One of the most iconic jerseys in the history of sport, alongside Pele's no.10 for Brazil is Michael Jordan's no.23 for the Chicago Bulls. But the greatest basketball player in history, and arguably the greatest athlete of all time, did not always wear that number.
Sometimes, by choice, on his return from his first retirement, he wore the no.45 for several games. On another occasion, he was the victim of a robbery!
It was 33 years ago, on Valentine's Day 1990, when the Bulls were visiting Orlando. In the bowels of Amway Arena, the former home of the Orlando Magic, something unexpected happened. After the warm-up, before the Bulls players finally took the court, Jordan was rummaging through his locker, but couldn't find his jersey. It was supposed to have been there since the morning, since the official morning shoot-around, but it was missing.
Sounding the alarm
Alarm bells rang. Bulls staff contacted Magic staff, who went looking for her all over the arena. The matter escalated because the incident was announced over the public address system. The Magic even used the cameras to spot a fan wearing an oversized jersey. But the jersey didn't show up.
A subsequent investigation, published in Sports Illustrated eight years ago, confirmed the theft.
"That morning, after his shooting practice, he left his jersey in the locker room: he put on all his clothes, his shorts, his warm-up shorts, everything from every player. The locker room door was locked and then we had an extra padlock. There was only one person with the key," said Rodney 'Sid' Powell, who still works for the Magic.
Powell also revealed that a Magic employee, whose identity has not been disclosed, devised a plan to steal it. He climbed through the false ceiling of an adjoining locker room, got into the visiting team's locker room, climbed down and took the jersey. This is how the security cameras detected it. It was like something from a film.
Jordan was not affected by the change of look, although the events did throw the Bulls off the scent and they lost that game. The temporary no.12 scored 49 points and grabbed seven rebounds on the day his jersey was stolen. He did very well with that jersey.
