Kobe had to be good to do what he did, but we cant overlook that shot volume has always been on his side. People talk about how no other player scored 81 but is that really a measure of ability? There are a few players who have scored more in a quarter than Kobe ever did. Are they more potent short term scorers? Or did they just happen to do something Kobe and other players didn't?
You can say that about anything breh. Did Curry only make 400 threes because he attempted so many? Do bigs only get all those rebounds because the team decides they are the primary defensive rebounders? Are starters only considered better than bench players because they get more playing time?
Trust, 81 was a reflection of Kobe's unique ability to shoot the ball.
Then why couldn't he do it more regularly?
Can you tell me what these numbers are?
12-33
28-46
7-22
Those are the shooting numbers for Kobe in that 3-game stretch where he scored 81 in the middle game. He shot 36%, 60.9%, then 32%. Hell, that game was in February, yet that entire season he had only had ONE game where he had shot over 60.9% from the field. And the in the remaining two months of the season, he'd only have ONE game where he'd do it again.
He did, however, have 54 games where he took 26 or more shots, including 25 games where he took 30 or more.
If you shoot a TON of shots every game, then one game your ton of shots is eventually going to coincide with a hot-shooting night. But then another game you're going to shoot 17-47.
Kobe was a volume shooter. He got great scoring totals on occasion by shooting up at LOT of shots. But for every game where he made half his shots, he had another game where he didn't even make 1/3 of them. That gets him all the accolades based on individual regular-season games. But when you average out the good performances with the bad, it's a lot less impressive.
And he chased it a lot too. Not just the 81-point game. Remember that 40-point scoring streak? After he got the first 3 it was like he just saw red in his eyes.
* In the 4th game of the streak he put up 41 shots and 7 turnovers in a 10-point loss to the Spurs, finally getting over the 40-point hump with less than a minute left in the game. Shaq only saw 19 shot attempts the whole game and barely got to the line.
* In the 5th game Kobe was so focused on his own offense he lets Allan Houston light him up for a career-high 53 points on just 29 shots. Kobe managed to limp to 40 on 31 shots with a minute left in the 7-point loss at home to an awful Knicks team.
* In the 6th game Kobe doesn't even have 40 in regulation, but gets lucky that it goes to overtime (he missed all 4 shots in the last 2 minutes of regulation) and reaches 50 in double-overtime off of 38 shots
* In the 7th game the Lakers without Kobe had opened up a 10-point lead on the Jazz in the 4th. But Kobe comes in with 7 minutes left and starts repeatedly jacking long jumpers with plenty of time left in the shot clock. The Jazz cut the lead to 2 before a few of Kobe's jumpers fall and hold them off. He hits 40 by going 2-4 on free throws in the final 15 seconds.
* In the 8th game Kobe went 2-8 in the 4th against Portland, repeatedly jacking bad shots. He finally got a jumper to fall with 9 seconds left to hit 40 points even. After the game Phil Jackson criticized Kobe for taking 6-7 forced shots, specifying several of those late shots when he was clearly trying to reach 40 again.
* In the 9th game was the worst display. Kobe went 1-9 in the 4th, including 0-6 in the final 4 minutes after he reached 39 points. During that time an 11-point Laker lead got cut to 5 as Kobe just jacked shot after shot, often with tons of time still on the shot clock. "Well, I wasn't sure if Kobe was going to chase that 40 points so bad that he was going to cut our chances out there at the end of the game," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "It got a little tenuous." Kobe finally got put on the line with 23 seconds left and made 2 freebies to reach 41 points on 13-34 shooting.
So in the final 6 games of the streak, Kobe didn't once hit 40 points with more than a minute left to go in regulation, and only then by jacking up shots to the detriment of his own team. If he hadn't been chasing "the streak", he probably doesn't score 40 points in any of those games unless the Houston game still goes to overtime. What other superstar in league history has so regularly chased his own scoring accomplishments like that? It's why Kobe has the fans and the haters that he does.
You ask any Kobestan what Kobe's most impressive career accomplishments are, and 80% of what they list will either be something he did in individual regular-season games (not even over the course of a whole season), or revolve around the success the team had when led by Shaq. If you took out the glamour of the 81, the 62, and the 40s/50s streak (which combined aren't even 15 meaningless regular season games spread out over a 20-year-career) and the Shaq three-peat, and the idea that Kobe would even be considered a top-10 all-time great is a joke.
). Jordan needed Pippen, but he wasn't a big man. Lebron needed Wade & Bosh (not dominant big men). Might as well add Steph curry to the list as well. 
