Michael Jordan Used to Smoke a Cigar Before Every Home Game

Starting in 1994, Michael Jordan basically stopped talking to the press. The world’s most famous athlete decided he simply didn’t want to engage. There have been a few exceptions though.

Jordan has appeared on two of the Cigar Aficionado’s covers, in 2005 and 2017, each time sitting for a lengthy interview with Marvin Shanken.

To learn more about Jordan’s history with the magazine, GQ called Shanken up at his home in Florida.

Jordan told that on the way to every Bulls home game, because he's in the car for an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half, he smoked a cigar.

The perception is that athletes don't smoke. And if they do smoke, they smoke on the weekend. Certainly not before a game. That was such an eye-opener to me.

How many do you smoke a day?" He said he smokes six a day.