Kobe Bryant's high school jersey has sold for a record $2.2 million at Sotheby's, making the maroon Lower Merion No. 33 the most expensive high school jersey ever sold at auction and the latest proof that the market for the late basketball great's memorabilia shows no sign of cooling. The sale, which concluded on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, drew 26 bids from seven competing collectors and blew past Sotheby's pre-sale estimate of $1 million to $2 million, before landing at a final price of $2,176,000.
Sotheby's reported on Friday that Bryant's game-worn Lower Merion jersey had sold for a record-breaking $2.2 million, setting a new world record for a high school basketball jersey at auction. The auction house described the piece in terms that went well beyond its fabric and stitching, calling it the place where Bryant's story began.
“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,” Sotheby's said in its description of the lot.
The bidding itself told the story of demand. Twenty-six bids came in from seven different collectors, pushing the price well beyond the $1 million to $2 million range Sotheby's had published before the sale. Fanatics Collect shared the result on social media, noting that the jersey was now the most expensive high school jersey ever sold at auction. The final figure reported by Sotheby's and by auction trackers was $2,176,000, rounded in headlines to $2.2 million.
The buyer has not been publicly identified in the reports of the sale, and Sotheby's has not published a name. What is clear is that the winning bidder now owns the only competitive uniform Bryant ever wore that did not carry the words Lakers or Los Angeles across the chest, because Bryant went directly from Lower Merion to the NBA draft in 1996 without playing college basketball.
Bryant's time at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, is the foundation of his legend. He wore No. 33, the same number his father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, had worn in high school, and he turned the suburban Philadelphia school into a national attraction. The jersey sold this week comes from his junior season, 1994-95, and Sotheby's matched it specifically to a March 1995 matchup against Hazleton Area.
That junior season was a staging post, not the climax. One year later, as a senior, Bryant led Lower Merion to the Pennsylvania state championship, finishing his high school career with 2,883 points and passing Wilt Chamberlain's southeastern Pennsylvania scoring record along the way. From there he made the leap that defined his career, entering the 1996 NBA draft straight out of high school and spending all 20 of his professional seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The jersey's own journey mirrors the rise in Bryant's stature. It originally came from the collection of Bryant's mother, Pamela Bryant, before passing into private hands, and it was sold through Goldin Auctions in 2013 for $51,400. Thirteen years later it has changed hands again for roughly 42 times that price, an increase of about 4,133 percent. The authentication rests in part on photo-matching: SIA Photo Match matched the jersey to photographs from Bryant's 1995 playing days, according to reports of the sale.
Bryant's professional record explains why collectors chase even his earliest artifacts. He won five NBA championships with the Lakers, was named Finals MVP twice and league MVP once, and was selected as an All-Star 18 times. In 2017 the Lakers retired both of his numbers, No. 8 and No. 24, making him the only player in NBA history to have two numbers retired by one team. A year after he died in 2020, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In January 2020, the Philadelphia 76ers honoured him by placing his high school jersey on the court at the Wells Fargo Center.
The record matters for two reasons, one about Bryant and one about the memorabilia market. For Bryant, the jersey is the earliest chapter of a career that collectors usually celebrate through Lakers gold and purple. A Lower Merion jersey is rarer than a Lakers jersey by definition: there was only one high school career, only a handful of seasons, and only one player who wore No. 33 for the Aces before becoming a global star.
For the market, the sale redraws the top of the high school category. The previous record belonged to LeBron James, whose St. Vincent-St. Mary jersey from his famous 2002 Sports Illustrated “The Chosen One” cover sold for $1.3 million in 2024. Bryant's $2,176,000 beats that mark by about $876,000, nearly doubling it, and it does so for a jersey from a regular-season high school game in 1995 rather than a cover shoot or a championship final.
The result also sits inside a much larger Bryant market. The most expensive Bryant piece ever sold remains a 2007-08 dual-autograph card from Upper Deck, featuring Bryant and Michael Jordan, which sold for $12.6 million in August 2022. The high school jersey does not approach that figure, but it now leads its own category by a wide margin, and it shows that demand is not limited to his Lakers years or to cards.
