81? Oh my God!

I was going to write a blog today about Jake Plummer's unfortunate, if predictable, vomiting-on-himself episode in the AFC championship game, as well as the Seahawks' long-awaited and well-earned first Super Bowl berth.

That was before I opened the newspaper this morning.

After doing so, I discovered that one Kobe Bryant went off last night for an astounding 81 points - the second-highest single-game total in history, behind only fellow Laker Wilt Chamberlain's 100 - in NBA history. He scored almost 65 percent of his team's total points. My witty rejoinder to this is something along the lines of, Oh My God.


Gaze upon the visage of planet Earth's greatest basketball player.

Good point in the L.A. Times about this, too, basically saying that this explosion wasn't entirely unforeseen. When you've been "working up" to a game like this, almost as if it was a question not of if but of when, then you, my friend, are a basketball player for the ages.

Now I admit that I've been among the legion of Kobe haters. I was one of the many who felt he was too selfish and too "me-first" to ever have real success running his own team after ratting out Shaq and running him out of town. And you know what? That might all still be true. They're still just 22-19 and third in their division. If the playoffs started today, they would have the seventh (out of eight) playoff spot. So in terms of leading a truly winning team, Kobe Bryant has yet to be successful.

However. The guy scored 81 freaking points last night! Give him the MVP trophy right now. I mean, right. Now. Stop the season. The guy can't be stopped. I just wished I'd seen the game. Stupid late West Coast start times.


Please don't hurt me, sir. What have I done to upset you, my liege, so that I might rectify my transgression?

So anyway, put me in the converted column. I've still got Kobe questions - he's still not even a scrub on my All-Time Squad with Jordan, Robertson, Bird, Russell, Shaq, and a very few others. But there is absolutely no more doubt as to whether he's a true, true great. The guy is a monster, and I have to tip my cap. Thank goodness he doesn't play the defensively hur-ting Wizards again this season. That could have been ugly.

P.S. A quick congrats to the Georgetown Hoyas, now officially the D.C. area's second-best college basketball team.