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