At 17 years old and a new face to the game, Kobe Bryant came out in summer league and asserted his dominance early. Like any rookie, there were always naysayers and critiques but Kobe never let that stop him. No matter what people thought about him, Bryant always had that confidence and it showed in his game. In the highlights above, Kobe drops 36 points in a Southern California Summer Pro League game; which is after he already scored 27 in his summer league debut. Watching this film 20 years later, it’s easy to forget how athletic and dynamic the Black Mamba really was but in this clip he gives us a couple flashbacks just to make us remember who he was.
Like he did as he scored 60 in his very last game, he made scoring look easy. Showing you all the facets whether it was getting to the rim, knocking down the three-ball, or handing out highlights as he soared to the rim, Kobe made the game look effortless from 1996 to 2016. This clip is just the beginning of what became a hall-of-fame career for the great Kobe Bryant.
