There have been plenty of historic scoring performances in the NBA that will never be forgotten, with Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game back in 1962 and Kobe Bryant destroying the Toronto Raptors for 81 points in 2006 at the top of the list. Another notable performance came back in 1986 with a young Michael Jordan torching the Boston Celtics for 63 points in the playoffs.
All three of these unbelievable performances remain fresh in the minds of many with it being hard to imagine anyone besting these scoring onslaughts at any level, but a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard in Iowa may have done just that after scoring an NCAA-record 138 points on Tuesday night.
Grinnell’s Jack Taylor lit up the scoreboard in historic fashion on Tuesday in the win over Faith Baptist Bible College, 179-104.
Taylor scored 138 points in this game for Grinnell College making 52 of 108 shots, 21 from beyond the arc and only seven from the charity stripe. This kid was unstoppable to say the least and now has his name in the history books as a result with everyone, including Kobe Bryant, responding to the historic performance.
Kobe was asked about Taylor’s 138-point game on Tuesday via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
Reporter: Kobe, a college kid scored 138 points tonight and took over 100 shots …
Bryant: “Wow … No kidding? Where?”
Reporter: Grinnell college in Iowa.
Bryant: “Really? Wow. That’s impressive. That’s crazy. I don’t care what level you’re at. Scoring 138 points is pretty insane. How many 3s did he shoot?”
Reporter: 71.
Bryant: “Holy sh–. How many points did they score as a team?”
Reporter: 179.
Bryant: “What?!”
Reporter: No other starter had double figures.
Bryant: “That’s incredible.”
Reporter: Dude on the other team scored 71 points and lost.
Bryant: “That’s amazing. He must have been wearing the Mambas, man. Only Mambas have no conscious to shoot the ball like that.”
Reporter: If you did that, would people be celebrating you?
Bryant: “Would people be celebrating me if I scored 138 points? You know how it is, some people would, some people wouldn’t. They can all kiss my a– as I’m sure he feels the same way. If you score 138 points, you kind of have a license to tell people to f— off.”
A classic response from the only player in the league that has come even close to Wilt’s record of a 100 points in an NBA game. Kobe currently leads the league in scoring once again with 26.3 points per game and may go on to win his third scoring title if he can keep it up in Mike D’Antoni’s high-powered offense.
As for Taylor, the Grinnell star will likely get a lot of Jimmer Freddette-like attention from here on out in terms of a being a scoring machine on the college level. It’ll be interesting to see if the up-and-comer can continue to dominating the competition and put a few more historic performances like this one. There’s bound to be a media frenzy in Iowa with much anticipation leading into Grinnell’s next game with Taylor as the star attraction.
