By AP
A collection of shoes that basketball superstar Michael Jordan wore when he and the Chicago Bulls won six NBA championships fetched $8 million at auction, setting a new record for sports footwear, Sotheby's reported.
The six models of Air Jordan shoes, corresponding to the last games of the 1991, 92, 93, 96, 97 and 98 championship series were sold on Friday.
Sotheby's named the pieces
the Dynasty Collection
.
“This serves as a reminder of Michael Jordan's lasting impact on the world and as a tangible expression of his recognized legendary status.
The significance of it is validated by this monumental result,” Sotheby's Brahim Wachter said in a statement.
Wachter is in charge of the modern collectibles division for the auction house.
Sotheby's did not identify the buyer.
Regarding the seller, he simply said that he was “a private American collector,” who obtained the shoes from an executive who worked for the Bulls for years.
This image distributed by Sotheby's shows a collection of sports shoes that Michael Jordan wore when he won six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls.AP
Jordan first gave the executive a shoe after the championship game in 1991, and continued the tradition afterwards, according to Sotheby's.
The auction included photos of Jordan wearing a single shoe as he celebrated wins in 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1998.
[Michael Jordan, first athlete on the list of the richest in the US]
Five-time League Most Valuable Player and two-time Olympic champion, Jordan was such a unique player that then-NBA commissioner David Stern described him in 1992 as “the standard by which excellence in basketball is measured.” .
The NBA renamed its Most Valuable Player trophy in 2022 with Jordan's name.
Likewise, the basketball player transformed the sports footwear industry, allying with Nike to create the Air Jordan brand in the mid-1980s.