These shoes once gifted from Kobe to LeBron are up for bid

Kobe Bryant gave these shoes to LeBron James. They can be yours for (at least) $20,000

LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were teammates at the 2012 London Olympics.

Feb. 18, 2021 2:14 PM PT

Kobe Bryant was an NBA superstar in 2002 when he gave a pair of custom sneakers to a high school player named LeBron James.

It was a nice gesture from a Lakers legend-in-the making, and James was thrilled — even though the shoes were a size too small.

“It was the red-white-and-blue Kobes,” James told ESPN last year of the shoes. “I was a 15 and he was a 14, and I wore them anyway.”

James squeezed into the snug sneakers the following night and scored 35 points during an All-Star game in Philadelphia.

Those shoes are now up for bid through Heritage Auctions. Here’s what they look like:

And here’s how the auction house describes them:

“The patriotic colorway displays the Stars & Stripes on the uppers, rubberized toe boxes, three-stripe motif on the midsoles/outer soles, Adidas on the inner tongues, and the Mamba silhouette on the insoles. The design was created to commemorate the loss of life in the recent 9/11 terror attacks. The custom shoes bear no interior tagging but exhibit fine game wear.”

Interested? Hope you have more than $20,000 handy, because that’s where the bidding currently stands. The auction closes next week.