Kobe Bryant Reacts to D-III Player Jack Taylor Scoring 138 Points

Jack Taylor, a Division III guard for Grinnell College, did something last night that blew even Kobe Bryant away.

Taylor scored an NCAA record 138 points, taking 108 shots in the process, and hitting 27 threes (on 71 attempts from deep) along the way.

It wasn’t just Kobe who was impressed — others around the NBA couldn’t quite wrap their heads around the fact that someone scored that many points, let alone took that many shots.

But it was Bryant — he of the legendary 81-point game back in 2006 against the Toronto Raptors — who had the best (and funniest reaction) to the feat.

Per ESPN:

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 threes 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 ass 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*ck off.”

Jack Taylor’s team bested Faith Baptist Bible College 179-104. By comparison, Kobe Bryant only managed to score a pedestrian 25 points last night, in a Lakers win over the visiting Brooklyn Nets.

Add a Comment
x

Invite a Friend
Your name:
Your email:
Friend name:
Friend email:

Invite a friend
Share
RSS

Tags: Brooklyn Nets, Grinnell College, Jack Taylor, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

Read the SLAMonline Discussion Rules before posting.

Teddy-the-Bear

They still won the game, yo. 179-104 points sounds like great basketball to me!
Teddy-the-Bear

minus all semblance of defense… But that’s on the other team, not Taylor’s.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

That team they played is god awful..they circle their ultra sh*tty opponents and make it a point to try and break records against them. Because they no there is zero chance in them losing. Look a the turnovers. They full court pressed all 40 minutes
bike

Most any game where someone scores an insane amount of points – like 80+ -consists of poor defense and the teammates putting in a huge effort to get the player a record. Watch footage of the game where Kobe scored 81; terrible defense and teammates force feeding him the ball.
roscoe

i need a “Grinnell” t-shirt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
roscoe

i agree w/ u…. @ some point u have 2 say enuf is enuf. After he hit the century mark and kept going someone should have went NHL on his @ss.
http://twitter.com/niQknacks niQ

thought the same.
http://twitter.com/niQknacks niQ

I’m a little more amazed at the fact there are so little recorded assists. I figured if they were force feeding him the ball they would accumulate more assists.
http://twitter.com/niQknacks niQ

No doubt. Some crazy stamina to run like that the whole game and still jack up so many shots.
Teddy-the-Bear

No no you make a lot of sense–I just think it’s hilarious what they’re doing. Their conditioning is amazing… Dude put up 108 shots in 36 minutes.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

Yeah I am much more impressed with that aspect of this.
AiRsMiTh

He shot 38% from deep, doesn’t sound bad to me, especially considering the high volume of shots.
Whoareyou

27 of 71 is around 38%. 38% from three ball is pretty damn good. But I guess you’re not impressed with likes of Ray Allens either? #Whoareyou
Slim

I would recommend everyone look at game footage of this kid before overreacting like the rest of the media…the coach instructed his team to allow the opposing team to score…Jack Taylor basically cherry-picked (he didn’t cross the half-court line)…if a teammate grab a rebound, he was instructed to throw the ball to Jack Taylor, even if that player was right under the basket for a lay-up.
Slim

I would recommend everyone look at game footage of this kid before overreacting like the rest of the media…the coach instructed his team to allow the opposing team to score…Jack Taylor basically cherry-picked (he didn’t cross the half-court line)…if a teammate grab a rebound, he was instructed to throw the ball to Jack Taylor, even if that player was right under the basket for a lay-up.
http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Sanchez

Woooooow
Raseven

any body who has played any level of basketball knows this is impressive,back in the day i dropped 55 in a rec league game no threes and real talk that ish was a task
Robby

This is not suspect. This is the way Grinnell plays. Last year, they chose Griffin Lentsch (89 points) as they player to whom they would constantly feed the ball in an attempt to break a record. Even if Taylor weren’t the one shooting the ball every possession, Grinnell would still shoot upwards of 70 threes and give up layups in an attempt to get the ball back to shoot more threes. That’s “The System,” and for what Grinnell wants to do, it undeniably works. It’s impossible not to play into what Grinnell wants you to do. Faith Baptist’s offense wasn’t bad; they took what Grinnell gave them. You’re not going to turn down a wide-open layup to run more time off the clock.

