Greatest Ever

November 3, 2017 | Category: Photography

Jumpman Jumpman Jumpman

The Michael Jordan Statue was unveiled as part of a Nov. 1, 1994 ceremony at which Jordan’s famous No. 23 was retired. The statue itself measures 12 feet tall (17 feet from top to bottom) and weighs 2,000 pounds. The statue was cast in bronze using the “lost wax” method at Art Casting of Illinois, a foundry in Oregon, Illinois. Working in secrecy, and putting in 16-hour days, seven days a week for four months, the Amrany’s finished work depicts Jordan soaring over an abstract entanglement of opponents, preparing to unleash one of his signature dunks. The airborne Jordan is attached to the base at just one point—the knee.

“At that moment I knew, surely and clearly, that I was witnessing perfection. He stood before us, suspended above the earth, free from all its laws like a work of art, and I knew, just as surely and clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.”

— “A River Runs Through It”

The above quote is displayed at the foot of the Jordan statue. It was added following Jordan’s second retirement in 1998, along with his long list of basketball accomplishments, achievements, honors and records.