9 Years Before $3 Billion Sale, Michael Jordan Hilariously Surprised Fans With ‘MJTakeover’ on Twitter: “Think I’m Serious About New Hornets Colors?”

Akash Murty | 18/06/2023
9 Years Before $3 Billion Sale, Michael Jordan Hilariously Surprised Fans With ‘MJTakeover’ on Twitter: “Think I’m Serious About New Hornets Colors?”

It’s been 13 years since Michael Jordan became the owner of the Charlotte Hornets (then Bobcats). In that time, the Hornets maintained a 423-600 in the 13 seasons and never looked like a championship team. The greatest Playoff performer of all time failed to lead his Hornets to win a single post-season series win under his ownership. However, somehow, MJ did boost the value of the franchise from $275 million (the price at which he bought) to a reported $3 billion valuation currently. But before he sells his stake, fans dug up some old Tweets of the $2.6 billion worth former athlete, from when he took over the Hornets’ Twitter handle for a day.

It’s not like ‘His Airness’ wasn’t concerned with what the Hornets were doing in his reign that resulted in this massive and rare failure of his life. In fact, he was involved a lot and sometimes went as far as to hit his players for their mistakes. Taking over the team’s social media should also tell you about his involvement.

When Michael Jordan took over the Hornets’ Twitter for a day and had fans in a frenzy

Back in October 2014, probably looking to boost the energy of his squad for the 2014-15 season, Michael Jordan took over the Hornets’ Twitter for a day. From some selfies to criticizing the state of the locker rooms maintained by his players, Jordan made multiple Tweets under #MJTakeover.

“Think I’m Serious About New Hornets Colors?” wrote Jordan in a Tweet that had a locker room picture with white sneakers all over. Take a look at them in the following Tweet by Ballislife.com.

That didn’t work. It wasn’t a great season. However, it must have increased the number of followers the franchise had on its official handle.

Just think about how he made the Hornets worth $1.7 billion (as per Forbes) from $275 million in just 13 years. Without any success, the man was still able to multiply the initial value of the team by over 6 times.

It’s mind-boggling that the current sale value is almost double its current worth.

Jordan might make a $2.5 billion profit from Hornets’ sale

His deal with Nike 39 years ago, did place him in a position to be the only African American with a majority stake in an NBA team, but it didn’t make him as rich as the sales of the Hornets would make.

Jordan has made somewhere around $1.9 billion from Nike since striking a partnership in 1984. And the man is about to make around $2.5 billion in profit from the sale of Hornets in just 14 years.

So, business-wise, it was not a failure after all. Not even close to it.

Post Edited By: Tonoy Sengupta
Charlotte Hornets Michael Jordan

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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