You can find anything on the internet. Most of the time it’s things you don’t actually want to find but occasionally it’s something awesome like how the Jordan 1 “Shattered Backboard” got its nickname. Which, coincidentally makes for a great #MJMondays story.
The off-white (Sail), black and orange colors from the Shattered Backboard AJ1, a colorway that released in June of 2015, were inspired by an exhibition game put on by Nike back in 1985 that MJ played in. The exhibition game took place on August 25, 1985 in Trieste, Italy, as a part of what is basically like the D-League of Italy. Michael Jordan went up for a dunk and shattered the backboard. MJ’s jersey for the first half of this game was black and orange with white numbers, hence the nickname for the colorway, Shattered Backboard.
According to mjo23dan, MJ actually played on both teams during this game, switching it up at halftime. The stop in Italy was a part of a short tour that Michael Jordan went on with Nike through Europe, much like modern-day players would tour through China. During this 1985 tour, MJ and Nike made stops in Spain, Germany and England but it was in Italy that the now-famous “shattered backboard” dunk happened. For more info, check out the video below.
