Michael Jordan will always be associated with his legendary number '23'. He, for the vast majority, considered the greatest player in the history of basketball, is one of those figures that transcends the world of sports. A universal icon that generations born years after his last retirement still idolize.
We won't discover now how much and how good he did on a basketball court. His resume speaks for itself: 6-time NBA champion in as many Finals played, 6-time Finals MVP, 5-time MVP, 3-time All-Star Game MVP, 10-time All-NBA team selection, All-Star in each of the 14 full seasons he played in the League, 2 Olympic gold medals, NCAA champion in 1982...
All these achievements are linked to his characteristic '23', with the exception of his two Olympic adventures. He appeared in both Los Angeles and Barcelona wearing the '9' on his back because FIBA regulations prevented the use of numbers other than '4' to '15'. His entire NBA career was played with his usual number... except for two exceptions. Let's go through them.
Michael Jordan, the '12' of the Bulls in Orlando
"Please be aware that Michael Jordan will be wearing number 12 tonight," announced the speaker at the Orlando Arena (the O-Rena) on February 14, 1990. In Phil Jackson's first season as coach, the Bulls visited a team that had just debuted in the NBA that same 1989-90 season. As you can imagine, that game went down in history as the one in which Air played with the '12' and no name or surname on his back. But why?
28 years later, we still don't have an official resolution on this matter. In the final game of a two-week, six-game road trip away from Chicago, Jordan's '23' jersey disappeared. The Bulls' equipment managers didn't have a spare, but they did have an emergency one with no name and the '12'. All hypotheses point to a theft of the garment, but no one has been able to identify the thief yet.
The start time was approaching, so the Bulls' staff tried to look among the spectators for replicas of the shooting guard's jersey. The search yielded results, but not positive ones. None of the jerseys would fit someone who was 6'6". With Plan A ruled out, it was time to move on to Plan B. Enter the security team. As reported by the Orlando Sentinel at the time, the security guards interrogated the arena staff. They had no luck. The culprit never appeared, and the greatest player of all time played the game with '12' on his back.
In a series of 21/43 from the field, including 0/2 from three-point range (between both teams, they made 8/20, it was a different time), the Brooklyn-born Jordan scored 49 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists with no turnovers. The Bulls had a double-digit lead in the third quarter but ended up losing 129-135 in overtime to the Florida team.
"The frustration comes from having lost a game we should have won. I don't care how I played. We had opportunities to win that we should have taken advantage of," said the '12' afterwards.
"I had never experienced anything like this before. It's very annoying because you're used to doing certain things and you don't like them to be replaced," he continued in the mixed zone. His comments made it clear that he was superstitious. He was so angry that rumors suggested he left without signing a single autograph.
His first comeback, wearing '45'
Days after winning his third championship and completing the first threepeat of the Bulls, James R. Jordan, his father, was murdered at a highway rest area. A sad event that would eventually have its weight in his first of two non-definitive retirements, announced to the world on October 6, 1993. A year and a half later, His Airness stepped on an NBA court again with the big novelty of his jersey number. He had returned as the '45' of the Bulls.
"When I came back, I didn't want to play with the number my father saw me play for the last time. With him absent, I thought about a fresh start," he revealed. He had decided on the number he had been seen wearing during his foray into baseball, the same number he had worn as a child until he coincided with his older brother, Larry, in high school. Since Larry already wore '45', he decided to split it in half. That's how the legend of '23' began, the number he would once again wear in his 23rd game since his return.
Everything changed in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals against, precisely, the Magic. Orlando won the first game of a series that ended 4-2 with a decisive steal by Nick Anderson from Jordan, which resulted in a fast break dunk by Horace Grant in the final seconds.
"The number '45' is not the '23'. The '23' wouldn't have let that happen," Anderson explained to the press. In the next game, also in Orlando, when Michael took off his warm-up jersey, he once again wore '23', a number that had been retired by the franchise after his initial retirement announcement. Michael recorded a stat line of 38 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 4 blocks, and the Bulls tied the series at one game apiece.
He never wore another jersey number again, not even during his final stint with the Wizards. The Bulls were fined a total of $125,000 for allowing a change that became the center of attention in the playoffs. A sum they probably paid happily. Once the issue was resolved for the following season, Air delivered three more titles to Chicago. All of them carried the stamp of the most famous jersey number in sports history. (D)