The headline-making star of Sotheby’s eclectic February 2 “The One” sale will almost certainly be the sports world’s Lot 10, a collection of Air Jordans worn by Michael Jordan in each of the six NBA championship games in which he played and which the Bulls won, estimated at an eye-watering $7 million to $10 million.
Also among the 25 extraordinary lots at this Friday’s show are a stunning 71-piece Meissen dinner service made for the porcelain works’ own titled director, Graf von Bühl, in the 1740s, with a high estimate of $200,000. Which is a steal, actually—the pieces were made at the world-famous Saxon source for the source’s very own Saxon count who bestrode the factory and much else in 18th-century German and Polish lands as prime minister under the Saxon king August the Strong. The house has also coaxed from the collector ether the extraordinary envelope—known in philately as a “cover”—bearing Britain’s first-ever penny postage stamp issue, the famous “Penny Black,” sent on May 2, 1840 to an ironworks factory manager.
The Story—And Superstition—Behind Lot No. 10: ‘The Dynasty Collection’
The first gavel will fall in the house’s York Avenue rooms shortly after 10 a.m. If you’re after some fine 18th-century porcelain—or one left-foot and five right-foot pre-owned high-topped sneakers—be there or be square.
Put another way, it can be argued that the sale of these six shoes, known in hyperbolic sports-world parlance as “The Dynasty Collection” (referring to Jordan’s still-incredible NBA championship wins with the Bulls), is, anywhere in the estimate’s $3-million-wide zone, more than a bit on the hopeful side on the seller’s part. To restate: The six shoes are not “pairs”; rather, they’re individual game souvenirs. Presumably, unless he has since de-accessioned them himself, the 60-year-old basketball legend still has the other six matching shoes.
Strange as Lot No. 10’s composition is, then, the shoes’ provenance is impeccable and even more than a little cute:
They were given as lone game-tokens by Jordan after each year’s championship to the Bulls’ then PR man Tim Hallam. Hallam had requested the first shoe from Jordan before the 1991 NBA championship game, but only in the event that the Bulls won. As we know, they did. Jordan—the gambler—is and was a man of quite some superstition, particularly when it comes to his own behavior toward and around Lady Luck, so, prior to the Bulls’ 1992 championship game, the man who redefined the word “air” in basketball terminology and with that redefined the game, dutifully gave PR man Hallam another shoe. And so forth, for each championship final he attained for the Bulls.
Jordan’s Sneakers Enter Rarefied Air
Hallam sold them on, and it is from this anonymous and theoretically starry-eyed second collector that the shoes come under Sotheby’s unforgiving hammer on Friday morning. In other words, the shoes do not come this time to the market from Hallam. In that light, then, Sotheby’s has clearly smartly chosen to elevate and emphasize the shoes’ specialty by enveloping their incongruity in a sale of exquisite and largely European rarities. It’s a special market move for a special set of shoes.
Put another way, no matter how exalted the prices for “antique” sneakers have become, and they are quite high, it’s unusual to have them marketed alongside 18th-century porcelain and rare Spanish colonial silver, however fractional those prices may be in relation to the eventual price for the sneakers. What Sotheby’s tells us in this extraordinary 25-lot melange of “The One” sale is that objects that Michael Jordan has worn—specifically, his mass-marketed launch platforms for his many extraordinary seconds of eponymous “air time” in six renowned NBA championship games—belong in such company.
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Michael Jordan’s 6 NBA Championship Nikes Could Fetch $10 Million At Sotheby’s Auction On Friday
Guy Martin
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Jan 31, 2024,06:04am EST
The Dynasty Collection_02
Some Very Fine Work Boots: Michael Jordan’s NBA championship game shoes.PHOTO COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S
The headline-making star of Sotheby’s eclectic February 2 “The One” sale will almost certainly be the sports world’s Lot 10, a collection of Air Jordans worn by Michael Jordan in each of the six NBA championship games in which he played and which the Bulls won, estimated at an eye-watering $7 million to $10 million.
