't shit, I'm gonna go out here and get my numbers. And I think that's the only thing in general for this season. Now the next season, I think it got a little tiring. But for this season, he hit those young legs.

He was mentally free, shall we say? And he could go out there and score 50, 60. Like, it wasn't just the 80 that year. That man, legit, this might have been the single greatest scoring. season since Jordan in 87, right? Yeah, I mean, I think when you consider the pace of play of 2006 basketball, I can make an argument that maybe it was more impressive, though Jordan shot at a much higher percentage in that season.

But that, I think that Kobe legitimately believed that him taking all that shots was the best chance they had to win. Like, I think on one level, yeah, he wanted to get his shots off, but also, what is his compelling argument for giving the ball to, wow, Aaron McKee. We only only play 14 games for them. Von Wafer, whoever it is, right? Like, why would I give them the ball? And in response, I don't have a great answer for that, right?

He also had what actually may have been more impressive than the 81 point game. And that was the game earlier that season against Dallas, where he scored 62 points in three quarters and the Mavericks scored 61 in three quarters and he didn't play the fourth quarter. I think we have to put this into like proper context, especially considering what the NBA looks like now and what the NBA has looked like post-2015, right? Not just the three-point shooting, but the pace of play. Yes.

The average, I believe in 2006, and I had to look this up, the average league average was 97 points a game that year. Like the previous NBA finals, which was Detroit, San Antonio, which was a slug fest, I believe the game seven score was 81 to 74. And then the next year, Kobe

does that granted completely different circumstances and everything else. But just the fact that, like you said, pace of play, offense was not prioritized. It was only the second year of Steve Nash's seven seconds or less with Mike DeAnonius.

and that didn't really catch on. Like we look at it now and say, yeah, since Phoenix started playing it, everybody did that. That really wasn't the case. There was a lot of resistance to that because Phoenix didn't get to the finals and they were really bad defensively and everything else. So we were kind of sitting at this from a league standpoint, this middle ground where the advanced stats hadn't yet caught up to, you know,

the skills and the eye test and everything else. And Cobb just out here saying, I take, I'll take every loan till you got for me. I take everything. I will take it all. And nine times out of ten, it was because he could make them all. But that was the problem. He could make them all.

So he took them all. Yeah. And I mean, he was making them all, but he could. And it is, I find generally speaking, the 06 season to be a touch polarizing because Kobe fans believe that

to be his best season. And it's kind of, I would say his best season. I mean, you shot 27 shots a game, right? So there's going to be some sheer volume at play when talking about that. And on one level, I don't think it's appropriate to blame him for the fact that those teams didn't win. But I also don't think that what he was doing in that case was playing winning basketball. Like, I don't think the 06 version of Kobe was better than the 03 version of Kobe.

I don't think any version of Kobe was better than the 01 playoff version of Kobe. I don't think that version of Kobe was better than 08-09 Kobe. Like that era of Kobe. That was just the one where he got to take all the shots. Well, the crazy thing is that's what, like Kobe fans have this weird relationship with him in relation to like the rest of us, I guess, because they look at that as, like you said, the Magnum Opus. if you put a greater team around Kobe, Kobe's averaging 35 and getting to the finals.

And all those two things ain't happening quite like that. Like, O-1 Kobe was a freak because he got after it. Like, he got after it on defense. He got after it as far as playing next to Shaq and maximizing what that was and what that was going to be. Like that O'1 Lakers team might be the single greatest team we've ever seen. And to me, that goes up. peak at its peak yeah yeah that playoffs that's what i mean that the fact that they beat i think every

team they played won 50 games in the playoffs and i think seven or at least or at least six teams in the west won 50 games and they smoked every one of them that gave sacramento 48 and 17 and the clincher gave the dunkin robinson spurs like they embarrassed the spurs in the western conference finals i think games three and four, they were up like 30 points by halftime. Like it was a laffer of how ridiculous they were making the league look. So for people to say, oh yeah,

this is Kobe's year. I think they view this as the year Kobe should have won MVP. I don't view it that way at all. Like Shaq thinks he should have won that MVP. I don't think that's the case. Kobe thinks he should have won MVP. I don't think that's the case at all. I think by and large,

those are nowhere near the egregious ones. But like you said, nowhere near what we consider Kobe Bryant as complete basketball player either. But when he was on in that year, you could get 62 and three quarters. And when he was on in that year, you could put up 81 on Toronto Rapids. And shout out to Jalen Rose, because you would think that he gave all 81 of those to Jalen Rose with the way the internet has taken control of that game and narrative. Hey, man, let me tell you something about that gang.

