Lakers jacket belonging to Wilt Chamberlain discovered at thrift store sells for $89K at auction

Thrift Store Find Turns Into Big Bucks for Teen

A warm-up jacket that belonged to Wilt Chamberlain, worn during the 1972 NBA Finals, was recently purchased by a teenager at a thrift store in Oregon for just $3.07. It ended up selling at auction on Monday for a staggering $89,600.

Quinn Brown was sifting through clothing at a Goodwill store in suburban Portland when he spotted a Lakers jacket, complete with Chamberlain’s name on it, tossed into a pile. Brown, who resells used clothing online, immediately grabbed it.

Initially, the jacket’s estimated value before the auction was set between $150,000 and $250,000, according to Sotheby’s. The auction saw a total of 48 bids.

Described as “special memorabilia” on the auction house’s page, the yellow short-sleeved warm-up jacket was used by Chamberlain during the Finals when the Los Angeles Lakers triumphed over the New York Knicks.

Brown expressed surprise at his find, saying, “I had no idea it was possible to find something like this. I was very, very lucky.”

Chamberlain, a Hall of Famer and one of basketball’s greatest players, had a notable career from 1959 to 1973, earning two championship rings—one with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 and another with the Lakers in 1972.

For the past three years, Brown has been on the hunt for unique clothing at thrift shops to resell online. His previous highest sale was a T-shirt for Sub Pop Records, the label that initially signed Nirvana, which went for $250.

After acquiring the Chamberlain jacket in January, Brown did a bit of research to gauge its worth. He found an image of Chamberlain wearing a similar jacket online and compared it to his find.

Upon inspecting the Lakers patch, he noticed a specific stitching pattern that matched the photo. They also checked the measurements against another jersey worn by the 7-foot-1 player and found them to be almost identical.

Brown noted, “It seemed so hard to believe at the time that I really wanted to make sure,” admitting he had only ever read about such incredible thrift store discoveries.

After posting a photo on social media, Sotheby’s reached out to him, offering to auction it. Brown agreed, leading to an armored van picking up the jacket.

Ultimately, Sotheby’s conducted its own verification and confirmed that the jacket was worn by Chamberlain during the Finals, where he was named Finals MVP.

The auction house highlighted that it’s quite rare to find match-worn items from this era that can be connected to a specific Finals series. “This jacket is a piece of sports history,” they noted.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first high-profile Chamberlain item sold; his game jersey from the same series fetched $4.9 million at Sotheby’s in 2023, ranking as one of the most expensive NBA jerseys sold.