Whenever the Los Angeles Lakers play against the Toronto Raptors and Kobe Bryant is in uniform, the first thing most longtime fans of the purple and gold flash back to is the time Kobe nearly drove the purple dinosaurs into extinction with an 81-point barrage in 2006. It was the exclamation point on a year in which Bryant averaged a career high 35.4 points per game, the second highest scoring game in NBA history, and the only one in the top-five by a player not named Wilt Chamberlain.
The Lakers lost 102-91 to the Raptors yesterday and Kobe scored "just" 10 points, but it did not stop his wife, Vanessa Bryant, from posting quite possibly one of the top-five best #FlashbackFriday posts in the history of Instagram. We may all remember January 22nd, 2006 as the day Kobe scored 81 points against the Raptors, but Vanessa just remembers it as "The night after Natalia's 3rd birthday party."
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That picture is too cute, but you have to think Bryant might have made a mistake giving her such a great birthday present for just her third birthday. Now no matter what he gets her for the rest of her life, it's going to be hard to top 81-points. Let's take a look into the (if we are being honest very likely) future:
January 21st, 2019: Int- Natalia's 16th birthday party
KOBE BRYANT: "Look what I got you honey!"
NATALIA BRYANT: "Is it the still-flaming jersey of Jalen Rose from the 81- points you just gave him?"
KOBE: "No honey, I told you that was probably a one time thing. I DID get you a car though!"
NATALIA: "Oh...."
See? Just setting himself and his daughters up for disappointment. Real failure of the Kobe System is what we have here.