Fresh-to-Hobby Discovery of MJ Signed, Inscribed Rookie Type I from Nike Air Jordan 1st Ad Campaign! - Nov. 1984 Type I Original Photo by Photographer Chuck Kuhn - Jet-Black Signature; Only 2 Known PSA-Certified Examples - 8 x 10 - PSA/DNA, JSA

Nike creative director Peter Moore sent Seattle photographer Chuck Kuhn to Chicago for the first Air Jordan advertising campaign—back when the AJ1 logo was still a winged basketball. Day 1 of the promo shoot took place on the playground court at a Catholic grade school, seen here. Day 2 was the "skyline" shot at a sunset vista point that became the brand's Jumpman silhouette logo—one of the most iconic, most recognizable symbols on the planet.

Kuhn later recalled, "One thing I remember about Jordan during the few times I shot him, is that more than any other athlete, he definitely loved the game. It was unbelievable how much he loved playing basketball! I usually shot the basketball players somewhere with a hoop, either a playground or a gym. The Nike account people would play pick-up games before the shoots and Jordan would always play with them for the heck of it.

When the other players would shoot, they’d get the ball through the hoop once every few times. Jordan would get it in every single time. All of a sudden, when it was for real, something turned on and he was almost superhuman. All the other stuff, the fame and the fortune, it was all very nice, but I could just tell he loved the game more than anyone else I ever shot. That was just the beginning of him going to the next level.

I shot Jordan for the Jumpman poster over two days in Chicago. The first day, we shot him at the playground with the shoes around his neck and the Air Jordan clothes. That was at a Catholic grade school that had a fence around the basketball court. More and more people heard about it and kept coming and lining up against the fence. We had a couple of hundred or so people watching. I kept throwing Polaroids over the fence and then Jordan threw his clothes over—the kids went nuts!"

More than 40 years later, we're still going nuts for His Airness. Everyone still wants to Be Like Mike. It's still Gotta Be the Shoes. And what makes this long-buried treasure all the more special is the rookie Bulls jersey and period rookie signature style: "Best Wishes / Michael Jordan." The future of basketball, the future of sports, the future of footwear, the future of collecting, it's all right here, right now, with record-breaking potential.