The GOAT played his college ball close to home under the tutelage of the legendary Dean Smith. In the fall of 1981, Michael Jordan entered his freshman year at the University of North Carolina eager to display his immense talents and put the Tar Heels over the top. Coming off a loss to Indiana in the 1981 NCAA title game, UNC returned junior James Worthy and sophomore Sam Perkins, but it was the 6’6” shooting guard out of Wilmington who proved to be the key ingredient. Jordan averaged 13.5 points as a diaper dandy to earn ACC Freshman of the Year honors. In the 1982 National Championship against a stacked Georgetown squad led by Patrick Ewing, Jordan nailed the game-winning jumper with 17 seconds left to deliver Dean Smith his first title in a 63-62 thriller. Jordan credits that shot as the turning point that launched his career. He would play three seasons at UNC and be named Naismith College Player of the Year as a junior before departing for the NBA in 1984. The rest, as they say, is history.
The groundbreaking Converse All-Star shoes presented here were game-worn by Michael Jordan during the regular season of the Tar Heels’ 1981-82 NCAA Championship season. They are style-matched to games leading up to the 1982 NCAA Tournament and a detailed letter of provenance traces them back to a local store owner near Chapel Hill that Jordan frequented as a student-athlete. In addition, Jordan has uniquely signed and inscribed them as being from that special season. Photo research shows Jordan wore this exact syle of Converse white-with-blue colorway All-Stars during the entire regular season before switching to a slightly different version for the NCAA Tournament and Final Four. To clarify, these sneakers were not worn in the 1982 NCAA Championship game; rather, Jordan wore this style during the regular season from November 1981 to early March 1982 (see Getty images 936671332, 71612737 & 71612740). Any pair of Jordan’s UNC game-worn sneakers to surface is extremely rare. And, by all accounts, these are MJ’s earliest gamers at any level to become available in the hobby.
The white leather sneakers with Carolina blue Converse logos come in size 12.5, a half size smaller than Jordan would eventually wear in the NBA. At the time, he was 18 years old and still growing. He has autographed and inscribed each shoe on the outside lower ankle in 7-8/10 blue ballpoint pen. The left reads “1982 NCAA Championship,” while the right reads “1982 NCAA Champship” [sic]. It appears that MJ signed the left shoe first and rushed through the right. The tongue sections on each shoe have aged, the right showing more yellow toning. The upper heels have a blue horseshoe-shaped section that is clearly identifiable in regular season games; this specific feature is missing from Cons that MJ wore in the NCAA Tournament. The laces are not the originals. According to the previous owner, when he received the shoes the original laces were falling apart so he replaced them. The leather shows stretching around the ankles from wear, but there are no significant creases. The outsoles show light game use.
Includes detailed Letter of Provenance explaining the chain of ownership. Each shoe comes with a full LOA from PSA/DNA.