Editor’s Note: This story was updated with the final sale price and other details after the auction.
CNN
—
In 1998, Michael Jordan laced up a pair of his iconic black and red Air Jordan 13s to score a Bulls victory in Game 2 of his final NBA championship — and now the sneakers are on sale and expected to break auction records.
Sotheby’s in New York will offer the winning sneakers next month, at a high estimate of $4 million, with bidding open online April 3-11. current record of 2021 — a pair of Nike Air Ships that Jordan wore early in his career — cost $1.47 million, which marked the first time a set of sneakers sold for more than $1 million.
Last year, Jordan’s Game 1 jersey, also from the 1998 Finals, became the most expensive worn sports memorabilia to sell at auction when it was sold at auction. recovered $10.1 million during a Sotheby’s sale.
Jordan’s farewell run with the Chicago Bulls is often called “The Last Dance,” after the title of an ESPN and Netflix documentary that chronicles the season. Jordan announced his (second) retirement a few weeks before the Finals, which helped the six-game series against the Utah Jazz become the most-watched in NBA history, based on Nielsen TV ratings. (Jordan would later return from 2001 to 2003 to play with the Washington Wizards, but did not win another championship).
“Sports memorabilia worn by Michael Jordan has proven time and time again to be the most elite and coveted items on the market,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles, said in a press release. preceding the sale. “However, his ‘Last Dance’ season items are larger in scope and scale, as demonstrated by our record-breaking sale of his 2022 Game 1 jersey.”
The auctioned pair of sneakers was worn during Game 2 in Salt Lake City, which the Bulls won 93-88 after losing Game 1, with Jordan scoring 37 points. This is the last pair of black and red Air Jordan 13s Jordan has ever worn on the court for an NBA game, a Sotheby’s press release states.
The Air Jordan 13 sneakers are part of a two-part sports memorabilia sale called “Victoriam,” which features items worn by athletes including Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer as well as a signed Chicago Bulls varsity jacket by the 2022-2023 season. team. The jacket is part of a new collaboration between the Bulls and Off-White, founded by Virgil Abloh, who died in 2021.
Other top lots included one of Kobe Bryant’s LA Lakers shooting jerseys, which sold for more than $406,000, and a soccer jersey, worn by the late Pelé in his debut for the New York Cosmos in 1975 , sold for more than $177,000.
Top image: Air Jordan 13 sneakers by Michael Jordan.