I’ll give Taylor all the credit he deserves. 138 points is absurd on all levels. And please, please do not tell me that division three isn’t real basketball. Walk into a gym against the best D3s in the country and tell me those guys aren’t great basketball players. The arguments I’ve heard against this are just ignorant.
L

I wanna wear the Mambas too!! L
otb

Eh…I’ll agree on the bad defense part (why they didn’t double Kobe is beyond me), but he was only force fed the ball in the 4th. Most of his damage was done in the third. Kobe was involving others in the game in the first half and the Lakers were down what, 14? Its a good thing they fed him the ball.
OTB

Kobe stopped caring after he got his second ring without Shaq – publically. Privately, many scribes have written that Kobe swears up a storm in private (Lazenby, Ballard, etc have attested to this in their books). This was before Colorado…he just didn’t show the public. After he started winning again and Colorado faded into the spotlight, Kobe knew he was at the top of the league again and had the license to say w.e he wanted.
OTB

Read the article on Deadspin…this is a digrace.
Junior Taylor

Come on son….this is unheard display of ballhoggery. What kind of player sees it fit to take 108 shots and 71 3s? I would hate to be this cat’s teammate.
LakeShow

0 assists, 6 turnovers baby.
bike

Kobe scored 27 points in the 4th quarter. Not knocking his performance-it was off the charts. But in these games where it becomes apparent that a player is knocking on a record’s door, he usually has quite a bit of help from his teammates.
Spongebob

I think Durant and maybe even melo could score more then 138 given the circumstance of this game.
jayrose

HA! well said
Bravo

Yo NBk shut up. You don’t know ish. You just think you do. I’m tired of your lame smart remarks. Your knowledge of ball stops here. Dumb by
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

#dumbby.
bravo

Nope I meant to spell it like that. You can try to correct if you wish or you can place a link like you always do #lame
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

Sh*tty guess
Tweaks

My man Kobe’s comment actually is the best….why the f would there be anything else to say about that. 138 is BOSS.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

Lol you purposefully said dumb by? Not bye? Or dummy? You did this on purpose WHILE calling me dumb? That is genius.
James A

Kobe wishes he could shoot that many times.

Great college and NBA blog here http://leaguepassdiaries.blogspot.com
speedy

These two teams, their strategy and way to play this game is nonsense and should not be rewarded.
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but every legit competitive opposing player or coach would have stopped this ish.
You don’t play this game to set records on purpose, in my opinion it is what comes along the way if you play the game the right way.
What a coach tells his players to feed just one guy? I wouldn’t play for somebody that is teaching the game I love in such an absurd way.
BRaVO

Yup sorry if I confused you that’s my lingo you dumb by. And I know, it was genius dumb by
errday

He stayed up one end of the court, got the outlet and jacked up shot after shot. Not much running around unless he had the ball. Also probably 30-40 of his shots were off offensive boards that rather than a simple put back got thrown out for another bloody contested three. His arms did well to jack up 108 shots but with an offense dedicated to getting ONE person all the shots, its really not that impressive.
nick

你不看， try shooting 71 OPEN threes， i bet you dont make 29….
VanCityBBall

and not a shred of defence was played that day…
KBM

This truly is an insult to basketball and the opposing team. If ur passing up on open lay ups in a game u are not respecting the game. Didnt look like he was running back on defense every play. Im guessing he cherry picked quite a few of these shots, I would like to hear from someone who watched the game in its entireity about how amazing this guys conditioning was. Knowing ur gonna get a J will make anyone run harder, let alone 108 J’s.
Bored

i bet i would
Max

He shot every 20! seconds..
Max

Yeah, but you wouldn’t shoot every 20 seconds i think.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

Got a Paypal account? That’s easy money. Really easy. Especially from college 3.
.
The fact that he did it in a game is impressive because of the stamina it had to have taken. 38% isn’t a hot shooting night. I’m not gonna front that I’m in awe of some bullsh*t record just because it’s a record. The context of how it was achieved takes away from the achievement imo.
.
And I’m not talking sh*t, obviously they accomplished what they wanted to making national news, I’m just being honest, 108 shots to get 138 points against a team you shouldn’t be playing while nobody else on your team even needs to take double digit shots doesn’t impress me. Not for the point total at least.
Ben Ireland

Yeah, I doubt it was too fun to watch the actual game, but the highlights are pretty cool. He was dribbling out further and further tryna get some space and you gotta give it up for 27 3s. I definitely don’t like the system, and any coach who would want to do this definitely should be in D3 ball, but come on, it’s great shooting by the kid himself.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

38% isn’t great shooting. That’s a respectable average. That’s what that is.
Ben Ireland

Come on, 38% is respectable when you’re shooting 3 or 4 a game, and you maintain it for a season. But just getting up 77 shots is tiring, hitting them at a pretty good clip (come on, 40% is what we call the best shooters, let’s not get too picky when it’s division 3) is damn hard. I’m not glorifying the motives, the method, or even the player. I’m simply pointing out that that’s damn fine shooting !
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

40% is what we call the best in the NBA. Not in college. 38% from the College 3pt line does not impress me. I have not played a single season since I was 17 where I shot under 40% from that distance.
Ben Ireland

Would you call JJ Reddick a good shooter?
He hovered aroubd 40% all 4 years. 38% in games is impressive. 27 3s in one game is impressive. I’m not even saying he’d be a serviceable D1 player. But don’t knock the shooting, that’s a great night’s work.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

JJ Reddick was not shooting wide open jump shots. This kid was.

Sent from right behind you.

Kobe Bryant Reacts to D-III Player Jack Taylor Scoring 138 Points

Invite a Friend

LATEST NEWS & RUMORS