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.
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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.
38 years ago today, the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan with the third pick in the 1984 NBA Draft. pic.twitter.com/geGAthUdIU
— ESPN (@espn) June 19, 2022
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.