Kobe Bryant Matched Michael Jordan's NBA Playoff Career-High At Age 8

KEY POINTS

Kobe Bryant said he once scored 63 points in one game
Bryant's 63 points match one of Michael Jordan's career-highs in the NBA
The late Lakers legend went on to score 40 in the next game

Some may not know, but Kobe Bryant had match one of Michael Jordan’s career-highs at a very young age.

In a rare interview on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger” in 2016, Bryant--who was playing the final NBA games of his career at the time--elaborated about the day he scored 63 points in one game.

According to Bryant, it was a semi-final game and he was about eight years old. Early in the game, he realized most of the players of the opposing team were right-handed so he forced them to go left and went on for the steal.

“63,” Bryant recalled. “I figured out that most kids that are right-handed can’t go left. I just sit on their right hand, and I got like steal after steal after steal.”

“That’s really how it happened,” he continued. “I just pressured the backcourt, and as soon as a kid started dribbling the ball, I jump right in his right hand, and then I take it from him and lay it up. It was nothing they could do about it. My teammates were all just going crazy about it after the game. It was fun.”

After scoring 63, the young Bryant dropped 40 points by doing “the same thing” in the championship game the very next day.

“Then we had the finals the next night, I had 40 the next day doing the same thing,” the five-time NBA champ remembered.

Further revealing the motivation behind his unforgettable achievement, Bryant bared that it was his father and former NBA player, Joe Bryant, who reminded him to learn how to use both of his hands during games.

“My father always told me, he said, ‘Son, you gotta be able to use both hands at an early age,’ and I could,” he stated.