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Of all the people to exceed Kobe Bryant’s legendary 81-point game, it was a bit of a surprise that Bam Adebayo was the one to do it. Kevin Porter Jr. now has an even bigger surprise in mind.
During an appearance on a Twitch stream this week, the Milwaukee Bucks guard was asked about his previous 50-point game and quickly pledged to beat the Miami Heat center’s recent 83-point game:
“I’m trying to drive 80. Shout-out to Kobe. Shout-out to Bam, because I’m beating that one day. For sure. Now that Kobe got beat, I gotta beat Bam just for the respect of Kobe.”
Porter posted that 50-point game on April 29, 2021, during his second year in the league while he was with the Houston Rockets. Since then, he hasn’t scored more than 36 points in a game. He has also missed several games this year with a knee issue.
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His pledge was met with quick mockery from the Twitch comments. His response:
“There’s a thing called manifestation. You gotta manifest what you believe in.”
The easy response is indeed mockery. Porter has shown talent as a scorer in the NBA, but even his career high, seen as a wild outlier from the rest of his time in the league, is still 33 points short of his stated goal. And you really have to wonder if the best way to honor Bryant’s legacy is for another player — one with significantly less fame than Adebayo — to score in the 80s.
However, the thing about professional athletes is that if you gave the entire NBA truth serum, more than a few of them would probably think they are capable of breaking 80. None of these guys are making millions of dollars playing basketball because they lacked for confidence growing up. Porter is no exception to that.
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We could very well see players push to match Adebayo and Bryant — or even Wilt Chamberlain — in the coming years, especially given the discourse around how Adebayo got there. It’s easier said than done, but if a player has a huge first half in a game of little consequence (such as Adebayo’s Heat playing the tanking Washington Wizards), they might start wondering what’s stopping them from asking for the ball on…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/bucks-g-kevin-porter-jr-pledges-to-beat-bam-adebayos-83-point-game-for-the-respect-of-kobe-214100530.html
Author : Jack Baer
Publish date : 2026-03-25 21:41:00
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