Basketball fans around the world have heard of Lower Merion High School, an otherwise anonymous school in the Philadelphia suburbs that just so happened to educate one of the greatest hoopers to ever live. Kobe Bryant is as synonymous with Lower Merion as a person can be with their high school, which made the fact that some Kobe gear was stolen from the school in 2017 so unfortunate.
The report from back then indicated that a number of items from the school’s collection of Bryant gear — including a signed replica jersey and a state championship trophy — were taken after someone(s) broke into Lower Merion. Things have been pretty quiet on that front since it happened, but in a wild twist, the jersey has been returned to the school.
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, a Bryant superfan in China named Liu Zhe bought the jersey to add to his collection without realizing exactly what was going on. After forking over $2,000 and getting his hands on his latest Kobe jersey, Liu realized something was up. He wanted to give it to Bryant during his upcoming tour of China, but instead got in touch with Lower Merion and sent it back to them with no expectation of getting compensated.
Via ESPN:
The school received the jersey in the mail last week and handed it over to the Lower Merion Police Department. On Tuesday, straight out of an episode of “Pawn Stars,” Detective Ed Sarama consulted an area memorabilia shop to verify that the signature on the uniform was authentic. In the opinion of the New Jersey-based shop, it was.
Liu apparently wants Bryant to be made aware of the action, so if you’re reading this, Kobe Bryant, the next time you’re in China, go dap him up, because this is pretty cool of him.
