YouTuber Logan Paul drops lawsuit against Heritage Auctions

YouTuber-turned-boxer Logan Paul has dropped a lawsuit he filed in September against Heritage Auctions, in which he claimed the auction house prevented him from evaluating the authenticity of an item signed by basketball legend Michael Jordan.

Paul had placed the $562,555 winning bid for an 8-by-8-foot section of the Chicago Bulls’ United Center court, on which Jordan led the team to three NBA championship wins from 1996 to 1998, at Heritage’s “Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction” in August.

But after the auction, Paul discovered “serious issues” with the accuracy of the item as described on Heritage’s website and filed suit the following month, according to court documents obtained by Urgent Matter.

He sought a temporary restraining order and injunction to prevent the Dallas-based auction house, also known for selling blue-chip art and historical artifacts, from returning the item to the consignor or selling it to another buyer until he could investigate its authenticity.

Paul argued that the condition of the court section did not match the condition of the United Center floor from Jordan’s Bulls era, “as a result of the court either being replaced or, as Heritage claims, repainted and resurfaced.”

His lawyers wrote in a September letter to Heritage that “the questionable authenticity of the Item has been raised by others in the collecting community,” adding that Paul would be “thrilled to move forward with the transaction” if the item proved authentic.

After receiving that message, Heritage responded by requesting payment by September 25, the auction-settlement deadline.

“When we informed the consignor that settlement could be delayed, he informed us that he is not pleased with the result of the auction as he feels that court should be valued at $1M or more,” Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports memorabilia, wrote in an email.

“So, he wishes for the sale of the lot to be cancelled and returned to him if it is not paid for in advance of the auction settlement date.”

Ivy said that if payment were delayed, the auction house would have no choice but to cancel the sale and either return the item to the consignor or offer it in a future auction.

Paul’s lawyers then sent Heritage a list of questions and document requests. The auction house replied that “information regarding the provenance was obtained from the consignor” and said it reached out to Upper Deck, the company that originally acquired the court from the Bulls, to confirm details.

Ivy wrote that staff consulted multiple former Bulls personnel, reviewed prior auction listings for other court sections, verified that code markings matched Bulls-provided maps, and engaged photo-matching services to review the flooring.

Heritage acknowledged that people it had consulted believed the court had been refinished before it was removed and sold in the early 2000s.

“That said, I fail to see how the specific date that the Bulls court was sanded and resurfaced has any bearing on the authenticity or value of the lot,” Ivy said.

“The only fact that matters is if this is the court on which Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls played their home games when they won the 1996, 1997, and 1998 NBA championships, as has been verified by The Upper Deck Company.”

Ivy added that Heritage had not prevented Paul or his team from inspecting the item and invited them to schedule an appointment that week.

Paul filed a request last week to dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice, a procedural move that ends the case without preventing him from filing it again. He did not give a reason for seeking dismissal.

Follow along with other lawsuits at Urgent Matter's art lawsuit tracker.