Before he was a Bull, Michael Jordan was a Tar Heel — and original photographs from his North Carolina years are among the scarcest and most sought-after images in the hobby. This is one of them: a Type I press photograph from around 1984, with Jordan in the white #23 Carolina uniform, controlling the ball in game action before a packed arena.

It dates to Jordan's final season at North Carolina, before he declared for the 1984 NBA Draft. By this point he was a two-time consensus All-American and the reigning national college player of the year — the most famous amateur player in the country, photographed here in his last months as a Tar Heel.

What elevates this particular print is the back. Rather than a blank reverse, it carries the photographer's "Photo by Malcolm W. Emmons" stamp with his Delaware, Ohio address and phone number, a "One Time Use Only" marking, and a handwritten "23 – Michael Jordan – So., N.C." notation in pencil — the kind of working-press detail that authenticates a true Type I original.

The photographer, Malcolm W. Emmons, was a prolific and respected sports photographer whose work appeared across national publications for decades. An original Emmons print of a college-era Jordan, encapsulated by PSA as a Type I Authentic, is exactly the kind of one-of-one press image that anchors this part of the collection.