Newsroom
If buying your child a basketball jersey feels expensive, here’s a little perspective: Someone has just paid $14 million for Michael Jordan’s.
The signed red Chicago Bulls jersey, worn during the 1998 NBA Finals, changed hands in a private sale announced Oct. 12 by Hunt Auctions. The company says it is the highest price ever paid for a piece of basketball memorabilia.
The buyer is Miami property investor Ron Firman. For that sort of money, most of us here would be looking at property, too. He went for the shirt.
But this particular shirt comes with quite a history.
Jordan wore it in Game 2 against the Utah Jazz on June 5, 1998, helping Chicago win and level the championship series at one game each. The Bulls eventually took the series in six games, securing Jordan’s sixth and final NBA title.
It was the closing chapter of his championship years in Chicago, later revisited in the hugely popular documentary series The Last Dance. For basketball fans in Cyprus who remember Jordan’s dominance, or discovered it through the documentary, that is the appeal: a physical piece of a sporting era.
The price also shows how far collecting has moved beyond signed shirts on bedroom walls. Hunt Auctions President David Hunt said Jordan memorabilia now occupies the kind of investment territory usually associated with iconic art.
Even at $14 million, the jersey falls short of the record for a game-worn sports shirt. That belongs to baseball great Babe Ruth, whose 1932 World Series jersey sold for $24.12 million in 2024.
Jordan’s footwear has attracted extraordinary sums, too. A pair of trainers he wore in the same 1998 Finals game sold for $2.2 million in 2023.
Somewhere, a parent who once said “throw those old trainers away” may wish to reconsider.
*Reporting based on The Associated Press and Hunt Auctions’ announcement.
