Newsletter

A pair of sneakers worn by Michael Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals was auctioned for $2.2 million

The basketball star wore those boots in the second game of the series against the Utah Jazz, in the famous season of “The Last Dance.” The sale set a record.

A pair of slippers that he wore Michael Jordan in a meeting of the famous season “The Last Dance” in 1998, he was sold by $2.2 million in an online auction, a record for this type of sporting goods, Sotheby’s auction house announced on Tuesday.

It is about the Air Jordan 13 that the basketball star wore in the second game of the 1998 NBA Final of the famous season of “The Last Dance”, reports the auction house, which ensures that it is one of the ” most significant articles of his celebrated career and his last year with the Chicago Bulls”.

The sale underscored the appeal of the award-winning player to collectors and investors around the world. Last September, Sotheby’s sold a jersey that Jordan wore in the first match of that 1998 final for $10.1 millionsetting a world record for any sporting item worn in a match.



Jordan’s boots were auctioned for $2.2 million. AFP photo.

Until then, the record was held by the shirt he wore Diego Maradona during the 1986 World Cup, for which they were paid $9.3 million a few months earlier, in May 2022, followed by another from the basketball legend Kobe Bryant awarded in $5.8 million last February.

The Air Jordan XIII sneakers in black and red, signed in silver ink by the American athlete Michael Jordan.  Photo EFE


The Air Jordan XIII sneakers in black and red, signed in silver ink by the American athlete Michael Jordan. Photo EFE

The last Dance

Jordan wore these black shoes with red motifs in the second half of the historic final of a season that established him as the best basketball player of all time and has gone down in history as “The Last Dance”, largely partly due to the hit ESPN and Netflix documentary of the same name.

Released in 2020, it narrated the efforts of the Chicago Bulls of Jordan to conquer andthe sixth NBA title in the 1997-1998 season.

Michael Jordan and Nike, a partnership that has been going on for almost four decades.


Michael Jordan and Nike, a partnership that has been going on for almost four decades.

For the auction house it is “perhaps the most beloved period of Jordan folklore”, since it reached “the height of his popularity And power while overcoming important internal divisions that were fracturing the Chicago Bulls team dynamic of the late ’90s.”

The players were aware that the roster would be disbanded at the end of the season and they knew it was their last chance to win the Bulls’ sixth championship of the decade, he recalls.

After losing the first game, in the second Jordan scored 37 points that gave the Bulls victory against the Utah Jazz (93-88).

The sale, which began on April 3, coincides with the premiere of the movie “Air,” which chronicles Nike’s rise in the field of sports shoes through its association with Michael Jordan in the mid-’80s and the genesis of the famous Air Jordan shoes.

Since Sotheby’s inaugurated the auctions of these items in 2019, with the sale of a pair of Nike Waffles for $437,500 –which at that time was an auction record–, the auction house owned by the French-Israeli telecommunications magnate Patrick Drahibets on the streetwear market and modern collectibles.

Last year he organized the online sale of 200 pairs of Louis Vuitton and Nike Air Force 1s designed by Virgil Abloh before his death, fetching $25 million.

With information from AFP

DB​

look too

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending