October 5, 2023 • 13 mins
Selling the Charlotte Hornets has enabled Michael Jordan to claim a spot on Forbes' list of the 400 wealthiest people in America, but what does MJ really think about his NBA ownership legacy? Will we ever really know? Marc Stein examines these questions in solo essay form.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to this League uncut. Rule of twenty four hour
NBA news. This's ll.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Chris Haines. It's no time, work's time. It's so time.
This League uncut is underway and on fire.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
This should be a good one.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Welcome in, friends to a solo essay Steinleine edition of
This League Uncut. I wrote a piece this week on
my sub stack about Michael Jordan, the one and only
Aired Jordan, and how he has essentially he's traded the
Charlotte Hornets for a spot in the Forbes four hundred
(00:49):
Forbes listing of the four hundred wealthiest people in America,
and Michael Jordan he is the first athlete active or
retired to crack that list. Impressive, but I decided to
adapt the written piece into a podcast soliloquy because I
(01:09):
can't stop myself from wondering.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I keep asking the question.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's something I've been asking for a few years now,
but this is really the time to ask it. What
does Michael Jordan think? What does Michael Jordan really think
about his NBA ownership legacy. I don't think you'll ever
be able to convince me that he's good with it,
no matter what the Bank Balance says not after the
(01:38):
last dance that we all inhaled in April and May
of twenty twenty, the world soaked in every episode and
the last dance. It really did bear to the world
what winning truly meant to Michael Jeffrey Jordan. It will
never compute, never compute, at least not to me, not
(02:03):
after watching that that the wildly successful and maniacally competitive Jordan.
He's never done better as a businessman than he's doing
right now. But he left an undeniable impression when he
owned the Hornets that he was okay with losing. Now,
(02:24):
because of the Forbes announcement and all the hoopla this week,
Jordan has been celebrated anew and again serious hat tip,
unreserved hat tip. He is forever going to be known
as the first professional athlete on that list, active or retired.
And it was the sale, the recent sale of the
(02:47):
Woebegone Hornets, that put Jordan in this rarefied air even
for him. Forbes itself valued the franchise. The Hornets, according
to Forbes, were worth only one one point seven billion
as recently as twenty twenty two. This summer, Jordan just
sold the team at a valuation of three billion dollars,
(03:10):
which means Charlotte was sold for the second highest sale
price in league history, behind Matt Ishbia's purchase of the
four billion dollar Phoenix Suns. When Forbes published the article
this week trumpeting Michael's rise to the Forbes four hundred,
the way they put it, we're talking quote nearly seventeen
(03:31):
times its value compared to when Jordan became principal owner
in twenty ten. When you spell it out this way,
on those terms, Michael Jordan won. He won big time,
an absolute route the franchise. And remember the franchise was
known as the Bobcats when Jordan took over. It only
(03:55):
cost him a reported twenty five million dollars out of
pocket it to assume control of the Bobcats at that time. However,
the Bobcats turned Hornets. In Michael Jordan's thirteen full seasons
in charge. They had as many nicknames as playoff appearances
(04:19):
two and even if we throw in the end of
the two thousand and nine ten season, which was right
after Jordan took over the team in March twenty ten,
if we include that year Charlotte under Jordan, it still
never won a playoff series and appeared in just fifteen
(04:40):
playoff games. Compare that to Mike's personal total one hundred
and seventy nine playoff games as a six ringed Chicago
Bull the Jordan Hornets for his thirteen full seasons, they
went four to twenty three and six hundred. That's one
hundred and seventy seven games below five hundred for a
(05:04):
composite winning percentage of four to thirteen point four to
one three from twenty ten to eleven through last season.
And worse yet, the Hornets they became known in league
circles as a team with an apathetic owner that didn't
want to spend. Like it or not, that was the reputation.
(05:25):
Now you could argue it's because the Hornets so rarely
feature in the broader general NBA conversation.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Let's admit it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
We don't pay tons of attention to the Hornets, and
we didn't even when Jordan was the owner. Or more
likely it's because no one wants to criticize the man
that many regard as the NBA's greatest player ever. Whatever
the reason, and it's probably more the latter than the former,
there just hasn't been much discussion about this topic in
(05:58):
recent years. But I'm going to be that annoying guy
who brings it up and poses the question, at least rhetorically,
because to be honest, I don't think MJ is going
to sit down with me for an answer anytime soon.