And you watched it, you just got through watching it. brother everybody got a piece of that 81 like Oprah you get a bucket you get a bucket everybody Mo Pete my man Mo Pete for Michigan State he ate a lot of those more than Jalen Rose did he ate a lot more of those buckets in his grill than Jalen Jalen got some work too but it wasn't it wasn't Jalen didn't even take half of that but when you get 81

yeah so I think some important things to note about this game number one, this was a close game after three quarters. And it was a close game. No, number one, the Lakers were down 17 in the first half. Yes. Right. This was not one where they were just blowing their doors off from the beginning and it was stat hunting.

No, the path to victory was Kobe getting these buckets. And not just that. Kobe had to bring them back into the game. I think they wound up getting it close, like right before halftime. They were still trailing by double digits, but it was like reasonable. It might have been like 14. Now, 14 now feels like four. But back then, 14 felt like you still got to have some Herculane feats to get a win.

Then in the third quarter, because he had 27 at the half, which seemed like an astronomical number. Then they were like, man, Kobe may need 50 to get this win. 50 might not have done it. You know what I'm saying? It might have been only 81. and then he started taking over even more in the third quarter where they took the lead, but it was still reasonably close. Like once you get, and I don't know how you feel about this, Bo, once somebody scores 60,

why would he pass the ball? I don't care if you up 20 at that point. You go for it. Luckily for Kobe and luckily for us, it was still a reasonably competitive game to the last five minutes. But when you get hot like that, no, go ahead, dog. You got a big dog. Shoot every time. You got it.

And everybody knew what time it was like, and it wasn't like the last game of his career where that was different, right? This was simply, we know Kobe's going to get the ball every time. And he's going to get in these buckets. Like he was still messing around. Like he dribbled. I remember one play clearly for watching the game that night where he dribbled into the baseline and was trapped and the game is over.

And he just called a time out because we just getting these buckets, man. everybody was invested in the fact that greatness was happening right now, right? This wasn't a manufactured moment. This was, hey, man, this dude is getting it. We're not going to let them get buckets, but we recognize like the Lakers understood this is what it is. And even if they didn't understand that was what it was, that was what the fuck it was going to be.

Because there's no way in the world that Kobe was going to be playing like that and then be like, no, no, no, no, no, let's go ahead and run the offense right fast. not again remember the Dallas game which was a month before that well he had 62 and the

the championship contending Dallas Mavericks has 61 he could have went for Dolo in that fourth quarter and I'm not sure if that was a national TV game it might have been a Sunday game maybe it was maybe it was I can't remember it but there was more of an impetus

and that one to go and embarrass the competition and he was like you know if I don't sacrifice already No, I'm going for this one. Like, and the crazy thing for me, Bo is when I think of 81, I don't think of that being the most impressive game of Kobe's career. I just think of that being like the most Kobe game of Kobe's career. Like if Kobe were to, if someone was to ask Kobe,

and I'm sure somebody has, like what game best encapsulates everything that you are, he would probably either say that chock fest of a game seven, and against the Celtics, you know, where he shot six or 24, because, you know, we romanticize that now. Or he would say to 81, because that's just what he was all about. And I got no problem with that. I think another level of it was this is pre, it is after high speed internet really starts, like,

moving into homes, like really spreading. But before the immediacy of the smartphone and the immediacy of social media, right, people had a strong access to this game. But as I recall, on Eastern time, it was like a Sunday night. Yes. Like this was not, I don't recall this being a nationally televised game. It wasn't. And there was kind of a slow creep of information spreading amongst people like, hey, Kobe got 30 at halftime, right?

Or Kobe's got 29 a half time. Like people gradually finding out what was happening. And then it's like, okay, so if you're really about the NBA, even if you don't have the league pass, you got like the sports package that lets you get the Fox Sports game or whatever it is. Like a Lakers game, you could always get a hold of a Lakers game one way or another. There were enough ways to pirate them if you wanted to.

