NFL quarterback and media personality, Cameron Jerrell Newton was recently a guest on the popular sports show, Club Shay Shay. The Carolina Panthers drafted Newton with the first overall pick in the 2011 draft, the same year, Sharpe was inducted into the NFL Hall Of Fame. While on the show, Sharpe would ask the former Carolina native if he had ever gotten to meet Jordan, as the two were even reported to be neighbors during Newton’s decade-long stint with the Panthers.
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The former NFL MVP revealed that he not only met Jordan but actually got to sit down with His Airness. Newton also revealed that he learned a thing or two about gambling from Jordan, revealing the following on the topic,
“I do some gambling, and I learned this quote around him [Michael Jordan]…Michael Jordan was having a little banter..somebody asked him, ‘ Hey how much you want to bet on this.’ simply said by Mike ‘ Whatever makes you nervous.”
Newton did go on to warn listeners of the show, to stay away from games like Booray, calling the card game a “relationship killer”. Not only that, Cam also dived deep into the psychology of gambling, further explaining Jordan’s quote.
According to Newton, athletes often get addicted to the feeling of competition. And once they retire, they often need to get their fill of Adrenaline from someplace else. It’s for this reason, that Newton believes that former athletes ‘ gamble’, consequently finding themselves in deep controversy just a few years later.
It is very hard to disagree with the former Panthers man’s point on the topic. Having been a top athlete at the highest level himself, albeit in a different sport entirely, there likely aren’t many in the world who understand Michael Jordan’s predicament better than he does. In the end, it only makes sense for someone with the Bulls legends ‘win at all costs’ to get addicted to the adrenaline rush he once got from basketball. And if gambling gives him the same feeling, it is no wonder that the star partakes in this hobby of his to the point where some even believe he may have a problem.
Michael Jordan may have had a gambling problem
Michael Jordan hated losing, and winning was his only concern, something that shined through in his gambling as well. In the book, ‘Michael Jordan: A Life’, writer Ronald Lazenby recalled an incident, where Jordan bet throughout the night, and into the morning, just to win all his money back.
The incident occurred at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino just one night before a basketball match-up. Jordan was already down about $500,000, before he made a miraculous comeback, something that Lazenby attributed to his sheer will to win. Talking about the incident in his book, Michael Jordan: A Life, Lazenby wrote,
“Jordan, down $500,000 at the gambling tables, stayed till the sun came up, and he had won his money back, plus about $600,000 more, all the while unaware that [Washington Post writer Michael Leahy] was providing a running play-by-play of the event for readers back in D.C.”
While Jordan may have left the table feeling invincible, No.23’s gambling habits would soon come to haunt him. Back in 1993, the Bulls legend was called up by the league for certain gambling-related activities that he was engaged in. While he has maintained his innocence in the matter to this day, many rumors of the Bulls’ legend’s 1993 retirement being linked to his gambling addiction have surfaced since.
While there has been no official confirmation of any of them being true, many have wondered if there was something going on behind the scenes after all. However, as things stand, Michael Jordan is safe from being dragged into any controversy related to the matter at the moment.
