Warriors’ Stephen Curry an NBA All-Star starter

Back then, Kobe Bryant called it a dream, an impossible reality that one man in one game could score 81 points. At 37-years old and in his 20th season, Bryant is averaging 16.3 points and shooting a career-worst 34.5 percent from the floor.

“I had my popcorn just like probably everybody else”, said Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson.

“Everybody always want me to talk about it. People forget I was in the game, they’re like, ‘You were in that game?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, I was young, it’s different, ‘” Bosh said with a laugh.

The Lakers’ stop in Portland marks the final visit at Moda Center for future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant. James lit up the Lakers’ point guard tandem of Parker and Sasha Vujacic for 26 points and 10 assists. They spaced. They made passes to them.

Kobe still can’t explain what got into him, but it wasn’t health food: He had spent the previous hours celebrating the third birthday of his daughter, Natalia.

“I had that dilemma a bunch of times as well”, said Scott. “I was just attacking”. “He was limping a little bit”.

So, in honor of the 81-point game, these are some more of his classics.

Lakers Coach Byron Scott has a similar response after his team’s practice on Thursday – first reflecting how he’d handle a red-hot Bryant as a player. I don’t mean it from a visual perspective at all.

“So all those things make you grow and you can see that growth in him. But there’s got to be a number – 40, 45, 50 – where you have got to change your strategy”.

There is also some new blood in a last-second shocker. The stats speak for themselves – a league-leading 31.8 ppg and 67.7 true shooting percentage, 44.9 percent shooting from three on more than 11 attempts per game, etc. – but it’s impossible to understand Curry without watching him. He hugged coach Phil Jackson on the way off the court.

While his shot selection and ball-dominance has come under question before-like earlier this season before Bryant announced that 2016 would be his last stand- in that ’05-’06 season the Lakers secondary options were some combination of Lamar Odom, Smush Parker, Chris Mihm, and Sasha Vujacic.

The best individual night of his career doesn’t compare to his five National Basketball Association championships, yet it still looms large in the memory matrix of his life and career.

But 10 years later and likely beyond, plenty still remember.

Bryant led all players with almost 1.89 million fan votes, nearly 300,000 more than second-placed Stephen Curry, earning him the right to be one of the five Western Conference starters for the league’s annual exhibition. The Kings won 112-93.

It wasn’t a very good time for the Los Angeles Lakers, who were barely in the playoff picture in the strong Western Conference that was dominated by San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks.