“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan – a legend of basketball!
Let’s face it – this is a name that needs no introduction. He is considered to be one of the greatest basketball players that ever lived, and there’s no doubt about it. He was amazing on the court and had a philosophy of life focused on hard work and discipline that translated into a career that is emblematic of the NBA culture.
Besides the fact that Jordan is a well-known figure in the basketball world and in pop culture, for that matter, he is also great at managing his money and making smart investments. That’s what makes us tackle his profile today.
As the wealthiest sports figure in the world, Jordan is attributing just a little of his over $2 billion net worth to his basketball career salary. To be more precise, his salary for his two decades of career would add up to just above $90 million. Doing the math a little we see that only 4.5% of his net worth nowadays is made on the basketball field. The rest, however, is him being smart with his investments.
Actually, you can even get a clear image of Michael Jordan’s career playing for the Chicago Bulls in his Neftlix docuseries, “The Last Dance”. There was a lot of hype around it – and for a good reason! For me, it was really inspiring to see how much work, discipline, and determination he had, and I could finally understand his back though the process for becoming a professional the GOAT.
Luckily for Jordan, his genius on the court played out in business life just as well.
One of his earliest and most notable sources of wealth is attributed to his collaboration with Nike. Let’s face it – we all have heard of the Air Jordan brand. And it’s a legacy that will continue to thrive for years to come. Named after the nickname that Jordan got in the NBA, the Air brand is contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to his net worth every year. In 2022 alone, the collaboration brought Jordan no more than $256 million.
Although back in the day his wish was to sign with Adidas, never even wearing Nike shoes before, he and Nike are glad they signed the deal. In fact, Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, said that “signing Jordan was the best decision I ever made for Nike”. This only proves to us just how much this collaboration meant for them back then when Nike was known as a small player in the market, known for selling track running shoes. Forward a few decades later, Jordan is a major shareholder of the Brand with The Jumpman and an ambassador for it ever since.
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Okay, the Nike deal was great, but that didn’t make Jordan become a billionaire. It was actually basketball that did!
Back in 2010, Michael Jordan made one of his riskiest investment decisions, acquiring an ownership stake in the Charlotte Bobcats NBA franchise. With him as owner, the team changed its name to Charlotte Hornets, and even though it was initially valued at 175 million dollars in 2010, the team is now worth $ 1.7 billion. Due to the increase in the value of his NBA team, back in 2016, Jordan became the first billionaire ex-NBA player.
We saw Michael personally dealing with the evolution of his team, as at that time, they were struggling both financially and on the court. But under Jordan’s active leadership, the Hornets have made several playoff appearances and have become a respected team in the league. And we can expect great things from them, given who their owner is.
If you’re thinking, that’s it, he bought a basketball team, and it turned out great. Well, you might be surprised to find out that Jordan has a much larger investment portfolio.
He is conservative with his investments, buying only what he can understand and appreciate, so we can see Michael is really fond of the businessman lifestyle and has proved himself over and over again. He has endorsements in many sectors of activity, with investments in companies such as Muzik, Gigster, and aXiomatic, in a relatively newly established tequila brand Cincoro and also in real estate. If that wasn’t enough he even owns a Nissan dealership. Talk about diversification!
Even more so, we can say that one of his most notable investments are the ones made in the sports technology company Sportradar and the Cornerstone Restaurant Group, which includes Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse restaurants. To wrap our heads around just how successful the Sportradar investment was, we must take into consideration that Michael was a part of the initial group of investors that financed this project. Guess how much the company has been worth lately - 3.4 billion dollars and growing. And while we don’t know Michael’s share, we must assume he’s doing well for his money since the initial sum he took part in raising was around $ 40 million.
What else can we say? We all respect Jordan as a basketball player. He left his footprint in the sports industry, streetwear, and American culture and he offered an example of how the sky's the limit when you are willing to put in the work. Is it too much to say he is the GOAT? We’ll take that risk.
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