CSG Certifies Vibrant and Valuable Kobe Bryant Card

Certified Sports Guaranty® (CSG®) was thrilled to grade a valuable 1996-97 Topps Finest #269 Kobe Bryant Refractor card with its coating. The card earned a grade of CGC 8.5; in this condition, it is easily worth five figures.

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Kobe Bryant is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. At age 17, he was selected 13th overall in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets and traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. He kicked off his career by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. By his second season, the “high-flyer” was named an All-Star. Bryant would go on to earn 17 more All-Star honors through 2016.

Over the course of his career, Bryant won five NBA championships, was named the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and was a two-time NBA Finals MVP. He is the all-time leading scorer in Lakers history, and in 2020, he was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bryant is a favorite among basketball collectors. In fact, he is one of only two players (the other being Michael Jordan) for whom collectors have built over 100 Player Sets in the CSG Registry. This card is the first of its particular type in the CSG Population Report, which now includes over 300,000 basketball cards.