Michael Jordan was the face of the NBA and is arguably the biggest athlete brand of all time. Despite the status and celebrity he enjoyed, however, there are many mysterious stories surrounding MJ.
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Conspiracy theories regarding Jordan have mostly circled around a common theme – His Airness’ gambling habits. There are even stories associating MJ’s first retirement and his father’s death with debts and conflicts arising from his fondness to indulge in games of chance.
Beyond conspiracies, MJ has even been formally linked to a couple of criminals over the years. However, despite his gambling habits and his being associated with criminals, the former Bulls superstar stated that “he really has no regrets” looking back at his life.
Michael Jordan believes that success isn’t a given and that “regrets” are inevitable.
Jordan’s statement wasn’t exactly that he didn’t have regrets. It was that His Airness wouldn’t change anything if he could, looking back at his life. The reasoning behind his thought is understandable too.
Michael Jordan certainly recognizes the privileges he is privy to. Jordan, after all, is a billionaire who is also one of the most identifiable and successful basketball players ever.
“You know, I really don’t have regrets…As soon as you look back in your history and you come up with something that you feel like you want to change, something else has to change…To win, you got to lose. To be successful, you got to have something that’s not successful. To be happy, you got to have disappointment” stated Michael Jordan in an interview. MJ was being quizzed about his greatest regret and disappointment, at the time.
Considering the fact that there have been actual crimes that have seen MJs involvement, this certainly was surprising. Certainly one would imagine Michael Jordan would regret the fact that a cheque for $57,000 of his hard-earned money was uncovered in a Cocaine dealer’s hands. Or maybe, even the fact that cheques worth $108,000 of Jordan’s billion-dollar empire were found at the scene of the murder?
Michael Jordan’s association with crime was certainly expensive.
The $57,000 found at a Cocaine dealer’s adobe was allegedly only a loan by MJ. However, Jordan did have to testify in the case against the guilty party and had to comply with the law. Roland Lazenby wrote in his MJ biography, Michael Jordan: The Life:
“It was in the wake of these events that Jordan’s first real troubles surfaced. In December, police surveillance of a Charlotte man, a convicted cocaine dealer named James “Slim” Bouler, turned up a $57,000 check that Jordan had written to him. Both Bouler and Jordan told authorities that the money was a loan, but Jordan was soon caught up in Bouler’s troubles and would later be served with a subpoena to testify in the case against him.”
As for the cheques amounting to $108,000, well, let’s say things were more straightforward. This was a gambling debt accrued by MJ that had to be paid to a contractor. It was just brought to the fore by the fact that the keeper of said money was murdered.
“Then in February 1992, a bail bondsman, Eddie Dow, was murdered during a robbery at his home. Thieves took $20,000 in cash from a metal briefcase on the premises but left three checks worth $108,000 written by Jordan. The lawyer handling Dow’s estate confirmed that the checks were for gambling debts owed by Jordan to a North Carolina contractor named Dean Chapman and two other
men” revealed Lazenby yet again.
But well, what do we know? Michael Jordan clearly has no regrets or disappointments over his actions. That must be the confidence 6 championships and the tag of richest athlete of all time bring to a person.