That doesn't change the fact, though, so many times when
I watched the Hornets in recent years, especially after the
(06:21):
last dance, I found myself wondering, where was that MJ
in the proverbial owner's suite because we never saw it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
We just didn't. We never saw that in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Theories to explain this they range from what you would
classify as pro Michael that he quickly got frustrated by
how little he could control things on the court compared
to how much control he had when he was actually playing.
And then there are the more dismissive notions that making
(06:55):
this a financial conquest or his golf obsession, that those
things are what really have dominated Michael Jordan's competitive spirit
in recent years when team building proved to be so problematic,
I again would simply relish the opportunity someday to ask him,
which I realize is highly unlikely. He was impossible to
(07:19):
get near even at twenty nineteen's All Star Weekend in Charlotte.
And remember, as Hornet's owner for that All Star Weekend,
he was essentially billed as the Grand Marshal.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Of that All Star Weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Couldn't get near him the twenty twenty All Star Game
in Chicago. And I want to stress to you how
synonymous Michael Jordan remains with the Bulls. I just traveled
abroad and saw so much Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan stuff,
and I think we underestimate that sometimes in the States,
(07:53):
just how obviously he's massive here, but just abroad, Michael
Jordan continues to be the Chicago Bulls even today. Now,
when in the past I've chided Jordan for this low
profile he's maintained as part of these public appearances, all
I got back was that mere mortals like us will
(08:14):
never be able to fully grasp how complicated it is
for someone of Michael's global fame to operate in public.
And I have to concede, Okay, we probably will never
fully grasp what that's like. But if you may please
allow me to cling to hope, somehow, someway there will
(08:36):
be a chance to interview him somewhere down the line,
I'm going to cross my fingers, but not not going
to hold my breath now. As for mj the businessman,
he's one of the absolute all time greats. You do
not need me or Forbes to tell you that. Let's
be honest, Jordan was a mogul and a brand before
(08:59):
we even knew what people were talking about when they
said things like my brand. He's earned a reported two billion,
two billion with a B from his four decades association
with Nike that continues to flourish today. Obviously, Jordan brand
is doing huge business. You all, I'm sure are aware
(09:23):
of the movie Air that Jordan's initial contract and signing
with Nike in the eighties inspired. And look, he realistically
just eclipsed his career shoe Houl with this sale of
the hornets. That's how significant the dollar amounts are here.
(09:44):
And you put all of that on top of what
has to be considered an untouchable legacy as a pitchman
for Gatorade, Haynes McDonald's anything else that Michael hawked in
collaboration with his longtime agent David Falk. Yet the business
of basketball, it's its own one of a kind beast
(10:09):
when we're talking about putting rosters together that are worthy
of winning championships, and simply being Michael Jordan wasn't enough
for MJ to sor to those heights.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
By all accounts, he's.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Been a tremendous owner in the NASCAR world, teaming with
Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace. But man, first of all,
we had to process be difficult concept in February that
Michael Jordan is now sixty. He celebrated his sixtieth birthday
in February, and here we are, six seven, eight months later.
(10:48):
We are now forced to contemplate the idea that Michael
might actually be done with the NBA in hands on terms,
beyond the minority ownership stake that he still retains in
the Hornets. The reality is, like it or not, Nike
(11:09):
never did come up with the shoe that could help
Air Jordan levitate to the stratosphere of ring winning boss,
and really he never got anywhere close. And most of all,
the big takeaway from my piece and what I'm sharing
with you guys here, I'm not sure we're ever going
(11:31):
to gain a true understanding of how all that sits
with him? All Right, everyone, thanks much for listening. As always,
please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to this League
Uncut if you haven't already. I'm going to have an
interview Saturday with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch that will be
(11:52):
on my radio show in Dallas, the Saturday Steinline presented
by Panini America that airs on ninety seven Won the
Freak in Dallas also and iHeart Property, We're gonna put
that interview on this feed as well, so any interested
parties out there you will be able to get a
(12:13):
Timberwolves preview, get your Anthony Edwards fix from my conversation
with Chris Finch and then the famed Chris, the one
and only Chris Haynes and I. We will be back
to full strength early next week with our usual two
man game. Greatly appreciated everyone, Thanks again for tuning in
and ramping up with us, because yes, the season is
(12:39):
almost here, days away, real NBA games that count two
weeks and change.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
We're getting close. Back with you soon, everybody, Take care.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And that'll do it for us.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
This League Uncuttage and iHeartRadio Production, Christine and Marks Time
Welcome to this League uncut. Rule of twenty four hour
NBA news. This's ll.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Chris Haines. It's no time, work's time. It's so time.
