Karl Malone sells Dream Team jerseys from all 12 Olympic players for millions

Michael Jordan Dream Team Jersey
Goldin Auctions
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One of Michael Jordan‘s Dream Team jerseys from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics sold for $3.03 million.

Teammate Karl Malone consigned game-worn, signed jerseys from all 12 members of the Dream Team in a Goldin Auctions collection.

Jordan’s could be the highest-priced piece of Olympic clothing in history. In 2013, Miracle on Ice captain Mike Eruzione sold his jersey from the final game at the 1980 Lake Placid Games against Finland for $657,250.

The record for overall Olympic memorabilia is believed to be the $8.8 million for The Olympic Manifesto, an 1892 document that outlined the revival of the modern Olympic Games, that was sold in 2019.

After Jordan, the following jerseys were also sold in the Malone collection: Larry Bird ($360,000), Magic Johnson ($336,000), Charles Barkley ($230,400), David Robinson ($116,400), Clyde Drexler ($91,200), Scottie Pippen ($80,400), Malone ($58,800), John Stockton ($55,200), Patrick Ewing ($39,600), Christian Laettner ($39,600) and Chris Mullin ($37,200).

Every jersey was from the Olympic semifinal win over Lithuania.

The Malone collection also included a pair of game-worn, signed sneakers from every Dream Team member.

Jordan’s had the highest final sale price of $420,000. Laettner’s went for the lowest price of $7,200.

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Michael Jordan Dream Team Jersey
Image via Goldin Auctions

Jimmer Fredette headlines USA Basketball 3×3 rosters for worlds

Jimmer Fredette
Getty
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Jimmer Fredette‘s bid to play in the 2024 Paris Olympics received a boost as he was named to the U.S. roster for the biggest 3×3 basketball tournament before the Games, the World Cup that runs from May 30-June 4 in Vienna.

Fredette, the 2011 NCAA Player of the Year for BYU, is joined on the team by Canyon Barry and Kareem Maddox, both 2019 World champions, and Dylan Travis.

The U.S. women’s team is made up of current NCAA standouts Cameron Brink (Stanford) and Hailey Van Lith (LSU transfer from Louisville), plus former WNBA players Cierra Burdick and Linnae Harper.

While the World Cup does not offer direct Olympic qualification, it will factor significantly into world rankings that in November will determine the first three nations to earn spots in the Olympic men’s and women’s tournaments.

If the U.S. qualifies for Paris, a committee will choose the team(s).

The 3×3 event made its Olympic debut in Tokyo. A U.S. women’s team of WNBA standouts took gold. The U.S. men did not qualify for the Olympics despite being reigning world champions.

Fredette, 34, made his national team 3×3 debut at last November’s AmeriCup. Before that, he played parts of six NBA seasons and four more with the Shanghai Sharks, the last in 2020-21.

“Team USA asked me to come and see if it’s [3×3] something I may be interested in, maybe looking to qualify for an Olympic run in the 2024 Olympics,” he said last October, according to the the Glens Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star newspaper in his hometown.

U.S. men’s and women’s teams lost in the quarterfinals of last year’s World Cup.

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Michael Jordan’s Dream Team jacket from 1992 Barcelona Olympics to be auctioned

Michael Jordan
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The jacket that Michael Jordan famously and grudgingly wore while receiving an Olympic gold medal has been in Brian McIntyre’s possession for more than three decades now.

He figures the time is right to let someone else enjoy it.

The red, white and blue Reebok jacket that Jordan — a Nike athlete — was forced to wear on the medal stand alongside the other members of USA Basketball’s first “Dream Team” at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics is headed to auction. Sotheby’s, which has the offering that will run through June 28, estimates that the jacket could fetch anywhere from $1 million to $3 million.

“I’ve enjoyed it and it’s just the right time to do this,” McIntyre said. “And it’s easier to do this than it is to leave things for my kids.”

Jordan is aware of the decision to auction the jacket, McIntyre said.

McIntyre was with the Dream Team in Barcelona through his role with the NBA. He joined the league’s communications department in 1981 and stepped aside into an advisory role for then-Commissioner David Stern in 2010. Part of his job, outside of overseeing public relations at all the major NBA events, was to help at other major events with NBA players — including the world championships and the Olympics.

That’s why McIntyre was in Barcelona working with the players. The U.S. Olympic Committee had sent word that Jordan would have to wear the full athlete uniform on the medal stand, and Jordan complied — with one adjustment. For the ceremony where the Americans got their gold medals, he draped an American flag over his shoulder to hide the Reebok logo.

And when Jordan came off the medal stand, he took off the jacket and tossed it aside, then gifted it to McIntyre.

“He said, ‘I certainly don’t want it,’” McIntyre said.

So, McIntyre took it. He brought the jacket — which has a patch that reads “Reebok is proud to honor America’s finest” — to Jordan at an event when the NBA legend was shifting to baseball in 1994, thinking Jordan would ask for it back.

Instead, Jordan signed it: “To Brian, Thanks for Everything, Michael Jordan.”

McIntyre kept it the last 29 years, wearing it occasionally. The jacket and Jordan’s reluctance to wear it was a big story in Barcelona and became a talking point again when “The Last Dance” documentary re-told part of the story with sound from Jordan in 1992 revealing his frustration with the situation.

That said, anything involving that team, and those Olympics, has obvious historical value. It was the first time the NBA sent its players to an Olympics, and the game was forever changed.

“We watched the ‘Dream Team’ in the ’92 Olympics fast-forward the growth of basketball, by a lot,” McIntyre said. “I mean, it really helped develop the game worldwide — not just for the NBA, but in basketball in general.”

Sotheby’s is offering the auction online and will display the jacket in New York from June 24-28.

“To be able to sell this relic from such a historic world event — one that is often credited for multiplying the popularity and global reach of basketball — is both rare and unparalleled,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles. “And beyond its legendary place in Olympic history, the jacket represents Michael Jordan’s fierce and devoted loyalty to Nike, a transformative and revolutionary partnership between two powerhouses that has stood the test of time.”

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