In Highland Park, Illinois, outside Chicago, there is a mansion that could only be the dream home of basketball legend Michael Jordan, adorned as it is with his signature number 23 on the gates. Unfortunately, when you build a house so tailored to your own personal mythology, it can be a little tough to get rid of it on the real estate market, as Jordan learned the hard way some 12 years after first putting the home up for sale way back in 2012. But now a buyer has been found, and a sale is conditionally going to be closed sometime soon.
The MJ mansion's history began in 1991 when the ascendant Chicago Bull bought a 7-acre plot of land in Highland Park. He spent the next few years overseeing the construction of his dream mansion, and it was finally completed in 1995. The famous "23" on the entrance gate is just the first and most publicly visible of this home's incredible features, with some of the more unique touches being a regulation NBA basketball court, a PGA-quality putting green, trophy room, card room, and much more. And in 2021, it was the memorable location for Travis Scott's "FRANCHISE" video.
You can take a look at Castle Jordan below, courtesy of TheAgencyRE on YouTube:
As for the recent sale, details, including the identity of the buyer and the final price, haven't been made public as of yet. But the house's last listing price was $14.855 million, almost half off the $29 million it was first listed for in 2012. Incredibly, its most recent asking price cut happened in 2015, and evidently, Jordan didn't want to go any lower even after almost a decade (by the way, in case you're not a seasoned numerologist, add up the digits in $14.855 million and you get 23).
For a much more extensive and in-depth look at Michael Jordan's Chicago Xanadu, check out Enes Yilmazer's half-hour-plus tour of the mansion: