A heartbreaking piece of Utah Jazz history could have been yours for the low, low price of $41,825.
That's how much someone paid at auction this week for the basket, including backboard, hoop and 1,000-pound stanchion, on which Michael Jordan hit his game-winning shot at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City during Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. The piece was one of dozens of high-end items sold by Heritage Auctions during the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago on Thursday.
"This is arguably the most recognizable basketball and backboard in the sport," Chris Ivy, Heritage's director of sports auctions, said in a press release before the sale. "The story of the greatest basketball player of all time effectively ended here, in the glass and metal of this special artifact. To own this is to secure ultimate bragging rights in the highly competitive world of Michael Jordan collectibles."
Ivy called it "everything the ultimate Jordan fan needs to recreate the magic in their own home."
For Jazz fans, it might have been everything needed to recreate the misery.
Perhaps you still hear in your head Bob Costas' call from that June game 18 years ago. "Here comes Chicago. .. Seventeen seconds from Game 7, or championship number six. Jordan, open, Chicago with the lead! Time out Utah. Five point two seconds left. Michael Jordan, running on fumes, with 45 points." You will undoubtedly recall the shot, taken from the top of the key, Bryon Russell unable to get a hand in his face, to secure a sixth title for Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
It's unclear how exactly the basket ended up at auction.
The Jazz and LHM privately sold the court and three basket stanchions (one was a backup) in May of 1999, spokesman Frank Zang said. The revenue from the sale was used to help purchase the court that's been at the arena since.
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