Long before Michael Jordan was a six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls, the future GOAT stood in the driveway of 505 North Watterson Street in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, with a basketball in his hand.
It was the winter of 1985, and the 22-year-old Jordan was in an intense free-throw contest with young Justin Jones, 10.
After Jones hit eight of 10 at the stripe, it was MJ’s turn to show off his clutch gene. In typical Jordan style, he made 10 straight with his right hand, 10 straight with his left hand and 10 straight with his eyes closed.
Jordan was shooting hoops with a kid, instead of dazzling on an NBA court during his second season, because he had fractured a bone in his left foot and was back in the state where he grew up.
Why specifically here, in Kings Mountain?
Well, a decade earlier, Jordan came to town with his youth team from Wilmington, N.C., to participate in the 1975 Dixie Youth Baseball State Tournament.
Because Jordan’s team had traveled 238 miles to the tournament and, like some other teams, could not return home in between games, Frank and Nina Mitchem volunteered to host Jordan and another player, Reggie Murrill. Jones is the grandson of the Mitchems.
Jordan, then 12, nearly threw a no-hitter and hit a three-run home run during the tournament for his team, the Cape Fear Optimist, and won “Mr. Baseball” for his age division. A completed bracket inside the tournament program suggests Jordan’s team went on to win it all.
Before Jordan and Mitchem left the house after the tournament, Nina, according to family lore, asked the boys to sign the program “for when they become famous.” Mitchem also had Jordan and Murrill write their home phone numbers so she and her husband could keep in touch.
The tournament was only six days, but Jordan and the Mitchems did keep in touch. The relationship was so special that even as MJ rose in prominence, he returned to Kings Mountain every summer until about 1988.
When Nina Mitchem died in 1999, the family found letters exchanged between her and Jordan. But it wasn’t until 2012, in cleaning a closet in the house when the family found the signed Dixie program.
In the recent months, Jones, now the owner of his grandparents' program, was looking to add more insurance to his collection. After speaking with David Hunt of Hunt Auctions, he decided to auction it off.
There’s no way to be sure, but it is believed this is the earliest Michael Jordan autograph to ever surface.
Jordan signed the program “Michael Jordan,” which would not have been typical at the time. Jordan was almost exclusively known as "Mike" until he hit the famous national-title winning shot at North Carolina seven years later.
In the team photo caption in the Dixie program, Jordan is referred to as “Mike.”
In fact, a baseball Jordan signed in 1976, a year later, for his Babe Ruth baseball team, was signed “Mike Jordan.” That ball sold for $36,000 a Goldin in 2020.
Jones told cllct he has more memories of Jordan, who he considered an uncle, than he has memorabilia, especially that day shooting hoops at his grandparents' home.
“I once asked him for his autograph and he said, ‘Why would you want that? I know you,” Jordan said. “I didn’t ask after that.”
The program, which has an estimate of $20,000 to $40,000, has a top bid of $5,000. It closes Jan. 12.
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Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.