Michael Jordan's Controversial Love of Gambling

Like his sporting glory, his penchant for gambling is equally as well known. Aided in large part by the netflix documentary, ‘The Last Dance’, a show that took us behind the curtains of the Chicago Bulls’ historic ‘repeat 3-peat’ championships and the relationships that lead to it. 

Let’s take a look at the history of Michael Jordan’s love affair with gambling.

Netflix Pulls the Curtain Back

Despite glory and legacy being the focus of the docu-series, fans couldn't help but notice Jordan betting and gambling with friends and NBA employees on even the most minut of things.

Throughout the series, Jordan is seen making bold proclamations and attempting to bet on random minor outcomes. 

One instance that stands out in particular is in episode 6 of the show. M.J is backstage with a NBA security guard, John Michael Wozniak. At first, it seems like your typical pre-game chatter until Jordan (at the time worth $50,000,000) begins betting on ‘pitching pennies’ with Wozniak. 

If you’re scratching your head, we don’t blame you. The game involves throwing a penny and attempting to get it as close to an object as possible for a few hundred bucks… yes really. 

The moment highlighted just how much Jordan loves competition and offers great insight into his drive to be the best of all time. 

From Court to the Course

If you thought that Jordan’s competitive spirit only existed on and around the NBA court, you’d be wrong. 

One of Michael Jordan’s greatest competitive rivalries was with another NBA legend, Charles Barklely. Though they faced off on the court numerous times, it was on the golf course that they truly battled for betting dominance. 

As you could imagine, the wild joker personality of Barkley did not pair well with the cold stoicism of Jordan, and the amount they were betting on certainly illustrated. 

Barkley revealed in an interview that the betting would get so intense and so high-stakes, that Jordan would bet as much as $300,000 on a single close-range putt-shot - truly ridiculous. It is here that we begin to see M.J’s love of gambling for what it really is. It is easy to picture him at age 90, playing online casino slots with bitcoin while depositing his funds in cryptocurrencies, and fair enough, he has earnt it. 

No Time for ‘Dreams’ Team

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics is probably best known for introducing the world to the ‘Dream Team’. 

The American national basketball team was as iconic as it had ever been. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, were just a handful of the players on the roster.

With the all-star team going into the finals against Croatia, they were expected to be preparing as well as they could for such a high-stakes game. But, whether it was confidence or just laziness, the superstars had other ideas. 

Most of the guys spent every night of the Olympics playing poker with each other, in extremely high stakes games. That might not sound so bad, but we didn’t mention that nights became mornings, and going into the final against Croatia, almost all the star players got just one hour of sleep!

Not that it stopped the team from defeating Croatia, 117-85 - the closest game they had in the tournament.

Not bad for a group of hardcore poker addicts!

A Suspicious Retirement

In a moment that defined pop-culture in the 90s, Michael Jordan retired from the game of Basketball just one day before his training camp began in October of 1993. 

The news came as a huge shock to almost everyone around him and an even bigger shock to the Chicago bulls’ fans that were relying on M.J going into the season. 

Coming off 3 consecutive championship wins, the G.O.A.T was expected to continue his string of dominance for as long as his legs would carry him, but instead, his legs carried him to the world of minor league baseball.

There have been many reasons offered for Michael’s bizarre U-turn into Baseball, most notably, the murder of his father. Jordan’s father was a huge lover of Baseball and we suppose it makes sense to try and live up to his father’s dream while in mourning.

That was until rumors began leaking that the real reason M.J retired from the game so abruptly was due to NBA politics. 

As the story goes, NBA commissioner, David Stern, learnt of Michael’s love of gambling and betting with his team-mates and launched an investigation into the issue. It was a huge problem, and clearly would reflect badly upon the organization if such rumors were to leak to the press.

Thus, the theory goes that Michael had to go on a very quiet suspension for the 1993 season, and going to play baseball would be an excellent excuse. 

In Conclusion

Though we’re not entirely convinced that the NBA would suspend their star player over gambling, it is safe to say that he had a great love for it. A love that stemmed from his passion for competition and dominance, without the gambling we’d have no Michael Jordan, and that would be a very sad world to live in.