It doesn't hurt to invest early.
Victor Wembanyama continues to make waves in the NBA since being drafted No. 1 overall by the San Antonio Spurs this past summer, but his hype has been ballooning since his playing days in France.
And once Wembanyama suited up for his first official NBA regular-season game, the jersey he wore may have given a fan a piece of history down the line.
The jersey Wembanyama wore in the second half of his NBA debut versus the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 25 sold for a record price at an auction Tuesday.
It sold for a record $762,000, according to fine arts company Sotheby's. Pre-auction estimates were between $80,000 to $120,000. It's the most ever spent on any NBA rookie debut jersey and one of the highest in general in modern times.
In that game, Wembanyama posted 15 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals a block in 23 minutes while shooting 6 of 9 from the field and 3 of 5 from deep. The Spurs lost narrowly, 126-119.
Per Sotheby's via ESPN, the auction involved 176 bidders across 14 countries with an average of 24 bids per lot. Wembanyama's debut jersey lot saw 62 bids itself.
The all-time record for a rookie NBA debut jersey belongs to Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, which happened in May of 2021 for a price of $3.69 million.
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