Half of his older brother's #45

Michael’s older brother Larry Jordan wore #45 at Laney High School in Wilmington, where they grew up. Larry was the basketball player in the family first — listed at 5’7″, he never played pro but was, by Michael’s repeated telling, the better athlete in the household. Michael wanted to share his brother’s number; coaches don’t issue duplicates on the same team, so he split it down the middle: 45 ÷ 2 = 22.5. He rounded up to 23.

Michael kept #23 at Laney, at North Carolina (where he was famously cut from varsity as a sophomore — though he made JV — and then started for Dean Smith from his freshman year onward), and through his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls in 1984.

The brief #45 detour, 1995

When Jordan retired in October 1993 to play minor-league baseball, the Bulls retired his #23 in a 1994 ceremony. When he returned to the NBA in March 1995, he came back wearing #45 — partly because #23 was already retired and hanging in the United Center rafters, and partly as a tribute to baseball (#45 was his minor-league number with the Birmingham Barons, and the number his late father James Jordan had encouraged him to wear).

He wore #45 for only 17 games. After Orlando’s Nick Anderson stripped him in the 1995 playoffs and said, “#45 is not #23,” Jordan switched back to #23 for Game 2 of the second round — earning the Bulls a $25,000 fine for changing without league approval. He wore #23 for the rest of his career.

The aftershock: a generation of #23s

Jordan’s #23 became the most worn jersey in basketball. LeBron James wore it in homage at St. Vincent–St. Mary, Cleveland, and the Lakers. Michael’s other notable disciples in the number: Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, Trae Young, Lou Williams, and Mitchell Robinson all picked it up at different points. The Heat famously refused to issue #23 after LeBron’s 2010 free agency and unofficially retired it during his time there.

The Bulls retired Jordan’s #23 in 1994 — a ceremony so iconic it was held while he was still on his baseball detour. The Miami Heat formally retired #23 in 2003 in honor of Jordan, even though he’d never played for them — a unique league gesture that has not been repeated.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Michael Jordan and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).