You know it's been an amazing day of sports when the NFL's conference championship games weren't the most exciting story of the day.

As we all know by now, Ray Allen's game-winning 30-footer gave the Sonics a 152-149 victory tonight over the Suns, an aggregate game score of 301. The total was one of the highest in NBA history and obliterated the Vegas over/under, which closed at 217.5. It fell well short of the NBA record for highest-scoring game, however, which was achieved December 3, 1983, when the Detroit Pistons defeated the Denver Nuggets, 186-184, an aggregate game score of 370.

Alright, I'm only kidding. Well, I'm sorta only kidding.

The biggest story of the day, of course, was Kobe's 81-point performance tonight against the Raptors. It was the second-highest individual point total in a game in NBA history, next to only Wilt Chamberlain's 100 in 1962, and helped the Lakers overcome an 18-point deficit in the second half.

Here's how Kobe scored his 81 points.

Field goals: 28 for 46
3-pointers: 7 for 13
Free throws: 18 for 20

Fifty-five of Kobe's 81 points came in the second-half. He also committed only three turnovers. Just a phenomenal game, probably one of the best we'll see in our lifetime.

Of course, this is a positive news story involving Kobe Bryant, and that usually means Kobe isn't getting off the hook without 75 percent of the world's population trying to diminish his accomplishment. There has to be a catch, or at least we'll try our darnedest to look for one.

Right on queue, one of my friends remarked immediately after the game that anyone, even he, could score 81 points if he was given 46 field goal attempts and 20 free throw attempts. I'm sure a lot of you shared this sentiment, too, and said this to yourselves when you first saw the game's box score.

My humble response to that is simple -- no, you couldn't. In fact, I can think of only two or three players in the NBA today who could. Allen Iverson is one, Lebron James and Tracy McGrady are the others, and they'd have to be at their absolute best to do it.

To say that anyone could score a bunch of points if he was given a bunch of shots is to assume that anyone could create a bunch of shots for himself to begin with. Taking 46 field goal attempts and 20 free throw attempts in the NBA, in regulation, is an incredible feat, one that only the best players in the league can do. Kobe can do it, Shawn Marion can't. Lebron can do it, Andrei Kirilenko can't. A player like Peja Stojakovic, for example, as talented and productive as he is, could never take that many shots because he can't create them by himself.

This is a problem that plagues a lot of players in the NBA, who are great shooters but will never take the next step toward being a star because they aren't quick enough, or they can't dribble, or they're easy to outmuscle in the lane, or they have bad footwork in the post, etc. Those are all skills that the league's top scorers have. It'd be ridiculous to deny that.

And let's not overlook the most important aspect of this game. It's not like Kobe went Antoine Walker on us and threw up a bunch of no-look jumpers on his way to shooting 10 for 46 from the field while committing 10 turnovers. He went 28 for 46 (and 18 for 20 from the free throw line) and committed only 3 turnovers. In other words, not only did Kobe take a bunch of shots, he MADE a bunch of shots and he didn't waste possessions by turning the ball over.

There's only a handful of people in the world who can do that. You're probably not one of them.