Virginia Tech’s Traylor and Soule WNBA bound

Two Virginia Tech women’s basketball stars are taking their talents to the WNBA.

Kayana Traylor was the 23rd overall selection by Chicago earlier this month in the WNBA draft, and Taylor Soule was taken 28th by Minnesota.

The 5-foot-9 Traylor averaged 11 points for the Hokies with a high of 25 against Virginia.

At 5-foot-11, Soule averaged 11 points, six rebounds and led the team with 40 steals.

Both were transfers, with Traylor coming to Blacksburg from Purdue and Soule from Boston College.

Tech finished 31-5 under Kenny Brooks, the first Black coach to take his team to an ACC tournament title. The Hokies were eliminated in the NCAA semifinals by eventual champion LSU. The overall No. 1 draft selection was Aliyah Boston of South Carolina. The 6-foot-5 native of the Virgin Islands was selected by the Indiana Fever.

Boston averaged 11 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots under Coach Dawn Staley, helping the Gamecocks to a 36-1 record. South Carolina lost to Iowa in the NCAA semifinals.

Michael Jordan’s ‘Last Dance’ shoes sold for millions

Free Press wire reports

Sotheby’s auction house announced April 11 that a pair of Air Jordans worn by Michael Jordan during his final championship run with the Chicago Bulls has sold at auction for $2.2 million, surpassing the record for the most valuable sneakers ever sold, reports CBS News.

The Air Jordan 13s, which Jordan wore in Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz, sold for the highest publicly recorded price for a pair of sneakers, according to Sotheby’s.

“The historic sneakers were worn during the most recognizable season of Jordan’s storied career, which helped secure his legacy as the greatest basketball player of all time,” Sotheby’s said in its news release.

The Air Jordan 13s – also known as the Bred Air Jordans as a shorthand for the black and red color scheme – were released in May 1998, right in the thick of Jordan’s postseason run with the Bulls. According to Sotheby’s, the sneakers were among the final public releases of the Air Jordan brand during his career with the Bulls.

After losing in Game 1 of the NBA Finals that year, Jordan wore the shoes in the second half of Game 2 and helped the Bulls beat the Jazz at the Delta Center by scoring 37 points, Sotheby’s said. Following the game, he gave the sneakers to a ball boy who maintained the visitors’ locker room and signed them as thank you for his services, according to the auction house.

Jordan and the Bulls won their sixth championship soon after. Jordan’s final season with the Bulls was known as the “Last Dance” – and it was also the name of an ESPN documentary chronicling that time period of Jordan’s career.

The sneakers are also among the most expensive Jordan items ever sold, trailing the basketball legend’s game-worn jersey from Game 1 of the same finals series that sold for $10.1 million. The sale of the shoes beat out Kanye West’s Nike Air Yeezy 1s, which sold for $1.8 million, and Jordan’s game-worn Nike Air Ships, which sold for $1.472 million in 2021.