Michael Jordan retired in 1993 after accomplishing everything possible. Making his comeback 2 years later, the Chicago Bulls leader was an established veteran. Unlike many other stars in the league, His Airness didn’t feel inclined towards participating in the NBA’s mandatory media sessions during the All-Star weekend. Having already been fined $5,000 for wearing the infamous AJ1s in 1984 & 1985, the association slapped Mike with a $10,000 fine for missing media obligations in 1997.
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Coming back to play for the Illinois-based franchise in 1995, Jordan did play some dominant basketball for someone who was “retired” for over a year. However, despite averaging 26.9 points in the 17 games he played during the final stages of the 1994-95 campaign, Mike and Co. would go on to suffer a WCSF loss against the Shaquille O’Neal-led Orlando Magic.
Since their defeat against the Florida-based franchise, Jordan would go on to elevate his game for the next 3 seasons.
“They don’t have a solution”: Michael Jordan
After a picture-perfect 1995-96 season, Jordan averaged 29.6/5.9/4.3 in the 1996-97 campaign. That very season, the 6-foot-6 shooting guard was selected to make his 11th All-Star appearance.
Of course, making it to the All-Star team is a matter of huge pride. But for someone like MJ, who has already played the prestigious exhibition game 10 times before, he wasn’t excited enough to feel compelled to attend the mandatory media sessions.
Skipping the media session resulted in Jordan being rewarded with a $10,000 fine. But that was an amount insignificant for the Black Cat. With the league unable to get him to attend the All-Star activities, Mike could not help but laugh. Terry Armour of the Chicago Tribune reported:
“They keep saying no and I keep getting fined,” Jordan said with a laugh. “I don’t think they’ve come up with a solution. They feel they’re going to keep things pretty much the same. I have respect for that.”
Michael has had a history of ignoring the NBA’s fines.
During his rookie season, Jordan would lace up the Black and Red AJ1s. Violating the league’s uniform code, Air Jordan was fined $5,000 for every single game.
With Nike paying all the fines, this narrative became their mode of advertising. This would later result in the company earning a fortune.
MJ was fined $10,000 for the exact same reason in 1998
Clearly, the NBA’s fines had no effect on Jordan’s behavior.
During the 1998 All-Star break, for missing out on practice, David Stern fined MJ another $10,000.
In this instance, the 1988 DPOY skipped the activities in order to play golf with Charles Barkley in Las Vegas.
However, Jordan would go on to drop 23 points in Team East’s 135-114 win to lift the ASG MVP honors for a third time.
Having earned more than $60 million during the two seasons (1996-97 & 1997-98), a $10,000 fine was more than affordable for Mike. For all we know, Jordan was placing bets with stakes much higher than what the league was fining him with.
