Michael Jordan Gifted $331,000 Ferrari To NBA Legend As Christmas Present
Michael Jordan gifted his red Ferrari to a teammate in return for receiving a special present himself.
The six-time NBA champion has had an incredible car collection over the years, including a number of rare and bespoke vehicles.
One of the cars in his impressive collection was a Ferrari 550 Maranello, valued at $170,000 (£136,150) but worth around £264,942 in modern money with inflation taking into account.
But after the Bulls' fifth NBA championship triumph, Jordan decided to hand it over to his Chicago Bulls tag team partner Scottie Pippen, who had had a long-standing admiration for the supercar.
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When Christmas of 1997 came around, Pippen celebrated the June finals triumph over Utah Jazz by getting Jordan a custom earring in the style of the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.
Jordan had prepared to hand over a box of cigars to his partner in crime on the court but Pippen's luxury present forced him to have a rethink.
Instead, he proceeded to give his best ever teammate the Ferrari.
"For the Christmas of '97, Pippen had an earring made for Jordan - a diamond-encrusted replica of the NBA championship trophy," Chicago reporter Melissa Isaacson wrote in a 2010 column for ESPN.
"Jordan, who had planned to give Pippen a box of cigars, reconsidered and instead gave him his red Ferrari, which Pippen had long admired.
“'He wanted it so bad'", Jordan said.
What happened to Jordan's black Ferrari?
While there are not many details regarding what happened to the red Ferrari, there was a curious tale involving one of Jordan's other supercars.
In 1992, he purchased a black Ferrari 512 TR - the Testarossa - for a sum of $212,000.
The car, which had a licence plate reading 'M AIR J' was sold to businessman Chris Gardner before it went missing.
It then appeared at an auction for $100,000 and had last been registered in 2010.
Remarkably, earlier this year YouTube channel called We Are Curated were able to track down the missing Ferrari to California, locating it with its current owner who had been diagnosed with a rare type of bone cancer.
Largely unused, it survived the destructive the fires in January and the YouTubers convinced the owner to sell it.
The car was then taken to Italy for a complete restoration project that was expected to cost more than $250,000.
According to Forbes, Jordan has a staggering net worth of $3 billion courtesy of his on-court earnings, game-changing Nike arrangement and various investments.
But he has always remained generous and back in 2001, he is reported to have given away an entire year's salary when he returned to the court with the Washington Wizards.
He pledged to give his pay packet away to victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks which had just happened two weeks prior to him coming out of retirement.
According to a CNN report, Jordan donated $100,000 to the children who lost their parents in the 11 September terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
He then pledged to give away the rest of his salary to organisations set up to help victims of 9/11.
Jordan played for the Wizards for two seasons and finally hung up his sneakers at the end of 2002/03 aged 41 after averaging 20 points per game.
Topics: Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls, NBA
Josh Lawless