Kobe Bryant's locker from Staples Center, used for at least the final 13 seasons of his career, sold for $2.88 million at Sotheby's on Friday afternoon.
The locker was thrown out when Staples Center was renovated. However, a Lakers employee retrieved it and sold it for $280,000 in 2022 to a collector, sources told cllct.
Two years later, the locker sold for 10 times that price at auction.
The locker, which is 8 feet high and nearly 3 feet wide, was photo-matched in pictures by MeiGray as early as 2004 NBA All-Star Game (Feb. 15, 2004) and as late as a pregame photo taken after the final game of Bryant's career (April 13, 2016).
A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to the Los Angeles Youth Foundation.
“Kobe Bryant's locker is not merely a piece of memorabilia but a profound relic from one of basketball's most iconic figures," said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles. "Today's price highlights not only Kobe's enduring legacy but also the exceptional nature of this unique item.”
Bryant memorabliia has dominated the game-used market. Sotheby's sold Bryant's famous "jersey pop" jersey for $5.8 million. The winning bid in a Goldin auction for the jersey Kobe wore when he tore his Achilles was $1.22 million.
Lockers are rarely sold, but when they do, they don't usually sell for millions.
In 2009, Hunt Auctions sold a signed locker Michael Jordan used in the 1990s at the Berto Center, the Bulls' practice facility, for $23,000.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.