"Every night I go on the floor I want to be the MVP, of this league, MVP of this team, MVP for me, myself and my family. I've set a high standard and I have to live by that."
And that's a way of living Miami Heat fans are happy to accept. As for the extreme Kobe & Kevin Durant fans that turned into Kanye last night? Not so much.
While LeBron was trending for his career-high performance against the Bobcats, memes of Kanye and Kobe started to fill up feeds and walls with annoying comments all ending in "tho." "It ain't 62 tho!" "Kobe had 81 tho!" "Melo had 62 in 3 quarters tho!"
Let's take a look at what the King, who is averaging 37/7/5 since the All-Star break, did last night and what everybody is saying.
THE STATS
- 61 points (career high - beating 56 from 2005)
- Franchise high for points in a game (beating Glen Rice's 56 from 1995)
- Franchise high for points in a quarter, 2nd half and field goals (22) in a game
- 24 points at halftime
- 25 in the 3rd quarter (matched the Bobcats)
- First player to score 60+ while making 2/3 of shots since Shaq (61pts 23rebs) in 2000
THE QUOTES
I was happy I was able to make a few plays to help us win - LeBron
I felt pretty good in the first half but halftime can always kind of derail things and slow things up. But I was able to get things going once again in the third quarter and I knew it could be one of those nights. - LeBron
Once he sniffed 60, we knew he was going for it. And the amazing part is the efficiency. Good Lord. Sixty-one on 33 shots, that's Wilt Chamberlain-esque. That's pretty amazing. Incredible performance. - Shane Battier
You take away his 61 points and we still had a fighting chance there at the end. - Al Jefferson (38pts, 19rebs)
The man above has given me some unbelievable abilities to play the game of basketball. I just try to take advantage of it every night. I got the trust of my teammates and my coaching staff to go in there and let it go. - LeBron
He was in a great groove, obviously. There was an efficiency to what he was doing. The rim looked like an ocean for him. - Heat coach Erik Spoelstra
THE MEMES
Hey, @KingJames! In honor of last night's super heroics, check out the mask designed for you by #Marvel's Greg Land: pic.twitter.com/PYmpNpCCvd
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) March 4, 2014