Kobe Bryant Rookie-Season Jersey

The jersey of a teenager

This is the gold Lakers home jersey with the No. 8 that Kobe Bryant wore at the very start of his NBA career. Authenticators photo-matched it to his first NBA media day, his preseason debut on October 16, 1996, and his regular-season debut on November 3, 1996. Reports count seven photo-matched occasions in all during the 1996-97 season; one account counts those as seven games plus media day, another as seven occasions including media day.

Photo-matching ties a specific garment to dated photographs, so a buyer knows not only that a player wore it but when. For a rookie, the earliest matches matter most, and this one reaches all the way back to day one.

Bryant wore No. 8 for his first ten seasons and switched to No. 24 at the start of the 2006-07 season. The Lakers retired both numbers in 2017.

From Lower Merion to Inglewood

Kobe Bryant was born August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant. At Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, he led the team to its first state championship in 53 years and finished as southeastern Pennsylvania's all-time leading high school scorer with 2,883 points. He skipped college and entered the 1996 NBA draft.

The draft was held June 26, 1996, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Allen Iverson went first. Charlotte took Bryant with the 13th pick, but the day before the draft the Hornets had agreed to send that pick to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac, a deal arranged by Lakers executive Jerry West after watching Bryant work out. The class also produced Steve Nash and Ray Allen.

The same summer the Lakers signed Shaquille O'Neal to a seven-year, $120 million contract. Bryant began as a reserve on a team coached by Del Harris, starting only 6 of his 71 games.

November 3, 1996

Bryant was listed as did not play in the Lakers' season opener. Two nights later, on November 3, 1996, the Minnesota Timberwolves came to the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, and Bryant got into his first regular-season game at 18 years and 72 days old, then the second-youngest player ever to appear in an NBA game.

His line was modest: 6 minutes and 22 seconds, one shot attempt, missed, no points, one rebound, one block, one turnover and one foul. The Lakers won 91-85 behind O'Neal. Kevin Garnett scored 12 for Minnesota.

He finished the season with 71 games, 6 starts and averages of 7.6 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 15.5 minutes. In February 1997, during All-Star Weekend in Cleveland, he won the Slam Dunk Contest, the youngest dunk champion at 18. The Lakers went 56-26 and lost to Utah in the conference semifinals, the series ending in overtime on May 12, 1997.

From $115,242 to $7 million

The jersey first sold at auction in 2012 for $115,242. At that point Bryant was still playing; he retired after the 2015-16 season with five championships (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010), two Finals MVP awards, the 2007-08 MVP and 18 All-Star selections.

Bryant died on January 26, 2020, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, that also killed his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame that year.

In March 2025 the jersey was announced as a single-lot sale in New York, paired with a separately offered Michael Jordan jersey from Jordan's 1984 preseason debut. The two were shown publicly from March 21, and the Bryant jersey was expected to bring 'in the range of $10 million.' Bidding ran online April 10-24.

On April 24, 2025, it sold for $7 million. That beat the previous record for any Bryant item, $5.85 million for his signed, game-worn jersey from the 2007-08 MVP season, and topped the Jordan rookie preseason jersey, which had sold in March for just over $4 million. At the time it ranked as the fourth most expensive game-worn sports jersey, behind Babe Ruth's 'called shot' jersey ($24 million), Michael Jordan's 1998 Finals jersey ($10.1 million) and Diego Maradona's 1986 World Cup shirt ($9.3 million).

One of several rookie jerseys

Bryant wore more than one No. 8 jersey as a rookie, and several have sold. A signed gold rookie jersey sold in 2021 for $3.69 million, then the highest price for a basketball jersey. Another rookie jersey, photo-matched to regular-season wins over Utah on April 13, 1997, and Sacramento on April 17, 1997, and also worn in two playoff games, sold in June 2022 for $2.73 million against a $3 million to $5 million estimate.

What separates this one is the match to his first media day and to both debuts. A rookie jersey proves a season; this one proves a beginning. When identifying it, the photo-match record to those three dated events is what matters, not the color or number, which it shares with other jerseys from the same season.

The numbers

Debut, Nov. 3, 1996 vs. Minnesota

6:22 MP, 0-1 FG, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 1 BLK, 1 TOV, 1 PF, -8. Lakers won 91-85.

1996-97 season (age 18)

71 G, 6 GS, 15.5 MPG, 7.6 PPG, 1.9 RPG, 1.3 APG, .417 FG%, .375 3P%, .819 FT%

1996-97 honors

All-Rookie team; Slam Dunk Contest champion

1996-97 Lakers

56-26; lost Western Conference semifinals to Utah, 4-1

Career (20 seasons)

1,346 G, 33,643 points, 25.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 4.7 APG

Career honors

5 NBA titles, 2 Finals MVPs, 2007-08 MVP, 18 All-Star selections, Hall of Fame 2020

Timeline

1. Aug 23, 1978

   Kobe Bryant is born in Philadelphia.

2. Jun 26, 1996

   Charlotte drafts Bryant 13th overall; the pick had been agreed in a trade to the Lakers for Vlade Divac.

3. Oct 16, 1996

   Bryant's preseason debut, one of the photo-matched games for this jersey.

4. Nov 3, 1996

   Regular-season debut against Minnesota at the Great Western Forum, wearing this jersey.

5. Feb 1997

   Bryant wins the Slam Dunk Contest in Cleveland at 18.

6. May 12, 1997

   The Lakers' season ends with an overtime loss at Utah.

7. 2006

   Bryant switches from No. 8 to No. 24 at the start of the 2006-07 season.

8. 2012

   The jersey sells at auction for $115,242.

9. 2016

   Bryant retires after 20 seasons with the Lakers.

10. 2017

    The Lakers retire both No. 8 and No. 24.

11. Jan 26, 2020

    Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others die in a helicopter crash.

12. Mar 21, 2025

    The jersey goes on public view in New York ahead of a single-lot sale.

13. Apr 24, 2025

    Sells for $7 million, a record for any Kobe Bryant memorabilia.

The world in 1996

• Apr 3, 1996

  Suspected Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.

• Apr 16, 1996

  The Chicago Bulls win their 70th game, a new NBA single-season record.

• Jul 17, 1996

  TWA Flight 800 explodes off Long Island, killing all 230 aboard.

• Jul 19, 1996

  The Summer Olympics open in Atlanta.

• Jul 27, 1996

  A bomb in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park kills two and injures 111.

• Oct 26, 1996

  The New York Yankees beat Atlanta to win their first World Series in 18 years.

• Nov 5, 1996

  Bill Clinton is reelected over Bob Dole.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Kobe Bryant Rookie-Season Jersey is number 10 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (9 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Bryant did not score in the game this jersey is famous for: he went 0 for 1 in just over six minutes.
• The Lakers got Bryant by trading their starting center, Vlade Divac, for the draft pick that Charlotte used on him.
• At 18 years and 72 days, Bryant was then the second-youngest player ever to appear in an NBA game.
• The jersey sold for about 60 times its 2012 price.
• Bryant's rookie jerseys have sold at least three times for seven figures: $3.69 million in 2021, $2.73 million in 2022 and $7 million in 2025.