Wilt Chamberlain’s Lakers Jacket Bought for $3 at Thrift Store Sells for More Than $89,000 at Auction

Adam EnglandWed, July 22, 2026 at 3:30 PM UTC

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Wilt Chamberlain’s Lakers jacket; Wilt ChamberlainCredit: Martin Mills/Getty; Sotheby's -

A warmup jacket worn by basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain in 1972 has fetched $89,600 at auction

Quinn Brown, 19, discovered the jacket at a Goodwill in Oregon in January, and auction house Sotheby’s contacted him after he shared photos of the find on social media

Chamberlain, who died at age 63 in 1999, was an NBA Hall of Famer and won the NBA Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers the year he wore the jacket

A warmup jacket worn by basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain in 1972 has fetched almost $90,000 at auction — months after a teenager found it at a thrift store.

Quinn Brown was visiting a Goodwill store outside Portland, Ore., in January when he saw someone throw the Los Angeles Lakers jacket on a pile of clothes.

The 19-year-old, who resells clothes online, grabbed it and bought it for just $3.07. “I didn’t even think that finding something like this was possible,” he told the . “I got very, very lucky.”

Wilt Chamberlain Lakers jacket found by teenCredit: Sotheby's

Chamberlain wore the short-sleeved yellow jacket during the 1972 NBA Finals, which the Lakers won. He was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, too, as his team came out on top against the New York Knicks.

Bidding at auction house Sotheby’s — which estimated the value of the jacket between $150,000 and $250,000 — closed on Monday, July 20.

The “rare and significant” jacket, described by the auction house as an “extraordinary piece of memorabilia,” received 48 bids and was eventually sold for $89,600.

Chamberlain, who died at age 63 in 1999, was an NBA Hall of Famer, a two-time NBA champion with the Lakers, including in 1972, and a four-time Most Valuable Player, per the NBA website.

After his college career and a spell with the Harlem Globetrotters, he began his NBA career with the Golden State Warriors, called the Philadelphia Warriors at the time, in 1959.

Wilt Chamberlain in 1972Credit: Martin Mills/Getty

He stayed with the team as they moved to California and became the San Francisco Warriors in 1962, before joining the Philadelphia 76ers in 1965 and then the Lakers three years later.

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After retiring in 1973, he went into coaching with the San Diego Conquistadors.

Chamberlain’s old jacket is the priciest item Brown has sold — by a wide margin. The most expensive item he’d sold before was a T-shirt from Sub Pop, the Seattle-based record label that signed Nirvana, as well as numerous other big grunge and alternative rock bands, the AP reported. That sold for $250.

Brown said he researched the jacket online after he bought it, finding a photo of Chamberlain wearing it and double-checking that it appeared to be the same one.

“This is truly a once in a lifetime find,” he wrote on Instagram shortly after, alongside photos of himself holding the item. “I am so grateful this jacket has landed in my hands.”

Sotheby’s saw his posts about the jacket and got in touch, before collecting the jacket and carrying out their own verification.

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“Photomatching a piece of game-worn clothing to a specific Finals series, for a player of this era, is genuinely exceptional,” the auction house’s website reads.

“As photomatched items worn by Chamberlain become exceedingly rare, this jacket is a piece of sports history.”

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Source: “AOL Sports”