On January 13, 1999, at the United Center in Chicago in front of 800 journalists, Michael Jordan announced his second retirement from the NBA. The retirement came during the tail end of the second lockout in National Basketball Association history that begun on July 1, 1998 and lasted until January 20, 1999 over a dispute over the salary cap and the placement of a ceiling on individual players salaries. Jordan, fresh off the second three-peat Finals victories of his career, stated “Mentally, I’m exhausted. I don’t feel I have a challenge.” Jordan retired a six-time NBA champion, a six-time Finals MVP, a five-time NBA MVP, a 10-time NBA scoring champion, earned the 1985 Rookie of the Year Award, and was selected to 12 All-Star Games over a career that spanned 13 years. Jordan gained entry into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Presented here is a 1998-99 Chicago Bulls #23 home jersey from his retirement season. The white pullover jersey features red, black, and white stripes on the collar and sleeves. “BULLS” appears across the chest in red-on-black tackle twill. The number “23” appears on the chest and back in red-on-black tackle twill. An embroidered NBA logo in red, white, and blue rests on the left shoulder of the jersey. “Retirement Season 1-13-99” appears in gold embroidery on the front left tail of the jersey. An NBA Authentics and Chicago Bulls tags are affixed to the jersey’s left front tail on either side of the Nike Team Sports size “50” manufacturing tag with accompanying “LENGTH+4 MADE IN EL SALVADOR” and “1998-99” flags. “JORDAN” appears across the back of the jersey in red-on-black tackle twill. Jordan signed the number “2” on the front of the jersey with a black marker. The jersey feature some fading of the white mesh. This comes with a LOA from Beckett Authentication (AA06981).

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