Kobe Bryant Jersey Reaches Million-Dollar Figure at Auction
The first jersey with the number 24 that Kobe Bryant wore with the Los Angeles Lakers recently sold for $889,000, including the buyer’s premium, at Sotheby’s.
In the same auction, a jersey worn by Jerry West between 1964 and 1967 also reached $533,400.
Bryant wore this jersey during a game in which he scored 23 points in the 118-112 victory against the Seattle Supersonics on November 3, 2006. In that 2006-07 season, Bryant managed to score 50 or more points in a game on 10 occasions, on his way to his second and last league scoring title.The jersey is signed by Bryant with the inscriptions “FIRST 24” and “1/1” on the numbers, and includes a hologram from Upper Deck, a company that had an autograph and memorabilia agreement with Bryant until 2009. MeiGray Authenticated also performed a photo verification of the jersey, verifying its use during the Lakers’ media day in October 2006.
The highest price paid for a Bryant jersey was $7 million, for a jersey that was used in seven games of his rookie season in 1996-97. That jersey was also sold by Sotheby’s in April.
West’s jersey was specifically worn during Game 6 of the 1965 and 1966 Western Division Finals, and in Game 2 of the 1966 NBA Finals, according to photo-matching conducted by Sports Investors Authentication.
The West jersey lot also included a warm-up jacket, shorts and socks, which the auction house “also believes were game-worn.” In 1967, Frank O’Neill, a former Lakers coach, received these items when the team moved to The Forum, and they have remained in a private collection until now.
A collector bought a photo-matched jersey from four games of the 1969-70 Lakers season for $868,000 in May, a record for a West item.
It was expected that the jersey Wayne Gretzky wore in his last NHL game with the New York Rangers on April 18, 1999, would sell for more than $1 million, but Sotheby’s confirmed that the bids did not reach the set reserve price and the jersey was not sold.
