Michael Jordan The GOAT On And Off The Court: First Athlete In History To Join Forbes 400 List

Many sports fans have debated whether NBA superstar Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time and he is still commonly referred to as GOAT.

While the on-court debate will wage on for decades, Jordan’s off-court greatness puts him in a class all his own.

What Happened: Jordan is best known for his time as an NBA player, with 15 seasons for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. Jordan also spent over a dozen years as the owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, a team in which he retained a small piece after completing a sale earlier this year.

Through 1,072 NBA games, Jordan posted averages of 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. Today, Jordan ranks fifth for points all-time and fourth in steals despite not ranking in the top 50 for games played.

Off the court, Jordan became known for his large collection of brand endorsements scoring deals with well-known brands like McDonald’s Corp MCD, Hanes, PepsiCo, Inc. PEP-owned Gatorade and Nike Inc NKE.

Those endorsements along with the ownership of the Hornets made Jordan one of the few athletes to ever be worth $1 billion.

The sale of the Hornets has put Jordan in a class all his own worth an estimated $3 billion according to a new report from Forbes.

With a $3 billion total, Jordan now ranks in the Forbes 400, becoming the first professional athlete to accomplish the feat.

Related Link: If You Invested $1,000 In Nike Stock When Air Jordan Shoes Were Released, Here's How Much You'd Have Now 

Why It’s Important: During his 15 NBA seasons, Jordan made $94 million. While this amount pales in comparison to the large salaries from professional athletes today, Jordan was the highest-paid player in several of his playing seasons.

Jordan’s deal with Nike, which was the subject of a movie called “Air,” is one that helped propel Jordan’s wealth for years to come.

The NBA star earns royalties every year from Nike with his latest annual check coming in at $260 million according to Forbes. Sportico previously estimated that Jordan has made $1.8 billion from Nike over the years.

Jordan’s sale of the Hornets at a $3 billion valuation marked the second biggest sale valuation for an NBA franchise in history and marked a return of around 17x for Jordan’s stake as principal owner.

Several professional athletes have turned to team ownership as a way to stay involved in the sport or to increase their wealth, items that Jordan accomplished over the last decade.

Jordan's billionaire status could show the role that team ownership can have in increasing one’s wealth. With limited sports teams publicly traded, oftentimes sports ownership is out of the question for regular investors.

Dyal HomeCourt Partners, which is a unit of Blue Owl Capital Inc OWL, is an investor in the Hornets. The company also owns stakes in NBA teams the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings.

The New York Knicks NBA team is part of the publicly traded Madison Square Garden Sports Corp MSGS.

NBA team ownership could attract even more potential parties after the sale by Jordan and news of the former star athlete joining elite company as one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.

Read Next: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Rihanna, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan Are Billionaires: A Look At The Age When 11 Famous People Reached The Milestone

Photo: Shutterstock