“12 minutes on the ‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ earned me $2.5 million”: Michael Jordan casually claims to have earned millions of dollars in a couple minutes of advertisements

Michael Jordan says that he earned $2.5 million from being on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for 12 minutes and marketing his products. 

Michael Jordan is undoubtedly the most marketable superstar the NBA has seen in its 75 years of existence and is perhaps the most marketable athlete in North American Sports history. In merely his first season in the league, MJ’s ‘Air Jordans’ with Nike generated over $100 million in revenue for the shoe company. 

Ever since then, Michael Jordan seems to have become extremely smart with his money while also investing in products that he believes in. His TV spots with goliaths like McDonalds and Gatorade did wonders for both himself and those companies. Amidst the adverts for other businesses, Jordan was very much into selling his own products as well.

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1996 was a great year for Michael Jordan as it saw him win his 4th championship, star in Space Jam, and launch his very own line of colognes that ranged from anywhere between $12 to $35. To market them, he starred on the ‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno’. 

Michael Jordan reveals how much he earned by simply appearing on the Tonight Show. 

Michael Jordan was on the Tonight Show, hosted by Jay Leno, several times and in 1996, he seemed especially excited to promote his newest line of colognes that were launched by ‘Bijan’. In 1997, he appeared once again on the show and this time, promoted bath oils for about 12 minutes. 

Following the end of the interview with Leno, MJ was asked about how much he makes from an appearance like that on that the Tonight Show. His response was a casual, ‘$2.5 million’ as he broke down how three adverts like that would get him that much.

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On top of the advertising revenue, Bijan reportedly paid Jordan $200,000 for an hour on television for promoting their products. It’s safe to say that this was money well spent as the first seven weeks of the colognes being on sale brought Bijan $40 million in revenue.