Back in January of 2006, former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant put on one of the greatest scoring shows in the history of the league.
Bryant torched the Toronto Raptors for 81 points, and to this day, that’s the second-most points an NBA player has ever scored in a single contest. Former NBA star Wilt Chamberlain holds the record, as he dropped 100 points in one game in 1962.
But former NBA player Rashad McCants recently made a bold claim about being able to match Bryant’s point total in a game, which drew a reaction from Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young on X.
Wtf😂🤯
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) April 24, 2025
McCants was a talented scorer at his peak, as he averaged a career-high 14.9 points per game with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2007-08 season and even received some consideration for that campaign’s Sixth Man of the Year award. But at the end of the day, McCants averaged just 10 points per contest for his NBA career, and his career-high didn’t come close to Bryant’s point total.
The most points that McCants scored in a single NBA game doesn’t equate to even half as many as Bryant dropped on Toronto in 2006. McCants went off for a career-high 34 points in a contest against the Denver Nuggets in January of 2008, and he buried 12 of his 18 shots from the field in that contest.
McCants also scored 30-plus points in an NBA game just three times. Meanwhile, Bryant averaged more than 30 points per game in a single season on multiple occasions and won a pair of scoring titles during his lengthy career.
McCants saw his NBA career flame out early, as he was out of the league before Bryant won his fifth and final title in the NBA. He last played in the league in the 2008-09 season, and Bryant helped the Lakers win their second straight title in 2010.
While the argument about McCants dropping 81 points in a game doesn’t really have a leg to stand on, the former NBA guard at least deserves respect for being so confident in his abilities.
