The seconds remaining when the ball left his hand. It is on the print because the whole sequence is a compression problem: three decisive actions inside forty seconds.
The situation
Game six of the 1998 NBA Finals, at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Chicago led the series 3-2. Scottie Pippen was playing with a back injury that had reduced him to a decoy. The Bulls had no timeouts remaining.
With under a minute left, Utah led by three.
Three actions
Jordan drove and scored to make it one. On Utah's next possession, with Karl Malone established in the post, Jordan came round from behind and stripped the ball cleanly.
He then advanced the ball himself, without a timeout, against Bryon Russell.
The push
Jordan drove right, pulled up, and Russell went past him. Whether Jordan extended his left arm into Russell's hip is the longest running argument in the sport. Russell has always said it was a push. The referee, Dick Bavetta, did not call it. The footage supports both readings.
The pose
He released with 5.2 seconds showing and did not lower his arm. The follow through was held while the ball was in the air, which is why the photograph exists in the form it does.
The shot was good. Utah's John Stockton missed a three at the other end. Final score 87-86.
What it completed
A sixth championship in eight seasons, and a second three-peat. Phil Jackson left. Pippen left. The roster was dismantled deliberately.
Jordan announced his second retirement in January 1999.
The part that complicates it
In September 2001 Jordan returned with the Washington Wizards, aged thirty-eight, and played two full seasons. He averaged 22.9 points in the first and 20.0 in the second, and played all eighty-two games in the second year.
Those were respectable seasons. They are also almost entirely absent from how the career is remembered.
Why it goes on a wall
Because the image is famous for being an ending, and it was not one. The shot was perfect, the exit was perfect, and then he came back and the culture decided to keep the first version anyway.
He held the pose.