An anonymous buyer recently spent a record-breaking amount to win an auction for the jersey worn by newcomer Victor Wembanyama during his debut game with the San Antonio Spurs four weeks ago. Chosen in the first round of the NBA Draft 2023, Wembanyama is one of the most notable and highly sought-after young talents in the past two decades. Many experts have hailed the towering French player as a once-in-a-generation talent, similar to LeBron James when he entered the NBA in the early 2000s. While it was no surprise that Wembanyama has a strong following, nobody expected him to already have a jersey worth hundreds of thousands of dollars after playing for less than a month in the NBA.
Less than a month into his NBA career, Victor Wembanyama’s jersey was recently auctioned off for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sotheby’s, a well-known auction house, successfully sold the jersey that Wembanyama wore during his official debut game on October 25th. The auction exceeded expectations, with an estimated value of $80,000-$120,000 USD, and ended up selling for a whopping $762,000 USD (equivalent to nearly 14.5 billion Vietnamese dong) to an anonymous buyer. No other player in NBA history has had a jersey sold for this high of a price while still actively playing. It’s worth noting that Wembanyama only recently joined the NBA and has not even been playing for a full month yet. Sotheby’s confirmed that this was one of two jerseys that Wemby wore during his debut game, specifically during the third and fourth quarters, while he wore a different jersey during the first half of the game.
Victor Wembanyama’s debut game in the NBA between the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks featured a jersey worth over 14 billion dong. The identity of the buyer remains unknown, leading to online speculation as to why someone would spend such a large sum on a basketball jersey. Some suggest that the buyer may be a collector, while others believe it could be an investment group looking to sell the jersey at a higher value in the future.
Many predict that Wembanyama has the potential to become a superstar and even a Hall of Famer, which could further increase the value of the jersey if resold in the future. However, the record for the highest auctioned basketball jersey still belongs to Kobe Bryant. One buyer spent $3.69 million to own the rookie season jersey that Bryant had worn in 1996-97. This jersey is considered extremely rare because it’s the only one authenticated by photo-matching technology, which wasn’t commonly used during that era. It’s worth noting that the value of Kobe-related memorabilia has significantly increased since his untimely death in a helicopter crash in early 2020.
Kobe Bryant currently holds the record for the most valuable rookie jersey, worth 3.69 million US dollars. This is also the only verified photo-matched jersey from the 1996-97 season.