NBA
How much did Michael Jordan’s ‘Last Dance’ jersey fetch at auction?
Several items of clothing belonging to the NBA legend were auctioned off for a final value of 8.5 million dollars.
A Chicago Bulls jersey worn by Michael Jordan in the 1996-97 season fetched $4.7 million at auction, Sotheby’s said Monday. The auctioneers said Jordan wore the size 46 jersey in at least 17 games over a period of five months and that the piece had remained in private hands since the team sold it.
There is a common misconception about the rarity of Michael Jordan jerseys prior to the 1997-1998 season. In Michael’s last season, the Bulls realized that they could commercialize his jerseys for charity through the CharitaBulls organization and as such, there are a number of 1997-1998 jerseys that have surfaced throughout the years.
At the time of cataloging, MeiGray has authenticated 25 game-worn jerseys from the 1997-1998 season, with 20 of those jerseys being used for just a single game.
The population of pre-’Last Dance’ jerseys is remarkably slim – with a single-game jersey from these seasons emerging here-and-there. The reality is, that Michael during these periods of time would wear a single jersey for huge swaths of time, making them exceptionally rare and coveted.
At the same auction, another Jordan Bulls jersey from the 1988-89 season fetched a cool $1.1 million.
Also available to buyers was the US flag that Jordan used to cover the Reebok logo on his shirt at the Olympic gold medal ceremony in Barcelona in 1992, given his association with Nike. The flag, with the signatures of the members of the ‘Dream Team’: Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, and John Stockton, reached 1.8 million.
In total, the items in the ‘Colossal – The Ultimate Jordan Collection’ at Sotheby’s reached $8.5 million.