Sports

Grinnell’s Taylor scores with King James

MIAMI — Attention, Grinnell College basketball office: LeBron James wants the tape from Jack Taylor’s record-setting scoring spree.

Or as “King James” is now calling Taylor, “Sir Jack.”

The NBA champion Heat took plenty of notice of Taylor in their shootaround practice yesterday morning, one day after the Grinnell guard scored a record 138 points in only 36 minutes of playing time against Faith Baptist Bible In Grinnell, Iowa.

The Heat called their intern — the day’s designated shooter during a defensive drill for the team — “Taylor” all morning during practice, and after the session, James was among those weighing in on the significance of the feat.

“It’s unbelievable, honestly,” James said. “I would like to see the game. I want to see the game.”

Hard to believe, but after one record shooting night, a three-time NBA MVP like James was putting Taylor in the same breath as all-time superstars like Kobe Bryant and Wilt Chamberlain.

“I watched Kobe’s game when he had 81,” James said. “I watched some of the greatest games ever played when guys scored big numbers. There’s two games that I would love to see: One was Wilt, when he had 100, and this kid, I want to see him too. Sir Jack.”

James said he doesn’t believe he’s ever topped 56 points in any game — he scored that many against Toronto in 2005, but didn’t remember any game as a young player or high schooler where he had more.

He said he couldn’t even manipulate a video game well enough to score 100 points, noting that “you’ve got to mess with the rules and the users and all that stuff to get to that.”

Taylor, a 5-foot-10 sophomore from Black River Falls, Wis., was the third player in NCAA basketball with at least 100 points. Yesterday, he was still trying to catch his breath, appearing on “Good Morning America’’ and the “Today’’ show.

“Honestly, it’s still not settling in,’’ he said. “It was hard to sleep.’’