Arya News - The basketball memorabilia ranks as the second-largest sale in history among game-worn sports jerseys.
The jersey Michael Jordan wore during Game 2 of the “Last Dance” 1998 NBA Finals has sold for a record $14m.
Hunt Auctions announced on Monday that the game-worn, autographed Chicago Bulls jersey was bought by Miami real estate investor Ron Firman in a private sale.
It is the highest price ever paid for a piece of basketball memorabilia and, according to the auction house, the newly sold Jordan jersey ranks as the second-largest sale in history among game-worn sports jerseys.
The New York Yankees jersey worn by Babe Ruth in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series – during which Ruth called his shot before a home run – went for $24.12m in 2024.
Jordan and the Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz in six games to win the 1998 championship, the sixth and final title of his career in Chicago.
Game 2, played on June 5, 1998, in Salt Lake City, saw Chicago even the series 1-1, largely thanks to a dominant performance by its superstar guard.
Jordan put up 37 points, five rebounds, and three assists in a 93-88 victory. He would go on to collect his sixth and final Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, two more than anyone else in NBA history, nine days later.
The wildly popular “Last Dance” documentary, released in 2020, was centred around that 1997-98 Bulls season.
“The record-setting price achieved for the related Michael Jordan jersey is yet another corroborative result as to the significance of Jordan within the industry and popular culture. This remarkable garment bore witness to one of Jordan’s most hallowed NBA Finals appearances as part of his ‘Last Dance’ season to complete his illustrious career,” David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions, said in a statement.
“While Michael Jordan’s importance within the sports memorabilia marketplace has long been established, it has now escalated to an elite asset class more typically reserved for iconic works of art. We are very pleased to have been able to facilitate this historic sale which serves as another benchmark for our industry.”
This sale becomes at least the third time a Jordan jersey from that 1998 Finals has fetched at least $10m. A jersey from Game 1 was sold at auction for about $10.1m in 2022, and a jersey from Game 3 was auctioned last month for about $12.3m via an auction in September.
“Michael Jordan was an incredibly talented player who is admired around the world,” Firman said in a news release distributed by the auction house. “I’m very excited about the purchase.”
The jersey that Firman bought was originally bought from the Bulls by a private collector in 2003, Hunt said, adding that it “has remained within a succinct chain of custody, having only changed hands once from the original purchaser”.
Just about anything related to the 1998 Finals and Jordan’s final season with the Bulls has been the subject of huge interest in the collector space. In 2023, a pair of Air Jordan sneakers that he wore in Game 2 against the Jazz was sold by Sotheby’s for $2.2m, touted at the time as “a new world record for the most valuable sneakers ever sold”.