Training jacket from NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain fetches around 78,000 euros

The Sotheby's Auction

Brown initially researched the garment himself and then had its authenticity confirmed by Sotheby's. The auction house had estimated the jacket's value at 150,000 to 250,000 US dollars prior to the sale; however, bidding did not reach that level by the close of the auction on Monday. The final sale price thus fell below the lowest estimate.

Wilt Chamberlain's Legacy

The item sold is a training jacket from the then-Los Angeles Lakers, the team for which Chamberlain played in his final season. The jacket dates from the period of the 1972 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. Chamberlain had won his second professional league championship with the Lakers that year, five years after his first triumph with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Chamberlain is regarded as one of the most dominant players in NBA history. He stood 2.16 meters tall and amassed 31,419 points over his career, placing him eighth on the league's all-time scoring list. In 1962, he scored 100 points in a single game — a feat no other NBA professional has matched. He died in 1999.

The fact that jerseys and memorabilia from Chamberlain's career command high prices is not unprecedented. As recently as 2023, Sotheby's auctioned off a Chamberlain jersey from those same Finals against the New York Knicks for 4.9 million US dollars. The training piece now sold also originates from that series, but is considered significantly more sparsely documented.

The curious twist: until recently, the jacket had been sitting in a clothing bin at a second-hand shop. From there, the garment made its way into the hands of the young Quinn Brown for a few US dollars, who in turn sold it via the renowned auction house to an unknown bidder.

From Second-Hand Shop to Auction House

At 89,000 US dollars, the result came in lower than the auction house's expectations, but exceeded the original purchase price many times over. Brown, who by his own account had initially been unable to gauge the value of the find, expressed relief and happiness after the hammer came down.

Chamberlain was one of the defining stars of the NBA in the 1960s and early 1970s. He won his first championship with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, followed by his second title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972. His physical presence and his performances on the court made him a figure known well beyond the boundaries of the league.

The jacket itself is considered a relic from an important era in league history. Training apparel from that era surfaces only rarely on the collectors' market, especially as Chamberlain is regarded by many fans as a defining figure of the early professional league. The piece combines sporting memorabilia with the curious circumstances of its discovery.

For Brown, the sale nevertheless represents an unexpected financial windfall. What began as a handful of US dollars for a discarded jacket became a five-figure sum after the auction. The finder himself summed up the moment in the sentence that also serves as the title of this story: "Besser geht es nicht."