The Jumpman logo is one of the most recognizable and profitable symbols in all of sports history. Associated with excellence, flight, and the unmatched legacy of Michael Jordan, the logo helped transform the Air Jordan brand into a $7 billion powerhouse. But even as its cultural power continues to grow, a question that has persisted for decades was reignited recently by former NBA guard Jeff Teague.
On his Club 520 Podcast, Teague and his co-hosts dove into the origin of the Jumpman silhouette. Teague, the only one at the table with professional basketball experience, didn’t hesitate to shoot down the long-held assumption that Jordan pulled off the pose mid-game or even during the 1988 dunk contest.
“Clearly y’all ain’t ever been in no photoshoot,” Teague said, sparking laughter from his crew.
“Where you think Michael Jordan got his logo from? Y’all think Mike did that in the game? There’s literally a thousand pictures of Mike’s tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.”
Teague’s blunt explanation challenged the childhood memories of millions who believed the Jumpman captured a real dunk, frozen in time. And while fans might feel nostalgic about the idea, it turns out Teague was absolutely right and Jordan himself admitted it decades ago.
Jordan confirmed it himself: the Jumpman pose wasn’t even a dunk
In a 1997 interview with Hoop Magazine, Jordan revealed the truth that many still ignore.
“I wasn’t even dunking on that one,” he said of the iconic silhouette. “People think that I was. I just stood on the floor, jumped up, and spread my legs, and they took the picture. I wasn’t even running. Actually, it was a ballet move where I jumped up and spread my legs. And I was holding the ball in my left hand.”
That original image was taken in 1985 during a Nike photoshoot, and the now-famous silhouette was based on that very photograph. While Jordan’s in-game highlight reels are filled with gravity-defying dunks that could have inspired the logo, the actual Jumpman moment was far more controlled, choreographed, and photographed than fans imagined.
Still, the myth persisted, in part because Jordan’s game had always flirted with fantasy. His 1988 Slam Dunk Contest performance, where he leapt from the free throw line, did produce a frame that looked eerily similar to the logo. But that’s all it was: similar.
The confusion over the image’s origin even made its way into court. In 2015, photographer Jacob Rentmeester filed a lawsuit against Nike, claiming they had copied a photo he shot of Jordan in a nearly identical pose for LIFE Magazine back in 1984. He argued that he’d granted the company temporary permission to use the image, only to see Nike allegedly recreate and profit from it for decades. The case was dismissed in Oregon, and an appeals court upheld the ruling in 2018, siding with Nike.
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