Chicago Bulls icon Michael Jordan is still widely recognized today as the greatest player of all time. Jordan emerged as a superstar in the mid-1980s and then enjoyed a near-unparalleled level of team success in the 1990s.
Jordan would three-peat twice with the Bulls in the decade, first from 1991 to 1993 and then from 1996 to 1998. He crushed the competition on the biggest stage and made the interesting decision to gift a sneaker he wore in each of the six clinching games in the NBA Finals to longtime Bulls public relations director Tim Hallam.
Hallam had been with the Bulls since 1978, and before the franchise's first-ever NBA Finals in 1991, he made a request to Jordan. He wanted one of his game-worn Air Jordan sneakers if the team won their first championship.
The Bulls would beat the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, and Jordan gifted Hallam a sneaker after the series and signed it, too. Like most athletes, he was superstitious, and so, giving the executive a sneaker after every triumph in the Finals became a tradition.
Jordan and the Bulls would beat the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns in six games in the NBA Finals in 1992 and 1993, respectively. He would shockingly retire after that triumph over the Suns, but returned in 1995.
Jordan led the Bulls to a then-NBA record 72-10 record in 1995-96, his first full season since his return. They would beat the Seattle SuperSonics in six games in the 1996 NBA Finals to return to the mountaintop once again.
The Bulls would then face the Utah Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 Finals and emerged victorious in six games on both occasions. It was an incredible run of success, and it would end with Jordan's second retirement in 1998.
The tradition of gifting those sneakers would have had little to do with Jordan and the Bulls' success, but it was a fine gesture. Hallam would sell the sneakers years later to an individual who has not been named.
The buyer would put the six sneakers up for sale at a Sotheby’s auction, and this "Dynasty Collection" would sell for $8 million in February 2024. It set a new record for game-worn sneakers.
Just under a year earlier, in April 2023, Jordan's sneakers from Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $2.2 million. Go back further to 2022, and Jordan's Game 1 jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $10.1 million.
It speaks to Jordan's greatness and impact that all these years after his third and final retirement in 2003, anything associated with him would fetch such ridiculous prices.
As for Hallam, he finally retired in 2023, after 45 years with the Bulls. Jordan reacted to the news by singing his praises and wishing him well in retirement.
"It's truly the end of an era," Jordan said. "Tim was an unsung hero of our championship years. He had a tough job, and he did it very, very well, with great humor and professionalism. He had a tremendous run with the team. I wish him well."
Jordan isn't the kind to just shower praise on anybody, which lets you know how highly he thinks of Hallam.
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