A $3 Thrift Store Find Turns Out to Be a $250,000 NBA Legend's Uniform

An American teenager discovered that a piece of clothing purchased for about 4,000 won at a thrift store was, in fact, a uniform actually worn by NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain.

Wilt Chamberlain's LA Lakers jacket purchased by Queen Brown. Instagram capture

On July 2 (local time), the New York Post and other outlets reported the story of Queen Brown, a 19-year-old from Portland, Oregon, who bought secondhand clothing at a Goodwill Outlet, as she regularly does, in January. At the time, Brown picked up a yellow LA Lakers warmup jacket that a man had just put back and purchased it for $3.07 (about 4,700 won).

Later, upon examining the stitching on the worn jacket, Brown sensed, "This probably isn't just any ordinary vintage clothing." After posting a photo of the jacket on social media, Brown was contacted by the world-renowned auction house Sotheby's. According to experts, the jacket was confirmed to be the warmup jacket actually worn by NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals.

Sotheby's estimated the jacket's auction price to be between $150,000 and $250,000 (approximately 230 million to 380 million won). The auction will be held until July 20. The uniform worn by Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals victory was sold for $4.9 million (about 750 million won) at a Sotheby's auction in 2023. This made it the third most expensive uniform in NBA history, following those of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. In other words, during the 1972 NBA Finals, Chamberlain wore the jacket purchased by Brown over the game uniform.

Brown, who has been reselling secondhand items since her senior year of high school, expressed her excitement, saying, "When I received confirmation from Sotheby's that it was the actual jacket worn during the 1972 NBA Finals, it was the most thrilling moment of my life." She stated that she plans to invest the auction proceeds in index funds or real estate and travel to Vietnam with her friends.

Meanwhile, Chamberlain is considered one of the legends of the NBA. In 1962, he set the legendary record of scoring 100 points in a single game.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.