Indicative of the reputation of Michael Jordan as the best basketball player to have played the game, the basketball shoes he wore during his rookie year with the Chicago Bulls was recently sold for nearly $72,000 in an auction.
What is surprising is that the pair of game-worn Michael Jordan shoes that fetched such a lofty price is not even an Air Jordan, which has been known to command big prices in past auctions.
The Nike Air Jordan series of shoes have become essential elements of the image of Michael Jordan during the biggest moments of his great basketball career that began in 1984 and ended in 2002.
Second highest bid
The Michael Jordan shoes that fetched a price of $71,553 in a bidding over the weekend was his Nike Air Ships that he only wore once in the Bulls’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers back in 1984.
It was the second-highest bid for Jordan shoes next only to the Air Jordan’s 12 which His Airness wore during his famous flu game in Game 5 of the 1996-97 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz. That pair of shoes was sold for $104,765, notes Yahoo! Sports.
One of the reasons why the pair of shoes got a huge bid is the fact that Jordan was actually wearing the Nike Air Ships instead of his signature shoe which was also launched during the same year.
Khalid Ali, a Lakers ball boy, had actually kept the shoes in a closet at his mother’s home since 1984. He recalled that he asked Michael Jordan for the shoes that he was wearing during the warm-ups that night at the Great Western Forum, the former home of the LA Lakers. Michael was wearing a red, black and white Air Jordans that time.
But during the game, Jordan switched into the Air Ships, signed those and gave Ali the pair afterwards. While he would have wanted the Air Jordan, the Air Ships was still very much welcome for Ali and it eventually paid him in a big way after keeping it for 21 years.
A billionaire
Last month, Michael Jordan made it into the list of Forbes’ billionaires in the world which also made him the 513th richest person in American.
In the US, the category is called being obscenely rich but Michael Jordan, knowing his competitive spirit, would surely not rest on his laurels and will continue to make headways in and among the billionaires club.
The only hurdle that Jordan and the other team owners will be facing is when they sit face to face with the NBA players’ union a few years down the road for the CBA negotiations of the league.
The owners’ group claim that since 11 of the 30 team owners are not in the billionaires club, they are losing money which the National Basketball Players Association certainly do not believe so especially with the owner’s share of the league’s $24 billion media rights deal. But that’s another story already.