WLS Sport News ” Michael Jordan – Flu Game Shoe Just Sold For 104,765 Auction ”
Michael Jordan collapses in the arms of Scottie Pippen after scoring 38 points in the famous ‘Flu Game,’ of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz.
Preston Truman — the Utah Jazz ballboy who scored Michael Jordan’s Jordans after his famous Flu Game in the 1997 NBA Finals — saw the autographed black-and-red kicks fetch $104,765 at auction Thursday morning.
Gray Flannel Auctions handled the sale, which blew away the previous high paid for a pair of game-used Jordans; a pair from his rookie season went for $31,070 last month, ESPN reported.
Preston had kept the size 13 sneakers in a safety deposit box for the last 16 years, telling ESPN that he went years without giving them a thought or even looking at them, which is why he didn’t have a hard time saying goodbye.
As for how he got his hands on them, Preston said before the auction that he had earned Jordan’s trust by securing his pregame meal of applesauce and graham crackers earlier in the season, and when Jordan’s Bulls visited the Delta Center that night for Game 5 of the Finals, Preston — who had the odd food pairing waiting for M.J. — worked up the nerve to ask Jordan if he could have his shoes after the game.
Jordan, who wore a new pair of sneakers for every game during his career, obliged and even stopped the Bulls’ equipment manager from packing them away after he scored 38 points and led Chicago to a 90-88 win and a 3-2 advantage in the series.
Once he was dressed, Jordan signed the shoes for Preston and handed them over.
“I think my photo that Jordan’s bodyguard took with me standing there (as he signed them) drove up the price because buyers didn’t have to worry if they were real,”
adding that he also has a pair of game-used Jordans from the 1998 Finals, but has no immediate plans to sell them.
Truman had the Flu Game shoes appraised about five years ago and told ESPN that Christie’s gave him a figure of $5,000, leading him to put them back in the safety deposit box until now.
Now he’ll be going back to the bank with more than 20 times that figure.
Michael Jordan’s “Flu Game”—Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals—is so iconic that even the shoes he wore have a special place in history.
Sneakerheads still call the black and red edition of the Jordan XII the “Flu Games,” but the particular pair that Jordan wore on that day was sold at auction on Thursday and netted the hefty sum of $104,765.
ESPN recently interviewed the lucky Utah Jazz ball boy who got the shoes from Jordan after his 38-point effort.
