This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 6/22/2017.
Larry Bird earned three NBA championships, three regular season MVP awards and two NBA Finals MVP awards. Voted to nine All-NBA First Teams, Bird was named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, has his No. 33 retired by the Boston Celtics franchise and is a two-time inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. This jersey is Photo-Matched to April 19th, 1983, where the Celtics faced the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Bird finished with 26 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. On the front left tail is a “Sand Knit” distributor’s tag that reads, “Designed & Tailored Exclusively for the BOSTON CELTICS”. Below is a “Sand-Knit” size “46” manufacturer’s tag. On the right inseam is a materials tag with washing instructions. Across the chest reads, “CELTICS”, the player number “33” appears on both the front and on the back and across the back reads the player name, “BIRD”. The numbering and lettering was done locally which explains the slight offcoloring of the greens, typical of the Celtics in this era. The "R" in Bird is an atypical Sand-Knit "R". All numbering and lettering is done in green tackle twill sewn directly onto the white knit jersey. There is a small stain adjacent to “CELTICS” and the player number “33” and player name, “BIRD” is faded slightly. There are two light blue marks on the back of the jersey. This jersey is properly tagged, was presented to us as game-used and in our opinion shows outstanding game use. Accompanied by a letter from PM&G rating the jersey a 9. Also accompanied by an LOA from a Boston Garden employee which states that his job was to sell Bruins, Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots merchandise and also responsible for storing the game uniforms for the Boston Celtics. They did not have much room in the old Boston Garden and the employee's company gave them space in the back of the shop. They stocked practice jerseys, warm-up suits, game jerseys and shorts. They also worked closely with the equipment manager, Wayne Lebeaux when they needed new uniforms. He would get a call and we would be responsible for putting together the letters and numbers and sending them out to be stitched. Through communication with Celtics management, I purchased this Larry Bird jersey that passed through our store one day.
Please note that the photo-matching and grading authentication work on this jersey was performed by a new hobby service for game-used material PM&G. More information can be found at Photo-Match.com