Michael Jordan’s iconic ‘Flu Game’ sneakers sell for $1.38MILLION

Michael Jordan’s legendary “Flu Game” sneakers sold for an astonishing $1.38 million on Wednesday at an auction held by the collectors’ marketplace Goldin.

Nearly 26 years to the day Jordan scored 38 points in 44 minutes while battling food poisoning, the shoes have sold for an incredible $1.2 million more than when ballboy Preston Truman first auctioned them off in 2013 for $104,765.

Jordan’s performance for the Chicago Bulls in Utah against the Jazz on June 11 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals took on new meaning in NBA folklore thanks to the Netflix series “The Last Dance.”

The show revealed that Jordan was actually struggling with food poisoning rather than the flu after eating a bad pepperoni pizza the night before the game.

But the shoes get an even more intriguing story given how they ended up up for auction.

Jordan’s “Flu Game” saw him battle food poisoning for the Bulls in the NBA Finals

Despite being sick, Jordan scored 38 points as the Bulls fought back to beat the Jazz

Jordan’s performance that day is one of the most historic displays of all time in NBA history

Jordan and ball boy Truman struck up an unlikely friendship as he brought the Bulls legend applesauce before the start of a regular season game in 1995.

Jordan remembered Truman on the trips back to Utah after that day and before the legendary “flu game,” Truman even had the nerve to ask an unwell Jordan for his shoes after the game.

Truman told the Salt Lake Grandstand that a visibly ill Jordan asked him before the game to arrange will-call tickets for him – a request that gave him the confidence to ask for the shoes.

“Why, do you want them?” Jordan asked, according to Truman.

It was alleged that Truman was afraid Jordan would give the sneakers to Charles Barkley when he visited the locker room after the game.

But Jordan remembered Truman and drew the shoes for him as his bodyguard took photos that were part of the authentication process for Goldin’s sale this week.

In the game itself, Jordan initially struggled to find any rhythm due to his health and the Bulls trailed 36–20 in the second quarter.

But he dug deep and somehow turned the game around with 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals in one of the most iconic all-time performances in NBA history. The Bulls won the game 90-88.

Jordan revealed that his famous ‘flu game’ in the 1997 NBA Finals was actually a case of food poisoning he blamed on bad pizza during his iconic ‘Last Dance’ Netflix series

Jordan signed the shoes for a ball boy as a thank you after they built up a rapport

The ball boy, Preston Truman, provided a letter of authenticity with the shoes

When Truman sold the shoes in 2013 at the age of 35, he was working as a salesperson for Go Wireless.

I’m 35 and 40 is just around the corner, and time seems to go faster as you get older,” he said. “Maybe it’s just time to get those things out there.”

The $1.38 million figure, while significant, is still less than the all-time record for a shoe — and that crown also belongs to Jordan.

The Air Jordans he wore in Game 2 of the 1998 final – a ‘Last Dance’ final – sold for a sensational £2,238 million in April this year.