Craig Hodges claims he tried to get Michael Jordan to leave Nike and also calls him a ‘Frankenstein monster’ created by white supremacists.
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Craig Hodges was one of the finer sharpshooting players during his stint in the NBA. The two-time NBA champion won both of his rings alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls but was eventually ousted from the league due to his outspoken nature about social issues concerning the black community in the United States.
Michael Jordan was the face of the NBA from the late 80s all the way to the late 90s and so it would’ve been easy for him to put forth any agenda into the public eye and have it receive an inordinate amount of traction. However, for how influential and popular Jordan was, he tried to stray away from voicing any of his political views.
An incident back in 1991 involving Craig Hodges and Michael Jordan took place where the former requested that Jordan and Magic Johnson boycott Game 1 of the ‘91 NBA Finals. Hodges wanted this to happen to arrange a protest against the police for senselessly beating and killing Rodney King a few prior to the Finals.
Johnson and Jordan were both, famously apolitical throughout their NBA careers and dismissed this proposition from Hodges.
Craig Hodges calls out Michael Jordan for aligning himself with Nike.
Quite nearly everybody knows that Michael Jordan has made over 95% of money through endorsements and ventures off the court. He earned merely $93.3 million during his 15 years in the league. When adjusted for inflation, that would come to being around $145 million today.
A large chunk of his earnings come from his partnership with Nike and their subsidiary brand known as ‘Jordan Brand’. This partnership between Nike and Jordan started all the way back in 1984, where he signed a 5-year deal that would grant him with $500,000 each year. Craig Hodges seemed to have disapproved of this partnership in the late 80s.
He reportedly approached Michael Jordan sometime between 1988 and 1990 and asked him to cut ties with Nike and start his own shoe brand/ company. Jordan would refuse this offer, and rightfully so, as he’s reached his net worth of $2.1 billion due to the fact that he’s profiting off of Jordan Brand.
To cap off his interview with VladTV, Hodges called Michael Jordan, “A Frankenstein monster created by white supremacy racists.”