Dunk contest


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Bryant says he had too many dunks to choose from.
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Bryant admits his weekend has been a bit hectic.
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Kobe Bryant finishes off his winning dunk.

Bryant, who spurned college to enter the NBA at the age of 18, executed a through-the-legs hammer dunk moving from left to right for a final-round score of 49, easily outpointing Michael Finley and Chris Carr.

"Winning the dunk contest is something I dreamed about since I was a little kid," said the Los Angeles Lakers guard, who jumped straight from high school to the NBA.

In many ways, Bryant still is a kid.

It was just four years ago that Bryant, then 14, dunked for the first time in his life. Less than a year ago, he was going to his senior prom with pop star Brandy, who was at the competition.

In June, he joined the Lakers. And in November, he became the youngest player at that time to ever appear in an NBA game.

Age, however, wasn't the determining factor in the dunk contest. It had more to do with style.

And Bryant added a dominant dose of stylin' following his best dunk of the night.

On Bryant's winning jam, he ran toward the basket, jumped into the air, passed the ball between his legs and finished it off with a right-handed windmill.

But that wasn't the end.

Bryant strutted over to the bench where all the regular All-Stars sat, assumed a bodybuilder flex pose and pursed his lips into a pucker.

The All-Stars, some of them nearly twice as old as this precocious youngster, absolutely loved it.

"Man, that part was sweet," Alonzo Mourning said.

It was a pose Bryant first assumed in his last dunk contest -- a high school dunk-off held in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"The crowd got me real pumped up after the dunk, and I just felt like flexing. I don't have much, but I flexed what I have.

"I don't do that kind of stuff in a game, only in a dunking competition," Bryant added.

DUNK CONTEST RESULTS

Final round Player Team Score Kobe Bryant Lakers 49 Chris Carr T-Wolves 45 Michael Finley Mavs 33 First round Chris Carr T-Wolves 44 Michael Finley Mavs 39 Kobe Bryant Lakers 37 Failed to qualify Darvin Ham Nuggets 36 Bob Sura Cavs 35 Ray Allen Bucks 35

Bryant scored a record 31 points in the Rookie Game earlier Saturday but was beaten out for MVP honors by Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson.

Bryant left no doubt in the dunk competition, however.

He said not winning the MVP in the Rookie Game served as extra motivation in the dunk contest.

"Both of them would have been nice," Bryant said. "I was psyched for the dunk contest as it was, but (not being MVP) brought me up a little bit more."

Bryant, the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant, became the second consecutive second-generation NBA player to win the contest. Last year, Los Angeles Clippers guard Brent Barry, the son of Hall of Famer Rick Barry, took the trophy.

But there were no court-length dashes and foul-line dunks this year. Most of the slams were of the toss-bounce-and-catch variety, including one by Finley in the finals in which he did a cartwheel before catching the ball, drawing the biggest cheers. He missed the wild attempt.

Carr, a swingman for the Minnesota Timberwolves, made both his dunks in the final round but scored no higher than 45 on either one. Finley, a Dallas Mavericks guard, missed both his final-round dunks. The two were teammates last season with the Phoenix Suns.

Hometown favorite Bob Sura of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets rookie forward Darvin Ham and Milwaukee Bucks rookie guard Ray Allen were eliminated after the first round.

Bryant barely got to the final round with a qualifying score of 37, beating out Ham by one point. Ham was the only one of the six participants to make all three of his first-round slams and appeared to have performed as well as anyone, but the judges gave him just 36 points.

The win earned Bryant the $20,000 first prize from Nestle's.