"Micro managed and called more plays" is Kobe code for Let Gigi shoot the ball every time down the court.
Would have been great if LeBron passed Kobe playing a homegame. It's almost guaranteed he will be achieving that in an away game. No way Kobe will show up to a road game.
Looking at the next few games, him needing 81pts ... hmmm ... Boston,NY, Brooklyn, Philly. I think he could show up in Philly. With all the connections there it would be a nice gesture.
I secretly wish Kobe was working out in preparation for the playoffs specifically to come back and shut down either PG or Kawhi. I know that's not happening, but never has there ever been a player besides Magic that made me want to mark my calendar for the next game so I wouldn't miss the greatest show on earth. Miss you Mamba.
My favorite Kobe game is now his farewell game. But it's funny how the 81 points is the one game out of any player of pretty much any era that a lot of NBA fans (not even Lakers fans necessarily) know by date. It's still THE game in terms of "what were you doing on January 22nd, 2006". At that point in time scoring 30 points in a game still had meaning. Scoring 40 was outstanding and 50 was something absolutely impressive. Unlike now where we can have Devin Booker scoring 70 and James Harding cheesing 60 point games. I remember that, for years before the 2005-2006 season me and a friend would constantly talk about how 56 points was great, but with Kobe being as good as he was, it kinda felt like a low mark for him, especially after T-Mac (who was also an incredible scorer, of course) scored 62 against the Wizards. 56 felt low and kinda frustrating at the time for the young me especially because he sat the 4th quarter that day he scored those 56 (against the Grizzlies). The guy then went, and as if he was trolling, then finally improved that career-high scoring 62, but again sitting on the 4th quarter. It's funny how as much as people called Kobe a ball hog through most of his career, I actually feel he didn't give a damn about his numbers. He most definitely liked to score and he definitely felt most of the time that the team had the better chance of scoring if he was the one taking the shot. He obviously enjoyed shooting over opponents, dribbling past them, creating contact, etc... but I feel he didn't give a damn about his numbers. Nowadays I've seen a fair number of star players that actually get mad at teammates for "stealing their rebounds". I can't even imagine Kobe stat-padding a triple-double. He could obviously force shots, but never because "he needed 2 points to get to 50". Yeah, we were so goddamn spoiled.