Six games into Dwight Howard's rookie season with the Orlando Magic in 2004, he was "baptized" by Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant in a moment that won't soon be forgotten.
With the Lakers trailing 82-74 late in the third quarter, the Black Mamba drove the lane and found the 19-year old center standing inside the restricted area underneath the hoop with his arms extended to the rafters. Instead of pulling up for a jumper, as Howard had hoped, Kobe elevated and officially welcomed Dwight into the NBA by way of a posterizing dunk.
"I baptized him," Bryant later said of the emasculating dunk. "I turned him into a Defensive Player of the Year."
That iconic moment has now been transformed into a marvelous lifelike tattoo, courtesy of well known tattoo artist Steve Butcher. Butcher, who has also created an incredible LeBron x Dwyane Wade alley-oop tattoo, recently unveiled the new Kobe ink which he says took 14 hours to complete over the course of two days at the @florencetattooconvention.
Check out the Kobe x Dwight tat in the IG post embedded below and click here to see more of Butcher's work.
