LOT #60040 |
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1979 NCAA Basketball Semi-Finals Ticket Stub Signed by Larry Bird & Magic Johnson, PSA Authentic Auto 10....
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$26,400.00
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Description
1979 NCAA Basketball Semi-Finals Ticket Stub Signed by Larry Bird & Magic Johnson, PSA Authentic Auto 10."We didn't play it for ourselves," Johnson would later tell reporters. "We played it for our teams. We were two unique guys being over six-eight, being able to handle the ball, being able to score inside, outside, being able to make the right pass to our teammates. Because we didn't really care about scoring. We cared about winning...and then you have one player black, one player white, one player smiling, one player who don't..."
Though they'd only face each other a single time in amateur play, the contest was a godsend for a collegiate basketball world still searching for a new narrative after the 1975 retirement of its most important figure, UCLA coach John Wooden. That 1979 Finals between the Michigan State Spartans and the Indiana State Sycamores remains to this day the highest-rated of all time.
This ticket was used to watch Bird and Magic lead their teams to that legendary showdown, as Michigan State and Indiana State defeated Penn and DePaul respectively. Two days later, this pair of hardcourt icons would face off the first of many high-stakes battles for league supremacy.
Ticket stubs from this tournament have always (and properly) drawn the rapt attention of the serious hoops collector, but this particular specimen distinguishes itself with the addition of a pair of blue sharpie signatures, each assessed at a perfect Auto 10 rating by the experts at PSA/DNA. The stub itself is ungraded but presents with only light handling and storage wear appropriate to its usage and age. Blank verso bears the holographic authentication stickers of Schwartz Sports and Larry Bird, applied at the time each Hall of Famer signed the ticket.
It must have taken a brave soul to place this one in front of Bird, who says he's never watched a replay of the television footage of the Final. "I know how it ended," he explains. Johnson, meanwhile, assured a journalist in 2009, "I've watched it enough for him and I." Encapsulated by PSA, Authentic, Auto 10.
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Auction Info
2022 March 26 Sports Showcase Auction #60018 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
March, 2022
26th
Saturday
Internet/Mail Bids: 12
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 1,987
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
20% of the successful bid per lot.
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