Kobe Bryant #33 Lower Merion Bulldogs Basketball Jersey

For the first 10 years of his career, Kobe Bryant wore the number 8. At Lower Merion, he wore 24, but in 1996, the year he guided the Aces to a PIAA championship, he switched to 33. That was the number his father, Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant, wore at John Bartram High School. Lower Merion High School is a public high school in Ardmore, a community in Philadelphia's Main Line suburbs. While the school mascot is a bulldog, its athletics teams are known as the "Aces," honoring the U.S. Air Force “Flying Aces” established by Lower Merion alum Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold.