The sculpture was originally commissioned after Jordan's initial retirement following three consecutive NBA championships and unveiled prior to the Bulls taking residence in their new home stadium the following year.

Depicting Basketball Hall of Fame member Michael Jordan and unveiled outside the United Center on November 1, 1994, the 12-foot (3.7 m) sculpture stands atop a 5-foot (1.52 m) black granite base.

[4] In January 1994, Schanwald hired Omri and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany of Highland Park, Illinois, who erected a statue at the Bulls' new home for the 1994–95 NBA season, the United Center.

[11] Jordan is depicted doing a right-handed slam dunk over two opponents while jumping right-to-left in the eastward facing statue giving him a southbound trajectory.

[12] The sculpture was installed on October 31[4] and unveiled on November 1, 1994, in front of a national audience by Jordan, Reinsdorf and Larry King.

[4] After his second retirement following the 1997–98 NBA season, the following quote from the 1992 film A River Runs Through It was added to the base: "At that moment I knew, surely and clearly, that I was witnessing perfection.

The statue can be found inside the atrium between the new addition and the original United Center, which is open daily from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and later on event days.

[7][23] The TNT 2-hour broadcast of the original ceremony had also been in part a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club, but some had thought it was overdone and ungraceful.

[30] When Chicagoan Barack Obama welcomed the Blackhawks to the White House as President of the United States, he made mention of the jersey being placed on the Jordan statue.

[31] In May 2011, there was an announcement the Hockey Hall of Famers Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull would have statues placed outside of the United Center near Jordan's sometime early during the 2011–12 NHL season.