1. It was the uniform that Kobe Bryant wore the very first time he suited up for the Lakers back on Nov. 3, 1996. The teenager wore these gold threads for home games through the first three years of his career before the Lakers upgraded to their modern look.
2. Bryant flew through the air in 1997 wearing this purple kit, dropping hammers to win the Slam Dunk Contest at only 18 years old. However, he also learned some painful lessons in these threads, including tough postseason sweeps by Utah and San Antonio before the three-peat years.
3. When Kobe stood on the podium to lift up the Larry O’Brien championship trophies in 2001 and 2002, he was wearing this jersey. Bryant also provided one of the great moments of his young career in this outfit, scoring 28 points — including three overtime baskets — to beat Indiana in Game 4 of the 2000 NBA Finals after Shaquille O’Neal had fouled out.
4. In an almost poetic coincidence, the Lakers didn’t win their first championship since Showtime until they updated their uniforms. When the clock ran out in Game 5 of the 2000 Finals, Kobe and co. celebrated in their gold duds. Just two weeks earlier, they also wore them when Bryant and O’Neal led the team to a 16-point fourth-quarter comeback in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
5. In celebration of the five championship teams of the Minneapolis era, the Lakers wore special throwbacks for their April 11, 2002 game, fittingly against Minnesota. At halftime, L.A. rose a pair of banners to honor the titles and Hall of Famers from 1947-60, while Minneapolis legends like John Kundla, George Mikan and Vern Mikkelsen looked on from center court.
6. It was the uniform Kobe Bryant wore on that immortal night of Jan. 22, 2006. Nobody on the floor could stop the man wearing No. 8 in white, as he exploded for 81 points — the second-most in NBA history.
7. For the previous seven seasons, players simply wore their own team’s jersey during the All-Star Game. That changed in 2003, as Bryant and the Western Conference wore red threads in Atlanta. On the heels of the Lakers’ three-peat, Kobe received more votes from fans — 1.5 million — than any other player.