Last Updated on July 25, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake
Michael Jordan started his career wearing number 23. Since he is the most popular basketball player of all time, it’s the reason so many basketball players like the number 23. That said, when I played basketball, the number I wanted to avoid the most was the number 23 because I didn’t want people to think that I thought I was Michael Jordan. I think that’s a common thought for basketball players to have. Even when I wore number 22, I thought to myself: Am I too close to Michael Jordan’s number and are people going to think I’m close to his skill level because I have a number near his? I actually chose the number 22 because of the meaning behind the number: the number 22 represents stability and I wanted to be that stability for my team.
Michael Jordan wore the number 23 while playing for the Chicago Bulls and for each of the six championship seasons he played in. When Jordan came back from retirement in 1995, he started wearing the number 45 because it was the number he wore in college. It’s possible Jordan knew he wasn’t the same player anymore and wanted a different number than the 23 he used to wear. There was one game in 1990 when Jordan wore the number 12 because he lost his jersey that day.
Michael Jordan chose the number 23 because it was half of 45. The number 45 was significant to Michael because it was the number his older brother Larry Jordan wore during high school. Michael also wore the same number in high school and then halved it. Since you can’t wear 22.5, he rounded it up to 23.
In 2007, Jim Carrey starred in the mystery thriller movie called The Number 23. The movie suggests there is a lot of meaning and mystery behind the number 23. I don’t think Michael Jordan had any idea about the meaning behind the number; his choices for wearing it were strictly personal. That said, it is pretty cool that he chose a number with so much mystery surrounding it.