The signed, game-worn jersey from Kobe Bryant‘s 2007-08 NBA MVP season — the only year he won the award throughout his profession — simply cost $5.8 million at an auction!!
Sotheby’s informs TMZ Sports … the Bryant jersey set a brand-new record for Kobe-associated sports souvenirs cost auction, and is the second-most important basketball jersey to ever strike the marketplace.
Bryant used the jersey for 25 video games in ’07-’08 … balancing 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 helps while leading the Lakers to the NBA Finals for the very first time because Shaquille O’Neal left.
Kobe likewise used the jersey the very same night he was granted the routine season Most Valuable Player Award on May 7, 2008 … and throughout Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
“This jersey is iconic in a way we seldom see in sports artifacts,” stated Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s Head of Streetwear and Modern Collectables.
Experts at first anticipated the jersey to cost anywhere in between $5-7 million.
Sotheby’s just recently offered LeBron James‘ 2013 Game 7 NBA Finals jersey for $3.7 million in January — and Kobe’s MVP season jersey remains in that very same rarefied air.
Bryant and the Lakers lost to the Celtics in 6 video games in the Finals … however the jersey he used throughout his MVP season and the efficiencies he installed in it are sealed in NBA history.