This League uncut is underway and on fire.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
This should be a good one.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Welcome in, friends to a solo essay Steinleine edition of
This League Uncut. I wrote a piece this week on
my sub stack about Michael Jordan, the one and only
Aired Jordan, and how he has essentially he's traded the
Charlotte Hornets for a spot in the Forbes four hundred
(00:49):
Forbes listing of the four hundred wealthiest people in America,
and Michael Jordan he is the first athlete active or
retired to crack that list. Impressive, but I decided to
adapt the written piece into a podcast soliloquy because I
(01:09):
can't stop myself from wondering.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I keep asking the question.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's something I've been asking for a few years now,
but this is really the time to ask it. What
does Michael Jordan think? What does Michael Jordan really think
about his NBA ownership legacy. I don't think you'll ever
be able to convince me that he's good with it,
no matter what the Bank Balance says not after the
(01:38):
last dance that we all inhaled in April and May
of twenty twenty, the world soaked in every episode and
the last dance. It really did bear to the world
what winning truly meant to Michael Jeffrey Jordan. It will
never compute, never compute, at least not to me, not
(02:03):
after watching that that the wildly successful and maniacally competitive Jordan.
He's never done better as a businessman than he's doing
right now. But he left an undeniable impression when he
owned the Hornets that he was okay with losing. Now,
(02:24):
because of the Forbes announcement and all the hoopla this week,
Jordan has been celebrated anew and again serious hat tip,
unreserved hat tip. He is forever going to be known
as the first professional athlete on that list, active or retired.
And it was the sale, the recent sale of the
(02:47):
Woebegone Hornets, that put Jordan in this rarefied air even
for him. Forbes itself valued the franchise. The Hornets, according
to Forbes, were worth only one one point seven billion
as recently as twenty twenty two. This summer, Jordan just
sold the team at a valuation of three billion dollars,
(03:10):
which means Charlotte was sold for the second highest sale
price in league history, behind Matt Ishbia's purchase of the
four billion dollar Phoenix Suns. When Forbes published the article
this week trumpeting Michael's rise to the Forbes four hundred,
the way they put it, we're talking quote nearly seventeen
(03:31):
times its value compared to when Jordan became principal owner
in twenty ten. When you spell it out this way,
on those terms, Michael Jordan won. He won big time,
an absolute route the franchise. And remember the franchise was
known as the Bobcats when Jordan took over. It only
(03:55):
cost him a reported twenty five million dollars out of
pocket it to assume control of the Bobcats at that time. However,
the Bobcats turned Hornets. In Michael Jordan's thirteen full seasons
in charge. They had as many nicknames as playoff appearances
(04:19):
two and even if we throw in the end of
the two thousand and nine ten season, which was right
after Jordan took over the team in March twenty ten,
if we include that year Charlotte under Jordan, it still
never won a playoff series and appeared in just fifteen
(04:40):
playoff games. Compare that to Mike's personal total one hundred
and seventy nine playoff games as a six ringed Chicago
Bull the Jordan Hornets for his thirteen full seasons, they
went four to twenty three and six hundred. That's one
hundred and seventy seven games below five hundred for a
(05:04):
composite winning percentage of four to thirteen point four to
one three from twenty ten to eleven through last season.
And worse yet, the Hornets they became known in league
circles as a team with an apathetic owner that didn't
want to spend. Like it or not, that was the reputation.
(05:25):
Now you could argue it's because the Hornets so rarely
feature in the broader general NBA conversation.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Let's admit it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
We don't pay tons of attention to the Hornets, and
we didn't even when Jordan was the owner. Or more
likely it's because no one wants to criticize the man
that many regard as the NBA's greatest player ever. Whatever
the reason, and it's probably more the latter than the former,
there just hasn't been much discussion about this topic in
(05:58):
recent years. But I'm going to be that annoying guy
who brings it up and poses the question, at least rhetorically,
because to be honest, I don't think MJ is going
to sit down with me for an answer anytime soon.
