Cryptograph Offers a Set of Kobe Bryant NFTs to Benefit the Late Basketball Star’s Sports Foundation

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Eight Kobe
Bryant
photographs taken by Los Angeles photographer David Factor of Smashbox Studios are being offered as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) via Cryptograph to benefit the late basketball star’s
Mamba
and Mambacita Sports Foundation.

The eight individual NFTs are available at Cryptograph, a Los Angeles-based platform of digital collectibles created by celebrities and artists to raise money for various causes. The bidding began on Tuesday, a day officially celebrated as Kobe
Bryant Day
in Los Angeles and Orange County, Calif., in commemoration of the basketball legend’s birthday on Aug. 23.

There is no minimum bidding for each of these NFTs, which soared to a price range between ETH 3 to ETH 4 (US$9,700 and US$12,500) as of Wednesday afternoon.

Bryant, who spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996-2016, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. in January 2020 at age 41. The Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation was established in memory of Bryant and his daughter
Gigi,
with a mission to support underserved athletes and young women in sports.

Bryant was regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He won five NBA championships, and was an 18-time All-Star, and a 15-time member of the All-NBA team. Bryant also won​​ two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team in 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. 

Factor, 60, photographed these images of Kobe at the beginning of his basketball career more than 20 years ago in a slaughterhouse in downtown Los Angeles. 

“He was younger at the time and really ready to get into the character itself, ” Factor said in a video accompanying the NFT drop. “This shoot is special because it’s one of his first fashion shoots.”

Factor, a great-grandson of cosmetics pioneer Max Factor, co-founded Smashbox Studios and later Smashbox Cosmetics in 1990. He serves as a senior executive at Smashbox Cosmetics, now part of Estee Lauder.

“The NFT drop is amazing, because it’s preserving the memories of Kobe,” Factor said in the video. “The main goal is to raise as much money as humanly possible to give to Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation.”