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Ex-Heat Security Guard Pleads Guilty to Illegally Selling LeBron James NBA Finals Jersey & More


Bernadette Giacomazzo

Fri, August 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM UTC

2 min read

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

A retired Miami police officer who later worked as a security guard for the Miami Heat has admitted to stealing and selling millions of dollars' worth of team memorabilia, including a historic LeBron James jersey from the 2013 NBA Finals.

According to The Los Angeles Times, 62-year-old Marcos Thomas Perez pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting and transferring stolen goods across state lines.

Perez spent 25 years with the Miami Police Department before joining the Heat's security team in 2016, where he worked until 2021. He later held a security role with the NBA until earlier this year. His sentencing is scheduled for October 31, and he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of probation, and a fine of $250,000.

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According to prosecutors, Perez stole more than 400 game-worn jerseys and other items from a secure equipment room at the Kaseya Center, where they had been stored for future display in a planned Heat Museum.

For three and a half years, he sold more than 100 pieces online, generating about $1.9 million. Federal agents searched his home in April and recovered nearly 300 items, which the Heat confirmed had come from their facility.

The most significant piece was a LeBron James jersey worn during Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, when James led Miami to its second straight championship and earned Finals MVP honors.

Perez initially sold the jersey for roughly $100,000, but it later resurfaced at Sotheby's, where it went for $3.7 million—at the time the third-highest price ever paid for a game-worn jersey, trailing only Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals jersey and Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" shirt.

Perez's attorney, Robert Buschel, said after the plea that his client "accepts responsibility for his behavior" and hopes the judge takes his police service into account. "This was an unfortunate set of decisions that he made," Buschel added, emphasizing Perez's previously strong reputation in law enforcement.

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