At the New York auction on September 15, a Michael Jordan final shirt was sold at a price far more than twice the original estimate-$10.1 million. This jersey also surpassed Maradona’s “Hand of God” jersey sold for $9.28 million in May this year, becoming the most expensive star drop sports collection in history.
The Argentine King wore this jersey to finish “the hand of God” and “five people in a row” in the match against England in the 1st/4 finals of the 1986 World Cup.
In addition, the transaction price of this jersey is far higher than the Kobe rookie season jersey that was photographed last year for $3.7 million, allowing Jordan to “regain” the throne of “the most expensive basketball jersey in history.
Kobe wore the shirt in December 1996 against the Timberwolves and four other games.
What Kobe broke before was the record, which was the transaction price of Jordan North Carolina jersey at 1.38 million dollars.
As the climax of the “Last Dance”, Jordan wore the shirt of this auction in the G1 of the finals with jazz on June 3, 1998. The whole game was played for 46 minutes, with 29 shots of 13, three points 2 1, free throws 8 6, get 33 points 3 rebounds 2 Assists 2 cap. Although the team lost 3 points in the end, it did not affect Jordan’s second three successive championships of his career, nor did it affect the status of this jersey in the hearts of collectors.
According to Sotheby’s, the auction house in charge of this auction, only two Jordan final drop jerseys appeared in the auction history, and this “Last Dance” Jersey was one of them. This may also be the reason why the final transaction price can exceed twice the valuation (US $300-5 million) when the auction was announced for the first time.
Brahm Wachter, the head of Sotheby’s streetwear and modern collections, also said in a statement: “Jordan’s final jerseys are very rare, while Jordan jerseys for the 1997-1998 season finals, it can be said to be the most coveted among them…… This also consolidated Michael Jordan’s indisputable GOAT status.”
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to “the most expensive auction price of sports collections in the star drop edition”, Jordan has a pair of Nike Air Ships sneakers that Jordan wore in the regular season of the rookie season in last October, the transaction price of 1.47 million dollars broke the highest transaction price record in the history of sports shoes auction, and became the first pair of sports shoes ever photographed at auction at a price of more than 1 million dollars.
Jordan wore these shoes in the fifth game of the rookie season and got 17 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. After the game, Jordan gave these shoes to the Nuggets Caddy Tommie Tim III Lewis.
However, the God of basketball has to continue to work hard to break the auction record of sports collections (including Jersey, sneakers, Star Cards), because last month, A 9.5 Topps Mickey Manto baseball star card in 1952 broke the auction record of sports collections at a record price of 12.6 million dollars.