The locker which Kobe Bryant used at the Staples Center from 2003-2016 has sold for a record setting $2.9M at auction according to Sotheby’s.
The sale makes it the most expensive sports locker to be sold publicly, though the market for such a unique piece of sports history is admittedly smaller than most.
Used for the final 13 seasons of Bryant’s illustrious career, the piece of memorabilia quickly blew past pre-auction estimates of $1-1.5M. When the Staples Center was undergoing renovations in 2018, the locker was reportedly set to be thrown out until an individual involved with the project had the foresight to set it aside.
In 2022 that individual, who chose to remain nameless, sold it to a private collector for $280,000. Fast forward two years later and the same locker fetched 10x that amount at auction.
“Kobe Bryant’s locker is not merely a piece of memorabilia but a profound relic from one of basketball’s most iconic figures,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles. “Today’s price highlights not only Kobe’s enduring legacy but also the exceptional nature of this unique item.”
Kobe related items have taken on a mythology of their own since his untimely passing. Only a few months prior, the jersey which Bryant wore when he tore his achilles sold at auction for $1.2M. Prior to that one of his championship rings from the 2000 season sold for $927K at auction. And back in 2022, one of Bryant’s 1997-98 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems cards sold for $2M in a private sale.
While sports lockers have been put up for sale in the past, they’ve never come close to fetching the final figure that this weeks sale did. Back in 2009 a signed locker Michael Jordan used in the 1990s at the Berto Center (the Bulls’ practice facility) managed to fetch $23,000.
With the sale now complete, the Staples Center locker officially becomes the 3rd most expensive piece of Bryant related memorabilia to be sold publicly.
As part of the sale, a portion of the proceeds will go towards the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation, though Sotheby’s did not elaborate on what that figure would be.
Photo: Gene Wang. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.