Christian Laettner is kicking himself right now.
Two decades ago, after he hit one of the most legendary shots in college basketball history to topple the Kentucky Wildcats and send his Duke Blue Devils to the 1992 Final Four, Laettner gave his game-worn jersey to a classmate.
This week a jersey that is most likely that one -- Laettner hasn't verified it but it is believed to be authentic -- sold at auction for $119,500. The only game-worn uniform to sell at auction for more than that is a Virginia Squires jersey worn by Julius Erving which went for $190,414 in 2011.
"Back then [in 1992] people didn't understand as well as they do today that these things are really valuable and he asked [Laettner] for the jersey and he gave it to him,” Lelands.com founder and chairman Joshua Evans said. “The fact that [Laettner] has not come out and said anything says a lot — that means he knows he gave away something every very valuable and he didn’t realize it.”
Laettner's buzzer-beater capped a spectacular game in which he finished 10-for-10 from the field for 31 points He led Duke to the national championship in 1992 and was named college basketball's player of the year.
Lelands got a hold of the jersey and packaged it in a recent auction along with several other pieces of memorabilia. Among them were Jackie Robinson's 1947 Rookie of the Year Award (which sold for $401,968) and Juan Gonzalez's 1996 American League MVP Award ($23,287).
