A pair of sneakers that Michael Jordan wore to a rally during the famous season The Last Dancein 1998, it sold for $2.2 million in an online auction, a record for this type of sporting goods, auction house Sotheby’s announced.
It’s about the air jordan 13that 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 elements of his celebrated career and his final year with the Chicago Bulls.”
The sale highlighted the award-winning player’s appeal to collectors and investors worldwide..
Michael Jordan’s Big Auctions
In September 2022, Sotheby’s sold a jersey Jordan wore in the first game of that 1998 Finals for $10.1 million.setting a world record for any sporting goods worn in a match.
Until then, the record was held by the jersey worn by the Argentine team captain Diego Maradona during the 1986 World Cup, for which $9.3 million was paid a few months earlier in May 2022, followed by another from basketball legend Kobe Bryant awarded for $5.8 million last February.
Jordan wore these black shoes with red motifs in the second half of the match of the historic season finale who consecrated him as the best basketball player of all time and who has gone down in history as “The Last Dance”, largely due to the hit ESPN and Netflix documentary of the same name.
The documentary “The Last Dance”
Released in 2020, narrated Jordan’s efforts for the Chicago Bulls to win their sixth NBA title in the 1997-1998 season.
For the auction house, it is “perhaps the most cherished period in Jordanian folklore”, as it reached “the pinnacle of its popularity and power overcoming major internal divisions that were fracturing the team dynamics of the Chicago Bulls at the end of the 90’s” .
The players knew the roster would be disbanded at the end of the season and 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 game Jordan scored 37 points to give the Bulls a victory against the Utah Jazz (93-88)..
The sale, which began on April 3, coincides with the premiere of the film “Air”, which chronicles the rise of Nike in the sneaker arena. through his association with Michael Jordan in the mid-1980s and the genesis of the famous Air Jordan sneakers.
Since Sotheby’s launched auctions for these items in 2019, selling a pair of Nike Waffles for $437,500 –which was an auction record at the time–, the auction house owned by the French-Israeli telecommunications magnate Patrick Drahi, is engaged in the market of streetwear and modern collectables.
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, grossing $25 million.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.