Basketball fans will argue until the end of time over who the G.O.A.T. of the sport is. Many people will say that Michael Jordan owns that title after winning six NBA Championships and going undefeated in the NBA Finals in his career. While other players will stake a claim to the title, there is one area that Jordan is by far the king in; memorabilia sales.
There isn’t a player that can touch Jordan when it comes to how much his memorabilia sells for during auctions. On Thursday, another record was claimed by Jordan at Sotheby’s, a prominent auction house in New York.
Jordan’s jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz sold for $10.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction. It is the highest-priced item in sports memorabilia history, surpassing the “Hand of God” jersey that Diego Maradona wore during the 1986 World Cup. That jersey sold for $9.28 million on May 4th this year.
The jersey of Jordan’s that was sold this week was part of the 10-part documentary “Last Dance” that was released during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The documentary detailed the Bulls’ quest to win their sixth title with Jordan, the second three-peat of his career and the record sixth NBA Finals MVP.
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Jordan jerseys are very rare as this was only the second one to ever appear at auction at Sotheby’s. It also shattered the previous record for a Jordan item, which was a 1997-98 Upper Deck Game Jersey patch card with an autograph on the card. That sold for $2.7 million in October of 2021.
“The season itself is his ‘magnum opus’ as an athlete, and a testament to him as a champion and competitor,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectables, said in a statement. “Finals jerseys from Jordan are remarkably scant and the [1998] Finals are arguably the most coveted of them all.”
The Last Dance jersey is only the second sports memorabilia item to be sold for at least $10 million. The only other is a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for $12.6 million in August.
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Jordan’s jersey was expected to sell for $3-5 million but more than doubled that projection. The previous record for an NBA jersey was $3.69 million in May of 2021. That was a Kobe Bryant jersey worn during the 1996-97 season, his rookie campaign.
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