Jazz's Michael Jordan Nightmare Just Got Another $14 Million Price Tag

The Utah Jazz lost the 1998 NBA Finals nearly three decades ago, but Michael Jordan is still finding ways to make it expensive.

Less than two weeks after a jersey from Chicago's championship victory over Utah sold for $12.26 million, another piece of Jordan's final Bulls title run has surfaced with an even more ridiculous price tag.

This time, somebody paid $14 million.

Hunt Auctions announced Monday that Jordan's game-worn, autographed jersey from Game 2 of the 1998 Finals was purchased in a private sale by memorabilia collector Ron Firman. The transaction established a new record for the highest known price paid for basketball memorabilia.

And yes … the Jazz were on the losing end of that game, too.

On June 5, 1998, Jordan scored 37 points as Chicago defeated Utah 93-88 at the Delta Center, evening the Finals at one game apiece. The Jazz had stolen Game 1 at home, but Jordan made sure their early advantage didn't last long.

Twenty-eight years later, the uniform he wore that evening costs more than most people will earn in several lifetimes.

Back in August, Jazz Roundtable covered the possibility of Jordan's Game 3 jersey fetching as much as $15 million at auction. That was the uniform he wore during Chicago's infamous 96-54 demolition of Utah, still the lowest-scoring performance in NBA Finals history.

The jersey eventually sold for $12.26 million on September 29, surpassing the nearly $10.1 million paid in 2022 for Jordan's Game 1 jersey.

Three games, three jerseys and more than $36 million in combined sales … and the Bulls hadn't even clinched the championship yet.

The $14 million private transaction was completed in September, before the Game 3 auction — although Hunt Auctions didn't announce it until Monday. That makes it the highest known basketball memorabilia sale, while Game 3 retains the public-auction record.

Of course, $14 million is still a long way from the most ambitious prediction surrounding Jordan's 1998 Finals memorabilia … and Jazz Roundtable has already covered that one, too.

In another Jazz Roundtable story, collector Rob Gough suggested the Game 3 jersey could eventually become the first $100 million jersey. The September auction fell well short of that figure, but another eight-figure sale shows just how much collectors are willing to spend on Jordan's final championship.

Jordan's autograph makes the Game 2 jersey especially valuable, although the history attached to it is doing plenty of the heavy lifting.

Jordan won his sixth championship that June, putting the finishing touches on Chicago's second three-peat with a jumper over Bryon Russell — a moment Jazz fans have spent 28 years trying to forget.

For Utah fans, that series has never exactly been a treasured memory. For collectors, practically anything associated with Jordan's final championship run has become a prized possession.

Even his Game 2 Air Jordan 13 sneakers sold for $2.2 million in 2023, bringing the combined reported sales of his jersey and shoes from that particular Jazz loss to $16.2 million.

The $14 million jersey also ranks second among known game-worn jersey sales across all sports, trailing only Babe Ruth's 1932 World Series jersey, which fetched $24.12 million in 2024.

And Jordan's jerseys from Games 4, 5 and 6 of the 1998 Finals haven't even sold publicly.

For nearly three decades, Jazz fans have had to live with the memory of Jordan celebrating his final championship at their expense. The record books haven't changed, and neither has the outcome of that series.

But the price of remembering it? That just keeps going up.