Unseen Kobe Bryant footage up for auction
Before taking the NBA by storm and winning five championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant was one of high school basketball’s stand-out stars.
So stand-out in fact, that Bryant skipped college altogether, entering the NBA Draft as a 17-year old.
Now, 24 years later, over 22 hours of game and interview footage of Bryant from his time at Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia are set to go on auction. The majority of which has never been seen in public.
The treasure trove — set to be auctioned as a single lot — also includes high school footage of other iconic former and current professional athletes including LeBron James, Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Phelps, Dwyane Wade and Ryan Braun.
The auction will take place on July 23 and the lot is expected to fetch between $250,000 and $350,000.
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The Last Dance effect
Profiles in History, the auction house responsible for the sale of the library, believes that the recent success of ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary series about Michael Jordan and the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls makes the Bryant footage “even more relevant.”
The value of Jordan sports memorabilia has shot up in since the documentary series aired earlier this year.
A ‘Dream Team’ jersey worn and signed by Jordan sold for $216,000 the same night the series premiered in April, while the online auction for a game-worn pair of Air Jordan 1s from 1985 closed at $560,000 — over three times the estimated auction price.
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The Bryant footage is approximately 60% game and 40% interview footage, very little of which was aired — and that was to a very limited audience.
While in high school, Bryant led the Lower Merion Aces to the school’s first state championship in 53 years, earning national recognition in the process.
The library comes from Stu Ross, a high school sports reporter who presented a weekly TV series entitled, “High School Sports Show.”
Ross and his crew recorded over 35,000 games between 1994 and 2003 for the show.
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Remembering Kobe
Profiles in History has announced that it will be donating 10% of the final bid price to the MambaOnThree Fund.
The fund was established to honor and support the families of the seven other victims who were also killed in the Calabasas helicopter crash that ended Bryant’s life on January 26 earlier this year.
Bryant’s 13-year old daughter Gianna was one of the other people on board to be killed in the crash.
