A game-worn, autographed Michael Jordan jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals has sold for $14 million, the highest price paid for basketball memorabilia and marking the second time in two weeks a Jordan jersey from that same championship run has shattered expectations. The red road jersey, which Jordan wore during Game 2 of the Finals against the Utah Jazz, was sold through a private treaty sale rather than a public auction.
According to the Associated Press, via NBC Los Angeles, Pennsylvania-based Hunt Auctions announced the sale and identified the buyer as Ron Firman, a Miami real estate investor. Hunt Auctions facilitated the transaction as a private treaty sale, as WBOC reported Monday.
Firman said he was very excited about the purchase and that Jordan was admired around the world, according to the same report. The jersey was originally bought from the Bulls by a private collector in 2003 and has changed hands only once since that purchase, per the AP account relayed by NBC Los Angeles.
A Record-Setting Night in Salt Lake City
Jordan wore the red jersey on June 5, 1998, when the Bulls beat the Jazz on the road to tie the Finals at one game apiece. The Game 2 victory leveled the series at one game apiece. Chicago went on to close out the series in six games, giving Jordan his sixth championship with the Bulls.
That 1997-98 season later became the subject of the 10-episode documentary series The Last Dance, released in 2020. Collectors have also shown interest in Jordan memorabilia. The 1998 Finals themselves drew an 18.7 Nielsen television rating, the most-watched Finals series in NBA history, according to Wikipedia — the first time NBA Finals ratings had surpassed those of Major League Baseball's World Series.
Where This Sale Ranks All-Time
Hunt Auctions president David Hunt said Jordan's importance in sports memorabilia has risen to the level of an elite asset class comparable to iconic art, and that Hunt Auctions was pleased to facilitate what he called a historic sale and a benchmark for the industry, per the AP report. At $14 million, the jersey now ranks second among all known game-worn jersey sales, trailing only Babe Ruth's jersey, which sold for $24.12 million in 2024.
Ruth wore that jersey during Game 3 of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the game in which he hit his famous called-shot home run. The sale followed a six-hour bidding war at Heritage Auctions.
Jordan Now Owns Three of the Top Jersey Sales Ever
Jordan Finals jerseys have now sold for at least $10 million on three separate occasions. A Game 1 jersey sold at auction for about $10.1 million in 2022, and just last month, the white Game 3 jersey from the same 1998 Finals sold for roughly $12.3 million. As Yahoo reported, that white jersey went for $12.26 million on September 29 via JOOPITER, the online auction house founded by Pharrell Williams, after being consigned by entrepreneur Rob Gough — topping Jordan's previous $10.1 million record. Hoodline previously covered that sale in reporting on the jersey's pre-auction hype.
The same JOOPITER auction cycle also saw a 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello sell for $2.7 million — four times the previous auction record for that model, Yahoo noted. Jordan memorabilia tied to that same Finals performance has repeatedly broken records across categories: the black and red Air Jordan 13 sneakers he wore in Game 2 of the 1998 Finals sold at Sotheby's for $2.2 million in 2023, which Sotheby's described at the time as a world record for the most valuable sneakers ever sold. Jordan had signed those sneakers with silver marker and given them to a Utah Jazz ball boy.
A Broader Shift in the Collectibles Market
A collection of six Air Jordan sneakers worn during each of Jordan's six championship-clinching games, known as the Dynasty Collection, sold at Sotheby's for $8 million in February 2024, according to Forbes. Those shoes were originally gifted by Jordan to former Bulls public relations executive Tim Hallam. Together, the sales illustrate how items tied to the 1997-98 season are increasingly treated by collectors as blue-chip alternative assets.
Outside basketball, Diego Maradona's 1986 World Cup Hand of God match shirt once held the record for the most expensive game-worn sports jersey, selling for $9.3 million at Sotheby's in May 2022, per the Los Angeles Times. Former England midfielder Steve Hodge had obtained that shirt through a post-game jersey swap with Maradona.
