Before Kobe Bryant became a five-time NBA champion and one of basketball\u2019s most recognizable figures, he wore No. 33 for Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania. More than three decades later, a jersey from that period has become one of the most valuable pieces of high school basketball memorabilia ever sold.<\/p>\n
The maroon game-worn uniform from Bryant\u2019s junior season in 1994-95 sold for $2,176,000 at Sotheby\u2019s on Oct. 28, 2026. The sale established a new auction record for a high school basketball jersey, surpassing the previous mark set by a LeBron James jersey that fetched $1.3 million in 2024.<\/p>\n
The result was particularly remarkable because the same jersey and accompanying shorts sold for just $51,400 through Goldin Auctions in 2013. The latest transaction represents approximately 42 times that earlier sale price.<\/p>\n
The jersey\u2019s first appearance at auction followed a legal dispute between Bryant and his mother, Pamela, over memorabilia she had consigned for sale. A settlement eventually allowed six items to be auctioned, including the Lower Merion uniform, which went to a private collector.<\/p>\n
Its authenticity also contributed to its historical significance. Experts photo-matched the maroon No. 33 jersey to images from Bryant\u2019s 1995 high school season, including a March playoff matchup against Hazleton Area. Bryant recorded 33 points and 15 rebounds in that game despite Lower Merion losing in overtime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Kobe Bryant became a five-time NBA champion and one of basketball\u2019s most recognizable figures, he wore No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[183,185,184,186],"class_list":["post-323169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}