A collection of rare and unseen photos featuring basketball legend Kobe Bryant is scheduled to be auctioned in non-fungible tokens (NFT).
Dubbed as “Kobe,” the collection consists of eight photos of the late Bryant, all taken in 1999 when the “Black Mamba” was only 21 years old and had served only three years in the NBA. Later, he would still spend another 17 years in the North American basketball league, all in the Los Angeles Lakers, until his retirement in 2016.
The photographs will be auctioned on the crypto collectible marketplace Cryptograph as NFTs. In turn, the raised amount will go to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation, a non-governmental organization that develops sports-related programs for underfunded communities.
Initially called Mamba Sports Foundation, the institution was renamed after the accident that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna alongside seven other people in January 2020. The foundation also honored the athlete’s daughter, who played basketball and bore the nickname inspired by his father’s.
Smashbox Studios’ Davis Factor took Bryant’s photos in Los Angeles when the latter was a new basketball star.
“I think this shoot is special because it’s one of his first fashion shoots,” Factor told Business Insider. “The purpose of this Kobe Bryant NFT drop, for me, is to raise as much money as humanly possible to give to Kobe Bryant’s foundation.”
“I’m so excited that my friend Davis Factor has allowed us to immortalize these rare photos of Kobe Bryant and that these Cryptographs will support his legacy and foundation,” Tommy Alastra, cofounder of Cryptograph, added, saying that he and Factor were discussing to turn Bryant’s unseen photos into NFTs for months.
As a result, his NFTs expect to rake in bids worth millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the NFT market is one of the fastest emerging sectors from the cryptocurrency industry, moving billions of dollars worth of volumes every month. As a result, platforms that use technology have reached users on a global scale via different fronts.
“Kobe Bryant is an icon and loved by basketball fans worldwide. His name moved billions of dollars in product sales. I have no doubt this drop will be a complete success.” Steve Mitobe, CEO, WestCoastNFT