Michael Jordan Admits That He Smokes An Astounding Number Of Cigars Per Day

Michael Jordan’s love for cigars is common knowledge at this point. If he’s at an event where smoking is permitted, you can almost guarantee that he’s got a cigar in one hand. This isn’t news, but after keeping just how often he smokes cigars in one day a secret since 1991, Jordan finally revealed that number in an interview with Cigar Aficionado. Yes, Cigar Aficionado. Jordan rarely gives interviews these days, but for Cigar Aficionado, he makes an exception. This should tell you something.

According to Jordan, he smoked his first cigar in 1991 when Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf gave him one as a gift following their first NBA Championship. From there, Jordan started smoking cigars on his way to every home game. Jordan explained how this ritual got started to his best friends at Cigar Aficionado back in 2005.

“We had to be to the stadium at 6 o’clock for home games, and traffic was so bad it would take us an hour and 15 or an hour and 30 minutes to drive. So now I’m sitting in a car for almost an hour and a half, and I’m very tense. I’m worried about the traffic. So I started smoking a cigar going to the games. In 1993. It became a ritual for every home game.”

As someone who doesn’t smoke cigars for no particular reason other than the fact that my wallet can’t support another habit, it does seem like a relaxing way to kill time. Smoking a cigar at this frequency before playing basketball at the highest level doesn’t seem like the best idea on paper, but the last thing I’m going to do is question Jordan’s basketball routine.

Cigar Aficionado released a teaser for their big 25th-anniversary special, and in said teaser, Jordan finally revealed just how many cigars he’s smoking each day. The number is astounding.

“I smoke six cigars a day, maybe,” Jordan said.

Six cigars! As a non-cigar smoker, that seems like entirely too many cigars. In Jordan’s 2005 interview with the magazine he mentioned that smoking a single cigar can take him more than an hour. Understanding that time spent smoking a cigar can vary, we’re talking about a potential six hours of cigar smoking per day from the greatest basketball player that’s ever lived.

This can’t be healthy, right? I don’t want to have to start worrying about Michael Jordan. If there is any silver lining here, it’s that he does have the “guy smoking a cigar” look down though. Let’s cut to a clip.

Yup. He can manage it on the golf course, too.

“But what about in a bucket hat,” you might ask. Professor? Next slide please.

I guess you can do a lot of things while you smoke if you have to.

Now that I think about it, it’s odd to see Jordan not with a cigar on hand at this point.

So maybe six cigars is a bit too much. But at this point it’s safe to say he’s definitely not exaggerating that number.