So there was a widespread, widespread access to this game and it felt like everybody going to say they was watching it, but it's not possible that they were all watching, right? But we all kind of got there. Maybe not all at the same time. Maybe not the whole way, but we all kind of got there. And I think there's something that adds to the legend of it.

Like the legend of the Wildhunter point game is that nobody saw but the people who were there. But there's something to the legend of it that these different games and things would happen at points. Like you remember, and social media was a bit more around for this. Like when Johnny Flynn played them six overtimes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You gradually found out that it was happening.

It was one of those Wimbledons where there was a stoppage in the middle of it, but the match went on all day long, and everybody gradually found out it happened. This kind of had that quality, and so now once it gets to the end, we're all there, and everybody's there for the same reason. We're here to watch Kobe get buckets. I'll tell you, it's funny, the memory just came to me, Bo.

I was in college at the time. I got a hold of some piston tickets. that night, not quite not quite nosebleed but just got a hold of some tickets, right? They were playing the Rockets and Tracy McGrady and I brought my cousin

like, yo, let's go to the prison game. He's like, all right, and he was a big Kobe fan and he was like, yo, as long as we get back in time for me to get on this league pass to watch Kobe. I'm like, all right, cool,

that's a late game. Mac scores 41 that night. I'm like, oh, man, we got to see a great game. T-Mex scores, 41, nobody in the league is going to get more than 41 that night. That's what I was thinking. You know what I mean?

Kobe said double that. And I remember my cousin watching the game and I didn't find out until the next day. I went home. At the time, I worked at a bank as one of my college jobs. So I had to be up at like eight in the morning. And I just like took it to the crib, went to sleep. And I was like, okay, I got school. I got work in the morning.

The next day, I'm just calling my cousin on the way and I'm talking about what we saw with the Mac and he was like, hey, dog, that ain't what happened last night. I'm like, what were we talking about? He was like, oh, you don't know. He was like, Kobe scored 81.

I felt like, you remember do the right thing? And he's like, man, I'm not from Boston. I'm from Brooklyn. Oh, man, that's what I started like. That's what I was like, come on, man, you're lying. And the word of mouth, I think, was almost even more wild at the time because you had to do a double take.

If you didn't see the game, if you didn't watch SportsCenter that night and someone told you the next day, because there was no Twitter, because there was no way to immediately verify that. Yeah, you just missed out. You swore. No, no, not only did you miss out. you didn't believe it. You thought somebody was lying to you.

Right. That's what 81 is. All right. Coming up next, we got more on this and, you know, how this kind of sets up this next stage in the career, Kobe Bryant. It's the last call for football on Fanduel. One final Sunday.

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All right, back with Vinnie Goodwill, talking about the night that Kobe scored that 81. And it's still crazy. 81. Like, that number. And I think the 81 will hold in a different way in large part because this is before the proliferation of this three-point shot in the ways that we've seen it, right? Like, Luca Donchis has had a 70-point game. Donovan Mitchell has had a 70-point game.

Devin Booker's had a 70-point game and lost. We can run through. Like, there are now guys that have put up some of these numbers and, I mean, good for them, but it ain't this. It don't feel the same. It doesn't feel the same. and what Kobe was that people of, I would say, you and I are like on generational cuss, but I'd put us together for purposes of this discussion.

And I think our basketball sensibilities put us in the same place. The scorer versus the shooter is a big thing here, right? Now you have guys like Steph Curry, who is an ungodly combination of the two. But what Kobe Bryant was, Carmelo Anthony is somebody who fits in this archetype. We can go to guys like Adrian Dantley. Squarely in the archetype of a scorer.

I know how to get bucket. The way the game has changed because the NBA decided about 15, 20 years ago, that it wanted to be more of a ball movement league, more of a team basketball league, which was truly necessary given the way that the game had kind of bogged down, you know, before they made the rule change. But what you had were guys that give me the ball and I know how to get buckets. It was a footwork game, a sleight of hand game, your pump fakes, your ability to conserve,

your dribble, all of these things, right? There's an art to scoring that isn't always the most efficient when we talk about basketball and team success, but has its own very particular beauty when watching it purely as an aesthetic and a guy getting 81 points in the form that Kobe Bryant got those 81 points, it's going to be hard for anybody to put up buckets in a way that feels like that ever again. He took 33-2s in this game. He only took, he was 7 or 13 from 3, but he only took 13 threes. And if someone gets on a heater, I don't know how many threes Donovan Mitchell took or Luca

Donchish took. But if someone gets on a heater like that, the numbers reversed. You're taking as many threes as possible to maximize the numbers as opposed to maximizing the opportunities. Like that's why I think Boat is so very difficult for players who did, or for people, viewers who did not see him, to understand why Alan Iverson was indeed a thing. Because they're like, man, look at the shooting numbers.

