A teenager rummaging through used clothing at a Goodwill Store in Oregon stumbled upon a yellow Los Angeles Lakers warm-up jacket priced at just $3.07. While this appeared to be an ordinary purchase from a thrift store, it turned out to be a basketball history collector’s item. The jacket was found to belong to the great Wilt Chamberlain, who played for the Lakers during their 1972 NBA Finals victory over the New York Knicks.
Sotheby’s auction catalog identifies the garment as a game-winning champion Lakers warm-up jacket from the 1972 finals. The auction house matched the short-sleeve yellow jacket to photographs from the three games during the 1972-73 regular season, Chamberlain’s final NBA season. Listed in the auction house’s Summer Sports Classic sale, it attracted 48 bids. Sotheby’s had estimated its value at $150,000 to $250,000, but the final sale price was considerably lower.
According to the Associated Press, Quinn Brown was the seller of the jacket at auction. He found the jacket at a thrift shop in Portland while he was rummaging through a huge bin of clothes where someone else had picked it up and returned it to the store. Brown had made the purchase for only $3.07. At the time, he had no idea that the jacket was in some way related to one of the best basketball players.
A $3.07 find that led to an auction discovery
Brown had been buying clothes from thrift shops and selling them online. He had been doing this for about three years before he made his most expensive sale, worth $250. It was simply the purchase of a Sub Pop Records T-shirt.
After taking the jacket home, Brown searched the internet for information about the jacket’s origin. He discovered a picture of Chamberlain wearing a similar Lakers warm-up and proceeded to compare the two jackets. The stitching along the Lakers logo on the front of the jacket was what caught his attention. He also compared the jacket’s measurements with those of another garment worn by Chamberlain.
Brown posted a picture of the jacket on social media, and Sotheby’s reached out to him to ask whether he would like to put it up for auction. After analyzing the photos, the auction house verified that the jacket was connected to Chamberlain’s Lakers career during the 1972-73 season.
The auction house later featured the jacket in its Summer Sports Classic sale. Despite the gap between the estimate and the final price, the $89,600 it fetched was an impressive return on Brown’s original $3.07 purchase. This sale also emphasized the significance of history behind sports memorabilia in the eyes of collectors.
The championship history of the Lakers jacket
The jacket’s value was directly associated with the Lakers’ 1972 championship season. The team triumphed over the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, where Chamberlain was named Most Valuable Player of the series. It was his second championship in the NBA after the one he had won with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967.
Chamberlain was a professional basketball player between 1959 and 1973 and became one of the most revered players in the game. He is also known for scoring 100 points in a single game back in 1962, a record that still stands. The achievements of Chamberlain, along with his involvement with two teams that won a championship, made sports memorabilia from his time as a player highly sought after by sports enthusiasts. The Associated Press notes that a game-worn jersey from the same championship series went for $4.9 million at Sotheby’s in 2023.
The journey of the jacket started with a simple trip to the thrift shop, where Brown bought the item for less than a cup of coffee at most places. Photographic comparisons and Sotheby’s verification established its connection to Chamberlain, helping turn a $3.07 purchase into an $89,600 auction sale.