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Michael Jordan jersey breaks records at auction

September 16, 2022

The basketball legend wore the jersey during the 1998 NBA finals. The sale at Sotheby's eclipses the previous record, which was set earlier this year by a shirt from Diego Maradona won at the 1986 World Cup.

https://p.dw.com/p/4Gwu3
Michael Jordan's 23 shirt
New York auction house Sotheby's has previously sold a pair of Jordan's sneakers for nearly $1.5 millionImage: Sothebys/dpa/picture alliance

A match-worn jersey from basketball legend Michael Jordan has been auctioned for a record sum of around $10.1 million (€10 million), Sotheby's announced on Thursday.

In doing so, it becomes the most expensive game-worn sports memorabilia ever sold at auction. It eclipses the previous record set earlier this year, also at Sotheby's, of Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" jersey which fetched $9.3 million.

It almost triples the record for a basketball jersey to date: $3.7 million for a shirt worn by former LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January 2020. 

The Last Dance

The Michael Jordan jersey with 23 on the back was worn during the 1998 NBA finals of the basketball player's "The Last Dance" season, his last act with the Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls won the series to secure the team's third successive NBA title.

There were around 20 bids in total for the shirt, but Sotheby's did not reveal who had paid the record fee for the garment. 

The auction house had originally estimated the price of the jersey at around $5 million.

jsi/rt (Reuters, dpa, AFP)