Jordan Championship Shoes: The Kicks He Won Six Rings In

The Jordan championship shoes are the Air Jordan models Michael Jordan wore across the six Bulls titles of 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998: the VI, VII, VIII, XI, XII, XIII and XIV. According to Basketball-Reference, he was Finals MVP in all six of those wins. This is the full list of the kicks he won his rings in, season by season.

• Six titles, six Finals MVP awards: 1991 to 1998, per Basketball-Reference’s playoff pages.
• Seven models: the VI, VII, VIII, XI, XII, XIII and XIV, according to Wikipedia.
• 38 points in the Flu Game: Game 5 of the 1997 Finals, in the black and red XII, per ESPN and Bleacher Report.

  Which Air Jordan models did MJ wear for his six titles?

  The six titles span seven Air Jordan models, from the VI in 1991 to the XIII and XIV in 1998. Wikipedia’s Air Jordan entry says the brand’s 6 Rings shoe, first released in September 2008, combines the seven models worn across those championship seasons: the 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 14.

  The table puts each season’s result, taken from Basketball-Reference’s playoff pages linked in the sections below, next to its model, which follows Wikipedia’s list of the seven shoes. Each row shows the clinching game, so the date and score are the night the ring was won. The averages are points, rebounds and assists per game across that Finals.

  Colorways for individual Finals games are harder to pin down, so we only name one where a source does. Our full Air Jordan guide covers the rest of the line.

  Season	Opponent	Series	Clinching game	MJ Finals averages (pts / reb / ast)	Model
  1991	Lakers	4-1	June 12, 108-101	31.2 / 6.6 / 11.4	VI
  1992	Trail Blazers	4-2	June 14, 97-93	35.8 / 4.8 / 6.5	VII
  1993	Suns	4-2	June 20, 99-98	41.0 / 8.5 / 6.3	VIII
  1996	SuperSonics	4-2	June 16, 87-75	27.3 / 5.3 / 4.2	XI
  1997	Jazz	4-2	June 13, 90-86	32.3 / 7.0 / 6.0	XII
  1998	Jazz	4-2	June 14, 87-86	33.5 / 4.0 / 2.3	XIII and XIV

  The 1991 title: the Air Jordan 6 and a first ring

  The Air Jordan 6 is the shoe of MJ’s first Bulls championship. Wikipedia says the VI was designed after a German sports car and that he wore it for that first title. The Bulls beat the Lakers 4-1, clinching on June 12, 1991 with a 108-101 win in Los Angeles, and Basketball-Reference lists him as Finals MVP at 31.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 11.4 assists per game.

  Detroit was the hurdle that year. The same page shows the Bulls sweeping the Pistons 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, which is how the team reached the Lakers.

  Black and infrared is the colorway the brand points to. Wikipedia describes a 2006 Defining Moments pack that paired the black and infrared VI with the Concord XI, as the shoes he wore for the first title of each of his two three-peats.

  

  The 1992 title: the Air Jordan 7 and the Dream Team

  The Air Jordan 7 is the model of the second title, and Nike released an Olympic colorway of it for the Barcelona Games. According to Basketball-Reference, the Bulls beat the Trail Blazers 4-2 and clinched in Chicago on June 14, 1992, 97-93, with MJ named Finals MVP at 35.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game.

  That summer he played for the Dream Team. NBA.com reports that the US team beat Croatia by 32 in the gold medal game and won its Olympic games by an average of 43.8 points. Wikipedia says that Olympic color combination carried his Olympic jersey number 9 instead of the usual 23.

  We could not confirm which VII colorway he wore on each Finals night, so we are not naming one. What the record does show is a model, a season and a ring.

  

  The 1993 title: the Air Jordan 8 and the first three-peat

  The Air Jordan 8 is the shoe of the 1993 title, the third straight for the Bulls. Wikipedia says the VIII was released to coincide with the 1992-93 NBA season and that Bugs Bunny appeared alongside MJ in its ad campaign. For more on that model, see our Jordan 8 Playoffs post.

  Phoenix pushed it to six games. NBA.com describes John Paxson’s 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in Game 6 as turning a 98-96 deficit into a 99-98 win and clinching the first three-peat since the 1960s Celtics. Basketball-Reference has the clincher in Phoenix on June 20, 1993, with MJ at 41.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game as Finals MVP.

