The first NBA jersey worn by Kobe Bryant sold for $7,004,000 at Sotheby’s on Thursday afternoon, becoming the second-most expensive NBA jersey in history, as well as the seventh-most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold.
It carried a presale estimate of $10 million.
Worn during Bryant’s NBA regular-season debut Nov. 3, 1996, in which he appeared for just six minutes and did not record a point, as well as his first NBA media day, NBA preseason debut and three additional regular-season games in November, the jersey last sold publicly for $115,242 at Grey Flannel in 2013.
“What I’ve noticed over the last 18 months is the demand for Kobe, the rate of growth, I think is actually outpacing Jordan,” Brahm Wachter, SVP and head of modern collectables at Sotheby’s, told cllct. “I think Kobe touched a lot of people and I think a lot of people can take the Mamba mentality ... and I think a lot of executives can relate to him.”
The lot to an irrevocable bidder, a third-party who enters into an agreement with Sotheby's in order to guarantee the item sells and in return receives a cut of the upside.
The FIRST EVER Kobe Bryant jersey will sell today at @Sothebys ????@darrenrovell and @WachterBrahm on the jersey that could break every basketball record. pic.twitter.com/Q2I6jVwTdS
— cllct (@cllctMedia) April 24, 2025
The jersey is now the No. 2 most expensive piece of NBA memorabilia ever sold, behind only Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 jersey, which sold for $10.1 million.
The previous record for a Bryant jersey was $5.85 million for a jersey worn in at least 25 games during his 2007-08 MVP season.
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Bryant’s sneakers from his famous “Achilles Game” recently set a record for any Bryant shoes at auction, selling for $660,000 last month at Sotheby’s.
Since the last time the Bryant debut jersey sold in 2013, the jersey has been photo-matched, a process in which authenticators use high-quality media and compare various details of the jersey to arrive at a match.
In this case, a loose white thread can be seen on the jersey as well as images from NBA games. Other features, including a possible blood stain and the positioning of the holes in the jersey, allowed for photo-matching, which has been seen as a boon to the value of high-profile jerseys in recent years.
This is the second major debut jersey to sell at Sotheby’s in recent weeks, with Michael Jordan’s preseason debut jersey selling for $4.2 million.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.