A white New York Knicks jersey worn by Jalen Brunson in Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals sold for $1,024,000 in Sotheby’s NBA Finals auction, setting a record for a Brunson collectible and for Knicks memorabilia, according to auction and media reports. The lot closed Wednesday after 70 bids, less than a month after Brunson led New York to its first championship since 1973 and was named Finals MVP.

The Nike Association Edition jersey was worn on June 3 in San Antonio, where Brunson scored 30 points in the Knicks’ 105-95 victory over the Spurs. He scored 13 of those points in the fourth quarter as New York finished the game on an 11-0 run. The performance gave the Knicks a 1-0 series lead and became the opening chapter of a five-game title run that transformed the jersey from ordinary game equipment into an object tied to a defining moment in New York sports history.

Sotheby’s listed the mesh jersey as a size 48 with four inches of added length. The lot was offered without a reserve and identified as property of the National Basketball Association. The auction house’s public page said the sale ran from June 30 through July 8 in New York and that listed results included Sotheby’s premiums while excluding taxes and other costs. The winning buyer was not publicly identified on the lot page.

The seven-figure result is significant not only because of the price but because of its speed. Championship memorabilia once often reached major auction houses years or decades after an athlete’s career-defining performance. Brunson’s jersey was marketed and sold within weeks of the Finals, while the championship parade, broadcast highlights and public celebrations were still fresh. That compressed timeline reflects a collectibles business increasingly built around immediate access, digital bidding and authentication connected directly to leagues and game use.

The sale also demonstrates how sports objects have moved into the same cultural marketplace occupied by film costumes, music artifacts, celebrity possessions and contemporary design. A game-worn jersey carries a practical function, a visual identity and a documented performance history. For collectors, the value comes from that combination: It is simultaneously a piece of clothing, evidence of an event and a portable symbol of the athlete and city associated with it.

Brunson’s jersey led a broader auction of 2026 Finals material that included player uniforms, court panels, game-used nets and a championship podium banner. Sotheby’s catalog included jerseys from both the Knicks and Spurs, among them Victor Wembanyama’s uniform from San Antonio’s Game 3 win. The assortment allowed bidders to buy objects connected to different narratives within the series, from Finals debuts and individual stat lines to New York’s title-clinching celebration.

Other Knicks uniforms also drew substantial prices. CBS New York reported that Game 1 jerseys worn by OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns each sold for $256,000, while Josh Hart’s brought $243,200 and Mikal Bridges’ sold for $70,400. Fifteen Knicks jerseys generated more than $1.8 million in total, the outlet reported. Those results show that demand extended beyond Brunson, although his status as Finals MVP and the central figure in the championship run put his jersey in a separate price tier.

The $1.024 million sale is a franchise benchmark, not an all-time basketball record. Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s in 2022. That comparison highlights the premium attached to long-established cultural mythology: Jordan’s “Last Dance” season has been reinforced for decades through books, documentaries, advertising and global fan memory. Brunson’s market is newer, and the price reflects both the strength of the championship moment and collectors’ willingness to assign major value before its long-term historical standing is fully settled.

For the Knicks, the object’s appeal is inseparable from the franchise’s long wait. New York had not won an NBA championship in 53 years, and Brunson’s rise had become the public face of the team’s return to the Finals. He later scored 45 points in the deciding Game 5 and received the Finals MVP award. The Game 1 jersey therefore represents more than one box score; it marks the beginning of a series that ended a multigenerational drought for one of the league’s most visible teams.

The result also adds to the commercial reach of a championship that already produced a surge in licensed apparel, autographs and commemorative products. Official NBA retail channels have offered Finals-branded Brunson jerseys, photographs, basketballs and team-signed displays at prices aimed at a much wider audience. The Sotheby’s lot occupies the top end of that same ecosystem, where uniqueness, documented use and proximity to a historic performance create scarcity that mass-produced merchandise cannot provide.

That distinction matters in the broader culture of fandom. Most supporters experience a title through broadcasts, social media, ticket stubs, photographs or replica clothing. A game-worn jersey gives one buyer exclusive ownership of an object physically present during the event. Auction houses turn that exclusivity into a public contest, and the final price becomes part of the story, often increasing the object’s visibility and symbolic status even further.

The Brunson sale is likely to be watched as an early measure of how the market values artifacts from the Knicks’ 2026 championship. Future sales could include items from the clinching game, later-round jerseys or personal awards, each with a different claim to historical importance. For now, the Game 1 uniform has established the first major benchmark: $1.024 million for the jersey worn when Brunson opened the Finals with 30 points and New York began the series that restored the franchise to the top of the NBA.