In Sotheby’s inaugural auction with the NBA, one item highlights the sale to kick off the partnership. This season, everyone had eyes on the San Antonio Spurs rookie hailing from France. Victor Wembanyama‘s beginning in the NBA has drawn attention from all over the world. The rookie currently holds an impressive stat in his first season, averaging 18.6 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists and a field-goal percentage of 42.4% per game.
Capitalizing on the electric debut of Wemby in the league, Sotheby’s auctioned off his jersey from the second-half of his NBA debut against the Dallas Mavericks. Selling for an astounding $762,000 USD, it exceeded pre-auction estimates that were between $80,000 to $120,000 USD. To put it into perspective, Zion Williamson‘s game-worn jersey sold a month after his NBA debut in 2020 for just $80,040 USD. The all-time record for a rookie uniform is held by Kobe Bryant, which was sold in May 2021 for $3.69 million USD.
As per Sotheby’s which was recently named as the official game-worn source of the NBA, the auction saw 176 bidders across 14 countries with an average of 24 bids per lot. For Wemby’s jersey alone, it drew 62 bids alone and was considered the “highest levels of participation for a sports memorabilia auction at Sotheby’s.”
In case you missed it, Sotheby’s recently auctioned off Lionel Messi’s 2022 FIFA World Cup Argentina jerseys.
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