A jersey worn by Michael Jordan during one of the most famous seasons of his career sold at auction for US$12.26 million on Tuesday to become the most expensive basketball jersey to ever cross the block. The white mesh top emblazoned with Jordan’s iconic number “23” was worn by the star during Game 3 of his legendary 1998 NBA Finals run. It was the end of his time with the Chicago Bulls, known as “The Last Dance,” which was chronicled in a 2020 ESPN and Netflix documentary series of the same name. During the pivotal game against the Utah Jazz, Jordan delivered a crushing performance in front of a home-court crowd that helped shift the series in the Bulls’ favor, with Jordan ultimately leading the team to win its sixth championship in eight seasons. The shirt is the only publicly known white game-winning jersey from the 1998 Finals ever put on sale, making it an extremely rare piece of memorabilia, according to Joopiter, the online auction house that hosted the sale. “The significance of this jersey extends well beyond the box score,” Joopiter had written on its online auction listing. “This is the type of object collectors wait a lifetime for — an irreplaceable artifact that transcends basketball to become a piece of global cultural history,” said Caitlin Donovan, the auction platform’s global head of sales, in a press release prior to the sale’s conclusion. In becoming the most expensive basketball jersey ever sold at auction, the shirt surpassed the previous record set by another Jordan jersey from Game 1 of the same finals. In 2022, a red jersey worn during that matchup where the Bulls lost, sold for US$10.1 million, more than double initial estimates, CNN previously reported. In 2021, a jersey also worn by the player during his sophomore season at the University of North Carolina set an auction record at the time when it sold for US$1.38 million. The current record for the most expensive sports collectible ever sold is held by Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot” jersey, which sold for US$24.12 million in 2024. Ruth wore the jersey during Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, when he appeared to gesture toward something in center field just before hitting a fifth-inning home run into the bleachers, a story which is now part of baseball lore. Still, Jordan remains one of the most celebrated athletes, with online memorabilia sales consistently topping current top stars. E-Bay users have spent more than US$115 million on Jordan playing cards this year alone, according to Gemrate, a site that tracks trading card grading and sales dates — beating out every other current and previous NBA player and putting him only below Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball star Shohei Ohtani. Diego Mendoza, CNN
