A jersey Michael Jordan wore in Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold privately for $14 million, a record for basketball memorabilia.
The big picture: Hunt Auctions brokered the sale of Jordan's red, autographed Chicago Bulls road jersey to Miami real estate investor Ron Firman. The price turns a uniform from the Last Dance season into an asset valued alongside major art.
- Jordan wore the jersey on June 5, 1998, as Chicago beat the Utah Jazz and tied the Finals at one game apiece. The Bulls won the series in six games for Jordan's sixth championship.
By the numbers: $14 million is the highest price reported for any basketball collectible and the second-highest known price for a game-worn jersey. Babe Ruth's 1932 called-shot jersey holds the broader record at $24.12 million.
- Three jerseys from the 1998 Finals have now topped $10 million. The Game 1 shirt sold for about $10.1 million in 2022, and the Game 3 shirt brought about $12.3 million last month.
Between the lines: The newest sale happened through a private treaty, so the buyer and seller agreed outside a public auction. Hunt Auctions disclosed Firman as the buyer and described the transaction as a new benchmark for the industry.
- The 1997-98 season reached a new generation through the 10-part documentary The Last Dance in 2020. That continuing cultural exposure supports demand far beyond traditional basketball collectors.
Yes, but: Sports collectibles are thinly traded, and headline records establish sentiment more clearly than a liquid market price. Authentication, provenance and the story attached to a specific game drive huge differences between similar objects.
Why it matters: Jordan memorabilia is behaving more like a scarce alternative asset than fan merchandise. Three eight-figure sales from one Finals also show how documentary attention, verifiable provenance and cultural importance can compound value decades later.
