Born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942, Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest boxers to have ever lived, and yet his role in advancing the civil rights movement in the 1960s made his fight in the political realm among his greatest accomplishments. Intrigued by Islamic doctrine from a young age, as a boy Clay saw a cartoon in a Nation of Islam Newspaper that depicted white slave owners forcing their slaves to pray to Jesus, and sited this experience as his revelation that Christianity was the religion of the oppressive white establishment. After winning his first heavyweight championship title in 1964, Clay publicly announced his conversion to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. His fans and the moderate Black community were torn by his affiliation with Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, but his conviction made him a hero when he refused to be inducted into the war in Vietnam on the grounds of race and religious belief: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?" he told Sports Illustrated. Sportswriters and much of the public denounced him as a traitor, and the FBI subjected him to the same surveillance as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. (Blakemore). On June 20, 1967, Ali was convicted of violating the Selective Service Act and was sentenced to five years in prison; as a result, his boxing license was revoked, and he was stripped of his titles. By the time Ali won his appeal and the Supreme Court overturned his conviction, he had spent 3.5 years banned from his sport during a time of peak performance.

A 6X NBA Champion, Michael Jordan’s biography on the NBA website states: “[Jordan] was integral in helping to popularize the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon in the process.” The former NBA star is widely regarded as the most important figure to ever play basketball, and is a well-respected philanthropist, donating time and money over the years to the Make-a-Wish Foundation among numerous other charitable organizations. Jordan’s value to the economy has been estimated at over $10 billion dollars. Despite all this, Jordan has shouldered criticism over the years for his fierce competitive streak, a gambling addiction, and above all his repeated retirement from basketball and pursuit of success within Major League Baseball. Says Winston: “Jordan is remembered for his work ethic and winning 6 championships with the Chicago Bulls, but his attempt to play professional baseball brought global ridicule. This is insane to me; we should always encourage people to push boundaries into new frontiers.”

A 2X NBA champion and 4X NBA MVP, Wilt Chamberlain is the only professional basketball player to have ever scored 100 points in a single game - a record he achieved in 1962 that has yet to be met or broken. At 7ft 1in tall, he was a “Goliath” on the court and sustained regular hard fouls, often being double and triple-teamed to throw him off his game. The thrashing was so brutal that he considered retirement as a rookie, and according to former Celtics forward Tom Heinsohn, “He took the most brutal pounding of any player ever.” Heads above the other players in the 1960s, the NBA actually had to modify or change rules of the game in an attempt to make it more equitable for those who came up against him. His height prompted jeers from fans and scorn from the media, calling him a ‘freak of nature.’ Chamberlain also became known as professional sports’ consummate libertine, claiming to have slept with over 20,000 women in his lifetime. After the 1971 NBA playoffs, Chamberlain challenged heavyweight boxing legend Muhammad Ali to a fight - even preparing with Cus d’Amato, the trainer and adoptive father of Mike Tyson - but backed out of the bout, using a contractual escape clause that predicated Ali winning another fight that turned out to be his first professional loss. Upon retirement, Chamberlain made money in stocks and real estate; bought a Harlem nightclub that he named ‘Big Wilt’s Small Paradise’; and was cast as a villainous warrior alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Conan the Destroyer’ (1984).

A 20X Allstar and 7X World Series Champion, Mickey Mantle is considered one of the greatest players, sluggers and switch hitters in American Baseball history. Outside of his sport, ‘the Mick’ was a known alcoholic with countless marriage infidelities; a playboy who brought both his wife and his mistress to his Yankees retirement ceremony in 1969. On the day of his 1974 enshrinement at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Mantle made a quick escape offstage after his acceptance speech, saying that the ceremony felt “Like a funeral. Like being buried alive” (Leavy). A decade after his departure from the Major Leagues, he maintained a life of luxury thanks to the sports memorabilia craze that swept the US in the 1980s, becoming a fixture at trade shows and card signings. At the age of 63, Mantle died due to complications from a lifetime of alcohol abuse. His 1995 Sports Illustrated Obituary states: “Acknowledging his pin-striped pedigree, the fascination [with Mantle] still doesn’t add up. If he was a pure talent, he was not a pure spirit... And still, looking at the slightly uplifted square jaw, all we see is America’s romance with boldness, its celebration of muscle, a continent’s comfort in power during a time when might did make it right.” Mantle’s rise and fall is characteristic of fame based on performance and youth, where decline is inevitable and yet the public continues to expect something more than human of their heroes.

The market for Michael Jordan memorabilia has been among the most highly valued since his days with the Chicago Bulls, but has surged as of late with the release of ESPN’s series ‘The Last Dance.’ Although signed basketballs and autographed jerseys are iconic, collectors have been known to purchase just about anything related to Jordan’s legacy. From minor league baseball jerseys to McDonalds ‘McJordan’ BBQ sauce, to the ball he signed with Michael Jackson during the video shoot for ‘Jam’ in 1991, fans have sought out anything and everything the player has touched - the stranger and more unique, the better. Jordan’s significance as a cultural powerhouse has touched sports, media, fashion, hospitality and even the political realm, culminating in his reception of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2016. The addition of Winston’s signature alongside Jordan’s becomes an act of appropriation but also one of vandalism, requiring the deliberate destruction of one cultural relic in an attempt to merge signifiers of art and sport to create another of unpredictable value.

Pete Rose wore the nickname ‘Charlie Hustle’ as a badge of honor after it was given to him in derision by Whitey Ford during his rookie year. Ford had pitched a walk during a spring training game against the New York Yankees and Rose sprinted to first base rather than jogging up the line. This was an early example of Rose’s affection for banter and controversy, and this type of conflict followed him throughout his career. He is Major League Baseball’s all-time hit leader but is just as well known for being caught gambling on the sport during his time as manager of the Cincinnati Reds (the team for which he played for 22 years). Rose was penalized with permanent ineligibility from baseball, and in 1991 the Baseball Hall of Fame formally voted to ban those on the ‘permanently ineligible’ list from induction. After years of public denial regarding the gambling allegations, Rose admitted in 2004 during a book tour to promote his autobiography that he bet on baseball and on the Reds. In 2010, it was reported that Rose used corked bats during his 1985 pursuit of Ty Cobb's record after two sports memorabilia collectors who owned his game-used bats from that season had them x-rayed and found the telltale signs of corking. Rose earns over $1 million annually from paid public appearances and autograph signings, and balls with the inscription ‘I’m sorry I bet on baseball’ were given privately to friends, Rose never expecting them to end up on the market. These balls present a particular moment of vulnerability, as other text Rose has signed often included jokes and one-liners such as ‘Hit King’. Winston presents a contrasting statement of exposure, stating ‘I’m not sorry I bet on myself’ in an adage of self-belief.