Kobe Bryant’s Staples Center Locker Sells For Record $2.9M At Auction

The Los Angeles Lakers home locker that NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant used at Staples Center 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.

Bryant’s rookie season jersey sold for $3.69 million in 2021. His home locker also fell short of a signed, game-used and photo-matched Bryant jersey from his lone MVP season in 2007-08, which sold for $5.6 million. It was the second-most valuable basketball jersey ever sold.

Per ESPN’s Dan Hajducky, the locker was bidding at $750,000, but over the final twenty minutes of the auction, four bidders pushed the sale to just under $3 million.

“Kobe Bryant’s locker is not merely a piece of memorabilia,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles, said in a statement. “But a profound relic from one of basketball’s most iconic figures. Today’s price highlights not only Kobe’s enduring legacy but also the exceptional nature of this unique item.”

The custom locker’s dimensions are L 34 3/4″ x W 24″ x H 98 7/8,” according to the lot details. If the Staples Center was “The House that Kobe Built,” then this was his room inside that house.

Kobe Bryant’s Staples Center locker was the setting for champagne championship celebrations, autograph signings

Additionally, Bryant’s locker has a wood grain pattern on the cabinet door at the top. It also features black marks on the bottom kick plate and a combination lock on the top cabinet. His locker was reportedly the only one with a combination lock.

Bryant’s locker was also located at the back of the locker room near the showers. Following his retirement in 2016, the locker was given to Brandon Ingram for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.

During the Staples Center’s 2018 renovations, an unnamed maintenance worker saved Bryant’s locker from demolition, then sold it to a private collector, who reunited the locker with Bryant’s nameplate.

The back row of lockers was changed from four lockers to three, and LeBron James took Bryant’s corner spot.

According to Sotheby’s, the item was registered into The MeiGrade System to track exclusive memorabilia. It was inspected in person by MeiGray in August 2023.

Sotheby’s announced that a portion of the sale’s proceeds will “directly benefit” the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation. However, the auction house did not disclose the dollar amount.

The Lakers Youth Foundation funds STEM Lab Projects, Reading, and Learning Centers. It pays for the construction of basketball courts throughout Los Angeles County and in Hawaii as well.