Also among the 25 extraordinary lots at this Friday’s show are a stunning 71-piece Meissen dinner service made for the porcelain works’ own titled director, Graf von Bühl, in the 1740s, with a high estimate of $200,000. Which is a steal, actually—the pieces were made at the world-famous Saxon source for the source’s very own Saxon count who bestrode the factory and much else in 18th-century German and Polish lands as prime minister under the Saxon king August the Strong. The house has also coaxed from the collector ether the extraordinary envelope—known in philately as a “cover”—bearing Britain’s first-ever penny postage stamp issue, the famous “Penny Black,” sent on May 2, 1840 to an ironworks factory manager.
The Story—And Superstition—Behind Lot No. 10: ‘The Dynasty Collection’
The first gavel will fall in the house’s York Avenue rooms shortly after 10 a.m. If you’re after some fine 18th-century porcelain—or one left-foot and five right-foot pre-owned high-topped sneakers—be there or be square.
PROMOTED
Put another way, it can be argued that the sale of these six shoes, known in hyperbolic sports-world parlance as “The Dynasty Collection” (referring to Jordan’s still-incredible NBA championship wins with the Bulls), is, anywhere in the estimate’s $3-million-wide zone, more than a bit on the hopeful side on the seller’s part. To restate: The six shoes are not “pairs”; rather, they’re individual game souvenirs. Presumably, unless he has since de-accessioned them himself, the 60-year-old basketball legend still has the other six matching shoes.
Strange as Lot No. 10’s composition is, then, the shoes’ provenance is impeccable and even more than a little cute:
They were given as lone game-tokens by Jordan after each year’s championship to the Bulls’ then PR man Tim Hallam. Hallam had requested the first shoe from Jordan before the 1991 NBA championship game, but only in the event that the Bulls won. As we know, they did. Jordan—the gambler—is and was a man of quite some superstition, particularly when it comes to his own behavior toward and around Lady Luck, so, prior to the Bulls’ 1992 championship game, the man who redefined the word “air” in basketball terminology and with that redefined the game, dutifully gave PR man Hallam another shoe. And so forth, for each championship final he attained for the Bulls.
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Jordan’s Sneakers Enter Rarefied Air
Hallam sold them on, and it is from this anonymous and theoretically starry-eyed second collector that the shoes come under Sotheby’s unforgiving hammer on Friday morning. In other words, the shoes do not come this time to the market from Hallam. In that light, then, Sotheby’s has clearly smartly chosen to elevate and emphasize the shoes’ specialty by enveloping their incongruity in a sale of exquisite and largely European rarities. It’s a special market move for a special set of shoes.
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Put another way, no matter how exalted the prices for “antique” sneakers have become, and they are quite high, it’s unusual to have them marketed alongside 18th-century porcelain and rare Spanish colonial silver, however fractional those prices may be in relation to the eventual price for the sneakers. What Sotheby’s tells us in this extraordinary 25-lot melange of “The One” sale is that objects that Michael Jordan has worn—specifically, his mass-marketed launch platforms for his many extraordinary seconds of eponymous “air time” in six renowned NBA championship games—belong in such company.
Which still leaves the question: Can it really be that one lone left-foot sneaker and five other right-foot sneakers worn by a late-20th-century sports icon will magnetize a high seven-figure or possibly an eight-figure sum from the rabid hoops memorabilia crowd? Another way pose that question is to ask: Just how rabid—right now, this week—do we think the hoops-memorabilia crowd could actually be? Friday’s 10 a.m. meeting on York Avenue will inform us of that. Whatever else it may be, the inclusion of the shoes and their estimate a joust into the unknown.
It will remain a fine irony floating around this sale that, back in the day, the legendary wearer of these size 13 and size 13.5 hoops boots was also a passionate gambler.