Taking aim at Wilt's 100 The 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point NBA game came and went on Friday. Will we ever see the likes of it again?
"Somebody will do it," said Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who scored 81 in a 2006 game against Toronto. "It won't happen in our lifetime or in the next lifetime, but it will happen. If somebody told you before '06 I was going to score 81, you would have been like, 'Go kick rocks.' But it happened. These things happen. There's no explanation for it. They just do."
Like shooting in a .... Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry invoked a name from the past and one from the present when asked whether Ricky Rubio could make himself a shooter even in a neighborhood one or two over from Steve Nash, the two-time league MVP who annually shoots better than 40 percent on threes and better than 50 percent from the field.
"It's the easiest thing to improve on, really," Gentry said. "I always go back to [former Seattle star] Dale Ellis. I went to the University of Colorado and we played the University of Tennessee. He was an inside player and all of a sudden, he becomes a great three-point shooter. I look at Kevin Love, he's a great example. He goes from being a banger, a rebounder to a guy who wins the three-point-shooting contest. Ricky knows he needs to get better. I think that's easy improvement for him."
He's (not) Mr. Nicest Guy Bryant was refreshingly honest after he wore that plastic mask against the Wolves to protect his nose. U.S. Olympic teammate Dwyane Wade broke Bryant's nose with a whack across the face in the All-Star Game.
"It's simple, very simple: He didn't mean to do it," Bryant said. "I've known Dwyane for years now. We've been close friends for a long time, me, him and [Carmelo Anthony]. He's not the type who would intentionally do something like that. He's a nicer guy than I am, to be honest with you."