Over 22 hours of Kobe Bryant high school game and interview footage will be going up for auction on July 23rd in Los Angeles.
The Bryant footage dates to the mid-1990s and is a part of the media library of award-winning sports reporter Stu Ross, from his locally produced syndicated TV program, High School Sports Show.
The entire library covers over 700 of some of the best-known athletes in all major sports and exceeds 130 hours of content, including game, interview and feature footage. Most of it dates to during their high school careers or not long afterward.
Other high-profile athletes included in the collection are LeBron James, Tom Brady, Ryan Braun, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Phelps (see clips here).
The entire library is going up for auction and is being sold as one lot. The auction house’s pre-sale estimate is $250,000-$350,000.
The Bryant material is approximately 60% game video and 40% interviews. The vast majority has not been seen by the public, since only a portion was used in production of the show. The video offers a behind-the-scenes look into the basketball prodigy’s early career where he led his high school team, the Lower Merion Aces, to their first state championship in 53 years. The new buyer will own the exclusive intellectual property rights, title and interest to the entire digitized footage of the Library.
During his tenure as the leading high school sports reporter in the United States, Ross and his crew recorded over 35,000 games between 1994 and 2003. The show aired in 35 cities across America. Ross and his crew captured over 130 hours of video footage of over 700 past and current professional athletes that now make up the Ross Online Productions Before They Were Pros Media Library.
Profiles in History will be donating 10% of final bid price to the MambaOnThree Fund established to honor and support the families of the victims involved in the helicopter crash that claimed eight lives in all.
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