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By Tyler Erzberger
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Los Angeles Lakers fans love two things: winning championships and Kobe Bryant.
That's it.
So on a random Tuesday night in March, as the Lakers blew out the Minnesota Timberwolves at home, it wasn't all cheers in the crowd.
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After Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo became the second-highest scorer in a single NBA game with 83, surpassing Bryant's legendary 81 performance against the Toronto Raptors two decades prior, there was pandemonium across the NBA.
Fans and players from California to New York were celebrating Adebayo's achievement, congratulating him on making his mark in NBA history. Even LeBron James, who was on the bench injured for the Lakers, posted on social media serenading the Miami big man.
Well, he might have been one of the few people inside Crypto.com Arena celebrating Adebayo on Tuesday.
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When the Lakers announcer gave the "melancholy" news update that Adebayo scored 83 points to move to second in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point record, the crowd booed.
Although a majority of the attention around the 83-point modern-era record has been positive, there has been a slew of complaints online following Adebayo's 40-plus free throw attempts on the night, which also broke an NBA record.
In Kobe's 81-point performance, he went to the free-throw line half as many times as Adebayo. On top of that, the Heat were in control for the entire game, blowing out the Washington Wizards in a one-sided affair. Bryant, on the other hand, needed to keep scoring to push a below-average Lakers team above a Raptors team that was beating them throughout.
But Adebayo shouldn't be too upset about the reaction from the Los Angeles faithful. Even if their own players today surpassed Bryant's 81, there might be a portion of the Lakers' fandom unhappy with the result.
That's just how it is in Los Angeles when it comes to the five-time champion Bryant, who died six years ago in 2020.
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