Getty Image / Christian Petersen
The late Kobe Bryant is an absolute legend worldwide with millions of fans that keep the memory of one of the greatest players to ever play alive.
Those loyal fans extend to memorabilia collectors, as Kobe’s tragic death in a 2020 helicopter accident sent prices of his memorabilia skyrocketing. And, his locker at Staples Center, now Crypto.com Arena, just sold for a ton of money.
Here’s ESPN with more.
The home locker that the late Kobe Bryant used from 2003-04 to his final season in 2015-16 has sold for a record-setting $2.9 million, the auction house that brokered the sale said Friday.
According to Sotheby’s, it’s the most valuable sports locker to ever sell at auction. It’s also the third-most expensive piece of Bryant memorabilia of all time, trailing just a game-used, autographed and photo-matched jersey from Bryant’s rookie season, which sold for $3.69 million in 2021, and a signed, game-used and photo-matched Bryant jersey from his lone MVP season in 2007-08, which sold for $5.6 million — the second-most valuable basketball jersey ever sold.
That’s a big check, for sure. And, for most of us, that’s an amount of money we can’t fully comprehend spending at all, let alone on someone’s locker.
But, think of it from the perspective of someone who does have that kind of money and loves Kobe Bryant. That’s the locker that he used every day he was in that building, the building that hosted him and the Lakers for the vast majority of his career and all five of his NBA Championship seasons.
The sports memorabilia market has been going nuts since the pandemic, and this is just another example of that.