Michael Jordan is one of the many former NBA stars now that are reversing the old cliché every fan used to have in their head. During their career, these players would earn more money than most have seen, which is amazing.
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But, the problem would be that after they retired, since they never invested, or spent their money smartly, they’d go into debt pretty quickly.
Not Michael Jordan though.
Since the end of his NBA career, the man has actively been investing his money smartly. And you combine that with the fact that he gets quite a bit of money from Jordan Brand too, and you have a man with an astounding net worth of $2.2 billion.
However, despite all his earnings, it appears that some people can have a problem with where he’s getting his money from. And for a rather offbeat reason, Kanye West once ousted himself as one of them on Twitter.
And frankly, it’s worth taking a look at.
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Kanye West did not like the fact that Nike owner Phil Knight is worth much higher than Michael Jordan
Nike is a juggernaut in the sportswear industry.
For years, this is the brand that has been the main endorser of most athletes across almost every sport. And of course, basketball is no different.
During his time in the NBA, Michael Jordan was one such athlete. But, there is one little difference between him and the athletes of today, which is, he is the very reason Nike is as big as it is today.
You see, back in those days, This brand was nothing more than an afterthought in the basketball gear industry. But then, they took a chance on a young Michael Jordan, making him the very face of their franchise. And the rest, as they say, is history.
To most, this is an inspiring story, one of the greatest boom or bust scenarios that worked to perfection.
To Kanye West, however, this situation runs far deeper than what anybody thinks, something he announced with this tweet in 2020.
Phill Knight’s net worth is 40 billion Michael Jordan’s net worth is 1.6 billion … and Phill Knight never had to jump from the free throw line… when you google Phil you barely even see his face pic.twitter.com/YC9WSSXEcv
— ye (@kanyewest) September 15, 2020
It appears that Kanye West is comparing how music labels can steal most of their artist’s money, with how Nike operated with MJ.
Now, we will admit that there is a surface-level resemblance here. However, past that, the reason Phil Knight is worth so much more than Michael Jordan is, because he owns Nike, the biggest sportswear brand in the world.
Yes, Michael Jordan absolutely helped, especially in the realm of basketball. However, to say that MJ is solely responsible for the company’s name today is blasphemous. It disregards all of Knight’s innovative ideas to help the company become such a juggernaut in other sports as well.
Simply put, Kanye West simply seems to be a bit misguided on this one.
Who owns Jordan Brand?
Coming back to Michael Jordan here, the company with his namesake, ‘Jordan brand’ has become quite the famous one, arguably being 2nd behind only Nike. That’s a lot of influence, and a whole lot more money.
These points in mind, a pretty interesting question is raised – who owns Jordan Brand?
Given that Michael Jordan’s name is on there, it’d be easy to believe that it’s him. But, unfortunately for him, it’s not.
No, it’s the co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight, who owns the Jordan Brand as well. For his part, MJ simply receives royalties from the sale of every sneaker.
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