Last month, it was announced that the sports and entertainment memorabilia site Lelands.com would be auctioning off, among many other things, the actual jersey worn by Duke forward Christian Laettner when he made “The Shot” to beat the Kentucky Wildcats in the East Regional Finals back in 1992. The auction took place last Friday, and after all the smoke cleared and the wealthy people dust settled, Laettner’s jersey sold for an incredible $119,500.
Better luck next time, Dan Issel’s practice jersey and shorts.
“This is the second-highest price ever paid at auction for a game-worn basketball jersey,” said Lelands.com founder and chairman Joshua Evans. “We couldn’t be more thrilled.”
A Virginia Squires game-used jersey worn by Julius Erving sold for $190,414 in 2011. (Via ESPN)
As for the auction, to put the price tag on Laettner’s jersey into perspective, Red Schoendienst’s 1957 Milwaukee Braves uniform that he wore during the regular season and World Series that year sold for $13,288. But Laettner’s jersey was still far from the big winner of the auction, as Jackie Robinson’s actual Rookie of the Year trophy – the one that he was presented in 1947 for the first time in baseball history – sold for a ridiculous $401,968.16.
Normally, the baseball fan in me would turn into Indiana Jones and shout that IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM, but if you can get $400K for a crappy old trophy, you take that check all day.
Also, after searching through the items that already sold this morning, I was glad that I never bothered looking at the catalog when I wrote about the Laettner jersey last month, because I’m an idiot and am pretty sure I’d own these Bill Russell golf clubs right now. Why? Because I’m an idiot. I just said it.
What’s that, car insurance? Maybe next year. Daddy needs to own some guy’s old golf clubs.
