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Offered is one of the rarest of Michael Jordan game worn basketball shoes. During his entire playing career, Michael Jordan wore a shoe other than his signature Air Jordans only a handful of times, and the offered 1988 Nike Air Alpha Force shoe is one of them. The shoe was awarded to a young player at Michael's basketball camp in the summer of 1988, and the video at right shows the player getting the shoe and Michael signing the shoe at the end of the camp. Earlier in the week, Jordan told the campers that he would bring in some game used shoes to be used for the contest prizes on the final day. Each player that won a contest was allowed to choose one item from the stash that Michael laid out on the floor. Our consignor, then in grade school, nailed a free throw and grabbed the offered shoe! It has remained in her posession until now.
For several games midway through the 1987-88 NBA season, Jordan showed up on court wearing this model instead of his own Air Jordans. The rumor at the time (and it may just be that!) was that Michael wore the Air Alpha Force model to express his irritation with the design team at Nike over the Air Jordan II. Regardless of the reason, for three games in January and February 1988, he wore the Air Alpha Force shoes instead of the Jordan IIs.
On Friday, January 29, 1988, Saturday, January 30, 1988, and February 12, 1988, Michael laced up the Air Alpha Force models. The pair from the February 12 game against the Milwaukee Bucks are accounted for--they were given to someone in the lockerroom that night in Milwaukee and were auctioned some years ago. The photos presented here show Michael wearing this model against the New Jersey Nets on the 29th and against the New York Knicks on the 30th. Both games were played at The Chicago Stadium. We believe the offered shoe is one of those in the photos. While not conclusively photo-matched, the circumstances of Michael providing what he stated were game used shoes to the basketball campers in the summer of 1988, just after that season, indicates that these are very likely the shoes worn in one if not both of the back-to-back January games at The Stadium.
The photo from January 29 against the New Jersey Nets shows Michael, in the Air Alpha Force shoes, absolutely skying over a powerless Buck Williams. Both of the photos from January 30 against the New York Knicks clearly show the shoes: one photo of Mike waiting to check into the game at the scorer's table and one photo of him grabbing a rebound over both Mark Jackson and Patrick Ewing. At one point in that Knicks game, Jordan famously blocks Ewing's shot, seemingly coming from across the court to do it. Was it the shoes?
On one other occassion during the winter of 1988 we see Michael donning the Air Alpha Flights--during the filming of a segment for an ABC TV special called Superstars and Their Moms, which was filmed in early March 1988 (Mike is still wearing a bandage on his right eye from a Charles Barkley elbow in a game on Feb. 29). In the bit, Michael can be seen wearing this model yet again as his mother, Deloris Jordan, shows him how to dunk a basketball. (There may have been a stunt double...)
The size 13 shoes are autographed on the right side in black marker and are accompanied by an LOA from Beckett Authenticated. The sole of the shoe has not stood the test of time, with most of the interior sole material missing, which is all too-common in Nikes of this era. The shoe presents in Very Good condition. Also included are the consignor's 8 x 10 inch team photograph of her and Jordan from the camp and her "Michael Jordan Basketball Camp" certificate, dated July 28, 1988 (which has a facsimile Jordan signature).
This offering represents a unique opportunity to acquire one of the rarest game worn shoes from Michael Jordan's career.