Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
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On Jan. 22, 2006 Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors.
Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Nick Young ranted about Bam Adebayo topping Kobe Bryant’s scoring feat by delivering 83 points last night. The Miami Heat center had a hot early start and kept scoring to keep increasing his chances at making history. Young felt that Abebayo disrespected Bryant by how he treated the game late by stat-hunting to keep raising the scoring total.
Gilbert Arenas’ podcast featured this memorable quote by Young:
“F**k Bam man and the Wizards. F**k all that s**t. All that records supposed to be broken? Hell no. Did you see that? The Wizards. See, I be talking about the Wizards. Y’all always support the Wizards. F**king G League team. French n***a getting dumped on the whole time and s**t. Playing no defense.
He nice, but he’s not 83 nice. Like, come on, man. This is Kobe. Kobe probably rolling over in his grave right now like, you… f**k that. You see how he was going for that 74? That was nasty. Get out the game, you’re winning by 30. If I had 81, I would have stopped. I’m not trying to get fouled with one minute left.”
Young wanted Adebayo to get out of the game and stop at 81 to tie Bryant. Other former players have agreed with Young and are criticizing Bam for exploiting the situation to make history.
Young Says Kobe Is Rolling In His Grave
The most memorable quote featured Young going quite far with his insults by saying that Bryant is rolling in his grave at a less-talented scorer passing his record. Young spent three seasons on the same team with Kobe on the Los Angeles Lakers through the 2010s.
NBACentral
Swaggy P says Kobe is rolling over in his grave right now
“You see how he was going for it at 74? That was nasty! If I had 81, I would’ve stopped!”
(Via @GilsArenaShow / @HeatCulture13 )
Bryant was already in the latter stages of his career and no longer had a realistic path towards contending for another NBA Championship. Young and other younger players had some tough moments from Kobe’s leadership, but he had all their respect.
Abebayo scoring 83 points and getting that many free throws upset veterans who played with or against Bryant. However, he doesn’t deserve blame for being dominant and forcing the Washington Wizards to stop him instead of letting up.
Nick Young’s Co-Hosts Didn’t Agree
Gilbert Arenas backed up Adebayo by being rational about the human element of any player wanting to keep scoring on a legendary night. Adebayo did the same thing that almost any other player would do in this situation. Head coach Erik Spoelstra allowed Bam to keep playing, which is the only big difference to other high-scoring games.
Bryant himself likely would offer respect to Bam and would have done the same thing if he was able to keep playing in his 81-point game. Most of these performances come against weaker teams, so Adebayo’s opponent shouldn’t matter.
Young is in a podcast space where controversial opinions are shared daily, and he has a personal connection to Kobe. The idea of a lesser player stat padding to pass his former friend’s record is a sore spot, but most would agree he was out of line with the grave comment.