Everything Michael Jordan touches turns to gold, even well beyond his playing years. His NASCAR team is off to a historic start, which is just an example of that.
That dynamic was evident at a recent auction, where his historic debut cover on Sports Illustrated sold for a record $229,360, per Cedric ‘BIG CED' Thornton of Black Enterprise.
The cover is from 1983 when Jordan was at the University of North Carolina. It features him and his Carolina teammate, Sam Perkins. Ultimately, the record sale was through Goldin Auctions.
The sale surpassed the previous record for another Sports Illustrated cover featuring Jordan, from 1984, which sold for $126,000 in 2023.
$229,360: Record sale for Michael Jordan's first Sports Illustrated cover, graded 9.6 by @PSAcard, through @GoldinCo.
Result is the highest ever for any graded magazine and the most for any magazine or comic holdered by PSA.
PSA began grading the category last July. pic.twitter.com/6CPFK7TqpU
— Ben Burrows (@BenMBurrows) March 8, 2026
Furthermore, the auction described the cover as the launch pad for everything else.
“Before Jordan’s 1984-85 Star Rookie Cards. Before his 1986-87 Fleer RC. Before his “Star Is Born” 1st S.I. Cover in a Bulls uniform. Yes, before any of those iconic MJ masterpieces, back when His Airness still wore Converse at UNC, it was this Sports Illustrated issue, with this “No. 1“ cover, that marked the start of it all for the now billion-dollar business of Jordan collectibles.”
In 1983, North Carolina began the season as the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. The previous year, they had won the NCAA championship over Georgetown, 63-62, culminating in Jordan's winning basket in the final seconds of the game.
Afterwards, Jordan became a two-time College Player of the Year in 1983 and 1984. Although he never won another national championship, Jordan left his mark on Chapel Hill.
In 1984, he declared for the NBA Draft and won a gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. That year, the Bulls drafted him as the 3rd pick in what was one of the most consequential drafts in NBA history.
Michael Jordan fell out with Sports Illustrated in 1994
In 1994, Jordan was playing minor league baseball. At the time, many criticized his decision to walk away from basketball at the height of his career to try his hand at a game he hadn't played since he was a teenager.
One of those was Sports Illustrated.
The breaking point was their March 1994 cover story titled “Bag it, Michael,” written by Steve Wulf. Essentially, Wulf said that Jordan and the Birmingham Barons were disgracing the game.
From that moment on, Jordan never talked to Sports Illustrated.
