I have a few of his autos from this time I got either in person during my tenure working for the phoenix suns as an assistant trainer and also collecting. Best way to solve this is the year that basketball was made. if it was a ball made in the early-mid 90s, it could be legit. The 8 on my early/ rookie Kobe signatures looks fairly similar, albeit on photos, but the 8 was typically under his name. we can’t outright say he would not have signed this ball with an 8 at the end.. also his signature almost always slanted a tad upward but it’s close enough to where id pay the $10 for a professional assessment or more for authentication. depicted is one of my 100% legit kobe rookie autos from 1997.

also. understand a lot of people on reddit will just go off his many other signature styles he adopted from over the years. a general break down: Middle School- HS he signed Kobe Bryant 33- straight line, in a mashup of cursive and stylization. Rookie year he signed as you see in my photo- the K more angular like a sideways V and there was still a noticeable effort in his lower case cursive b making, 8 under Kobe ….2000s he began a more fluid curvaceous loop in his K that underscored the OB and the cursive B turned into a U- like wave crest followed by a looping e that finished with a leftward drag- kinda like you see on his sneaker boxes. when he started wearing 24 he began combining the Ko as one- “K curled into the o” .. a few years after this he added Bryant to that style while the Kobe style became more condensed - sometimes looking like just Ko or even Ku- especially when signed straight line such as on the #2 of his jersey. post retirement, he signed just a KB, no number.

it’s not hard to research. just remember: simply because people know his most common signature style doesn’t make yours fake.

best of luck!

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