Plans for Michael Jordan museum in Wilmington scrapped

Plans for a Michael Jordan museum in downtown Wilmington announced last year appear to have rimmed out.

According to a Friday news release from New Hanover County government, "The (Jordan) family has decided not to pursue a Michael Jordan Family Museum at this time."

In December, New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet announced that the block of downtown Wilmington slated for a new library and museum could also include an area for a Michael Jordan museum as part of Project Grace. As part of that project, the current downtown library and Cape Fear Museum will be combined in a new building, with the old library torn down and replaced by new development.

A memorandum of understanding was dated Dec. 4 and signed by Coudriet and Jordan's mother, Deloris P. Jordan. The museum as envisioned would have included "important artifacts and objects to tell the family's story."

A planning phase was set to address design and operational details of a potential museum, but it's not clear if that ever got off the ground. Funding was to be included as part of the overall Project Grace planning budget.

According to the release from the county, "The conversations during this due diligence and discovery phase have been collaborative and productive … While this museum is not moving forward, the county looks forward to its continued partnership with the Jordan family to display memorabilia from Michael Jordan’s life and career in the Cape Fear Museum and appreciates their continued support of our community."

MJ and ILM: What does Michael Jordan mean to his hometown? It’s complicated.

Jordan, a Wilmington native, is considered by many the greatest basketball player ever. He's a six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls and one of the world's most famous people. Until last year, he was also the majority owner of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets.

Jordan starred in basketball for Laney High School before going on to win a national championship in 1982 with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

According to the release, "No county funds have been expended on this project to date," and the announcement doesn't "change the existing development agreement with Cape Fear Development," which will build a mix of retail and residential where the current downtown library exists once it's torn down sometime in the next year.

As for Jordan and Wilmington, well, it's complicated. Most residents know Wilmington is Jordan's hometown, but the fact isn't exactly trumpeted locally.

Jordan is in neither the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame nor the Wilmington Walk of Fame.

Jordan has talked openly for years — like in ESPN's 10-part documentary "The Last Dance" — about the racism he experienced in Wilmington growing up during the 1970s.

Still, even as he hasn't always embraced his hometown, Jordan has come back to Wilmington time and again, starting with the Azalea Festival in 1982. When he returned in 2018 after Hurricane Florence, he handed out Thanksgiving meals at Lowe's Home Improvement stores and donated $2 million to hurricane recovery efforts.

He's given his time, his money and plenty of Nike Air Jordans to Laney, and in 2021 Jordan donated $10 million to help fund two area medical clinics in a partnership with Novant Health.

Laney's Michael Jordan Gymnasium was named for him in 1995. The new gym built in 2017 isn't named, but it's part of the high school's Michael Jordan Sports Complex. Near Laney, a sign on Interstate 40 has proclaimed a seven-mile stretch in New Hanover and Pender counties the Michael Jordan Freeway since 1991.

Downtown, the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science has long had a small, permanent exhibit, "Michael Jordan: Achieving Success" dedicated to Jordan's days in Wilmington. Presumably most of that material, along with perhaps some new items, will move to the Cape Fear Museum's new location when Project Grace is finished.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Plans for Michael Jordan museum in Wilmington, NC stopped