What happened.
The jersey is the white Chicago Bulls uniform Jordan wore on June 7, 1998 — Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals. The Bulls won 96–54, a 42-point margin that remains the largest blowout in Finals history and the game that swung the momentum of the Last Dance championship series. It is the only publicly known white Jordan jersey from a Bulls win in that Finals, it carries the embroidered 1998 Finals patch on the left chest, and it is photomatched by MeiGray — the authentication standard that underwrites eight-figure memorabilia.
JOOPITER — the digital auction house founded by Pharrell Williams in 2022 — ran the sale from September 15 to 29. Bidding opened with a $10M bid on day one, and the jersey closed at $12.26 million including buyer’s premium. That beats the $10.091M Jordan’s Game 1 jersey from the same Finals set at Sotheby’s in 2022 — a record Jordan himself held for four years.
Why it matters.
Jordan now owns two of the highest-priced game-worn jerseys ever publicly sold. Only Babe Ruth’s $24.12M “Called Shot” jersey ranks higher, which means the most expensive basketball memorabilia sale is now within striking distance of the highest publicly reported sports memorabilia sales.
This is the deeper signal for collectors: at the highest end of the market, memorabilia and cards are competing in the same conversation. At $12.26M, a jersey sits within roughly $600K of the $12.9M Jordan–Kobe Logoman — the most expensive basketball card ever sold. Four years ago the jersey record was chasing the Mantle card’s $12.6M; now they share the same room.
And the venue matters. The biggest basketball jersey ever didn’t sell at Sotheby’s or Heritage — it sold on JOOPITER, a celebrity-culture platform founded in 2022. The market’s center of gravity is shifting from legacy auction houses to culture-native platforms.
Methodology
How this price was verified.
Every price on this page is a completed sale, including buyer’s premium where stated. The jersey was matched against JOOPITER’s photomatching documentation and reporting from multiple outlets. Where sources disagreed — the consignor’s name, Jordan’s exact Game 3 stat line beyond his 24 points — we left it out rather than pick a version.
Spotted an error? Email [email protected] — we correct and note it.
- JOOPITER auction results
- The Athletic — Benjamin Burrows
- Sports Illustrated
- Men’s Journal
- Hypebeast · CNN
Market moves, in your inbox.
Every Market Move, delivered the day it publishes — verified sales, why they matter, and what they mean for collectors. No spam, ever.
Subscribe to Market Moves