That doesn't change the fact, though, so many times when
I watched the Hornets in recent years, especially after the
(06:21):
last dance, I found myself wondering, where was that MJ
in the proverbial owner's suite because we never saw it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
We just didn't. We never saw that in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Theories to explain this they range from what you would
classify as pro Michael that he quickly got frustrated by
how little he could control things on the court compared
to how much control he had when he was actually playing.
And then there are the more dismissive notions that making
(06:55):
this a financial conquest or his golf obsession, that those
things are what really have dominated Michael Jordan's competitive spirit
in recent years when team building proved to be so problematic,
I again would simply relish the opportunity someday to ask him,
which I realize is highly unlikely. He was impossible to
(07:19):
get near even at twenty nineteen's All Star Weekend in Charlotte.
And remember, as Hornet's owner for that All Star Weekend,
he was essentially billed as the Grand Marshal.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Of that All Star Weekend.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Couldn't get near him the twenty twenty All Star Game
in Chicago. And I want to stress to you how
synonymous Michael Jordan remains with the Bulls. I just traveled
abroad and saw so much Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan stuff,
and I think we underestimate that sometimes in the States,
(07:53):
just how obviously he's massive here, but just abroad, Michael
Jordan continues to be the Chicago Bulls even today. Now,
when in the past I've chided Jordan for this low
profile he's maintained as part of these public appearances, all
I got back was that mere mortals like us will
(08:14):
never be able to fully grasp how complicated it is
for someone of Michael's global fame to operate in public.
And I have to concede, Okay, we probably will never
fully grasp what that's like. But if you may please
allow me to cling to hope, somehow, someway there will
(08:36):
be a chance to interview him somewhere down the line,
I'm going to cross my fingers, but not not going
to hold my breath now. As for mj the businessman,
he's one of the absolute all time greats. You do
not need me or Forbes to tell you that. Let's
be honest, Jordan was a mogul and a brand before
(08:59):
we even knew what people were talking about when they
said things like my brand. He's earned a reported two billion,
two billion with a B from his four decades association
with Nike that continues to flourish today. Obviously, Jordan brand
is doing huge business. You all, I'm sure are aware
(09:23):
of the movie Air that Jordan's initial contract and signing
with Nike in the eighties inspired. And look, he realistically
just eclipsed his career shoe Houl with this sale of
the hornets. That's how significant the dollar amounts are here.
(09:44):
And you put all of that on top of what
has to be considered an untouchable legacy as a pitchman
for Gatorade, Haynes McDonald's anything else that Michael hawked in
collaboration with his longtime agent David Falk. Yet the business
of basketball, it's its own one of a kind beast
(10:09):
when we're talking about putting rosters together that are worthy
of winning championships, and simply being Michael Jordan wasn't enough
for MJ to sor to those heights.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
By all accounts, he's.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Been a tremendous owner in the NASCAR world, teaming with
Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace. But man, first of all,
we had to process be difficult concept in February that
Michael Jordan is now sixty. He celebrated his sixtieth birthday
in February, and here we are, six seven, eight months later.
(10:48):
We are now forced to contemplate the idea that Michael
might actually be done with the NBA in hands on terms,
beyond the minority ownership stake that he still retains in
the Hornets. The reality is, like it or not, Nike
(11:09):
never did come up with the shoe that could help
Air Jordan levitate to the stratosphere of ring winning boss,
and really he never got anywhere close. And most of all,
the big takeaway from my piece and what I'm sharing
with you guys here, I'm not sure we're ever going
(11:31):
to gain a true understanding of how all that sits
with him? All Right, everyone, thanks much for listening. As always,
please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to this League
Uncut if you haven't already. I'm going to have an
interview Saturday with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch that will be
(11:52):
on my radio show in Dallas, the Saturday Steinline presented
by Panini America that airs on ninety seven Won the
Freak in Dallas also and iHeart Property, We're gonna put
that interview on this feed as well, so any interested
parties out there you will be able to get a
(12:13):
Timberwolves preview, get your Anthony Edwards fix from my conversation
with Chris Finch and then the famed Chris, the one
and only Chris Haynes and I. We will be back
to full strength early next week with our usual two
man game. Greatly appreciated everyone, Thanks again for tuning in
and ramping up with us, because yes, the season is
(12:39):
almost here, days away, real NBA games that count two
weeks and change.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
We're getting close. Back with you soon, everybody, Take care.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And that'll do it for us.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
This League Uncuttage and iHeartRadio Production, Christine and Marks Time
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