‘The Last Dance’: Michael Jordan’s Net Worth Skyrocketed This Year. What’s He Worth in 2020?
Since Netflix and ESPN teamed up to make The Last Dance, a documentary about the career of Michael Jordan and his time with The Chicago Bulls, fans have become even more obsessed with the basketball legend. Jordan is one of the only athletes who has become richer after this career. Even in the last few years, the former athlete’s net worth has gone up. So, what is Jordan worth now?
‘The Last Dance’
The Last Dance has dazzled both basketball fans and casual viewers alike.
“The 10-part documentary series takes an in-depth look at the Chicago Bulls‘ dynasty through the lens of the final championship season in 1997-98,” ESPN’s website reads. “The Bulls allowed an NBA Entertainment crew to follow the team around for that entire season, and some of that never-before-seen footage will be featured in the documentary.”
ESPN spoke to over 100 people close to Jordan and the team in order to paint a full picture of what was going on during that time.
Basketball legend Kobe Bryant appeared in the most recent episode of the documentary, which was extremely emotional to fans due to Bryant’s untimely death in January.
“I didn’t realize they had the relationship that they had until we interviewed Kobe in July a few weeks after the birth of his daughter [Capri]. And he told me that from the time he was a youngster in the league, he did seek out Michael’s advice,” Jason Hehir, the documentary’s director told The Score.
“[Kobe] said that he’s offended when people say, ‘You could beat [Jordan] one-on-one, or if you guys played one-on-one, you’d smoke him.’ And he always told people, ‘No, no, no. Fall back. This is not a guy that I’m going to talk that way about.’ … And then for Michael to make the speech at Kobe’s memorial service and from his perspective call him his little brother, it was just so poignant.”
Michael Jordan’s career and salary over the years
Jordan joined the Chicago Bulls in 1984. Widely regarded as the best player during his time, Jordan earned $90 million from his salary as a basketball player throughout his career. The crazy thing is the majority of that, $63 million, came from his last two seasons with the Bulls, according to Business Insider.
Jordan made his first deal with Nike in 1984. The first shoe that he created for Nike was banned by the NBA due to color standards but that didn’t stop the shoe from selling.
“On October 15, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe,” Jordan says in a 1984 commercial. “On October 18, the NBA threw them out of the game. Fortunately, the NBA can’t keep you from wearing them.”
The first Air Jordans made over $100 million in sales in the first 12 months. Jordan reportedly made $100 million from Nike royalties in 2015.
In 2010, Jordan expanded his portfolio and bought the Charlotte Hornets for $175 million which helped him become the first athlete to become a billionaire in 2014. The Hornets are now worth over $1.5 billion, and the former basketball player owns the majority share of the franchise.
What is Michael Jordan’s net worth?
In 2019, Jordan was worth $1.65 billion, according to Forbes but now, the star is worth a whopping $2.1 billion due to the rising value of the Hornets.
