Goldin Elite Auction Closing August 22 10PM Est
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/24/2020
Michael Jordan’s legacy began to take shape during the 1981-82 NCAA basketball season, with the future Chicago Bulls legend leading the University of North Carolina Tar Heels to their first NCAA Basketball Tournament title since 1957. Jordan’s Tar Heels defeated Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas 63-62 at the Louisiana Superdome, achieving the winning margin on a jumper by the freshman star Jordan that put the Heels up by one with 15 seconds left.
The future Hall of Famer finished the championship game with 16 points and a team-high 9 rebounds while shooting at 53.8% clip. Jordan, despite playing in Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith’s somewhat restrictive four corners offense, averaged 13.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting greater than 50 percent from the field for the 32-2 Tar Heels. The former Emsley A. Laney High School star played two additional seasons for the Tar Heels, averaging 20.0 and 19.6 points per game before declaring early for the 1984 NBA Draft. With great fanfare, the Chicago Bulls selected Jordan with the third overall pick after watching the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers select a pair of centers with extremely divergent career paths.
The 1981-82 North Carolina squad also included future Hall of Famer James Worthy and NBA star Sam Perkins. Offered here is a Wilson Carolina blue and white panel ball that has been signed by 14 members of that 1981-82 championship squad. The ball has the Wilson logo in black on one of the blue panels and UNC Tarheel logo on the white panel below, with “CAROLINA” in black on a blue panel below UNC logo. This ball has been signed by Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and James Worthy, along with Sam Perkins, Warren Martin, Chris Brust, Matt Doherty, Jimmy Black, Timo Makkonen, John Brownlee, Jeb Barlow, Jim Braddock, Cecil Exum, Buzz Peterson and Lynwood Robinson. Only a handful of early Michael Jordan signatures have ever surfaced where Michael signed Jordan with a non cursive "J". This is one of those sparse examples. This ball comes with a LOA from Beckett Authentication for the signatures.