Michael Jordan’s jersey sold for record $10.1million at Sotheby’s auction
A Michael Jordan’s jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals, when he won his final championship, sold for a record-breaking $10.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction, Thursday, September 15.
The auction gave the Jordan’s jersey the highest price ever paid for a sports apparel. The Jordan’s legendary red Chicago Bulls jersey was featured in the popular ESPN/Netflix series “The Last Dance,” released in 2020.
In a statement, Sotheby mentioned that the majority of Jordan’s NBA Finals jerseys are still in private possession, but he did donate one to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
According to the auction house, the ‘Last Dance’ jersey received 20 different bids, which caused the price to double from its $5 million estimate.
Before being transported to New York, where fans could see it during the online auction, the jersey was originally made available for public viewing in Monterey, California.
A French-Israeli telecom tycoon Patrick Drahi purchased the New York auction house in 2019, and it had previously auctioned a pair of Jordan’s sneakers for close to $1.5 million.
Prior to the sale, the highest basketball jersey auctioned for more than $3.6 million at Goldin Auctions, when a game-worn and autographed shirt from the late Kobe Bryant from 1996–1997 was sold.
However, the shirt that Diego Maradona wore in his historic “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup held the previous auction record with a sale of $9.28 million.
Although Jordan’s 1998 jersey broke records for game-worn jersey in both basketball and across all sports, a Mickey Mantle baseball card that sold for $12.6 million in August holds the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever.
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Jordan, who is currently 59, played basketball for the Bulls for the majority of his career and won all six of his championships with them. However, in 2001, Jordan came out of retirement to play two seasons with the Washington Wizards.
The former basketball player presently owns the Charlotte Hornets, who play in his native North Carolina, and reportedly continues to receive millions in royalties from Nike’s Air Jordan shoe line.
Source: News Agencies
Abeeb Lekan Sodiq is a Managing Editor & Writer at theafricandream.net. He is as well a Graphics Designer and also known as Arakunrin Lekan.
