Unlucky

Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a single game of basketball earlier this week. Only one person had ever scored more in a single game, Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100 points 44 years ago. Chamberlain's game took place in a small arena in Hershey, PA; Bryant's in Los Angeles. You might think to yourself, what are the odds that someone went to both games? Probably pretty small. But more likely than this story:

Stern, a vice chairman of a Los Angeles asset management firm, was an 18-year-old sophomore at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., in 1962 when he bought two tickets to see the then-Philadelphia Warriors play the New York Knicks in nearby Hershey. But when one of his professors scheduled a test for the next day, Stern gave the tickets away -- and thus failed to see Wilt Chamberlain score 100 points.

Now Stern is a Lakers season ticket-holder, meaning he had tickets to see Sunday's game against the Raptors. But Stern opted to attend a birthday party instead -- and thus failed to see Kobe's 81-point outburst.

"Two historic games, 44 years and 3,000 miles apart with one common thread -- stupid me," Stern told the Los Angeles Times.

I'm buying that guy tickets to Josh Beckett's first start and then telling him not to come. I predict a perfect game and 23 Ks.