Few figures loom as large over the NBA as Kobe Bryant. The late basketball legend serves as inspiration for many players. Before winning Game 7 against the Heat, Jayson Tatum texted Bryant’s phone number, writing, “I got you today.” Lamar Odom recently got a tattoo of Kobe after having “vivid” dreams about him. Klay Thompson paid homage to Bryant after breaking one of his records.
It makes sense, then, that the jersey of someone as revered as Kobe would sell for a lot of money. And a lot of money it was: Mamba’s rookie jersey, which he wore during his first playoff series in 1997, sold for $2,735,546 at SCP Auctions.
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Bryant wore the purple and gold home jersey on at least five occasions, including two home games during the NBA playoff series against the Utah Jazz. The games helped anoint Bryant as a force to be reckoned with. During the first of the two home games, Kobe scored 19 points in under 20 seconds.
This isn’t the only valuable Kobe item that sold at SCP. A rare signed 1997 Precious Metal Gems Kobe card sold for over $403,000. Earlier this year, another Kobe card, a 1997-98 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems card printed in Emerald format, sold for $2 million at PWCC Marketplace. In 2021, a signed ticket from the final game of his career sold for over $40,000.
It seems Kobe fans are willing to pay an arm and a leg to get any Bryant-related memorabilia. The identity of the buyer of the rookie jersey is unknown, but whoever it is had almost $3 million laying around. Do you think it was worth it?
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