A jersey photo-matched to seven games in Kobe Bryant’s 1996-97 rookie season for the Los Angeles Lakers — including his preseason debut on Oct. 16, 1996; his regular-season debut on Nov. 3, 1996; and his NBA media day — sold for $7 million at Sotheby’s on Thursday. The jersey last sold for $115,242 at auction in 2012.
It set a new record for any Bryant sports collectible, eclipsing the $5,849,700 spent on a game-worn, signed jersey from the 2007-08 season in which Bryant won his lone MVP award.
Debut games are truly one-of-a-kind moments in an athlete’s career,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles, in a statement. “They mark the nascency of an extraordinary journey, and for iconic athletes like Kobe Bryant, these milestones hold even more significance as they represent a singular moment in time that can never be replicated.”
The $7 million Bryant jersey is the fourth-most-expensive game-worn sports jersey of all time behind the $24 million Babe Ruth “called shot” jersey, Michael Jordan’s $10.1 million “Last Dance” jersey and Diego Maradona’s $9.3 million “Hand of God” Argentina jersey from the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
Bryant went 0-1 from the field with 0 points, 1 rebound and 1 block in 6 minutes, 22 seconds off the bench in his regular-season NBA debut, but was an All-Star and runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year the following season, averaging 15.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.9 steals.
Sotheby’s has brokered the five most expensive game-worn NBA jersey sales of all time: Jordan’s $10.1 million “Last Dance” jersey; the $7 million Bryant debut jersey sold Thursday; the $5.8 million Bryant MVP season jersey; a $4.9 million Wilt Chamberlain jersey worn in the 1972 NBA Finals, the Lakers’ first title run; and a jersey Jordan wore in 17 Chicago Bulls games during the 1996-97 NBA season that sold for $4.7 million in November.
The Milwaukee Bucks and general manager Jon Horst have agreed to a multiyear contract extension, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
The Bucks’ ownership and Horst’s agent, Brian Elfus, reached a new deal late Wednesday night for the NBA championship executive and 2019 NBA exec of the year before his contract expired.
The Bucks have made the playoffs in all eight of Horst’s seasons as general manager and have a .647 winning percentage — second best in the NBA during that span, per ESPN Research. Horst, 42, started in basketball operations roles in Milwaukee and Detroit before being promoted to Bucks GM in 2017.
Just the news I’ve been waiting for,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said after Thursday’s practice. “I’m just very happy for him. He’s done an amazing job. We have an amazing relationship. It just creates stability. I just am a big believer in stability in organizations. That’s how you build teams.”
Horst, the architect of the Bucks’ 2021 championship — their first in 50 years — has made several signature transactions as the leader of the franchise’s basketball operations. In 2018, he led the hiring of head coach Mike Budenholzer and signed Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis as free agents. He traded for Jrue Holiday and P.J. Tucker in 2020-21, and then he landed Damian Lillard in a blockbuster deal right before the 2023 NBA season.
The Bucks (48-34) finished this season with the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee is down 2-0 to the Indiana Pacers in their first-round playoff series, despite a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo averaging 35.0 points, 15.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists on 65% shooting.
Horst’s sometimes bold acquisitions have led to Antetokounmpo signing two extensions with the Bucks — a five-year supermax contract in 2020 and then a three-year supermax extension in 2023.
The pairing of Antetokounmpo and Lillard, however, has yet to lead to the kind of results that Milwaukee envisioned when they made the trade. The Bucks are still searching for their first playoff series win since the first round of the 2022 playoffs.
Rivers, who was hired in January 2024, said the connection between the front office and coaching staff is the key to winning franchises, and he lauded his connection with Horst since arriving in Milwaukee.
“It’s the best connected I’ve been since I’ve been in Boston,” Rivers said. “It matters so much for coaches. … The team starts upstairs in front office first, and coaches, then everybody else sees that it’s a team. We have that.
DETROIT — Pistons center Isaiah Stewart is out for a second straight game against the New York Knicks.
The Pistons ruled him out due to an injured right knee on Thursday night in Game 3 of the first-round series.
Stewart had two points, two blocks and five rebounds in 19 minutes of Game 1, which the Knicks won after going on a 21-0 run.
He missed Game 2 and players such as Paul Reed filled in to help the Pistons win and snap an NBA-record, 15-playoff game losing streak that dated to 2008.
Stewart averaged six points and nearly six rebounds in the regular season, his fifth with the team, while providing some muscle for the team’s physical brand of basketball.
