A Chicago Bulls jersey worn by Michael Jordan during the 1996-97 NBA season has sold for a whopping $4.68M at auction.
The jersey, which is believed to have been worn 17 times by “His Airness”, becomes the 4th most expensive NBA jersey ever sold. Only Jordan’s “Last Dance” jersey ($10.1M), a signed Kobe Bryant jersey ($5.8M), and a 1972 Wilt Chamberlain Lakers jersey ($4.9M) have fetched more at auction than the red Bulls jersey did at Sotheby’s.
“This jersey was worn by Michael Jordan over a 5-month span in Jordan’s fifth championship season, from December of 1996 to April of 1997,” said Sotheby’s in their promotional write up. “Photomatched to a a remarkable 17 games in 15 different cities. That this jersey was worn by Michael Jordan for such a long period of time – at the height of his celebrity as well as his basketball powers – is just one of the elements that make this jersey one of the most stunning pieces that has ever surfaced from the greatest to ever play the game. At the midway point of their second three-peat, Jordan and his Bulls were in the midst of establishing themselves as one of the era-defining NBA dynasties and as the standard by which most future teams would be judged against. Jordan in particular was cementing his place as the focal point for a generation of basketball culture: by the end of the second three-peat, Jordan accounted for 10-20% of the league’s $2 Billion revenue by some estimates.”
In total, the Jordan collection, which also featured shoes, and other Bulls & Dream Team related memorabilia raked in over $8.5M at auction.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.