It has been 11 years -- as of Sunday -- since the greatest scoring performance in NBA history captured on television. While Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game remains the standard by which all scoring performances are measured, the greatest in the modern era is Kobe Bryant's 81-point performance against the Toronto Raptors in 2006.
Bryant has been gone from the NBA for nine months and the league feels very different without him. Even when the Lakers were trapped in a mold of failure and disgrace, Bryant's presence every night on the floor was a pillar of the NBA experience. His final game, scoring 60 points on 50 shots, remains the second-most iconic Kobe performance imaginable. The first, of course, is this:
In an era where scoring performances are so easily mastered by players' ability to simply rise up in transition from 30 feet, the level of effort that went into every Bryant scoring masterpiece is admirable. Whereas Steph Curry is defined by his ability to make it look easy, effortless and simple, every Bryant bucket was the product of relentless aggression and indefatigable effort. Bryant's efficiency was rarely optimal, but his presence was undeniable.
