Squandered Prime
Plenty would argue, including myself, that Kobe Bryant spent many formative years of his prime, trying to disprove the notion that he couldn’t win a championship without Shaquille O’Neal. With Bryant being so dead set on achieving this goal, his gaudy statistical performances of the 2005-2006 campaign would end up in resulting in lowly playoff seedings as a team with Chris Mihm and Smush Parker could not readily compete in the tough Western Conference.
However, the aforementioned performances came in the variety of the second highest scoring total in NBA history as Kobe garnered a 81-point total against the Toronto Raptors in January of 2006. This all came on the heels of Bryant dropping 62 in three quarters against the Dallas Mavericks in December of 2005.
During the 2005-2006 season, Bryant would average 35.4 points per game, 5.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per outing in his inaugural Nike Zoom Kobe 1. That aforementioned point-per-game average is the highest of Bryant’s career.
