(Source Miami Times Staff Report):
Many sports fans have debated whether NBA superstar Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, and he’s still commonly referred to as the GOAT.
While the on-court debate will likely wage on for decades, Jordan’s off-court greatness puts him in a class all his own.
Jordan is best known for his time as an NBA player, with 15 seasons for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. He also spent more than a dozen years as the owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, a team in which he retained a small piece after completing a sale earlier this year.
Through 1,072 NBA games, Jordan posted averages of 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. Today, he ranks fifth for points all-time and fourth in steals despite not ranking in the top 50 for games played.
Off the court, Jordan became known for his large collection of brand endorsements scoring deals with well-known brands like McDonald’s, Hanes, PepsiCo, PEP-owned Gatorade and Nike.
Those endorsements, along with the ownership of the Hornets, made Jordan one of the few athletes to ever be worth $1 billion.
The sale of the Hornets has put him in a class all his own, worth an estimated $3 billion, according to a recent report from Forbes.
With that total, Jordan now ranks in the Forbes 400, becoming the first professional athlete to accomplish the feat.
During his time in the NBA, Jordan made $94 million. While that amount pales in comparison to the large salaries claimed by many professional athletes today, Jordan was the highest-paid player in several of his seasons.
His deal with Nike, which was the subject of the movie “Air,” is one that helped propel his wealth for years to come.
The NBA legend earns royalties every year from Nike, with his latest annual check coming in at $260 million, according to Forbes. Sportico previously estimated that Jordan has made $1.8 billion from Nike over the years.
The sale of the Hornets at a $3 billion valuation marked the second-biggest sale valuation for an NBA franchise in history and marked a return of around 17 times for Jordan’s stake as principal owner.
Several professional athletes have turned to team ownership as a way to stay involved in the sport or to increase their wealth.
Jordan’s billionaire status could show the role that team ownership can have in increasing one’s wealth. With limited sports teams publicly traded, oftentimes ownership is out of the question for regular investors.
Dyal Home Court Partners, which is a unit of Blue Owl Capital, is an investor in the Hornets. The company also owns stakes in NBA teams the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings.
The New York Knicks NBA team is part of the publicly traded Madison Square Garden Sports Corp.
NBA team ownership could attract even more potential parties after the news of Jordan’s sale and of the former star athlete joining elite company as one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
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