Sports Memorabilia

graded 1.5 FAIR and certified authentic by PSA, only three additional examples of this historically significant ticket are known to exist. An important artifact from the the first matchup between an 18-year-old Bryant and the player he patterned much of his career. Bryant shared his state of mind going into the encounter on Geno Auriemma's Holding Court podcast in 2017: "I was thinking in my mind, I didn't care. I'm going to destroy this guy. I don't care if I'm 18, I'm coming for blood." But Bryant would soon discover that he was still the student to Jordan's teacher after getting dunked on early in the game. "And the first thing he did, they ran a fifth-down sequence in the triangle. He caught the ball in the corner and he made his little pirouette spin that he does and sneaks baseline. I fell for it, and he went by me and dunked it. I remember just laughing to myself all the way up the court. I've seen that move thousands of times and I can't believe I just fell for it. And then after that, it was like, 'OK, let's get to work.' Every time I faced him I wanted to see how he was going to respond to his same moves." Jordan and the Bulls would go on to beat the Lakers 129-123, finishing with 30 points to Bryan's five.