Four highly engaged potential buyers traded more than $2 million worth of bids in an effort to land the personal locker used by Kobe Bryant for 12 of his NBA seasons on Friday. When the dust settled, the wooden relic from Staples Center in Los Angeles had sold for $2.88 million at Sotheby’s, doubling its pre-sale estimate.
It’s the third most expensive Bryant item ever sold at auction and the most paid for any player-used locker.
“Kobe Bryant’s locker is not merely a piece of memorabilia but a profound relic from one of basketball’s most iconic figures,” stated Sotheby’s Head of Modern Collectibles Brahm Wachter. “Today’s price highlights not only Kobe’s enduring legacy but also the exceptional nature of this unique item.”
As bidding closed, the bid jumped from $750,000 to its final price of $2.9 million. Sotheby’s says four bidders were in hot pursuit, trading bids until eventually three gave up the chase.
It had photograph documentation spanning from the 2003-2004 NBA season to 2015-2016 NBA season.
According to the auction house, the locker was removed from the facility during a 2018 renovation. A maintenance worker recognized the gravity of the locker’s significance and ensured it wasn’t destroyed. That person sold the locker to an American collector in a private transaction, where it was then reunited with Kobe’s original locker nameplate.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale will dbenefit The Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation.
Several other sports items were offered during the same sale. The shoes worn by Patrick Ewing in the 1992 US Olympic Basketball team’s gold medal game victory netted $50,400.
They were accompanied by a letter of provenance from Patrick Ewing Jr. and each shoe is signed by the New York Knicks great who was a center for the ’92 Dream Team in Barcelona.
The final pair of shoes worn in NBA competition by Hall of Fame center Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets went for $58,500.
Several items didn’t meet their reserve prices, including the autographed shirt worn by Diego Maradona in the second half of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup Semifinal win and the shoes worn by Florence Griffith-Joyner in her legendary gold medal winning 200 meter race at the 1988 Olympics in South Korea.
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