NCAA Championship Era (Early 1982)
This section will be a little less detailed than the others, as this is here to mainly showcase the change to a “cursive J” on basketballs that was marked and generally dated around the time the Tar Heels won the NCAA Championship on March 29, 1982. Again, prior to this time during his Freshman year and the summer before his freshman year, Jordan signed basketballs with the "non-cursive J" variation.
There are 2 main basketballs that I have come across that demonstrate a change to the cursive variation occurring at this time.
- The first evidence I saw of this change back was the actual 1982 Championship game ball that is housed at the Carolina Basketball Museum at UNC Chapel Hill. Along with the game balls from the other UNC Championship winning teams, this ball features cracked white paint on one panel, the final score of the game and MJ’s signature front and center. It’s a beautiful, bold signature showing no signs of fading or wear even after 40+ years. You’ll notice that the “Michael” is identical to the non-cursive J variations, as well as the rest of Jordan, other than the J. It also tails off and does not contain the “n”, a staple of these signatures. The J is a cursive style now that comes to a point that connects to the “o”, another new feature that has been added by this time, different from both his basketball style signatures AND his poster and signed flats.
- The additional evidence of this change, and as I mentioned in the previous “non-cursive J section”, is a 1981-82 UNC Team signed basketball from the 1982 championship time frame, gifted to an official that refereed the game (or games). This ball was featured on Antiques Roadshow and has one of the boldest MJ signatures you’ll ever see from this time period. The ball is in pristine condition and features the identical “Michael” version as all signatures from 1981-82, but again has the new, cursive J variation.
Including the 2 basketballs featured above, I have seen a total of 5 basketballs with this style signature. One is in a private collection, one is featured on the PSA/DNA website on their Jordan signature examples and another I recently picked up for my collection. By the summer of 1982 and into the next basketball season, Jordan would have once again changed his signature, this time adding some flare to the lettering and overall autograph.