There is a third reason the sale has travelled so widely: it is easy to understand. A teenager's maroon jersey, a number borrowed from his father, a gym in Pennsylvania, and a price tag of more than $2 million is a story that needs no knowledge of auction mechanics. That simplicity is part of why auction houses prize Bryant's early material, and part of why this sale has been reported around the world within days of the hammer falling.
Sotheby's own language framed the jersey as biography rather than merchandise, stressing the image of a teenager outworking everyone in a gym before the championships and the records. That framing has been widely quoted in coverage of the sale, and it captures how the auction house pitched the lot: not as a piece of cloth, but as the starting point of the Mamba Mentality.
Reaction among collectors and fans has been a mix of awe at the price and debate about the details. Some posts online have questioned the photo-matching, arguing that the jersey was matched to a photo shoot and that there is no conclusive evidence it was worn in a game, while noting that the game-worn attribution rests in part on a letter signed by Bryant's mother. Sotheby's, for its part, presents the jersey as game-worn from the March 1995 Hazleton Area matchup, matched to photographs from Bryant's 1995 season, and the sale stands as reported.
The debate has not dented the headline result, and auction watchers have instead focused on the numbers: 26 bids, seven bidders, a pre-sale estimate left far behind, and a previous record beaten by nearly $900,000. For a market that often trades on certainty, the willingness of seven bidders to push this far is itself a statement about Bryant's enduring place in basketball culture.
The sale matters because it measures something that box scores cannot: how long Bryant's story continues to grow after his death. Six years on, a jersey from his junior year of high school can still command a record price, still draw a bidding war, and still dominate sports headlines in the middle of a football and basketball season. That is not nostalgia alone; it is a market judgment that Bryant's early years are as collectible as his championship years.
It also matters for high school memorabilia as a category. Until now, the ceiling for a high school jersey was LeBron James' $1.3 million, itself a remarkable figure for a teenager's uniform. Bryant's $2.176 million lifts that ceiling by roughly two-thirds and sets a new benchmark that any future sale of a famous player's school uniform will be measured against. Schools, families and collectors who hold early material from future stars will be watching what that benchmark does to prices.
Finally, the sale is a reminder of how Bryant's career began. Before the five rings, before the 81-point game, before the two retired numbers, there was a No. 33 jersey in a Pennsylvania high school gym, worn by a teenager whose father had worn the same number. That jersey is now the most expensive high school jersey in history, and its price says as much about where Bryant started as about where he ended up.
The jersey now passes to its new owner, whose identity has not been disclosed, and its next public appearance, if any, is unknown. Record-breaking sports memorabilia often reappears in exhibitions, in private collections shown on social media, or, years later, at another auction, where its record price becomes the starting point for the next bidding war.
For the wider market, the sale will be a reference point through the rest of the auction season. Auction houses will cite the $2.176 million figure when they pitch other early-career material, and collectors will use it to judge whether other Bryant pieces, and other stars' school uniforms, are priced fairly. If another Bryant high school item reaches auction, it will be measured directly against this result.
For Lower Merion, the sale is another chapter in a story the school has lived with for three decades. Bryant's name is woven into its history, and every record connected to his school days renews attention on the programme that produced him. The jersey itself may now be in private hands, but its record price keeps the beginning of Bryant's story in public view.
How much did Kobe Bryant's high school jersey sell for? It sold for $2,176,000 at Sotheby's, reported as $2.2 million, a record for any high school jersey sold at auction.
Which jersey was it? A maroon Lower Merion High School No. 33 jersey from Bryant's junior season in 1994-95, matched to a March 1995 game against Hazleton Area in Pennsylvania.
What was the previous record? 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.
How much did the jersey sell for before? It sold for $51,400 through Goldin Auctions in 2013, so the new price is about 42 times higher, a rise of roughly 4,133 percent.
Why is this jersey so significant? It is the only competitive uniform Bryant wore that did not say Lakers or Los Angeles, because he went straight from Lower Merion to the 1996 NBA draft, and it marks the start of a career that brought five NBA titles and two retired numbers.
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