• Michael Jordan has sold his mansion in the Chicago suburbs after 12 years on and off the market.
• Jordan, who hasn't lived there in years, listed it for $29 million in 2012. It sold for $9.5 million.
• The massive home has custom nods to Jordan throughout, which might be why it took so long to sell.

Michael Jordan's mansion in the suburbs of Chicago, which has sat abandoned for years, has a new owner.

The legendary basketball star has officially sold the nine-bedroom home, which has been on the market on and off since 2012, for $9.5 million, according to property records.

Fourteen years ago, the former Chicago Bulls shooting guard listed the Highland Park, Illinois, mansion for $29 million. In 2015, he reduced the price to $14.855 million — whose digits add up to 23, the number on his Bulls jersey.

The mansion's sale price is a 67% discount from its original asking price.

Listing agent Katherine Malkin, of Compass, told The Wall Street Journal that after buying the property in 1991, he spent about $50 million building the home.

The house is full of nods to Jordan's basketball career, including the 23 on the front gate. His famous Air Jordan logo adorns the full-size indoor basketball court, and flag sticks on the putting green.

Even after various gimmicks, like offering a complete set of Air Jordans with purchase and marketing the home via videos in Mandarin to Jordan's fans in China, the house sat abandoned.

Jordan splits his time between his home state of North Carolina and Jupiter, Florida.

Below, we take a closer look at a house once considered basically unsellable. Most images are from footage taken by Concierge Auctions, which held an unsuccessful auction for the house in 2013.

The 56,000-square-foot compound sits on 7 acres.

The front gate is emblazoned with 23, for Jordan's number.

Jordan himself lived in the main house for 19 years.

One outdoor amenity is an infinity pool with a grass island in the middle.

The putting green outside the house comes complete with Jordan-branded flag sticks.

An indoor-outdoor entertainment space perfect for watching basketball.

Inside are multiple sitting areas and entertainment rooms. This one is the "great room."

This sitting room has a piano.

The centerpiece of the home is a full-size basketball court with a center ring that bears the name of his three children: Marcus, Jeffrey and Jasmine.

The home also features a locker room, trophy room, and a full gym.

Jordan's Chicago Bulls teammates used to work out there every morning, according to an interview shared by Concierge Auctions.

There is also a cigar room with card tables, where we're guessing Jordan has played some high-stakes poker games.

There's also an expansive wine cellar.

Some other fun details: The set of doors seen below are from the original Playboy Mansion in Chicago.

There is a large aquarium built into the wall in one of the dining areas just off the kitchen.

The library upstairs, which features a drop-down movie screen, was said to be Jordan's favorite room.

There are media rooms throughout the house. Even seemingly random nooks have TVs.

Even though it is widely considered abandoned, the house was at least at points occupied by staff Jordan hired to keep it looking fresh.

Jordan has other homes. In 2013, he spent $2.8 million on a North Carolina lake house located in a golf-course community.

The house is in Cornelius, about a 30-minute drive from the Charlotte Hornets' arena. Jordan bought the team for $275 million in 2010 and sold it for $3 billion in 2023.

Jordan also reportedly bought a house on a golf course in Jupiter, Florida, for $4.8 million in 2013 and spent $7.6 million on renovations. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Jordan bought another mansion in Jupiter for $16.5 million.

He also owns a full-floor condo in downtown Charlotte, in the same building as NFL quarterback Cam Newton. Condos there reportedly went for between $1.5 and $3.5 million.

In 2019, Jordan listed his 10,000-square-foot home in Park City, Utah, for $7.5 million. Agents think it will likely sell faster than the Chicago compound.

Cork Gaines, Rachel Askinasi, and Tony Manfred contributed to this post. It was last updated on December 13, 2024.

• The NBA Cup, formerly known as the In-Season Tournament, begins knockout-stage play on Tuesday.
• NBA ratings are down by 17% so far this season, but NBA Cup games have outperformed the trend.
• League executives say they aren't sweating lower ratings and are excited about the NBA Cup.

The NBA is battling an early-season ratings slump, but league executives told Business Insider they're confident the slide will be short-lived, as the knockout round of its second in-season tournament tips off on Tuesday night.

NBA ratings were down from last year by 17% for nationally televised games and by 8% for local games this season through December 6, according to Nielsen. A few months ago, the NBA locked up an 11-year, $76 billion TV contract with Disney's ESPN, Comcast's NBC, and Amazon.

Cord-cutting contributed to those declines, as pay-TV subscriptions fell by nearly 7% in the first half of 2024.

The NBA execs who spoke with BI said that besides cord-cutting, factors behind the viewership hit included a crowded sports calendar, the US elections, and injuries to All-Star-caliber players.

"We have had just some unfortunate luck early season," said Evan Wasch, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics.

Despite early-season ratings declines, there's been a bright spot: Fans seem especially interested in the NBA Cup. Viewership for group-play games in that in-season tournament was 7% higher on national TV and 9% higher in local markets versus non-Cup games this season, though it's still off by 10% compared with last year's tournament matches.

"We were a little bit swimming upstream with some of those early-season challenges," Wasch said. "But we're definitely seeing some strength, especially when we have top matchups on — and certainly with the NBA Cup games."

The Cup runneth over

The NBA last year instituted an In-Season Tournament, now called the NBA Cup, to drum up interest early in the season, when it competes with the NFL and college football.

All 30 NBA teams compete in group-play games, which count toward regular-season records and tournament rankings. Then comes a single-elimination knockout round in Las Vegas.

While there was some confusion about the tournament in its first year, players and fans now appear to know what's going on.

"That education piece was still our upside opportunity," said Jenny Whitlock, the NBA's head of global fan marketing.

Analysts have said in the past two years that competition is more intense than usual in NBA Cup games — an encouraging sign for the league in a slower time of the season.

"The thing that resonated most with fans was the level of intensity and player buy-in in the first year, because that was a big unknown," Wasch said.

Las Vegas may get more than the NBA Cup

Among the contenders for this year's NBA Cup are veteran teams and up-and-comers, plus a mix of major markets like New York and Atlanta and smaller ones like Orlando and Milwaukee.

League executives hope that young stars will break out during the knockout round — like Tyrese Haliburton did for the Indiana Pacers last year — as household names like LeBron James age.

"We want to make sure that people come into these competitions knowing what's at stake, who's the standout, who are the names that they should know about," Whitlock said.

The NBA hopes that knockout-round games will draw stronger viewership than group-play games, as they did last year. But ratings may partly depend on whether popular big-market teams advance.

As for what's next for the NBA, its commissioner has hinted at expanding the league to 32 teams. Many analysts believe the leading cities for the next two NBA franchises are Seattle and Las Vegas, which is already home to the NBA Cup's knockout round.

Las Vegas has boomed in popularity as sports betting has become legal across the US. Sin City has added three — soon to be four — major sports teams since 2017, and it's the center of the NBA world this week. In the coming years, it could become a more permanent home for the league.