Kobe Bryant’s Lower Merion Jersey Fetches Record $2.2 Million at Sotheby’s Auction

Kobe Bryant’s basketball journey began at Lower Merion High School, and on Friday, a tangible piece of that origin story commanded a historic price. Sotheby’s announced that one of Bryant’s game-worn No. 33 jerseys sold for $2.2 million, establishing a new benchmark as the most expensive high school jersey ever sold at auction.

“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. This jersey symbolizes that greatness has a beginning, and this jersey was there for it,” read the auction house’s description.

The garment has changed hands before; it previously sold in 2013 for $51,400. This latest auction attracted 26 bids from seven different bidders vying for the coveted artifact.

The sale surpasses the previous record held by LeBron James’ St. Vincent-St. Mary jersey, worn for his famous 2002 Sports Illustrated “The Chosen One” cover, which sold for $1.3 million in 2024.

According to Sotheby’s, Bryant wore the jersey during his junior season in a March 1995 matchup against Hazleton Area High School in Pennsylvania. The item joins a long lineage of highly sought-after Bryant memorabilia. The current pinnacle remains a 2007-08 Upper Deck dual-autograph card featuring Bryant and Michael Jordan, which fetched $12.6 million in August 2022.

Bryant’s Lower Merion uniform holds a unique distinction: it is the only basketball jersey he wore in an organized competitive setting that did not bear the words “Lakers” or “Los Angeles” across the chest, as he entered the NBA Draft directly out of high school.

Bryant spent his entire 20-year professional career with Los Angeles, cementing his legacy as not only one of the greatest Lakers but one of the premier players in NBA history. His resume includes five NBA championships, two Finals MVP awards, one regular-season MVP award, and 18 All-Star selections.

In 2017, the Lakers retired both his No. 8 and No. 24 jerseys, making him the only player in league history to have two numbers retired by the same franchise. Following his tragic death in 2020, he was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.

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