Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers jersey from his one and only MVP season in 2007–08 was sold for $5.8 million on Thursday, making it the second-most expensive basketball jersey ever sold, according to auction house Sotheby’s.
After selling for almost $10 million in September at Sotheby’s, Michael Jordan’s jersey from the first game of the 1998 NBA Finals holds the record for the most expensive piece of game-worn sports memorabilia in history. Bryant, an 18-time All-Star and five-time NBA champion, passed away along with his daughter and seven other people in a helicopter crash in January 2020.
According to the Sotheby’s website, Bryant signed the jersey and wore it in 25 of his 82 games that season, including six playoff contests.