A game-worn, autographed Chicago Bulls jersey that Michael Jordan wore in Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals has sold for $14m, Hunt Auctions announced on Monday 12 October, according to a Reuters and Associated Press report carried by Al Jazeera.
The report described the price as the highest ever paid for a piece of basketball memorabilia. The auction house said it ranks as the second-largest sale in history for a game-worn sports jersey.
The Sale
The buyer is Miami real estate investor Ron Firman, who bought the jersey in a private sale. The report said a private collector purchased it from the Bulls in 2003 and that, according to Hunt, it has changed hands only once since. The report pointed to the New York Yankees jersey Babe Ruth wore in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, which went for $24.12m in 2024, as the larger sale.
David Hunt, the auction house’s president, said Jordan’s importance in the memorabilia market had “escalated to an elite asset class more typically reserved for iconic works of art”.
The Night Behind the Number
Game 2 was played on 5 June 1998 in Salt Lake City, where Chicago evened the series against the Utah Jazz at 1-1 with a 93-88 win. Jordan scored 37 points, with five rebounds and three assists. The Bulls went on to win the series in six games, the sixth and final championship of Jordan’s career in Chicago, and he collected his sixth and final Finals MVP award nine days after Game 2. The 2020 documentary “The Last Dance” centred on that 1997-98 season, the report noted.
A Pattern of Eight-Figure Sales
The report said it was at least the third time a jersey from the 1998 Finals has fetched $10m or more. A Game 1 jersey sold at auction for about $10.1m in 2022, and a Game 3 jersey sold for about $12.3m at an auction in September this year.
Why It Matters
Three jerseys from one series have now cleared eight figures in four years, which shows how concentrated collector demand is on a handful of items tied to a single player and season. The price was agreed privately, so the report does not describe how it was negotiated. Whether further Jordan items from that Finals reach the market, and at what level, will test how durable that demand is.
Leave a Reply