He didn't shoot that well. But there's a relentlessness to the way that. players had to play back then, like appetite, was the biggest thing, in my opinion. The number one thing that had to be a quality about scoring had to me to be appetite, had to be want to. Because you look at a guy like Jerry Stackhouse. And Stack was a shooting guard, but he wasn't a shooter by any stretch. But he could get to the bucket. He could get his shot. He could get to the line. Like he used and maximize all the ways that there is to score. and he wasn't necessarily limited to,

oh, since I'm not a shooter, that means I can't be on the floor, I can't be effective. Kobe was a guy that was, when I'm hot, I'm on a heater, get out the way, but any other time, there's not a spot on the floor that I can't create a shot from.

And there's not a spot on the floor that even if you double team me, that I can't get up a reasonably effective shot that maybe, excuse me, maybe just maybe, might go in. and that's the stage of basketball in 2006 that we were aging out of. Maybe not fast. It was a slow burn, but we were starting to age out of that because I think the rules

came into play before the 0405 season, but it just took a long time for basketball to catch up. I want to say it's, I think it was before the 0304 season. The thing I know is this. It was when Steve Nash was still in Dallas. Okay, that was 0404 then. You can go look at Steve Nash's staff. and you could look and find exactly the year that everything changed with the rules. It was immediate in Steve Nash's numbers.

But the other thing was, and I think that this gets lost, is that getting buckets was a lot more hazardous back then, right? This is not the 80s where dudes could literally close line you and get called for a common foul. It wasn't that. But a big part of why you had to have a mid-range game back in the day that isn't discussed by the dorks is that these cats are taking your head off if you go in too far, right? This is another element of it that that's part of why you had to have a three-level game. It wasn't possible back in the day to have a situation where the heat map is showing all these threes and all these layups.

Because somebody was coming to get you down there, right? Some dude who wasn't even actually very good at basketball. He was just there to stop you from getting buckets. Kurt Thomas And I'm saying And not saying Kurt Thomas isn't good at basketball because Lord knows

I don't want to run into him and get into no problems Like having to spend a lot of time Madison Square Garden You never know who's going to be on the jumbotron that day, right? But I say that to say There are guys like that

who are on the roster for the sole purpose of somebody come down the lane you got six files, you better use them and you better use them properly as in no soft off ones, no and ones, make him feel it, make him go to the line, but make him think twice

about going there. And then the coaching back then was not such to take corner threes. That was the one spot that they didn't tell you to take threes. They said, don't take a three in the corner because that puts you at a disadvantageous position to get back on defense. So even though that's the shortest three and everything else and Kobe could have been a monster at corner three. if you would have told them, hey, man, this is easy.

The fact was you had to play offense thinking about defense at the same time. So it wasn't just go to the basket, it's going to be a freeway there and everything else. You had to be strategic about where you took your shots from, not just hazardous to your health, but also these defensive-minded-ass coaches didn't want to get up a fast break on the other end. So sometimes a bad shot was just the first step in playing good defense. And I think all of this also, this game is a part. I think the 62 and 61 minutes was another part of it. But this is the beginning of Kobe moving back into the good graces of the basketball public, right?

The general public, I think, was a bit of a bigger fight. But the basketball public, hey, man, I think it's hard to explain to people that we, were on sides with that Shaq and Kobe thing. Like there were not a lot of people on the, you got to see it from both ways. It was around the Lakers and around the league. It's either you were with Shaq or you were with Kobe. And to be honest, man, it was really hard to be with Kobe,

at least for the early portions of it, because Shaq was so much better than everybody else was. Then gradually Kobe got there, but a lot of us were slow to recognize it because we still had the best of Shaq in our mind. you know, when we came up with our idea of what it was that they looked like. But in the end, Shaq left the Lakers and then the Lakers missed the playoffs. And then Kobe's out here with these guys, but they're not really good.

