Rare Air: Nike shoes worn by Michael Jordan during rookie year sold at auction for $1.472 million, setting record

The earliest-known pair of regular-season shoes worn by Michael Jordan sold at auction Sunday for $1.472 million, breaking a record for most expensive game-worn sneakers ever sold, according to Sotheby's.

The shoes, "Nike Air Ships," were from the fifth game of Jordan's 1984 rookie season with the Chicago Bulls, a 129-113 loss against the Denver Nuggets. In the game, which took place Nov. 1 of that year, Jordan logged 33 minutes and scored 17 points with five assists and five rebounds. Jordan gifted them to then-Nuggets ballboy TJ Lewis, who had kept them since then. The shoes are also signed in red pen. 

They sold at the Sotheby's Icons of Excellence & Haute Luxury auction in Las Vegas, and the buyer was high-end sports card and memorabilia collector Nick Fiorella, Sotheby's said in a statement.

"Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand helped redefine what a signature line formed around an athlete could be,"  head of Sotheby’s Streetwear and Modern Collectables Brahm Wachter said in a statement. "This pair, with provenance from Michael’s fifth NBA game really touches two worlds as the Nike Air Ship hold a special place in the hearts of sneakerheads as the precursor to the Air Jordan 1, but beyond that, it is also simply an incredible artifact that dates to the nascency of Michael Jordan’s rookie season."

According to Sotheby's, this pair of shoes ranks as the second-most expensive footwear ever sold, trailing the Yeezy 1 prototypes that rapper Kanye West wore to the 2008 Grammy Awards that sold for $1.8 million in April in a Sotheby's private sale. 

All things Bulls: Latest Chicago Bulls news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

The 1984 season was the first of Jordan's storied 15-year NBA career in which he was a 14-time All-Star, an 11-time All-NBA selection, a 10-time scoring champion, a five-time NBA MVP and a six-time NBA Finals champion, among the many other accolades of his career.

A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Jordan also won the 1984-85 NBA Rookie of the Year award, the same season he wore the shoes that sold Sunday in the auction. Jordan averaged 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists in 82 games that season.