Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant said in a court filing on Thursday that he never gave his mother permission to sell mementos from his high school days and early professional basketball career, ESPN reported. Bryant is in a court battle over whether hundreds of items can be auctioned off.
Pamela Bryant says her son told her the memorabilia was hers. She arranged earlier this year to auction items off through Goldin Auctions, a New Jersey based group, and received a $450,000 advance.
Last week, lawyers for Kobe Bryant wrote to the auction house demanding it cease the June sale. Goldin is suing to assert its right to sell Bryant's mementos.
"I never told my mother that she could have my personal property, let alone consign it for public auction," Bryant wrote.
In a filing Wednesday in U.S. Disctict Court in Camden, Bryant says his mother acknowledged to him personally that she did not have permission to sell the items after already making the arrangement with Goldin Auctions.
"I confronted her about her false statement that I had given my memorabilia to her," Bryant wrote in the filing, which was seen by The Philadelphia Inquirer. "I said to her, 'Mom, you know I never told you that you could have the memorabilia.'
"Her response was, 'Yes, but you never said you wanted it, either.' Of course, this is untrue, since my wife and I requested that she return my memorabilia several years earlier."
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith spoke with Bryant early Thursday morning and claimed the future Hall of Famer is devastated. "He wants to make it clear he is not suing his mother," Smith repeated what Bryant told him. "His beef is with the auction company because he doesn't believe they have the right to sell off his stuff."
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