The Chicago Bulls player wore #4 and scored 79 points in the first quarter against the Charlotte Hornets. Could he have been #23?
The Commercial
Released as #JK1 in the 1994 Upper Deck SE set, Kilroy was an insert card issued by Upper Deck. He was best known for scoring 79 points in the first quarter against Alonzo Mourning and his Charlotte Hornets.
In 1993, NBA fans may remember that Michael Jordan abruptly retired from basketball. He was coming off three consecutive NBA championships. After his retirement, Steve Martin was in Nike commercials asking everyone who was Johnny Kilroy? Was he Michael Jordan in disguise?
It was revealed during the 30 January 1994 Super Bowl broadcast (which the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills for the second straight year by the score of 30–13). Steve Martin had found a “popcorn tape” with evidence of Johnny Kilroy playing, as well as an interview with Alonzo Mourning. The game was 20 December 1993, at Chicago, and Kilroy scored 79 points in the first quarter alone, including a dunk over Alonzo.
“The only person that could have made that move was Michael Jordan.”
– Marv Albert, lead play-by-play NBA broadcaster
They concluded that it must have been Michael Jordan. The commercial is at :22 of the following video.
Why Kilroy?
Although I could not find out the exact reason why Nike chose Kilroy as the surname name, after some digging of my own, it might be because of the “Kilroy was here” symbol, which is explained in Wikipedia.
“noun. a fictitious American male, created by American troops who left the inscription “Kilroy was here” on walls, property, etc., all over the world in the years during and after World War II.”
– Definition of “Kilroy”, according to Dictionary.com:
What actually happened?
The game did actually happen on 20 December 1993. There was full game footage since the game was televised. The footage from the “popcorn tape” should be where Horace Grant actually misses his dunk against Alonzo Mourning at 1:27:44 of the following video.
As you may have already guessed, the jersey numbers on the Upper Deck card were fake, since for the entire 1993-1994 season, no one on the Bulls wore #4, and no one on the Charlotte Hornets wore #3. Horace Grant wore #54 and Alonzo Mourning wore #33 that year.
Upper Deck made Johnny Kilroy an iconic “one-of-a-kind” card as a result of Nike’s marketing campaign for Michael Jordan. The most memorable story was that after the Johnny Kilroy campaign ended, Jordan did actually return to the NBA from retirement the following year, leading the Chicago Bulls to three more consecutive championships.
MoCC 