Sotheby's OG Anunoby Finals Game 4 ball could hit $2.5M-$4.5M at auction

Sotheby's is putting the ball from OG Anunoby's game-winning tip-in in NBA Finals Game 4 on the auction block, and sports memorabilia appraisers told Business Insider it could fetch between $2.5 million and $4.5 million. The timing matters. Bidding opens June 30, shortly after the moment, and appraiser Michael Osacky argues that selling too late can mean a 20% to 30% value drop.

This is the exact basketball Anunoby tipped in after Jalen Brunson missed a shot, securing a 107-106 Knicks comeback win. Sotheby's is not disclosing an estimated sale price, but Osacky says the value comes from the ball's role in one of the most talked-about moments in the NBA Finals, and from what that moment led to: the end of the Knicks' 53-year championship drought. That is a very specific kind of provenance, and in collectibles, specificity is the whole game.

For executives who do not usually track sports memorabilia pricing, the interesting part is how quickly “cultural relevance” turns into “auction economics.” Appraisers are effectively treating the viral moment as an asset class with a short half-life. Osacky told Business Insider that, ideally, something like this needs to be sold within days or weeks of the event happening. He warns that if the auction were delayed until the start of the season when the team receives its NBA Championship rings, the value would decrease by 20% to 30%. In other words, the market does not just pay for the object. It pays for the object plus recency.

Michael Osacky also pointed to demand drivers that are more finance-y than fans might expect. He said New York City's large population of multimillionaires and wealthy collectors could further boost demand for the piece of sports history. Bradley Calleja, president of Curio Advisors, estimated the ball could sell for between $3 million and $4 million at auction, and he pegged a replacement value for insurance of $5 million. That insurance framing matters because it translates an emotion-heavy category into the kind of numbers insurers and risk managers can actually underwrite.

Calleja also emphasized what makes this ball different from typical “nice souvenir” inventory: the moment and historic significance. He told Business Insider that the OG tip-in became a viral moment with major social media impact, and that it should stand the test of time because it is not tied to any breakable record. In collectibles terms, that is a longevity argument. Records can be beaten. Narrative moments are harder to repeat. Calleja added that the ball’s provenance is difficult to compare to other sales.

To show how that comparison is playing out, Calleja cited auction examples. In 2019, the ball used to score Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's final career points fetched $270,050. Last year, the basketball used when Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant won their first NBA title together for the Lakers in 2000 sold for $508,000. Then he broadened the lens to sports that trade at higher ceilings, arguing the OG Knicks ball is more impactful than either of those earlier sales and should be valued in comparison with some of the most expensive baseballs ever sold.

That includes Shohei Ohtani's 50th home run ball, which holds the record at $4.392 million; Freddie Freeman's 2024 World Series walk-off grand slam ball, which sold for $1.56 million; and Aaron Judge's 62nd home run ball, which went for $1.5 million, Calleja told Business Insider. The takeaway for boards and dealmakers is not that basketball will “beat” baseball. It is that the market is ready to price the same underlying ingredient, high-stakes history, across leagues when the provenance is tight and the story lands.

This sale is also part of a larger Sotheby's slate of Finals memorabilia, including game-worn jerseys and pieces of the Madison Square Garden court used during Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals. That matters because it hints at how Sotheby's is packaging sports moments: not as a one-off headline, but as an investable set of objects with connected narratives. If the Knicks chase after a 53-year drought is the story that drives attention, the auction catalog is built to capture that attention while it is still hot.

Strategically, this is the kind of moment where traditional auction logic meets modern platform logic. The ball is a physical artifact, but the value is being shaped by what Business Insider reports as social media impact, timing, and the presence of wealthy collectors in New York City. If you run a company that sells collectibles, insures high-value assets, or even just manages reputation and brand equity, the lesson is brutally practical: in markets like this, seconds and days can move the price. Sotheby's is leaning into that with a June 30 start, and appraisers are telling you why that schedule could be worth millions.