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“Michael Jordan used to cheat Scottie Pippen for $100 by betting on prerecorded races”: How the $2.1 billion star used inside information to make a side profit during games

Ashish Priyadarshi
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"Michael Jordan used to cheat Scottie Pippen for $100 by betting on prerecorded races": How the $2.1 billion star used inside information to make a side profit during games

Michael Jordan is one of the most competitive people out there. He’d do anything to win, even if it meant cheating his teammate Scottie Pippen.

Jordan is the owner of the Charlotte Hornets and is the face of the Jordan Brand. Through a series of great business ventures and investments, the Bulls legend built a massive net worth.

He’s currently worth $2.1 billion, with most of that coming after his playing days. That’s not to say, he didn’t have a great contract in the NBA, but there’s only so far he could go with that contract.

He had the richest contract in the NBA back then, worth $33 million a year. Adjusting for inflation, he would make $50 million a year right now which would be the highest figure in the league.

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Michael Jordan used to make unfair bets with Scottie Pippen

NBA arenas find many ways to keep fans engaged throughout the game. During timeouts and breaks, they’ll host interactive experiences with fans.

They have t-shirt tosses, cheering contests, dance-cams, and a lot more. Another thing they do sometimes is a hold a race between different sections, done virtually on the Jumbotron.

If you show up to a game early enough, you can sometimes catch the entertainment crew going tthrough practice runs of all the activities they plan on hosting including the races.

Jordan would show up to games early to practice, and in the process, he also gained some inside information. He’d talk to the people running the dry runs and find out which bull was going to win the race and use it to bet with Scottie Pippen.

As ESPN’s Amin Elhassan detailed:

“[Jordan] would show up really early to get his shots up on gameday. If you show up to an arena early enough, you’ll see the gamehouse people basically doing a dry run through everything. Everything from the national anthem to the … One of the things they have is that thing where it’s like the three Bulls flying, and it’s like ‘Who’s gonna win?’

So Mike is watching this and is like, ‘Oh, so you guys already know [who’s going to win]?’ And the guy says, ‘Yeah we know; it’s all pre-recorded.’ [Jordan says] ‘So you know who’s gonna win tonight, right?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, the red one.’

“Fast-forward to the game. Timeout. Phil is drawing up a play. Mike goes to Scottie and says, ‘Hundred bucks the red one wins.’ And then proceeds to do this for the rest of the season and Scottie never catches on.”

Well played, MJ, well played.

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About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi

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Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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