Arjun Narendran

When Michael Jordan announced his return to basketball after a gambling suspension, he did so in a manner that was very much 31 years ago. He sent a fax.

"It was a sign of the times," Jordan's agent, David Falk, recalled.

Email was still an auxiliary means of communication, something available in the office at best. Even those who had fax machines were unlikely to have access to them on a Saturday, which was when his announcement fell in 1995.

The closest thing to social media was three-way calling. The most popular way to access the Internet at the time was installing America Online software via floppy disk, then using a dial-up modem. AOL had just reached the 1.5 million subscriber mark in December 1994, and even those users were restricted to AOL's online domain. They didn't have full access to the World Wide Web until May 1995.

The fastest possible way to widely disseminate information was to send a fax.

Rumors had been swirling about Jordan ending his 17-month retirement since he had begun practising with the Chicago Bulls earlier in the month. Now it was time to make it official. Falk wrote a couple versions of a news release and gave them to Jordan for his consideration.

"He didn't like the feel of them," Falk said. "He said, 'I'll do it myself.'"

So Jordan grabbed a piece of paper and wrote the two words that captured everything he wanted to say...

"I'm back."