Michael Jordan’s performance in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals is the stuff of legends, and the shoes that he wore during the famous “Flu Game” have sold for a staggering price.
Jordan, who scored 38 points in the victory that turned the tide in the series and helped the Bulls to their fifth championship in seven seasons, famously was dealing with flu-like symptoms during the contest and still helped the team to the win.
This week, the shoes that Jordan wore during the game went up for auction, and the sales price clocked in at $1.38 million through Goldin, a New Jersey-based collectibles marketplace.
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“Michael Jordan was one of the most pivotal athletes of all time,” Goldin's Founder and Executive Chairman Ken Goldin said in a statement. “I believe that these are the most important and most valuable pair of sneakers that will ever be sold. The ‘Flu Game’ is so iconic that the term is now used to refer to when people tough it out and rise to the occasion under difficult circumstances.”
This isn’t the first time that the shoes have been auctioned, either. According to Eric Walden, who covers the Jazz for the Salt Lake Tribune, the shoes were sold in 2013 for $104,765 by Preston Truman, who was working as a ball boy for the Jazz during the 1998 Finals.
Jordan memorabilia typically fetches big prices at auction, including a pair of shoes he wore during Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals, which sold for $2.2 million earlier this year.
NBA
In May, a jersey Jordan wore during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona was sold for over $3 million, according to Reuters.
Later this month, a jacket Jordan wore during those Olympics will also go up for auction, and could fetch between $1-to-3 million.