12 YEARS OF MICHAEL JORDAN TRYING, AND FAILING, TO SELL HIS HOUSE: THIS IS THE REASON (kf)

Credit: Compass

A dozen years ago, Michael Jordan, he of the 48-inch vertical leap, picked Leap Day, Feb. 29, to put his Highland Park mansion on the market.

A six-time NBA champion, one of the world’s best and best-known athletes, selling his custom-built mansion? At the time it must have seemed like a slam dunk, which happened to be an on-court maneuver Jordan dominated.

But after 12 years — or three leap years — Jordan’s nine-bedroom, roughly 33,300-square-foot house on Point Lane is still on the market.

The likely reasons have been duly cataloged over the years: The price is too high, the style is too early 1990s, it’s too far from Lake Michigan to capture an upper-market price, and the location lost its appeal for big-spending ballers since the Chicago Bulls moved their training center out of Deerfield, where it had been a 10-minute drive from the Jordan estate.

To mark the 12th anniversary of Jordan’s listing, Crain’s took a leap into the archives to create a timeline of its history.

Credit: Compass

Credit: Compass

Credit: Compass

Credit: Compass

Credit: AP

An aerial view of the house circa 2002

Here’s what was happening in the wider world at the time Michael Jordan first put his house on the market in 2012: Gangnam Style was sweeping the nation; “The Dark Knight Rises” dominated the box office; Prince William and Kate Middleton announced a royal pregnancy — their first; a lockout brought the NHL to a standstill; “Fifty Shades of Grey” sparked a “mommy porn” revolution, and the world said goodbye to pop icon Whitney Houston.

Credit: AP

Michael Jordan