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July 4, 1986: When Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins hooped under the St. Louis Arch

Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and company played the most iconic pick-up game in St. Louis history, in the shadow of The Arch.

ST. LOUIS — It's 1986. You head down to the Gateway Arch like you normally do for the VP Fair (later dubbed Fair St. Louis). You're hoping to take in the air show, fireworks and all the pomp and circumstance of Independence Day.

And then you just happen to run into the greatest basketball player of all-time playing a pick-up game under the Arch with a handful of other legends.

It's not a myth. It really happened. And we have the video to prove it.

On July 4, 1986, his "airness" Michael Jordan created a moment in time in St. Louis sports history.

Current 5 On Your Side news director Art Holliday was there to cover the game as a young sports reporter, and also act as a celebrity referee. But he wasn't about to go crazy with the whistle.

"Oh yeah, like I’m gonna call a foul on Michael Jordan," Holliday laughed. "You think that would end well?”

Jordan was joined by the Hawks' Dominique Wilkins, the Knicks' Patrick Ewing, the Lakers' James Worthy, the Spurs' Johnny Dawkins and St. Louis football Cardinals receiver/defensive back Roy Green for some sort of promotional event as part of holiday weekend.

Holliday asked Jordan, who had just finished his second year in the NBA, if he could recall the first time he had ever dunked a basketball.

“Ninth grade. I didn’t know I really dunked the ball. I went up with the intention of dunking it. But I was so happy that I did it, that I didn’t know I was doing it," Jordan said.

The video from Holliday's original story captured likely some of the rarest highlights of Jordan's career, including a truly insane hang-time layup.

“In the video, we see Michael Jordan do this mid-air spin, he looked like Baryshnikov if you slow it down. It was this ballet-like move in mid-air. And then I think Dominique Wilkins dribbled between a guy’s legs and dunked," Holliday remembered.

Thirty-six years later, we uploaded Holliday's original story from 1986 to YouTube. In just two months since its posting, it has amassed 370,000 views.

“All these years later, 1986 to 2022 and you put it online and it’s just going through the roof," Holliday said.

And when looking back, that distinct image of these basketball icons playing under a St. Louis icon like The Arch, is a special moment in the history of St. Louis sports.

“The Arch is iconic. And now you throw in some iconic basketball players playing street ball in front of The Arch, I don’t know if that ever happened before or since. I mean Memorial Drive doesn’t even exist anymore. So that was probably a once in a lifetime type deal. Even though it was just a fun pick-up game. But the guys who showed up, everybody know who they were, you didn’t need a scorecard," Holliday said.

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