Whenever Shane Larkin faces FC Bayern Munich, as he does again this week, memories of a record night in the EuroLeague come flooding back.
Lookback, Shane Larkin's 49 points vs. Bayern: 'One of the best days of my life'
Focus on
3 Mins read
November 29, 2019 was a night that will live forever in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history.
Shane Larkin, recently returned to the competition with Anadolu Efes Istanbul, broke the bank and the EuroLeague's single-game scoring record that night by torching FC Bayern Munich for 49 points that shattered the previous mark of 41.
"Either the day before, or two days before, one of the pages that covers EuroLeague came out with like an MVP ladder, and I was playing really well that season. I think we were in first place at the time," Larkin recalls. "I don't remember exactly where I was on that list, but I remember feeling disrespected and I wanted to make a statement."
Larkin also remembers how his first idea that it would be a good night came while he was warming up for the game.
"I made a bunch of shots in a row, and I was feeling really good going into the game. And once I made the first shot, it felt really good. I made maybe my first three or four shots. When you start a game making a bunch of shots in a row, you get this feeling that you entered a zone that's like nobody can touch you, nobody can stop you, and that kind of zone just carried me along."
Oddly enough, Larkin had been close to the record before without knowing it.
"The year before I had 37 against Barcelona and I did not know what the record was," he says. "After the game, everyone was like, 'Yo, you were so close to the record. Why didn't you go for it?' And I was like, 'What's the record?' They said, '41, and you had 37 with 3 minutes left.' I had no idea."
This time, Larkin had 38 points with 7 minutes left but over the next 3 missed a pair of shots and committed a turnover. His coach at the time, Ergin Ataman, brought him to the bench to calm him down, explaining that he would go back on court shortly.
"I started having all this anxiety, like here we go again. I'm close to it, I'm not going to get it," Larkin recalled. "But once I sat down, took a breather, and refocused myself, I was able to go back out there and score a couple more points and break the record."
Indeed, Larkin sat for just a minute before reentering the game with 3:14 left and going on to score an additional 11 points before the buzzer.
The rest, as they say, is history. A month later, a fourth EuroLeague player this century would reach 41 points, but no one has come closer than that to Larkin's 49.
"I don't know if anyone is going to break it," Larkin concludes, "but if anybody does, it'll be another great challenge for me to go and break their record next."