In 1992 the U.S. Men’s basketball team captured the gold medal in dominating fashion at the Barcelona Summer Olympic Games. Coached by the late Chuck Daly and dubbed the "Dream Team" they represented the first American Olympic squad to feature active professional NBA players and proved to be unstoppable. They crushed each opponent by an average margin of 44 points on their way to capturing the gold medal defeating Croatia in the finals by the score of 117-85—close by their standards.

At this same point in time former North Carolina State men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano who ironically led a “Cinderella” NCAA title run with his Wolfpack in 1983 was fighting for his life. In June of ’92 he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Adenocarcinoma for which there was no cure at the time and was told he had just months to live. On March 4 1993 at the inaugural ESPY Awards Valvano received the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award and delivered what many believe is the most inspirational speech ever broadcast on live television highlighted by the memorable line "Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!” He closed by saying "Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all." Two months later he was gone. Since 2007 the ESPY's has presented the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance.

Shortly before his death in 1993 Valvano started The Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research. As of today this incredible organization has raised over $200 million in research grants with 100% of cash donations going directly to cancer research. Featured here is a USA Basketball t-shirt autographed by every player and coach from the 1992 Dream Team and presented to the late Jim Valvano as a gift. What’s more several of these esteemed signees have added personal inscriptions to Jimmy V. The shirt was eventually put up for auction by Valvano’s widow at a Jimmy V Foundation fundraiser in 2004 where it ended up in the possession of our consignor who won it with a generous donation of $50000 and an additional $50K commitment.

Beautifully framed (30.5” by 43.5” overall) and mounted to a blue velvet background the XXL white shirt is signed in uniformly 9/10 black by the following (with inscriptions): Michael Jordan; Scottie Pippen; Magic Johnson (“Best of Luck”); Larry Bird (“To Jimmy Best Wishes”); Charles Barkley (“To My Friend Jim”); Chris Mullin (“To Jimmy V God Bless #13”); John Stockton (“To Coach V”); Karl Malone (“To Jim #32 ?”); David Robinson (“To Jim Best Wishes #50 1 COR 2:9”); Clyde Drexler (“To Jimmy V God Bless #10”); Patrick Ewing (“God Bless”); Christian Laettner (“To Coach V!! Go NC ST. #4 USA #32 Duke”); Chuck Daly (“Best Wishes - God Bless - Hx”); Mike Krzyzewski (“Jimmy We’re All Pulling For You!”); Lenny Wilkens (“To Jim God’s Blessing”); and P.J. Carlesimo. Apparently Coach K was fine with Laettner saying “Go NC State.” It was for a good cause.

Fresh-to-the-hobby a premium Dream Team signed piece like this is incredibly rare. And you will be hard-pressed to find any piece of sports memorabilia presented for such a special man and sold for such an important purpose.

Includes letter of provenance from consignor. Full LOA from PSA/DNA.