Jim Litke AP columnist

Kobe Bryant could always score. And if that were the only measure, the debate over whether he is pro basketball’s blessing or curse would have ended long before now.

Instead, Bryant handed both sides a new set of talking points by scoring 81 points in a majestic effort, almost single-handedly taming the Toronto Raptors at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

That singular achievement threatened the NBA’s all-time mark of 100 set by Wilt Chamberlain 44 years ago, and pushed the NFL’s wildly popular conference championship games back to the inside pages of newspapers and out of the lead spot on the nightly sports telecasts.

Afterward, with his wife, Vanessa, alongside and his 3-year-old daughter in his arms, Bryant struggled to put the accomplishment in perspective.

“To sit here and say I grasp what happened tonight, I’d be lying,” he said after Sunday’s shooting spree.

Not so the NBA. Always on the lookout for marketing angles, the league is already hawking a commemorative jersey with “81” on the front and Bryant’s name on the back. Sales will provide a revealing glimpse of whether Kobe can shoot his way back into America’s heart.

Bryant was a revelation when he joined the NBA in the 1996-97 season directly out of high school. Playing just 15 minutes a game, he averaged eight points as a rookie, doubled that total his sophomore season, then doubled it again while grudgingly serving as Shaquille O’Neal’s sidekick during the Lakers’ back-to-back-to-back NBA championship runs. He’s been nearly unstoppable ever since.

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Distractions, defenders, deep-throated boos in visiting arenas, even repeated downturns in his public image and personal fortunes — none of it has made a difference.

Two seasons ago, while standing trial on a rape charge that was later dropped, Bryant still averaged 31 points in games he played after a private jet whisked him from a Colorado courtroom to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

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Right now he’s is in the midst of a scoring run so sublime that even coach Phil Jackson has stuffed his hands deep in his pockets and let responsibility for the team’s future ride on Bryant’s shooting arm.