Michael Jordan’s Extremely Rare Valentine’s Day No. 12 Jersey Is Now Available

Michael Jordan’s No. 23 is iconic, a symbol of greatness. His No. 45 is synonymous with a great comeback. His No. 12? Well, that’s not so well known.

There’s a reason for that, because Jordan only wore it once and his name wasn’t even on the back of it. As the story goes, Jordan and the Bulls were getting ready to play the Magic in Orlando on Valentine’s Day 1990 when Jordan’s game jersey went missing. The Bulls didn’t have a replacement 23 available, and when the jersey hadn’t turned up by game time, they had to go with the lone extra jersey in their travel case, which was a No. 12.

Jordan went on to drop 49 points on the Magic in an overtime loss. The game, Jordan’s jersey aside, was relatively insignificant, but because it is the only time Jordan wore something other than 23 or 45, it lives on in history.

In honor of the anniversary of that game from 27 years ago, the NBA and Mitchell & Ness have released an authentic No. 12 Bulls jersey for sale at the NBA Store in New York and online.

Like the one Jordan wore on that night in Orlando, there is no name on the back. With NBA All-Star weekend coming up, you can flash your indie basketball fan chops with this jersey, and you can fully expect to see this jersey becoming the official outfit of this year’s music festival circuit.

(h/t Ryan Jones of Slam Magazine)