Michael Jordan 'Flu Game' game-worn Air Jordan 12 (1997 Finals Game 5)

The Flu Game

The 1997 NBA Finals were tied 2-2 when the Chicago Bulls arrived at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City for Game 5 on June 11. At about 2:30 that morning, Michael Jordan had woken with vomiting and diarrhea. His trainer found him curled in the fetal position, shaking and sweating. It was reported as a stomach virus or food poisoning, likely from a pizza ordered the night before. In the 2020 documentary 'The Last Dance,' Jordan said it was food poisoning. The name stuck anyway: the Flu Game.

Utah came out fast. The Jazz led 29-16 after the first quarter and 36-20 in the second before Chicago cut the deficit to 53-49 at halftime. Utah pulled ahead again, 77-69, in the third quarter.

With 25 seconds left and the Bulls down 85-84, Jordan hit a three-pointer for an 88-85 lead. Chicago won 90-88. Jordan finished with 38 points on 13-of-27 shooting, 10-of-12 free throws, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in 44 minutes. Near the end he collapsed into Scottie Pippen's arms, the image that came to stand for the whole night.

Two days later, on June 13, Chicago won Game 6 90-86 for the championship, and Jordan was named Finals MVP for the fifth time.

The ball boy and the applesauce

Preston Truman was a Utah Jazz ball boy during the 1996-97 season. When the Bulls visited earlier that season, Jordan set him a challenge over his favorite pregame snack: 'There will be no autographs for ball boys after the game if I don't get my applesauce.' Truman tracked down an industrial-size container from a commissary with 45 minutes to spare. 'You came through,' Jordan told him.

When Chicago returned for the Finals, Truman was assigned to the visitors' locker room and brought graham crackers and applesauce again. Jordan recognized him: 'You remembered? That's my guy right there.' During Game 5 itself Jordan asked for applesauce at halftime.

Truman asked whether Jordan was doing anything with his shoes afterward. 'Why, you want them?' Jordan said. Truman said he would be honored. After the win Jordan handed them over with his socks still inside and signed them. When equipment manager John Ligmanowski tried to take them back, Jordan stopped him: 'No, leave em. Those are his.'

The shoe

The Air Jordan XII was designed by Tinker Hatfield and introduced in 1996 at a retail price of $135, according to Nike. Its look is tied to the radiating lines of Japan's Rising Sun flag.

The Game 5 pair is the black-and-red version, a size 13, signed by Jordan. When it was offered in 2023 it came with photo-matching to the game, a letter of authenticity from Truman and a photograph of Jordan signing the shoes in front of him after the game.

Truman also once owned another famous pair: the Air Jordan XIIIs Jordan wore in Game 2 of the 1998 Finals, which sold for $2.238 million in 2023.

From a safe deposit box to $1.38 million

Truman put the shoes in a safe deposit box at a Utah bank. He turned down an $11,000 offer the season after the Finals. Reports put the time in the box at 15 or 16 years.

In December 2013 he sold them at auction. Bidding opened at $5,000, drew 15 bids and closed on December 12 at $104,765. That broke the record for game-worn shoes from any sport; the previous mark, set the month before by a pair of rookie-era Air Jordans, was $31,070. Truman, then 35, said he used the money to pay off college tuition. The buyer was not named.

The shoes returned to auction in 2023 with an opening bid of $500,000. They passed $1 million and sold on June 14, 2023, for $1.38 million including the buyer's premium, more than 1,200 percent above the 2013 price. At the time only two pairs of sneakers had sold for more at auction: the 1998 Finals Air Jordan XIIIs and Jordan's rookie Nike Air Ships.

Why this pair matters

Plenty of Jordan's game-worn shoes survive. Few are tied to a single game that fans know by name. The Flu Game sits alongside Jordan's last shot in 1998 as one of the defining nights of the Bulls' second three-peat, and this pair is the one on his feet for it, with a chain of ownership that runs straight from Jordan's hands to the ball boy's.

The two sales bracket a change in the market for game-worn sneakers. In 2013, $104,765 was a record. Ten years later the same shoes brought $1.38 million.

The numbers

Game

1997 NBA Finals Game 5, June 11, 1997, Delta Center, Salt Lake City

Final

Chicago 90, Utah 88; Bulls lead series 3-2

Jordan

44 MIN, 13-27 FG, 2-5 3P, 10-12 FT, 7 REB, 5 AST, 3 STL, 1 BLK, 3 TOV, 38 PTS

Others

Scottie Pippen 17 PTS; Karl Malone led Utah with 19

By quarter

Chicago 16-33-18-23; Utah 29-24-19-16

Series

Bulls won in six; Jordan Finals MVP (his fifth)

Timeline

1. 1996

   Nike introduces the Air Jordan XII, designed by Tinker Hatfield, at $135.

2. Nov 1996

   Preston Truman finds Jordan an industrial-size tub of applesauce during a Bulls visit to Utah.

3. Jun 11, 1997

   Jordan scores 38 in Game 5 of the Finals while sick; Chicago wins 90-88. He signs the shoes and gives them to Truman.

4. Jun 13, 1997

   The Bulls win Game 6, 90-86, and the championship; Jordan is Finals MVP.

5. Nov 2013

   A pair of rookie-era Air Jordans sets a game-worn shoe record of $31,070.

6. Dec 12, 2013

   The Flu Game shoes sell at auction for $104,765, a new record for game-worn shoes.

7. 2020

   In 'The Last Dance,' Jordan says he had food poisoning, not the flu.

8. 2023

   Jordan's 1998 Finals Game 2 Air Jordan XIIIs, also once Truman's, sell for $2.238 million.

9. Jun 14, 2023

   The Flu Game shoes sell at auction for $1.38 million.

The world in 1997

• Jan 20, 1997

  Bill Clinton begins his second term as president.

• Jan 26, 1997

  The Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl XXXI.

• Apr 15, 1997

  Jackie Robinson's number 42 is retired across Major League Baseball.

• Jun 28, 1997

  Mike Tyson bites Evander Holyfield's ear during their rematch.

• Jul 4, 1997

  NASA's Pathfinder lands on Mars.

• Jul 15, 1997

  Gianni Versace is shot and killed in Miami Beach.

• Dec 19, 1997

  James Cameron's 'Titanic' opens.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Michael Jordan 'Flu Game' game-worn Air Jordan 12 (1997 Finals Game 5) is number 5 of 100 in the sneakers entries of the FLOAT 100. 22 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (5 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Jordan's socks were still inside the shoes when he handed them to the ball boy.
• Jordan asked for applesauce at halftime of the Flu Game, three small cups.
• The Bulls' equipment manager tried to take the shoes back; Jordan told him, 'Those are his.'
• Truman turned down $11,000 for the shoes the season after the game.
• The 2013 sale more than tripled the previous record for game-worn shoes, which had been set only a month earlier.
• Jordan later said the 'flu' was food poisoning.