And the performance is not really there. It also seemed as if Kobe had run Phil Jackson off, right? That was the way that we were looking at this. And so, you know, Kobe was not being treated like a three-time champion typically is being treated. Like, I think overall the opinion of him was, I don't want to say if it was a net negative because, I mean, there are obviously a lot of people that are like, yo, this is just Kobe Bryant.

But between that and what happened in Colorado, he was, he was, his cue rating was down, down, down. And then he reminded us that we were in it for the basketball and he put up 81 points in the game. That was the thing to me that stands out. I feel like, remember Kobe had that sneaker free agency year? Yeah. He wore everybody stuff like stuff that Stefan Curry is doing now.

And then after that, he got into the Colorado thing. So he was flammable. Like you couldn't touch him. You couldn't give him an endorsement deal. That 0506 season was the first time that Kobe, eight years in or whatever it is, had his own shoe from Nike. like that was the Kobe one shoe and that was kind of like you said a step in the direction of welcoming Kobe back into the consciousness and Kobe the thing with Kobe and Shaq was that Shaq knew

how to play the media game shack was a likable big dude who could disarm you and who could get you on his side and everything else and Kobe was gruff and didn't let people in and liked it that way. So it was easy to say, you know, Biggie Tupac or whatever it was, right? Like, it was legit. Either you were a Shaq guy or you were a Kobe guy. And the guy, like my cousin, I was telling you about, he was a big time Kobe guy. He didn't rock with Shaq. He thought Shaq should have been like Tyson Chandler, grabbed the rebound and kick it out to Kobe. He thought that back in 01. Hey, man. Hey, get it off the glass. I'm telling you. Like, This is what things were like even then.

And then Colorado happens. And then Shack gets traded happens. And then everything else. Hold on, hold on. You can't leave out Kobe talking about Shack to the police. That is the one, just like Carmelo Anthony had a hard time shaking off when he punched Marty Collins and ran the other way. Like sometimes it's the things that dudes just,

find to be abhorrent and that was the one. That's the, um, even if you were a Kobe guy, that's the one thing that people kind of have a hard time reconcile. You know what I mean? That's what Kobe had to get past with these dudes. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, like, like, like, like, tell him be bad bars really love Kobe as much as he say.

You tell him me Matt Barnes thought that was okay. Hey, I'm sure Matt Barnes does really care about I'm not saying, I'm not saying they lying when they talk about how much they like Kobe. I'm just wondering what they thought when they heard about that. I mean, how you think that plays with Stephen Jackson? Like you said, Matt Barnes. How do you think that plays with Stephen with Captain Jack? Kobe had to overcome some things to get back cool with everybody.

Dog, like, I think, um, I think Jay and Donde, and I'm not, I'm not supposed. speaking out of turn, Jay came to Vegas for the NBA Cup. And somehow this story came up. And he said he went on around the horn one day and said, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, unless you're hanging with Kobe Bryant. And the aftermath of that, and then he was like, and after that, he was like, man, that was over the line.

You know what I mean? And he, you know what I mean? Like, there was a place where we were all collectively teams, off on, can you imagine the podcast back then when people got a hold of Kobe talking to the cops? This is in the stop snitching Warner Brother era. I have talked about this. Nas has a song on, I think it's the street's disciple album

called These Are Our Heroes that originally had a much different title and he lambed Baz Kobe for snitching all shack. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Like, yo, and it was like, it was, he took it to a whole other place. Like, it was bad times, man. But then he went and put up 81. He went and put up 81.

It was like a slow burn sort of thing. It was Kobe's back on the Lakers, right? He still, he never left. Like, I think that's a very important thing to note. He never left the Laker brand. So we were always going to see him. He was always going to have the opportunity to improve. press us and earn his way back.

Whether that was a conscious decision on his part or not. Like, who knows? But that played a big part where Shaq being in Miami, that's great for Shaq, but LA ain't Miami ain't LA. You know what I mean? And then remember the week before 81, if I remember correctly, was Dr. King Day. Lakers, Heat in LA, and that was the game where Shaq and Kobe actually.

actually made up. That was also the game where Shaq gave Andrew Bynum that forearm shiver directly. I thought that was on Christmas. No. No.

