Imler explained the measures the auctioneers took to authenticate the items, which included confirming with the Lakers that Ali worked as a ball boy at the time and searching for a photo of Jordan wearing the shoes during the game. They couldn't find an image from that date, but they found one of him wearing the same style of shoes on Nov. 23 against the Seattle SuperSonics. Officials also verified the signatures on the shoes matched Jordan's handwriting style from that period. "Does the item match the story? In this case everything lines up perfectly," Imler said.