Air Jordans may be struggling to make an extra buck on the secondary market or even move off shelves at retail prices, but game-worn Michael Jordan attire remains a hot commodity among collectors and continues breaking records on the auction block in 2026.
According to Hypebeast, a game-worn jersey that Jordan sweated into during Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals just sold for a record-setting $12.260,000 on Tuesday (Sept. 29) on JOOPITER. While it’s no surprise that game-used attire from Jordan continues to fetch prices in the millions (the man is still alive, by the way), the $12.2 million winning bid is the highest a game-worn NBA jersey has ever fetched since Jordan’s jersey from Game 1 of the ’98 NBA Finals sold for $10 million in 2022.
Per Hypebeast:
Worn during Jordan’s final championship campaign with the Chicago Bulls—immortalized as “The Last Dance”—the item stands as the only publicly known white 1998 NBA Finals jersey to ever surface on the open market. The physical piece features the iconic 1998 NBA Finals Championship patch stitched onto the chest, widely celebrated by sports collectors as the most significant Finals patch in modern basketball history.
Bidding closed at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, marking a monumental shift in the sports collectibles sector. Following the landmark jersey sale, JOOPITER’s curated sports auction block continues with Jordan’s personal 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello, which he drove during his final years in Chicago, scheduled to close on September 30.
You have to wonder if it’s the same buyer making all these purchases at this point.
While Jordan continues to break records even in retirement, we don’t know if any professional athlete will ever eclipse the $24 million that Babe Ruth’s 1932 World Series baseball jersey fetched in 2024.
Well, maybe Jalen Brunson’s game-worn jersey from Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals might get close once he retires and either Fat Joe, Ben Stiller, or Timothée Chalamet decides to jump out that window. Just sayin’.
