Key Takeaways
- Kobe Bryant's game-worn Lower Merion High School jersey fetched $2.2 million at Sotheby's, breaking the high school jersey auction record that LeBron James’s $1.3 million sale set in 2024.
- Seven bidders placed 26 bids on the jersey, which previously sold for $51,400 in 2013 after Bryant’s mother, Pamela, put it up for auction.
- Authenticators photo-matched the jersey to a 1995 image of Bryant spinning a basketball on his finger, capturing his Lower Merion days before the NBA rings and Mamba Mentality.
Kobe Bryant's game-worn high school basketball jersey has sold for a record-breaking $2.2 million at auction.
According to Hypebeast, Sotheby's held an auction for the jersey, accumulating 26 bids from seven different bidders after first selling at an auction to a private collector for $51,400 in 2013.
The uniform was worn by Bryant during his time at Philadelphia’s Lower Merion High School, where he was averaging 31 points per game by his junior year. The jersey itself, as Sotheby's detailed, was photo-matched by Sports Investors Authentication (SIA) and MeiGray to a photo showing Bryant spinning a basketball on his finger in 1995.
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NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1996-97 PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 2005-06 NEW YORK KNICKS
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 2002-03 GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1994-95 SEATTLE SUPERSONICS
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1997-98 MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1995-96 DETROIT PISTONS
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1996-97 MIAMI HEAT
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1999-00 HOUSTON ROCKETS
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS 1996 ALL-STAR JERSEY
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1987-88 DENVER NUGGETS
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N JERSEY TORONTO RAPTORS 1998 (WHITE)
NBA PLAYBOI CARTI X M&N HARDWOOD CLASSICS JERSEY 1999-00 PHOENIX SUNS
The jersey was also accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the initial Goldin Auctions sale of the jersey in 2013, where it was put up for sale by his mother, Pamela Bryant.
The sale of the high school basketball jersey breaks the record previously held by a St. Vincent-St. Mary jersey from LeBron James, which sold for $1.3 million in 2024. That jersey was famously featured on LeBron James' cover story for Sports Illustrated in 2002.
"This Lower Merion jersey is where Kobe's story starts, before the rings, the records, and the Mamba Mentality, when he was just a kid in a gym outworking everyone," said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s Head of Modern Collectables. "This jersey symbolizes that greatness has a beginning, and this jersey was there for it."
The sale of the high-school jersey comes not long after Bryant’s NBA Finals game-worn No. 8 Lakers Jersey was put up for auction by The Realest.
