Sotheby’s is kicking off 2023 with an auction of NBA star LeBron James’ Miami Heat jersey.

The auction house takes one other step into the sports memorabilia market by auctioning the jersey James wore for his championship-winning game in the course of the 2013 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, a back-to-back championship win for James and the team. The item is billed as James’ most useful game-worn jersey to seem at auction and is estimated to auction for between $3 million and $5 million.

“By way of rarity, whenever you get a championship-clenching item — items that were worn in a game where an athlete wins a championship — the smallest, rarest and most coveted population exists there because should you think in regards to the variety of championships that players have versus the variety of games they play of their profession, you may play 100 games and have a couple of championship titles,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles. “Those jerseys amongst collectors are really essentially the most coveted and that is a fantastic example of that.” 

During that memorable game, James achieved 37 points and 12 rebounds, which helped end in the Miami Heat winning 95 to 88 against the Spurs in a repeat championship win. 

The auction will happen during Sotheby’s inaugural “The One” showcase on Jan. 27 in Recent York, which is timed to James possibly surpassing basketball icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar because the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. 

“The concept of ‘The One’ is to bring together really exceptional objects that showcase amazing works in crafts, amazing works in endeavor or amazing moments in history and predominantly three-dimensional objects,” Wachter explained. “What you have got here is clearly not a murals, but something that shows a tremendous moment when it comes to endeavor, when it comes to LeBron constructing his profession, constructing his legacy and becoming recognized as one in every of the best to ever play the sport.” 

Sports memorabilia has turn into a crucial category for Sotheby’s within the last 12 months, and one which the auction home is seeing increasing interest in. The auction of James’ jersey comes on the heels of Sotheby’s record-breaking sale of Michael Jordan’s game-worn 1998 NBA Final jersey, which sold for $10.1 million in September, making it the most useful basketball jersey ever sold. Sotheby’s previous record in sports memorabilia was the sale of Argentinian soccer player Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” jersey, which auctioned for $9.3 million.

Wachter explained Sotheby’s is planning on hosting more sports memorabilia auctions “with a greater cadence and more frequency” in 2023. 

“The reality is there’s actually quite a big market event when you consider objects within the $50,000 to $500,000 range, which we could do so much more [of],” he said. “In that sense, should you call that the sort of mid- to high-end market, we could construct so much more scale, which is something we’ll look to do in the following 12 months.”