Michael Jordan’s basketball career is long over, but the former NBA superstar is not done setting records.
Jordan’s latest achievement came on Tuesday, when the auction house Sotheby’s announced that one of his game-worn pairs of sneakers had set “a new world record for the most valuable sneakers ever sold.”
Jordan wore the sneakers, a pair of Air Jordan 13s, during his final championship run with the Chicago Bulls, which is also known as his “last dance.”
More specifically, he wore the shoes against the Utah Jazz during Game 2 of the NBA Finals on June 5, 1998, which the Bulls won 93-88, according to Basketball Reference.
Jordan scored 37 points in the game, which took place in Salt Lake City.
“The historic sneakers were worn during the most recognizable season of Jordan’s storied career, which helped secure his legacy as the greatest basketball player of all time,” Sotheby’s said in a statement, according to CBS News.
The article noted that Jordan gave the sneakers to a ball boy after the game and also signed them. It’s unclear whether that ball boy is the same person who put the shoes up for auction this spring.
What are the most expensive sneakers ever sold at auction?
Although the selling price of $2.2 million was high enough to set a new record for sneaker auctions, it was actually on the low end of what Sotheby’s predicted the Air Jordans could go for.
“They had been expected to fetch between $2 million and $4 million,” CNBC reported.
Still, the shoes beat the previous record by $400,000, which had been set by a pair of Nike Air Yeezy 1s in April 2021, according to ABC News.
“A pair of Jordan’s Nike Air Ships worn during his rookie season in 1984 were auctioned off for $1.47 million in October 2021. They were the second-most expensive shoes of all-time and the most expensive game-worn shoes until the sale of the Jordan XIIIs,” the article said.