On September 15, the two-part Invictus online auction organized by Sotheby's New York came to a close. While the second part consisted of 13 callouts featuring autographed items from sports stars such as Muhammad Ali, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Wayne Gretzky, the first part was dedicated to a single item: a Chicago Bulls game jersey worn by Michael Jordan during the NBA the final in 1998.
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An estimate of $3-5 million had been set for the red match shirt with the iconic number 23. It was a huge sum, but that did not deter the 20 bidders who eventually raised the price to $10.1 million. The result is not only the highest for a Michael Jordan item, but also for a basketball jersey overall and for game-worn memorabilia.
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Michael Jordan wore the record jersey in the first game of the 1998 Finals, which the Chicago Bulls played against the Utah Jazz. Although Jordan's team lost, the Bulls still won the title in the end. It was the sixth NBA title that Michael Jordan won with the Chicago Bulls and the third in a row. The player and his team thus repeated their so-called 'three-peat' from 1991 to 1993.
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Against this background, and considering the impressive comeback that Michael Jordan, who had actually retired from basketball in 1993, had made since his return to the Chicago Bulls, the 1998 NBA Finals were the most watched of all time. As Sotheby's said in a statement, it was there that Jordan "cemented his legacy as the greatest basketball player of all time".
The 1998 Finals was once again in the spotlight in 2020 with The Last Dance, a documentary series produced by ESPN and Netflix, featuring previously unreleased footage and footage from Chicago Bulls games during the 1997-98 NBA season. Michael Jordan ended his career for the second time in 1999.
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