Kobe Bryant’s game-worn 2008 National Basketball Association Finals jersey is now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Bryant was a well-known supporter of the museum, donating at least a million dollars and urging people to go when the museum first opened in 2016. The 41-year-old basketball legend died in a late January helicopter accident, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six others.

After Bryant’s death, Smithsonian employees started noticing people were using the NMAAHC as a memorial, says Damion Thomas, the museum’s sports curator. People used “the picture we have of him in the museum as a place to grieve, as a place to commemorate within the sports gallery,” says Thomas.

NMAAHC first acquired the jersey artifacts in 2017. Thomas guided Bryant around the museum’s sports gallery at an event prior to the museum’s public opening, and was able to tell the basketball player why he thought the exhibit needed more Bryant.

His way of playing basketball — his so-called “Mamba Mentality” — has impacted a generation of young fans. “I think it resonates with a lot of people, particularly younger people, who were told, much like Kobe, ‘wait your turn, don’t be so aggressive, play within the rules,’ ” says Thomas. “Kobe Bryant was always striving to be his best, no matter the cost.”

During that tour, the sports star decided he wanted to donate something from his collection to the Smithsonian. They eventually agreed on the jersey and shorts he wore in game five of the 2008 NBA Finals.

In that game, Bryant scored 24 points and led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 103-98 victory over the Boston Celtics. However, the Celtics would win the next game to clinch the NBA championship that year.

The original plan was for the jersey to go on display shortly after his death, but the tribute was delayed when the museum closed due to the pandemic. Then, last month, NMAAHC reopened with new safety measures and reduced hours. That, along with Lakers winning earlier this month their 17th championship and their first without Bryant on the team, made it the perfect moment to put the jersey on public display for the first time.

“Kobe’s contributions on and off the court are remarkable,” wrote NMAAHC’s interim director Spencer Crew in a press release, “As a founding donor, he understood the significance of this museum to the nation and the world. After postponing the March installation due to COVID-19, we believe now is the perfect moment in history to honor his memory by placing his jersey on view.”

2008 was a particular banner year for Bryant. Along with making the NBA Finals, he was also named the league’s Most Valuable Player and won an Olympic gold medal later that summer as part of the USA basketball team. While Bryant was consistently lauded for his basketball career, a 2003 accusation of sexual assault tarnished his reputation.

The Smithsonian has a long history of honoring notable Americans posthumously. In the wake of John Glenn’s 2016 death, the National Portrait Gallery displayed a watercolor and graphite portrait of the astronaut. In 2018, the museum put up a 1968 lithographic poster of Aretha Franklin soon after the singer’s death. Locally, after NBC 4 anchor Jim Vance died, NMAAHC said they would create an exhibit honoring the longtime newsman.

The jersey first went on display on Thursday and is expected to remain so for at least a year, says Thomas.