  NBA.com adds that it was his final game before he announced his first retirement, which is why the next title shoe arrives only after his 1995 return.

  

  Which Jordan shoe did MJ wear when the Bulls won in 1996?

  The 1996 title belongs to the Air Jordan 11, a patent leather model Tinker Hatfield designed while MJ was away from basketball. Wikipedia says the shoes were only samples in 1995 when he decided to come back to the NBA, and that he wore the XI on the way to the 1995-96 championship.

  It was the first title of a second run of three. The Bulls beat the SuperSonics 4-2 and clinched in Chicago on June 16, 1996, 87-75, and Basketball-Reference lists MJ as Finals MVP at 27.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, the lowest scoring average of his six Finals.

  Wikipedia says the brand’s 2006 pack used the Concord colorway for this title, so we name that one, though not as a Finals-game pair. The XI also appeared in the film Space Jam. Our Jordan 11 Space Jam post is the related read.

  

  Which Air Jordan is the Flu Game shoe?

  The Flu Game shoe is the black and red Air Jordan 12 that MJ wore in Game 5 of the 1997 Finals. Bleacher Report describes the pair as black and red Air Jordan XIIs, size 13, and ESPN puts his line in Utah that night at 38 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists in more than 44 minutes. According to Basketball-Reference, the Bulls won that game 90-88 on June 11, 1997.

  Wikipedia says he used four XII colorways in 1996-97: the white and black Taxi or the white and red Chicago in the regular season, the black and white Playoffs pair at home playoff games, and the black and red pair on the road.

  The Bulls closed out the Jazz in Chicago, 90-86 on June 13, 1997, and Basketball-Reference has MJ at 32.3 points per game as Finals MVP. By that home and road rule, Game 6 points to the Playoffs pair rather than the Taxi, though that is our reading, not a confirmed record. More on the shoe in our Jordan 12 Flu Game post.

  

  Which shoes did MJ wear in the 1998 Finals?

  The 1998 Finals gave us two famous pairs: the Air Jordan 13 in Game 2 and the Air Jordan 14 in the Game 6 clincher. CBS News reports that the black and red 13s, known as the Breds, were released in May 1998 and that he wore them in the second half of Game 2, after the Bulls lost Game 1.

  The 14 is the Last Shot pair. Wikipedia says that colorway got its nickname because MJ wore it for the game-winning shot over Bryon Russell in his final game with the Bulls, and that the model was originally released in October 1998, four months after the Finals.

  NBA.com calls the Game 6 shot a 20-foot jumper that made it 87-86 with 5.2 seconds left. The Bulls took the series 4-2 and a third straight title, and Basketball-Reference has the clincher in Utah on June 14, 1998, with MJ at 33.5 points per game as Finals MVP. Our post on The Last Dance is the related read. MJ later played for the Wizards from 2001 to 2003, per NBA.com.

  

  What have the Jordan championship shoes sold for?

  Two of the pairs MJ wore in the Finals have sold at auction, and the figures below are historical results, not estimates. ESPN reports that the Flu Game XIIs sold for $104,765 through Grey Flannel Auctions in 2013, then for $1.38 million including buyer’s premium on the Goldin marketplace in June 2023.

  The Game 2 XIIIs sold through Sotheby’s in April 2023. ESPN lists the price as $2.238 million, while CBS News, in its report of April 11, 2023, rounds it to $2.2 million and says it was the highest publicly recorded price for a pair of sneakers, according to Sotheby’s.

  At retail, Wikipedia says the 2006 Defining Moments pack with the VI and XI retailed at $295, and the white and infrared and black and infrared VIs were released again on February 14, 2013 at a retail price of $170. Market prices move and are shown for reference, not as a promise.

  Did MJ wear the same colorway all season?

  No. Wikipedia says he used four colorways of the XII in 1996-97 alone: Taxi and Chicago in the regular season, Playoffs at home in the postseason, and a black and red pair on the road.

  Was the Air Jordan 9 a championship shoe?

  No. Wikipedia says the IX came out in November 1993, after his first retirement, and that he never played an NBA season wearing it.