During the 1991-92 NBA season, Chicago Bulls' shooting guard extraordinaire Michael Jordan was back at it again, leading his team to their second of three straight titles. Playing in 80 regular-season games, Jordan led the Bulls to a first-place finish in the Eastern Conference’s Central Division standings with a 67-15 record. He also led the league in scoring by averaging 31.1 points per game. All in all, it was another vintage basketball campaign` turned in by the man widely known as “Air Jordan,” which also just happened to be the name of the Nike shoes he was sporting in every game. When all the dust had settled, MJ – wearing the “Air Jordan VII” model shoes – won his sixth straight league scoring title, was again named First Team All-NBA, First Team All-Defense and an All-Star for the seventh consecutive time. He was voted league MVP for the second straight year and won his second consecutive NBA Finals MVP award with the Bulls.
This lot features a pair of autographed and game-used Air Jordan VII shoes that Michael wore that season. This particular pair was obtained directly from Jordan following a January 19, 1992 meeting between the Bulls and the host Detroit Pistons at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The new owner of the shoes just happened to be the 15-year-old ball boy of the Pistons, who was awarded the pair – complete with full Michael Jordan autographs in black ballpoint ink on both shoes – after a hard-fought, 87-85 win by the Bulls. Despite the best defensive efforts of Detroit superstars including Bill Laimbeer, Mark Aguirre, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman, Jordan was able to shake and bake his way to a game-high 34 points and added six rebounds, six assists and two steals to add some icing on the Bulls’ victory cake.
Following the success of the Air Jordan VI model shoe and Michael's first NBA championship, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield continued his innovation in the Air Jordan line with the featured Air Jordan VII which was inspired partially by West African Tribal culture and partially by the Nike Huarache basketball shoe line. The “AJVII” had a more colorful, more minimal and more lightweight design than previous Air Jordan shoes. The Air Jordan VII design said goodbye to visible Air, the translucent outsole and the prominent Nike Air logo, except on the insole. The upper was similar to the AJ VI with minor alterations; the toecap design was a carryover from the VI. (Lot 776 features the special edition Olympics pair of AJVII's that MJ wore as a member of the "Dream Team.")
The offered size 13 Nike Air Jordan VII’s shoes boast multi-colored outsoles (white, red, green, gold and black) with a purple Jumpman logo near the rear. A stitched red Jumpman appeared on the heel of the thin, unpadded beige leather upper. A triangular piece of the rubber outsole wrapped up to secure the midsole. The heel featured a hard plastic, red-and-black arrow-shaped piece with the number 23 in purple. The heel piece includes a black pull tab used to lock the foot into the inner red sockliner. Like the outsoles, the multi-colored tongues on either shoe feature vibrant colors including red, green and gold. The shoes reflect good game usage and include their original shoelaces.
Includes notarized Letter of Authenticity from the Detroit Pistons ball boy and local newspaper articles from that era connecting him to the team.
Full LOA for each shoe from PSA/DNA.