A pair of shoes Michael Jordan wore during the NBA Finals in his “Last Dance” season with the Chicago Bulls and signed by the basketball legend are expected to break the record for most expensive sneakers ever sold for auction.
They were signed and gifted to a ball boy after the six-time NBA champ and finals MVP dropped 37 points on the night, which ended in a 93-88 Bulls win.
Chicago went on to win the series 4-2 for their third consecutive NBA championship win and the sixth and final of Jordan’s career.
The victory concluded Jordan’s final Bulls season, followed by three seasons of retirement, only to come back for two more with the Washington Wizards in 2001-03.
“Michael Jordan game-worn sports memorabilia has proven time and time again to be the most elite and coveted items on the market,”
BrahmWachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles, said in a press release.
The shoes, Air Jordan 13s, are “an important relic from the height of Jordan’s career,” Sotheby’s said, and are the only sneakers from Jordan’s six NBA Finals series to be authenticated by the MeiGray Group, the official authenticator of the NBA.
The shoes were released to the public in May 1998, just as the Bulls were making another playoff run, Sotheby’s said.
Wachter explained the shoes are in “immaculate” condition and the price tag comes as no surprise given Jordan wore the sneakers at the height of his fame, which saw a resurgence thanks to Netflix’s 2020 release of “The Last Dance” documentary that chronicled his final season.
If set, this new record will only replace Jordan’s previous one — in 2021 when Sotheby’s sold the earliest known Michael Jordan Air Ships for $1.472 million.
