For Sale: Nine bedrooms. 19 bathrooms. One indoor basketball court. Den suitable for six NBA titles, five NBA most valuable player wards, two dunk contest titles and various championship rings and accolades — trophies not included.
It’s the other house that Michael Jordan built — and it can be yours, well, if you recently signed a giant endorsement deal with Adidas.
So far, Air Jordan’s Adidas-wearing heir apparent on the Bulls isn’t bidding on his boyhood hero’s Highland Park mansion that went on sale Wednesday for — wait for it — $29 million.
Air Jordan’s Realtor, Katherine Chez Malkin of Baird & Warner, thinks a guy like Rose might want to hear her pitch about MJ’s in-home court first. The NBA regulation-size court was customized with specially cushioned hardwood, adjustable hoops, competition-quality lighting and a one-of-a-kind sound system with speakers with acoustics just a 10–minute drive to the Bulls practice facility.
“Any basketball player would love the court,” Chez Malkin said, “but the major selling point is it’s such a beautiful house.”
Beautiful, certainly. But for Jordan’s fans the suburban palace might as well be a historic landmark.
“Every weekend people from all over the world came to see Michael’s house,” Jordan’s former neighbor Lou Weisbach said. “There would be 1,500 to 2,000 cars every weekend. Limos would bring Navy personnel. Having his number on the gate, some people tried to paint that negatively. But it wasn’t about ego. He put it there so people could take a photograph to prove they were there without impacting his privacy. And everyone who came got out and took pictures in front of the gate.”
The house was built in 1995, the same year he announced his retirement’s end with just two words — “I’m Back.” When Jordan carried the Bulls to a second NBA title three-peat, the MVP slept in an Emperor-size bedroom that has an adjoing master bath complete with whirlpool tub and separate steam shower. It’s the house where the Jordan’s raised their sons. For a while, Jordan’s mother lived in the guest house. After the NBA’s greatest player’s marriage ended in divorce, the 32,683 square-foot family home got a bachelor pad makeover perfectly suited to Jordan’s tastes. There’s a 500-bottle wine cellar with a tasting room and cigar parlor trimmed in custom wood. There’s also a putting green meticulously carved into the 7.4-acre estate’s side yard that Jordan’s chip shot often missed, his former next door neighbor said.
“He never broke any of my windows, but I certainly ducked a lot of golf balls ... bad shots,” Weisbach said. “There’s no doubt who hit them. They all had a Nike Swoosh and No. 23 on them. They made good souvenirs.”
Jordan’s short game will soon be someone else’s problem. He’s building an 11-bedroom mansion reportedly worth about $20 million on Juniper Island in Palm Beach, Fla.
Deciding to sell the Highland Park home — one filled with so many family and championship memories — was not easy for the NBA superstar, Jordan’s spokeswoman Estney Portnoy said.
But Jordan is moving on. He’s even leaving behind that front gate fans often photograph. Unlike his Bull’s jersey, the new guy on the block will get to sport Jordan’s No. 23.
They’ll also get Jordan’s property tax bill — $165, 224 last year.
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