A LeBron James game-used jersey, worn the night he set the NBA record for all-time minutes played, sold for $180,000 at Sotheby’s on Thursday night.
The jersey, which James donned during the November 2023 game in which he broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record, was estimated to sell for just $50,000 to $70,000.
This isn’t the first time Sotheby’s, which signed a deal in November 2023 to become the official game-worn source of the NBA, has sold key jerseys from James’ milestone moments. In April, the auction house sold the jersey worn during the January 2023 game when James became the youngest player in history to score 38,000 points for $393,700. The same month, a Sotheby’s auction garnered $152,400 for the rim from the game in which James broke the all-time scoring record in February 2023.
As the jersey worn during James’ scoring record game is unlikely to sell publicly — it's rumored to be kept by James himself — the auction house has leveraged its deal with the NBA to bring alternative options for collectors seeking to bid on historic moments in James' storied 21-year career.
It’s believed James has worn less than 2,000 jerseys in his career, with less than 150 of those sold publicly featuring a photo-match, according to a recent memo published by fractional investment platform Rally.
While Sotheby’s does not include any third-party photo-match documentation along with the lot, the auction house’s deal with the NBA lends the jersey an essentially perfect layer of authenticity.
Other James jerseys, featuring attribution to less significant achievements, often sell for well under $100,000. MeiGray currently has a James jersey from a December 2022 game in which he recorded a career high 17 rebounds for a fixed price of $55,000.
In January 2023, a Miami Heat jersey worn by James in the 2013 NBA Finals sold for over $3.6 million, registering the most expensive sale of any James jersey at public auction.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.