LeBron James fans have something extra to celebrate this New Year.
The billionaire baller’s most valuable game-worn jersey to ever appear at auction will go under the gavel at Sotheby’s this January. The Miami Heat jersey was donned by James for Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals. Steeped in sporting history, it’s forecasted to fetch quite a pretty penny.
The 2XL jersey, which will lead Sotheby’s The One sale on January 27, is expected to sell for between $3 million and $5 million. The high pre-sale estimate makes it the priciest James jersey to cross the auction block. It also ranks among the most valuable game-worn jerseys of all time next to Michael Jordan’s $10.1 million game-worn 1998 NBA Finals jersey and Diego Maradona’s $9.3 million “Hand of God” Jersey.
As fans will recall, Game 7 between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs certainly placed “King James” under pressure. He more than kept his cool, though. The four-time championship winner famously scored a double-double with 37 points and 12 rebounds in the high-stakes game and wore the jersey throughout the entire first half. The King’s efforts helped lead the Heat to achieve a 95-88 victory over the Spurs. The game was one of the most important of his career as he achieved one of the highest point tallies in any Game 7 in NBA Finals history.
Of course, this is not the first time one of James’s game-worn jerseys has been up for grabs. In 2019, the Ohio-born legend’s high school jersey sold for a record $187,500 at Goldin Auctions. Another Miami Heat jersey the 16-time All-Star sported during the “Nickname Game” was auctioned off a year later.
“As Lebron is on the precipice of surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, it’s significant to be offering a defining object in LeBron’s career which many attributes as the legacy-defining milestone that began the comparison between himself and Michael Jordan as the greatest player of all time,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles, said in a statement.
The One auction will include 20 fine objects from throughout history. Highlights include an extremely rare pair of Chinese tureens from the 18th century (estimate: $300,000 to $500,000), an ancient metal disc from the storied Guennol collection (estimate: $200,000 to $300,000) and a copper Head of Buddha from the golden age of Thai art (estimate: $300,000 to $500,000).
The live auction will take place at Sotheby’s New York on January 27. You can peruse the lots ahead of the sale during Sotheby’s Masters Week exhibitions from January 21.
