Icon Sportswire. Pictured: Kobe Bryant (1996).
A game-used Kobe Bryant signed rookie jersey sold for $1.41 million late Saturday night, breaking the record for the most expensive basketball jersey ever sold.
The jersey, auctioned off by Goldin Auctions, was photo-matched to a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Dec. 1996, four other games and his rookie photo shoot.
The previous high for a basketball jersey was a Michael Jordan UNC jersey that sold for $1.38 million earlier this month.
$1.38 million: Price paid tonight at @HeritageAuction for a Michael Jordan jersey worn by MJ from the 1982-83 season at UNC pic.twitter.com/CwResj9WLE
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 8, 2021
The jersey was undoubtedly boosted by publicity surrounding Goldin and Bryant. Goldin was a sponsor of Bryant’s induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last week.
To put the $1.4 million price in perspective, Goldin sold four Kobe game-used rookie jerseys in the past — the cheapest for $4,910 (2018) and the most expensive, prior to this, for $65,280 (2020).
Other auction highlights included a T206 Honus Wagner, which sold for $3.7 million, a record for that card, and a Michael Jordan signed game-used jersey swatch card, which sold for a Jordan card record of $2.1 million.
