Kobe Bryant’s Locker Sold for $2.9M at Sotheby’s Sports Auction

A locker used by late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant sold for $2.88 million at a sports memorabilia auction on Friday after a flurry of late bidding closed sports week at Sotheby’s. The 23 lots included a Mickey Mantle batting helmet, a red F1 racing suit worn by Michael Schumacher in the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix and Patrick Ewing’s signed shoes from the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team” gold medal game. The relic of Bryant’s locker however, a staging area for some of the superstar’s greatest games, topped them all in a flurry of late bidding that exceed auction estimates.

The locker’s value had been estimated between $1 million and $1.5 million prior to the auction, and sat at $750,000 with two bids until approximately five minutes before close. The lot was extended for several two-minute periods until the unnamed buyer prevailed by beating out 17 competitors. The winner will also receive a scrapbook of photos from the consigner, along with a poster of Bryant at the locker following his final game.

Bryant sat in front of that locker from 2003 until the end of his career game in 2016. He used it the night he scored 81 against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, when the Lakers won Game 7 in the 2010 finals (his fifth title) and after his final game, when he scored 60 points against the Utah Jazz.

“Every achievement and hardship left its mark within these walls,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles, said in a statement ahead of the closing. “Its appearance now at auction symbolizes a rare opportunity to own a unique piece of Kobe’s legacy.”

Sotheby’s said in a news release that the locker was rediscovered in 2018 by a maintenance worker after renovations to the Staples Center—now Crypto.com Arena—and was put aside. It was originally supposed to be discarded along with the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers locker room. Sotheby’s added that the locker was privately purchased by an American collector who also had the locker’s nameplate.

The Lakers didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Sotheby’s sold the most expensive Bryant jersey in February 2023 for $5.8 million, including buyer premium. Goldin Auctions sold a different Bryant jersey—the one from when he tore his ACL in 2013 against the Warriors—for $1.2 million.

Bryant memorabilia has drawn big numbers since his untimely passing in a 2020 helicopter crash. A copy of his first championship ring he gifted to his father sold for $927,200 in March; a record for the most expensive NBA title ring. Sports memorabilia has hit new highs as improved verification techniques draw deep-pocketed investors to iconic items from famous events.

The Mantle helmet, signed and worn during the 1961 season, closed at $36,000 to beat estimates, while Schumacher’s racing suit went for $33,600, below expectations but with no reserve price. Ewing’s Dream Team shoes were the other big prize of the day, with Olympic interest driving the lot to $50,400, more than 10 times the lowest estimate. USA Basketball continues its quest to match the 1992 gold medal winners on Saturday, when the team faces Puerto Rico at the end of group qualifying.