Kobe Bryant was known worldwide as one of the greatest basketball players of all time during his iconic 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. What some may not realize is that Bryant had a fledgling baseball career in his past as well. In fact, between 1991 and 1996, Bryant’s baseball prowess was documented in the form of trading cards at a time before his NBA superstardom. While Kobe’s legacy would be firmly cemented on the basketball court, these rare baseball cards provide a interesting window into a different path his athletic career could have taken.
Born in Philadelphia in 1978, Bryant naturally grew up a fan of the Phillies and enjoyed playing baseball as a youth along with basketball. In 1991, at just 13 years old, Bryant impressed local amateur scouts enough with his skills at shortstop and pitching that he was offered a tryout with the Montreal Expos professional baseball team. While Bryant didn’t sign, it showed his significant baseball talents at a young age. That same year, Bryant’s potential was acknowledged when he was included in the classic 1991 Leaf Rookies and Trainees baseball card set. At only 13, he was one of the youngest players ever featured in a national baseball card release.
Through the early 1990s, Bryant continued to play both basketball and baseball with dreams of going pro in either sport. In 1992 and 1993, his baseball skills were documented again in the Sportflix and Scoreboard trading card sets respectively. By 1994, at age 16, Bryant made the difficult choice to drop baseball and solely focus on basketball, realizing that sport offered him the best path to a professional career. That year, he was selected to join the U.S. national junior team and play in the 1994 FIBA Americas U18 Championship.
Despite giving up baseball, Bryant’s athletic hype didn’t diminish and collectors still wanted cards showing his two-sport promise. In 1995, Classic Draft Picks baseball cards featured Bryant even though he had been solely a basketball player for over a year at that point. Then in 1996, Bryant received his final baseball card inclusion to date in Upper Deck’s Minor League Prospects set. The cards depicted Bryant as a prospect in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, even though he never actually signed or played a game of pro baseball. All of these early baseball cards showing a young Kobe Bryant are extremely rare today and hold substantial value for collectors given his future basketball stardom.
After his 1994 basketball focus, Bryant graduated from high school a year early and declared for the 1996 NBA Draft, where he was selected 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets but immediately traded to the Lakers. The rest is history as Bryant went on to win five NBA championships with Los Angeles and establish himself as one of the best shooting guards to ever play the game. Bryant’s NBA career accomplishments and scoring records are legendary, making him a first ballot Hall of Famer. But his path could have been different had he stuck with baseball as well into his high school years. At 6’6″, Bryant certainly had the size and athletic gifts to potentially succeed as a pro baseball player too.
While Bryant never reached the major leagues, his early baseball card rookie issues continue to fascinate collectors. Cards from the 1991 Leaf, 1992 Sportflix, and 1993 Scoreboard sets in particular are exceedingly rare today given Bryant’s superstardom increased their value exponentially over the decades. In Near Mint condition, examples from these earliest Kobe Bryant baseball card releases can fetch thousands of dollars nowadays. Even his later baseball cards from 1995 to 1996 maintain substantial collector interest and command mid-range premium prices relative to other athletes from those same sets who didn’t achieve his mega-fame.
For basketball enthusiasts and Lakers fans, Kobe Bryant’s trading cards chronicling his youth two-sport potential provide an esoteric connection to his pre-NBA life and a path not taken. They preserve a visual record of Bryant as an amateur baseball prospect with a still-unwritten future. Following his tragic death in a helicopter crash in 2020 at age 41, these rare baseball cards have taken on even greater significance as some of the only memorabilia in existence showing Bryant before his iconic basketball career defined him as a global icon. While Kobe will always be remembered foremost for his accomplishments on the court, the limited baseball cards issued in the early 1990s that captured Bryant on the diamond remain a treasured oddity for collectors today seeking a unique perspective on one of basketball’s all-time greats.
