Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA 18 months after his shocking retirement was a momentous occasion. Jordan didn’t play especially well in his return in Indiana, but over the closing stretch of the 1994-95 season he had some incredibly memorable moments — most notably his “Double Nickel” game in Madison Square Garden — all while wearing 45 instead of 23.
While it’s not some long-held secret as to why he came back wearing 45, which he wore as a member of the White Sox organization while playing baseball, Jordan offered an explanation for the decision, with a big reason being his father’s death and him returning to hoops for the first time since.
“I didn’t want to go to 23 because I knew my father wasn’t there to watch me, and I felt it was a new beginning,” Jordan said. “And 45 was my first number when I played in high school.”
In the 1995 playoffs, the Bulls dropped Game 1 to the Orlando Magic, with the most memorable moment being Nick Anderson stealing the ball from Jordan, leading to a fastbreak with Penny Hardaway and Horace Grant, who punctuated an Orlando win with a dunk against his old team. After the game, Nick Anderson famously remarked “45 isn’t 23,” which Grant immediately knew was a bad idea.
For Game 2, Jordan unretired the number 23 and put 45 back on the shelf, going off for a monster 38-point performance to even the series. As he recalls in the documentary, it just wasn’t natural wearing 45.
“It just felt like 45 wasn’t natural,” Jordan said. “I wanted to go back to the feeling I have in 23.”
Given what we’ve learned about Jordan’s constant hunt for motivation from opponents, Anderson’s comments surely helped push him towards breaking 23 back out and proving that, yes, he was still that same guy. Unfortunately for Jordan and the Bulls, they didn’t have quite enough in the gas tank to get past the Magic in that series, losing in six games. Included in that were a pair of losses where Jordan had 40 and 39 points, respectively.
The 45 period of Jordan’s career was short, but memorable, if for no other reason than that number change became synonymous with comebacks.
