In the spring of 1992, Michael Jackson wanted the most famous basketball player in the world in his next music video.
Michael Jordan wasn’t so sure. “First I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this, because this guy’s going to try to get me out there to dance, and that’s going to be really embarrassing,'” Jordan said at the time. Then he thought it over. “Well, shoot, it’s Michael Jackson.” So he changed his mind.
The song was “Jam,” from Michael’s “Dangerous” album. The plan was simple. Jordan would teach Michael basketball, and Michael would teach Jordan to dance.
The video had to be shot in Chicago, because Jordan was in the middle of the season with the Bulls. The crew found an empty old armory on the city’s South Side. The director remembers it as a mess, with a dirty, broken floor. They built a brand-new, full-size basketball court right in the middle of it.
To keep the whole thing secret, the producer told the local police it was a mayonnaise commercial. Even the call sheets and crew lists said mayonnaise. Then Michael’s bus pulled in, and a tented walkway hid him from the street. A couple of hours later, Jordan drove himself up to the set and parked. The police chief couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and more officers were called in fast.
Inside, it was more like a playground than a film set. Michael brought water balloons, Super Soakers and remote-control cars. Nothing was scripted. The crew just played the music, rolled a basketball out onto the court and let the two of them go.
“I think they really did like each other, and you could see that,” the director said. He added that Jordan “was a really good sport about it because he had the most to embarrass himself.”
Here’s some of what the cameras caught between takes.
Michael and Jordan on the court between takes
On some of those days, the director recalled, Michael would sit quietly in a corner while the crew set up. Then the music would come on, and he’d step onto that floor like a different man. “It’s pretty awesome to see him,” the director said. The crew couldn’t figure out where all that energy came from.
Jordan, meanwhile, was happy to stay out on the court shooting hoops whenever Michael went back to his trailer.
The finished video premiered on TV in June 1992. Watch closely for the moment Michael gets the ball, because the video gives him a shot of his own.
The finished “Jam” video
It was the first and only time the two Michaels worked together. Years later, the people who were there still talked about how easy the two of them were with each other, and how the man who ruled every basketball court on earth spent a few days in an old Chicago armory as somebody else’s student.
So, did Jordan’s fear come true? The crew later said that when it was time to dance, the greatest player in basketball was a little clumsy and couldn’t keep up with Michael. Just as the director said, he was a really good sport about it.