The ‘Air Jordan’ shoes that Michael Jordan gave to a ball boy, auctioned for two million | sports

Michael Jordan took off his shoes after the game. The ones made with a silver ink marker and he gave them to a ball boy who had returned a jacket that he had forgotten during practice the day before. It was June 5, 1998. A quarter of a century later, those same sneakers have been auctioned by Sotheby’s for a record amount of 2.2 million dollars, about two million euros.

That day the second game of the NBA final was played between Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz, who had won the first game of the series. The atmosphere was extraordinarily hostile. Michael Jordan, probably the greatest basketball player in history, gave an exhibition with 37 points and 40 minutes of play to lead his team to victory (88-93). It was a key victory on his way to the sixth ring of champions in the season of the “last dance”, the title of the ESPN documentary that portrayed that campaign, both stormy and successful for the Bulls.

Jordan played the second half of that match in the now-sold ‘Bred’ Air Jordan XIII sneakers. The ball boy who had returned his jacket the day before had taken the opportunity to ask for them, according to Sotheby’s: “Can I get your shoes tomorrow after the game?” He told him. The player, who had already given other pairs to the same ball boy on previous visits, did so.

It is not known who was the seller or the buyer in the auction closed this Tuesday. Although Sotheby’s has told that story, the identity of the ball boy is not known, nor is the moment when the sneakers were sold. The result has been somewhat below the expectations of the organizers, who estimated a price of two four million dollars plus commissions. The final price has been 1.8 million, which with the additional fees rises to 2.2 million dollars and exceeds the 1.8 million of the prototype of a Nike Air Yeezy 1 sold in 2021 as the most expensive sports shoes in the history. Michael Jordan has beaten Kanye West.

The auction has closed days after the premiere of the film air, directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon, which means that the company has a contract with Nike signed Michael Jordan and that revolutionizes the sector.

The jersey he wore with the Chicago Bulls in the first game of the NBA final, also from that 1998 season, was sold at auction by Sotheby’s for $10.1 million last September.

The last Dance, Produced by ESPN and broadcast on Netflix, it became the most watched documentary in the history of the platform. Its launch was brought forward to the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic. It tells in two time lines that overlap and join at the end, the story of Michael Jordan and that of that last triumphant season. In the season of the “last dance”, the general feeling was that of the end of an era. It was the coach, Phil Jackson, who left the team at the end of the season, who named it that way, but it was expected that at the end of it Michael Jordan would also leave the club and part of the players who had accompanied him to make the Bulls the best team of the nineties of the last century. Hand in hand with Jordan, those from Chicago had already won five championship rings. It was the only chance to win the sixth.

Sotheby’s recently unveiled a complete set of six Michael Jordan sneakers, one from each of the basketball player’s NBA championship-winning seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The set is made up of an Air Jordan VI (1991), an Air Jordan VII (1992), an Air Jordan VIII (1993), an Air Jordan XI (1996), an Air Jordan XII (1997) and an Air Jordan XIV ( 1998), which according to the auction house fitted in decisive games of those seasons. “This set represents the most valuable and significant collection of Air Jordan sneakers ever brought to market,” Sotheby’s says.

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