Joel Embiid channels idol Kobe Bryant as he scores 70 and breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s Sixers scoring record

It was the Wemby Game, but Joel Embiid will remember it as the night he got closest to his idol, Kobe Bryant.

Embiid scored 70 points Monday night and broke Wilt Chamberlain’s single-game scoring record for the 76ers, and while he appreciates supplanting the greatest Sixer in the record books, it meant more to Embiid that it happened on Jan. 22. Monday was the 18th anniversary of Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game. Embiid believes he channeled the Mamba, who died in 2020.

“Kobe was my guy. He’s the reason I started playing basketball. That was my favorite player. He’s the guy I was looking up to,” Embiid said. “I didn’t know until after the game. It makes more sense now.”

It makes sense because Embiid, at 7 feet, 2 inches and 280 pounds, is the reigning MVP because he uses moves that made an MVP out of Bryant, who was 8 inches shorter and 70 pounds lighter.

“He plays the game like Kobe. He’s definitely reincarnated him at 7 feet,” said Kelly Oubre Jr. “That’s a blessing. I wish he would have got 82. Kept Kobe’s legacy alive.”

That was the most compelling of a litany of storylines.

In the win, Embiid dominated Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama, who is 7-4 but just 209 pounds. He broke Chamberlain’s 56-year-old franchise record. Wilt scored 68 points against the Bulls on Dec. 16, 1967. (He scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa., against the Knicks).

“To be in the same conversation,” Embiid said, “that’s pretty cool.”

Bryant’s 81 points stands as the second-highest total in NBA history, behind Wilt’s 100. Embiid tied Devin Booker and Wilt for 12th-highest. Wilt is on the 70-plus list five other times, too. The last player to hit for 70 was Damian Lillard, whose Trail Blazers beat KJ Martin Jr. and the Rockets on Feb. 26 last year.

“It’s different, though, because Jo only took, what, one three?” said Martin, who joined the Sixers in the offseason.

Actually, Embiid shot two three-pointers and made one. Lillard shot 22, and he made 13, one shy of the NBA record.

Embiid made 24 of 41 field goals and 21 of 23 free throws. His two three-point attempts tied David Robinson for the lowest number of attempts among 70-point scorers since the NBA adapted the three-pointer in 1979. Robinson, a Hall of Famer for the Spurs, scored 71 points almost 30 years ago. It has virtually become a scoring mark dependent on the three-pointer, a point nearly underscored in Minnesota on Monday night.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Joel Embiid: ‘Pretty cool’ to be in ‘same conversation’ as Wilt Chamberlain with 70-point game

Karl-Anthony Towns, one of Embiid’s premier contemporaries, scored 62 points in the Timberwolves’ loss to Charlotte. He hit 10 of 15 threes. Embiid has taken no more than 13 in any game of his career and has attempted double-digit three-pointers just three times in 479 games, including playoffs. And before Monday night, he had never taken more than 32 shots in a game.

“I dream I can do that, but I probably can’t,” Embiid said. “I thought he was gonna beat me.”

The NBA has never seen two 70-point scorers on the same night, but the potential was there: Towns failed to score in the last 5 minutes, 37 seconds of his game. Still, it was just the fourth time two NBA players scored at least 60 points on the same night and the first time in the three-point era.

The magical night had magical moments.

Perhaps the sweetest came after the game, when Embiid sought out former head coach Brett Brown, now a Spurs assistant. Brown coached the Sixers in the early years of The Process, when the team lost on purpose to compile draft picks like Embiid. Brown nursed him through a variety of injuries and developed Embiid, a latecomer to the game, through his first four seasons.

They met near midcourt. Embiid put his hands on Brown’s shoulders. He said:

“This one’s for you.”

It’s the happiest Brown has ever been after a loss.

The game itself was relatively unremarkable, which speaks volumes about the validity of the record. Embiid scored in the flow of the offense.

He broke his previous career high of 59 points, set against the Jazz on Dec. 9 last season, when he sank two free throws with 6:25 to play. With about 4 minutes left, Embiid ran the Sixers’ fast break and found Danuel House Jr. with a nifty pass. He absorbed a flagrant foul less than a minute later when Spurs guard Blake Wesley rammed him with his shoulder as Embiid prepared to set a pick.

He did break Wilt’s record with a signature play. He poked the ball away from Keldon Johnson toward Maxey, sprinted downcourt, got it back, sidestepped a defender, and laid it in, left-handed.

It was a breathtaking move by such a large human being.

It was nothing special for Embiid.

Wembanyama provided a few similar, mind-bending moments. He scored 33 points on 10-of-19 shooting, hit 2 of 5 threes, pulled seven rebounds, and committed five fouls. He played 28 minutes — the 20-year-old string bean is on a minutes restriction — but his length, athleticism, and skill left no question as to who’s the next big thing.

“He’s great, man,” Embiid gushed. “He’s got everything.”

It’s easy to be gracious after you’ve destroyed your foe. He denied it, but make no mistake: Embiid wanted to put Wemby in his place.

“It’s not like I just woke up one day and I was, like, ‘I gotta try and go out and dominate and have the best game of my career.’ I try to do that every night.”

Embiid referenced his last big matchup, when he dropped 41 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds on perennial MVP contender Nikola Jokić.

Oubre called BS on all of that.

» READ MORE: Sixers highs and lows at midseason: Most underrated player, biggest disappointment, best win, and more

“Jo is great. The greatest get really jealous. They get that fire inside of them. Jo knows what he’s doing, each and every time,” Oubre said. “Fresh catch. He’s hungry. He gets motivated to catch it and destroy it.”

“Yeah, Jo wasn’t messing,” said Martin Jr., with sympathy for Wembanyama being Embiid’s latest victim. “Pretty sure that was his ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment.”

Thousands of fans lingered in the Wells Fargo Center. They’d witnessed history, and they wanted to marinate in the moment. As Embiid consented to an NBA TV interview, Tyrese Maxey and Robert Covington doused him with a celebratory water-bottle shower.

The fans delighted in that moment, but they’d been less happy earlier. Embiid gave up a shot in the lane to hit Danuel House Jr. Boos rained down, even as House hit a three-pointer.

“It’s unfortunate I got booed for it,” Embiid joked afterward.

“They still gotta show class,” said House, who believes he inspired Embiid’s feat during a timeout late in the third quarter.

“Hey, Jo!” House shouted across the locker room at Embiid, whose head was buried in the stat sheet as his ankles and feet chilled in a postgame vat of ice. “Jo!”

Embiid looked up. House continued.

“Thank you for taking me along, because you were going to stop at 55. And I said, ‘70′. And you said, ‘70?’ "

And he got 70.