That wasn't on Christmas. Oh. I remember that happening because Andrew Bidam kind of dunked all of him, right? Yeah, Andrew Bynum dunked on him. There's like, peace on her.

You know what? Andrew Bynum dunked on him. No, Shaq dunked on him first. Shack got a tip dunk. And then Bynum got in the post and spun off of them and it looked like slow motion it was like

whoa, biting them about to dunk on Shaq dunked on them looked like a soft dunk not soft but it just it looked like a you know fingertip dunk and then he gave Shaq

like an elbow like a bump yeah and next day January 16th MOK Day yep and that's when Shaq

grabbed him and gave him a shiver that was the day that Kobe and Shaq made up because somehow Bill Russell got involved and Bill Russell told Shaq, you can't treat Kobe like this, you got to forgive, blah, blah, blah.

And that's when stuff started to turn. And then six days later, 81 happens. Yeah. All that stuff happens in the span of a week. But then, one and a half years later, at a moment that was just before this social media thing got cracking, which is good for the legacy of Kobe, but bad for us.

That's when Kobe asked to be traded. Ship his ass out of it. No, wait. Yeah, he scored his 81, but he got tired because they blew a 3-1 lead in the playoffs. I was going to say you're forgetting that. You are for, no, they blew it in 06. In 06 they had the 3-1 lead. Where I thought Kobe-0-6 lead, play it against the Sons.

Yes, played against the Suns. First round of the playoffs, 3-1 lead, blew it. And in the fourth quarter of game, 7, Kobe tapped. Didn't take a shot in the second half. or maybe he took one. No, he might have taken one. It might have been a long three. It might have been one of the long logo threes.

And it was clear. And Kobe took a lot of hell for that. I want to say Charles Barkley called him out because that was a T&T game. And that was prime chuck. And I think Cobb hit like 25 or 30 at the half or some ungodly number.

And the Lakers were down 20. It was clear they were going home. it was clear that when Kobe scored 50 in game six of that series, which I think was the best game Kobe's ever actually played, and they win the overtime and Tim Thomas, gosh, it's all coming back to me now. Tim Thomas scores off an offensive rebound that sends the game into overtime. The Lakers would have closed them out and probably, Bo had gone to the Western Conference finals.

If Tim Thomas doesn't hit that shot, the Lakers play the Clippers in round two. the clippers of Elton Brand and Sam Cassell and those dudes. And this story looks totally different if not for that Tim Thomas shot and then subsequently Kobe tapping out in Game 7. Yeah, like that's how 06 ends. 07, they lose in the first rounds of the Suns again, right? And that summer, Kobe asked for a trade and it's a video and you can find it.

Somebody put a camera in his face at the mall. I want to say in Newport Beach. That sounds about right. Right. Like that's where Kobe stay over that way. And Kobe is wearing this red shirt and these crazy sunglasses. And he says, I'd rather play in Pluto than to play for the Lakers. And what he really wanted was the Lakers would not trade Andrew Biddlem in order to get Jason Kidd.

To which Kobe said, to get Jason Kidd, I quote, ship his ass out, unquote. And the sons, I mean, the Lakers treated Kobe much like the Rockets treated Akeem Olajuwon in 1992 when he wanted all of these things and did nothing. And they stormed out and were the best team in the West, then made the trade to get Paugasol, went to the finals three straight years.

Kobe gets those next two rings. And it's all the super full circle at that point. But so even with the 81, 81 wasn't like a rocket ship inflection point. But it began a thawing of sorts. that there were still ups and downs, right? There were still issues that came up. But it's hard to remember where we were. Kobe's the only star I can think of,

LeBron maybe, but the only star I could think of where there were real ups and downs along the way with it. A lot of them. You know? A lot of them. And think about it like this, just for more context. In 06, Shack gets his ring with Dwayne Wade.

So Shack gets ring number. number four. The next year, LeBron James takes that motley crew of Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA finals while Kobe's getting knocked out in the first round. Like, this is all happening and you can't separate these things because Kobe's looking around and he's, and he's hearing stuff, right? And also, the Boston Celtics just loaded up with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. to join Paul Pierce. Like there was, you know, the famous story about,

you know, maybe Kevin Garnett wanted to join the Lakers and didn't and was on, Kobe was on vacation, whatever it was, and Kobe wanted to get traded to the Bulls. Remember that? Mm-hmm. You want, like this is all so, like these things turn on a trifle, right? If any one of these things changes,

the plates of all of this totally changes. Because even then, the Lakers getting off to that great start, Kobe never actually rescinded the trade demand. If you remember that. I remember he was asked about it and he said, no, I still feel the same way. And maybe that was just his way of continuing to put pressure on the Lakers to go and do something. And then Jerry West gave them the ultimate stimulus package.

