Basketball Net From Michael Jordan’s Historic 63-Point Playoff Game Sells for $164,700

A basketball net photo-matched to Michael Jordan’s legendary 63-point playoff performance at Boston Garden has sold for $164,700 at Heritage Auctions. The net changed hands during Heritage’s Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction. The winning bid was $135,000, with the auction house’s 22% buyer’s premium bringing the final price to $164,700.

Its connection to Jordan comes from one of the defining games of his early career. On April 20, 1986, the Chicago Bulls faced the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series at Boston Garden. Jordan scored 63 points in a double-overtime loss, establishing the NBA record for points in a single postseason game.

The performance also produced one of the most famous descriptions ever attached to Jordan. After the game, Celtics star Larry Bird referred to what he had witnessed as “God disguised as Michael Jordan.”

Heritage says the net has been conclusively photo-matched to photographs from both Game 1 and Game 2 of the Celtics-Bulls series. Jordan had scored 49 points in the opener before returning three days later for his 63-point performance against a Boston team that would go on to win the NBA championship.

Its history at Boston Garden stretches beyond those two games. Research also matched the same net to regular-season games played on March 21 and March 28, 1986. Evidence cited by Heritage Auctions suggests it remained in place through Game 1 of Boston’s Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Atlanta Hawks on April 27.

That extended use is part of what makes the piece unusual. Rather than being connected only to a single photograph or moment, the net can be traced across several games during the closing weeks of Boston’s 1985-86 season. The lot was accompanied by a Letter of Authenticity from SIA Photo Match as well as a Heritage Auctions letter of authenticity. Heritage had placed a pre-auction estimate of $40,000 and up on the net.

The final $164,700 price finished at more than four times that estimate.