For a week, it remained a mystery. …

For a week, it remained a mystery. Passionate MJ fans grew increasingly enraged as the days passed. Finally, a second billboard went up in the original’s place. “TRADE JORDAN,” it still read, but below there was another line: “We’ve been doing it for years….” Adjacent to the text was a picture of Jordan’s trading card: Red uniform, ball flexed behind his head, flying through the air toward the rim. That’s how the world discovered that the billboards were actually part of a marketing campaign from Upper Deck—one that Jordan, a new partner, was entirely in on.