Michael Jordan’s road jersey from the Chicago Bulls' 1996-97 season — which he wore in at least 17 games across five months — will sell next month at Sotheby’s, with a high estimate of $6 million.
As of the opening of bidding Wednesday afternoon, three bids had been placed, raising the price to $4 million, already meeting the reserve.
This is the first time the jersey has come to public market since the consignor purchased it directly from the Bulls in 2006.
The jersey is matched to several memorable Jordan games, including “The Crossover” on March 12, 1997, in which Iverson famously pulled off his devastating move against Jordan. It’s affixed with a gold 50th anniversary patch, which players wore during the season in place of the traditional NBA logo.
Over the course of the jersey’s usage, beginning in December 1996 and ending in April 1997, Jordan scored a total of 528 points.
Photo-matching company MeiGray says the jersey is one of only two red jerseys worn by Jordan during that season and is “the most extensively worn Michael Jordan Bulls game-worn jersey ever submitted to MeiGray Authenticated.”
This distinction is quite significant, considering MeiGray is the longest tenured photo-matching company in the industry, and has provided documentation for some of the most valuable pieces of sports memorabilia ever sold, including the Babe Ruth “Called Shot” jersey and Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 “Last Dance” jersey, which sold for $24.12 million and $10.1 million, respectively.
MeiGray provided detailed analysis of the population of game-worn Jordan jerseys from their internal census, painting a picture of extreme rarity for the Sotheby’s jersey.
According to MeiGray, the Bulls realized the possible commercial value of Jordan’s jerseys during his final season in 1997-98, selling many through charity organization CharitaBulls. This has resulted in 25 game-worn jerseys from that final season authenticated by MeiGray alone, with 20 of those matched to just a single game.
This sounds far more similar to the trend of player’s jerseys in the modern era, as athletes often wear multiple during a single game. Victor Wembanyama is known to have worn multiple during his debut game in 2023, one of which was sold for $762,000.
However, Sotheby’s notes that prior to the “Last Dance” season, the population of Jordan gamers is scarce: “In the 12 seasons prior to 1997-1998, MeiGray has examined 130 jerseys purported to be worn by Michael Jordan, however, at the time of cataloging only four jerseys have proven to be authentic by MeiGray.” The auction house goes on say the jersey is “perhaps the finest away red Michael Jordan jersey that has ever surfaced at market.”
One such jersey, a black alternate road example from the 1996-97 season, sold, along with the game-worn shorts, for $470,000 in June 2024.
Another photo-matching company, Resolution Photomatching, has provided documentation to at least one additional jersey from that period, a 1986-87 uniform matched to five games, which sold for $480,000 in October 2020.
MeiGray notes in its documentation the jersey had been previously sent in for authentication in 2016, and has since been updated, as of September 2024, with additional information.
Notably, the lot description includes the original letter of authenticity from the Bulls dated July 21, 2006. The brief document provides only the following note: “Michael wore this jersey in a game at some point during the 1996-97 season in which the Bulls won the NBA championship.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.