NEW YORK _ Wilson Chandler was both excited and petrified about playing Kobe Bryant.
It was only Chandler's second season in the league, and the former Knick was checking into the game with Bryant already in one of those grooves.
"I was like, I don't know if I want to go in this game," Chandler recalled. "He's kind of hot right now. He had that look in eyes, when he grinds his teeth."
Bryant dropped 61 points against the Knicks that night, setting the Madison Square Garden record while Spike Lee egged him on like he used to with Reggie Miller. Sunday will be the 11th anniversary of Kobe's virtuoso Madison Square Garden performance. And Chandler, who guarded him for much of that night on Feb. 2, 2009, wanted Lee to hush up.
"It was at the Garden so you got Spike on the side talking s---, you got people in the stands talking s---," Chandler, who now plays with the Nets, said. "I'm thinking, damn, just leave him alone. It was like it never ends."
Bryant dropped 34 points in the first half and 15 points in the fourth quarter. His final stat line: 37 minutes, 19-of-31 shooting, 20 for 20 from the foul line. Chandler logged 31 minutes with 20 points.
Carmelo Anthony broke the record five years later while scoring 62 points, but Kobe's mark still stands as the most scored by an opponent at MSG.
"It's crazy because I subbed in and he was scoring but he wasn't going crazy. I'm like, 'This is going OK.' And I was actually playing really good in the first half," Chandler said. "And the second half came, the fourth quarter, he just took over the game. Every shot was going in. It was crazy. I kept looking up like, when is it going to stop?"
Bryant kept going. Among the highlights started from a pump fake on the elbow in the fourth quarter. Chandler bit and was helplessly in the air when Bryant pivoted into a spin and leaning jumper to put the Lakers up 18.
"I jumped so wasn't able to see it," Chandler said. "And I'm like, 'how the f--- did he do that?'"
After the game, Chandler could only shrug his shoulders. He lost to greatness.
"I was with one of my best friends in the car," Chandler said. "We just looked at each other and laughed."
