Crying Jordan might have been the meme of 2015, but Michael Jordan himself isn’t shedding any tears — unless they’re tears of laughter as he checks his bank account.
Forbes released their updated list of billionaires and, surprise, surprise, Jordan has the highest net worth of any NBA player, current or former, with a whopping $1.14 billion. (As a side note, there are a ton of billionaires out there. Like, way more than expected.)
Jordan’s made his money in a variety of ways, from insane endorsement deals to ownership in the Charlotte Hornets, as his Forbes profile explained:
He acquired a majority stake in the Hornets in 2010 for $175 million. He increased his ownership to 90% in 2013. In 2014 NBA franchise values shot up, thanks largely to racist comments by Donald Sterling that got him banned from the league and led to a bidding war for his Los Angeles Clippers, which was sold to Steve Ballmer for a record $2 billion. The deal helped boost the value of Jordan’s Hornets stake to $500 million.
Oh, and Space Jam. Never forget that.
This is the second consecutive year Jordan made the list of billionaires, and as DIME’s Spencer Lund wrote this time last year, it’s unlikely, if not outright impossible, anyone in the NBA today is going to make Jordan-level money. Yes, even LeBron James falls into that group.
The moral of the story: MJ was in a class of his own as a player. Now, he’s in a class of his own financially – and surely will be for a very, very long time.
(Via Forbes)
