Instant Alert: A look back to when Kobe Bryant won the dunk contest as an 18-year-old rookie

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   A look back to when Kobe Bryant won the dunk contest as an 18-year-old rookie by Emmett Knowlton on Dec 1, 2015, 2:23 PM Advertisement It didn't take long for Kobe Bryant's hyper-competitiveness to become his defining feature as a basketball player. Over All-Star weekend during his rookie season on the Lakers in 1997, Bryant set a Rookie Game record with 31 points. The next night, Bryant won the Slam Dunk Contest in dominant fashion. Below is footage from that dunk contest. This is before the dunk contest became an over-the-top circus show with cars and Superman costumes. But even in 1997, as an 18-year-old, Bryant's facial expressions and overall swagger shines through.  Here are the highlights (all GIFs and screengrabs via Youtube): Bryant was one of six dunkers in the contest, including Ray Allen. As a not-yet-hoarse Doc Rivers said on the broadcast, Bryant wasn't anyone's favorite to win. RAW Embed   The judges that year included Lisa Leslie, who was the first woman to ever judge the Dunk Contest. Here's Kobe's first dunk: RAW Embed   See the rest of the story at Business Insider   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011