The ultimate stimulus package. He did. Like, what's wild to think is that the Grizzlies actually in the super long run came out okay. in that trade. And it was because of the throw-in in that trade. Mark Gassau. Throw-in was Mark Gassau. The centerpiece, I feel like, were the combination of Kwame Brown and Javarice

Crittenden, who became more famous for quasi-basketball reasons. I mean, good thing Javaris Crittenden didn't discover that side of himself while he was living at Memphis. I think it's a good thing he didn't discover that side of himself while he was out there playing with Kobe. They don't tell him what Kobe was out here saying to him

or anybody else. But yeah, like this was it was a time. Like there's no chance that the Kobe Bryant documentary that I would want to watch could ever get made at this point. But 81 is

81 is a time. 81 is a scene. 81 is a moment. Like 81 One is a tent pole that you build something around. I mean, it was like you said, it was the start of, I want to be like some people who may view 24, like him changing the number as like the start of the different version of Kobe

Bryant that we knew. But I tend to agree with you is that. This 81 thing was a way for us to be able to talk about Kobe Bryant again without the precursor of, well you know there was also the thing that happened in color right is it not quite like he was this is not i'm trying to figure out a way to say this delicately but you know how we talk about that one dude who was a football player and we can't say anything without mentioning the first thing first right to some degree with kobe it was just like that we couldn't say excellent basketball

player whatever was we had to acknowledge the thing that was the thing. And after 81, it felt like it was okay for us to not have to mention that thing on the first sentence. It was still mentioned, but it wasn't the very first thing. And maybe now we were able to discuss Kobe as basketball player as opposed to pariah or what you felt about him personally. If you thought he was a rapist, all these other things, right?

Yeah. Well, look, man, like I said before, right or wrong. I'm not saying this in any judgment, right or wrong. We are in it for the basketball and he did a basketball thing so impressive that the basketball thing took priority, right? Because the basketball things he was doing up until that point,

they weren't enough. You understand what I'm saying? Like you're out here playing with losers and it doesn't look good on you as you do this, right? Your arch nemesis is over there winning, right? making it happen. He did a basketball thing. And that, you know, and look, it takes some time before that all goes and that all builds, right?

Like I said, this was an up and down sort of scenario with him. But this right here, outside of winning the championships, this is the highest that he has had. And it's in the running, not necessarily yet. But if someone said they thought this is the best individual performance they had ever seen, I get why you was saying. I'm 100% with you. And here's the other thing. Let me ask you this, Beau.

Where do you sit on these corners of Twitter that says Wilt didn't exist? That Wilt 200. The Will Hutter gang? Yeah. Dumbies. Fucking idiots. Like, why do we make this up? That's all I'm asking.

Like, why did we, why do we make this up? Because we traveled back in time. Whose idea was that? We traveled back in time to ensure that Kobe would not be number one. We put this artificial. thing in place so that Kobe Bryant could never have the number one scoring game of all time. This is what these idiots think. And I think you are like me when you get into this weird place of discussing Kobe Bryant or you're discussing him on, he's on the opposite side

of LeBron James. He's on opposite side of Michael Jordan. He's on opposite side of this. It's not Kobe. It's the people that get on your last nerves. It's very rarely it's Kobe. It's it's yaw. Yeah, it's really dumb. It's, Kobe's fantastic. Yeah, we gotta get back to, we gotta get back to 81 because now you got me thinking about suckers.

That's my bad. Glad we waited till the end to call them suckers because now they may be listening to the whole rest of the episode. Then in Goodwill, check him out. Covering the NBA for ESPN. My brother, I appreciate you. Oh, my man, it was some fun, though.

I appreciate you. All right, man. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. Be sure to join us every Tuesday for Time Machine Tuesdays. Ryan Brumley handling everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. By the way, you do this four times a week in general. But remember, follow the right time, subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.