Kobe Bryant's High School Jersey Sells for a Record $2.2 Million at Sotheby's

A game worn uniform from Kobe Bryant's junior season at Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania has sold at Sotheby's for $2,176,000, a record price for a high school basketball jersey at auction. Sotheby's reported the result on Friday, October 30, two days after its online sale closed on October 28. The burgundy No. 33 away uniform drew 26 bids from seven bidders and passed the auction house's presale estimate of $1 million to $2 million.

The price breaks the previous record for a high school jersey, the $1.3 million paid in 2024 for the St. Vincent-St. Mary jersey LeBron James wore for his 2002 Sports Illustrated cover, known as "The Chosen One" cover. Bryant's uniform is also the only competitive uniform he wore that did not carry the Lakers name or Los Angeles across the chest, because he entered the NBA draft directly out of high school in 1996.

The season the jersey comes from

Bryant wore No. 33 as a junior in the 1994-95 season, the same number his father, Joe Bryant, wore in high school. He had started his Lower Merion career wearing No. 24 and switched to No. 33 for his junior year. Sotheby's matched the uniform to his junior season, including a March 1995 matchup against Hazleton Area. That season ended on March 18, 1995, when Lower Merion lost 64-59 in overtime to Hazleton in the second round of the state playoffs, despite 33 points and 15 rebounds from Bryant. A year later, as a senior, he led Lower Merion to the Pennsylvania state championship.

Sotheby's said it used photo matching, a process that compares the details and fabric of a jersey against photographs, to check the uniform. Brahm Wachter, the head of modern collectibles at Sotheby's, described the piece in the sale listing: "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."

A jersey that sold for $51,400 in 2013

The uniform has been sold before. It came from the collection of Bryant's mother, Pamela Bryant, and was sold through Goldin Auctions in 2013 for $51,400. It stayed in private hands after that sale, and Sotheby's exhibited it in 2025 before the owner decided to sell it this fall. The Sotheby's lot included a letter from Pamela Bryant identifying it as a uniform her son wore in high school. The new price is about 42 times the 2013 result.

Questions raised online

The record drew attention on X as the result spread on Friday and Saturday, and some collectors questioned how firmly the uniform is tied to a specific game. Posts cited by sports memorabilia coverage argued that the photo match may rest on a photoshoot rather than game photographs, and said the game worn attribution leans on Pamela Bryant's letter. Sotheby's has not changed its description of the lot, and the auction house's photo matching process and the letter remain the basis it offered buyers. Bryant, who won five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, died in a helicopter crash in 2020.