In January 1994, Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Vice President Steve Schanwald hired Omri and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany of Highland Park, Illinois, to design and create a statue of retired Bulls superstar Michael Jordan. The statue, which would stand forever at the entrance to the United Center, would serve as a tribute to the greatest player in NBA history. Schanwald sought a design which would be a realistic depiction of Jordan, illustrate the spectacular nature of his unique skill, and create the illusion of flight.
The statue was unveiled before a national television audience by award-winning host Larry King, Reinsdorf and Jordan in a November 1, 1994 ceremony. It sits on a 5-foot high black granite base inscribed with Jordan's achievements, and the words, "The best there ever was. The best there ever will be." The Bulls also retired Jordan’s No. 23 at the ceremony.
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 for four months, the Amrany's finished work depicts Jordan soaring over an abstract entanglement of opponents, preparing to unleash a signature dunk. 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, displayed at the foot of the Jordan statue, was added following Jordan’s second retirement in 1998.