Michael Jordan's Jazz Finals Jersey Could Sell for Record $15 Million

The Utah Jazz walked into the United Center on June 7, 1998, with the NBA Finals tied at one game apiece.

They walked out having made the wrong kind of history.

Utah had already accomplished what it needed to during the first two games in Salt Lake City, beating Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in Game 1 before dropping Game 2.

The Jazz were three wins away from the first championship in franchise history ... and had every reason to believe they could finish the job.

Then Game 3 happened.

Chicago held Utah to eight points in the first quarter. The Jazz entered halftime trailing 49-23, scored just 31 more points the rest of the way and eventually walked off the floor on the wrong end of a 96-54 final.

Fifty-four points.

That's still the fewest any team has scored in an NBA Finals game. The 42-point loss also remains the largest margin of defeat in Finals history.

Jordan didn't even need one of his superhuman performances to make it happen. He scored a game-high 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting in just over 32 minutes.

Twenty-eight years later, Utah's nightmare of a night is back in the news ... because the jersey Jordan wore during it could soon be worth as much as $15 million.

Jordan's Game 3 jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals is heading to auction this fall through Joopiter, according to The Athletic. Bidding is scheduled to open Sept. 15, with the jersey carrying a pre-sale estimate between $10 million and $15 million.

The jersey has been photo-matched to Game 3 by third-party authenticator MeiGray.

And if we're talking about a Jordan jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals potentially selling for eight figures, there's already quite the precedent.

The jersey Jordan wore in Game 1 against Utah sold for $10.1 million in 2022, setting the record for a basketball jersey sold at public auction.

"The 'Last Dance' represents really one of the defining chapters in the history of all sports, not just basketball," Joopiter global head of sales Caitlin Donovan told The Athletic.

The Jazz don't need much reminding.

Utah eventually recovered from its Game 3 disaster enough to send the series back to Salt Lake City, where Jordan scored 45 points in Game 6 and hit that jumper over Bryon Russell with 5.2 seconds remaining.

Chicago won 87-86. Jordan had his sixth championship. Utah's second consecutive trip to the NBA Finals ended at his hands.

The final shot will always be the image most associated with that series.

But Jordan left behind another piece of Jazz history three games earlier.

And now ... someone might pay $15 million for it.