Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
Topics: NBA, Michael Jordan, Basketball, Chicago Bulls
Ryan Baldi
Michael Jordan is renowned as one of the most competitive sports stars of all time.
The six-time NBA champion was the most famous athlete in the world during his peak in the 1990s, when he was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player five times.
And his drive to succeed often caused him to fall out with teammates, as he demanded the highest standards from those around him.
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Jordan was also a keen golfer throughout his prime basketball years and once even retired from the NBA to pursue a career in baseball. Aside from his sporting pursuits, Jordan's famous addiction to competition also showed up in his penchant for gambling.
But the player widely considered to be the greatest in basketball history amassed such enormous wealth through his contracts with the Chicago Bulls and endorsement deals that he could laugh off the kind of gambling losses that would have made others weep, as one former Washington Wizards teammate discovered.
"I realised right away what type of money Michael Jordan had in the preseason of my rookie year," former NBA centre Brendan Haywood told 670 The Score. "Because we're playing a preseason game, I think we're in Connecticut, Mohegan Sun Casino, and I'm over there and I'm talking to Mike.
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"As I'm walking through the casino, I see Mike and Patrick Ewing—who was one of our assistant coaches. So Pat's down like 40 grand. He's over there sweating, he's nervous, and he's not having a good time. And I see Mike over there laughing and joking and smoking his cigar.
"And I said, 'Man, M, man, you must be killing him. I mean, how many you up?' He said, 'Up? Man, I'm down about 800,000.' And I was just like, 'Oh my God.' And he just didn't even—he was just laughing and joking, didn't even care.
"Ended up staying up playing all night long, hitting the casino for like $200,000, came on the team bus with it in his hands. So that's when I knew how much money he really had—the difference between big bank take little bank."