LOT #81257 |
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1992 Scottie Pippen Summer Olympics Training Worn "Dream Team" Sneakers....
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Sold on Feb 26, 2023 for:
$2,880.00
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Description
1992 Scottie Pippen Summer Olympics Training Worn "Dream Team" Sneakers. "Man, everybody asks me about that game," Michael Jordan told a Sports Illustrated staff writer. "It was the most fun I ever had on a basketball court." It doesn't matter that the game was technically meaningless, or that the 1992 Dream Team would go on to crush all competition en route to a Barcelona Gold Medal in the weeks ahead. Like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, banging it out in an empty gym at the end of the series' third edition, the purity of the contest was paramount. That intersquad contest to which Jordan refers cleaved the Dream Team in half and set those two parts against one another in the most thrilling basketball game virtually nobody ever saw.The site was the Stade Louis II, an all-purpose arena in the Fontevielle ward of Monaco, the European principality best described as an upscale Las Vegas. The Dream Team had chosen this scenic spot to train for the Summer Games, a rather daring selection for a team populated by hardcore gamblers like Jordan and Barkley. It quickly became apparent that the temptations of blackjack, booze and golf had taken their toll on the Americans when they allowed early leads to the French team in a sloppy warm-up contest in front of 3,500 fans, and Coach Daley realized that some tough love was in order. It was time for the Dream Team to go to work, to compete against the best talent in the world--themselves.
Daley named the sides: Magic, Barkley, Robinson, Mullin and Laettner versus Jordan Malone, Ewing, Pippen and Bird. With the gym closed to the public and the media, he set the battle into motion with a simple directive: "All you got now. All you got."
Ultimately, as if the universe itself felt the need to weigh in on the age-old debate, it was the Jordan team that claimed the victory. "In many ways, it was the best game I was ever in," he said. "Because the gym was locked and it was just about basketball. You saw a lot about players' DNA, how much some guys want to win. Magic was mad about it for two days."
Johnson disputes that timeline, narrowing it to a few hours, and poking back at his legendary counterpart. "Let me tell you something--it would've been worse for everybody if he lost. Because I could let something go after a while. But Michael. He'd never let it go. He never let anything go."
We can't know for certain if these are the custom Nikes that Pippen was wearing in that fabled scrimmage, but the strong wear suggests this was the Bulls legend's primary footwear in Monaco, and we know he left for Barcelona without them. They were gifted to the director of the team hotel, the Loews Monte Carlo by Pippen himself, passed down to our consignor by his father, a close friend of that man.
The special patriotic format bears Pippen's Dream Team number "8" at each heel and size "15" label at interior tongues. It appears that the shoes have been lightly restored to repair the separation of uppers and soles common to decades-old sneakers, but this is only apparent upon the closest inspection. The first game used Dream Team gear we've ever encountered with guaranteed Monte Carlo provenance. Letter of provenance from consignor.
Auction Info
2023 February 25 - 26 Winter Platinum Night Catalog Auction #50061 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
February, 2023
25th-26th
Saturday-Sunday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 3
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 301
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20% of the successful bid per lot.
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