My early Christmas present

[Megospidey]

The backstory to this:
Most of you know that I am pastor. I am also a BIG Michael Jordan fan. Have been since high school (I graduated in 1985...the year after he entered the NBA). I've followed his entire college and NBA career until the free throws he made as a Washington Wizard on April 16, 2003.

A couple guys in my church decided to put this together. I already owned the rookie card at the bottom. One of the guys asked if he could "borrow" it for a while - I trust him - so I said yes. He works for a framing company. Another guy in my church already owned the autographed jersey. He gave the jersey to the framing guy (who had my card), and the framing guy put the whole display together. They both presented it to me today as a Christmas gift. Needless to say...I was stunned.

The picture on the left is of his first slam dunk contest. The picture on the right is the final shot he made against the Utah Jazz in 1998 to clinch the Bulls 6th NBA title.

[Zemo]

Very Nice!!

[Earth 2 Chris]

Wow, what a great, and thoughtful gift! Your church must think a lot of you to do this.

Chris

[megoapesnut]

Sweet!

[emeraldknight47]

He shoots! He SCORES!!!!! Great gift for you and very thoughtful from the folks who prepped it for you!!!

[boss]

that's a wonderful gift. Kuddos to your friends.

[Duncan]

Very cool! What a nice thing to do.

[ScottA]

Now that's a Christmas gift.

[z3zep]

Looks great! What a nice gift!

[Marvelmania]

Wow, just wow Derek, that is so nice!

[Mikey]

wow !!!!!!!!!!!

[Spawn67]

Nice!

A friend of mine back in maryland has a Original photo of him and Len Bias playing against each other in his college days. Super rare. Never seen it before. There some pics floating around on the internet but none of them are it. My friend Won it in a card game. Someone owed him money and gave him this framed pic instead!

[toys2cool]

That's awesome! My brother's a huge MJ fan as well , well who isn't right? The guy was the greatest ever

[Megospidey]

thanks everyone...your reactions are exactly how I felt when I unwrapped it.

The man who had the signed jersey is older and has been a sports autograph collector his whole life. He's got Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, etc. signed stuff in his house. He's got several of the older NBA players, as well as some from the 80's and 90's. I was amazed at his collection when I saw it about a year ago. And I commented on this jersey..saying how nice it was. I told him I had Jordan's rookie card and would love to own a signed jersey someday.

About a month ago, he contacted the other fellow who works for the framing company and told him what he wanted to do. The older man brought the framer the jersey, the framer got my card..and this is what I received back from them.

I stood there speechless when I saw it. I was just amazed that they would do something like this for me. I'm not one to be caught off guard, and I think they got the biggest kick out of my reaction. They had never seen me speechless before.

Something I will always treasure and never forget.

[Hector]

That's something I wouldn't mind having myself...friggin' awesome...what a great display from the best B-player ever.