{"id":1336,"date":"2026-02-09T09:30:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2026-02-09T09:30:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:30:02","slug":"michael-jordans-1998-nba-finals-sneakers-sell-for-a-record-2-2-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1336","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan\u2019s 1998 NBA Finals sneakers sell for a record $2.2 million"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n Editor\u2019s Note: <\/b>This story was updated with the final sale price and other details following the auction.\n<\/p>\n

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\n CNN<\/span>
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\n In 1998, Michael Jordan laced up a pair of his iconic black and red Air Jordan 13s to bring home a Bulls victory during Game 2 of his final NBA championship \u2014 and now they are the most expensive sneakers ever to sell at auction.<\/p>\n

The game-winning sneakers sold for $2.2 million at Sotheby\u2019s in New York <\/strong>on Tuesday, smashing the sneaker auction record<\/a> of $1.47 million, set in 2021 by a pair of Nike Air Ships that Jordan wore earlier in his career.\n <\/p>\n

\n The sale arrives during \u201cJordan Year\u201d \u2014 a reference to the NBA star player\u2019s iconic jersey number 23. In January, Air Jordan partnered with Sotheby\u2019s to auction off 13 pairs of retro sneakers that were designed in memory of The Notorious B.I.G. All lots outsold their high estimates of $5,000 by multiples, with the highest selling for more than $32,000.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last year, Jordan\u2019s Game 1 jersey, also from the 1998 finals, became the most expensive item of worn sports memorabilia to sell at auction when it fetched $10.1 million<\/a> at a Sotheby\u2019s sale.\n <\/p>\n

\n Jordan\u2019s farewell run with the Chicago Bulls is often referred to as \u201cThe Last Dance,\u201d after the title of an ESPN and Netflix documentary that chronicled the season. Jordan announced his (second) retirement weeks before the finals, leading to the six-game series against the Utah Jazz becoming the most-watched in NBA history, based on Nielsen TV ratings. (Jordan would later return from 2001 to 2003 to play with the Washington Wizards, but did not win another championship).\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"Michael<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cMichael Jordan game-worn sports memorabilia has proven time and time again to be the most elite and coveted items on the market,\u201d said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby\u2019s head of streetwear and modern collectables, in a press release prior to the sale. \u201cHowever, items from his \u2018Last Dance\u2019 season are of a greater scale and magnitude as seen with our record-breaking sale of his Game 1 jersey in 2022.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The pair of sneakers <\/strong>sold Tuesday <\/strong>were worn during Game 2, in Salt Lake City, which the Bulls won 93-88 after losing Game 1, with Jordan scoring 37 points. They are the last pair of black and red Air Jordan 13s that Jordan ever wore on the court for an NBA game, a press release from Sotheby\u2019s noted.\n <\/p>\n

\n Following Game 2, Jordan signed and gifted the set of worn shoes to the ball boy in the visitor\u2019s locker room, as he was known to do, according to Sotheby\u2019s.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Air Jordan 13 sneakers starred in a sports memorabilia sale called \u201cVictoriam,\u201d which featured items worn by athletes including Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer. <\/strong>Several other Jordan items were included in the two-part auction, with a game-worn 1998 Bulls jersey and a pair of 1985 Air Jordan 1s fetching $508,000 and $127,000 respectively.\n <\/p>\n

\n Other top lots included one of Kobe Bryant\u2019s LA Lakers shooting shirts, which sold for over $406,000, and a soccer jersey, worn by the late Pel\u00e9 on his debut for the New York Cosmos in 1975, that sold fetched over $177,000.\n <\/p>\n

\n Top image: The Air Jordan 13 sneakers signed by Michael Jordan.<\/em>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: This story was updated with the final sale price and other details following the auction. CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 In 1998, Michael Jordan laced up a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}