As per one of Kenny Smith’s anecdotes, Michael Jordan was tight with his money. Smith learned about Jordan’s close-fisted ways while sneaker shopping with his daughter Kayla Brianna. The 7-year-old made it clear that she only wanted Jordan shoes. As Jordan’s former teammate during NCAA days at UNC, the Jet continued to be in touch long after they were college teammates. Upon hearing his daughter’s desire, Smith texted his former teammate and informed him about his daughter’s experience.
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He was expecting that after listening to his daughter’s wish, MJ would offer to send the boxes of his sneakers. However, the Bulls legend responded in an unprecedented way. During his latest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kenny Smith brought out an anecdote to prove Jordan’s miserly ways.
“I literally call him, text him actually, and I’m like, “Hey I’m in the mall, my daughter said buy your sneakers”. So I’m thinking he’s going to go, “Well, you just don’t worry, I’m going to send you boxes” He goes,”Yes, she’s smart, you should,” revealed Kenny Smith.
While Smith’s tale portrays Jordan as stingy, Kenny himself engaged in a greedy action when he and Jordan were in UNC. Earlier in the segment, he revealed that he used to overcharge for Adidas shoes as their availability outside of Smith’s hometown, New York, was limited.
His UNC teammates preferred the shoes because they had diverse color schemes. The UNC guard took advantage of the fact that there were limited variations and colors when it came to other sneakers.
“When I[Kenny Smith] used to go home in New York, everyone was like “Go shopping for me”. Because you know in New York at that time was the only time you could get sneakers of different variations and different styles. So I would always overcharge them,” disclosed Smith.
Even MJ couldn’t resist the allure of the Adidas shoes and asked Kenny to buy them for him. However, despite having his brand just a few years after his college days, he seemed to keep a lid on his expenses. Charles Barkley too once highlighted the same.
Charles Barkley once touched upon the frugality of Michael Jordan
In 2005, when Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley made a joint appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Barkley took shots at MJ’s frugal ways. When Oprah brought up how Charles had called MJ cheap, Barkley reacted with an “Oh My God”. It was as if he couldn’t wrap his head around Jordan’s miser nature.
The 1987 rebounding leader called MJ “cheap” despite him wearing an expensive suit. He also revealed an anecdote about Jordan proving how he discouraged spending money even if it wasn’t much,
“I was gonna give a homeless guy some money one night and he smacks my hand and he says, “If he can say you’re having a spare change, he can say welcome to McDonald’s, can I help you please?”” hilariously revealed Charles Barkley.
Jordan opined that if someone can speak basic English then they can get a job. Therefore, it is unnecessary to give them money. At any rate, this anecdote proves that despite being on his way to being the first athlete to become a billionaire, Michael Jordan didn’t believe in throwing away money, even if it was spare change.
