Grubstakers - Episode 09: Michael Jordan feat. Clark Jones

Episode Date: April 2, 2018

We got #23 on the episode check out how many eggs were cracked to make the Jumpman worth a billion dollars. You can fly! Rate, review and subscribe also we have a twitter where we get into many shenanigans, ahem, henanigans too. Guest: Clark Jones can be found at http://www.theeclarkjones.com/

Hey everyone, welcome to Grubstakers. This is Yogi Paliwal, and if this is your first time listening, this is a podcast about billionaires where we discuss if there's a such thing as a good billionaire. This week we got Michael Jordan in the hot seat. We talk about his upbringing, we talk about his many gambling debts, and also how he flip-flopped during the lockout depending on if he was a player versus when he was an owner. All that and more this week on Grubstickers. Because of my success in the private sector, I had the chance to run America's largest city for 12 years. I taught those kids lessons on product development and marketing, and they taught me what it

was like growing up feeling targeted for your race. And that's just not true. You know, I love having the support of real billionaires. Hey, Sean McCarthy here. Before we start today, I do want to make a small apology and correction. Two weeks ago on the Dodd-Frank episode, I said State Street Corporation pled guilty to fraud with the SEC in February 2017. What actually happened was State Street entered into a no-admit, no-deny settlement with the SEC in February 2017. And I just want to apologize to all our listeners for implying that any financial services corporation would have to plead guilty after committing fraud.

So, you know, a lot of people might have been confused by that. Oh, man. You needed to open this episode like that. Call out those lawyers. Okay? That was read straight from an email. That's it. It was a complaint.

Send the sharks home. We've apologized. What are you, Sean? Anyways, hey, welcome to Grubstakers. I'm Sean McCarthy here, joined by... Yogi Poliwal. Yogi Poliwal. Steve Jeffries.

Andy Palmer's out today. We're doing an episode about Michael Jordan, who is a billionaire. Unfortunately, Andy can't make it, but we have done the research he would have done. And also, we have a special guest. Yeah, well, I'm going to get into the guest, but I was going to say that we did the research Andy would have done.

We read the Wikipedia article on the Space Jam movie, so we can fill it for him. But yes, we're very happy to be joined by actually the first guest on Grubstakers, and we're very happy to have him. A very funny comedian, originally from Chicago, Mr. Clark Jones is here. Yay! Yeah.

Here to talk about Michael B. Jordan. That movie. Oh, God. Clark, you had a post I really liked, a tweet or whatever. It was like, why don't you get Michael B. Jordan to fix the DVR? Black husbands everywhere. Yeah. He's causing a lot of unhappy homes, man.

A lot of unrest. People are happy about the movie, but women are going nuts. Women I know who happily married three kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I'd fuck him tonight. I was just like, he don't pay no rent around this motherfucker. Would you? Well, yeah. Oh, I'd fuck him tonight. I was just like, he don't pay no rent around this motherfucker. Would you? Well, yeah.

No, I saw Black Panther. I saw him shirtless in that. I know why. Hey, man, I don't even have to qualify by saying I'm straight. He's a good-looking man no matter what you're into. He's a very good-looking dude. That's undeniable. I don't give a fuck if you race that's just that's just not true that's he's he's a good looking dude man you made me want to hit the gym yeah i didn't but i wanted to yeah well he did inspire me to be

as good of a version as i could be not to say say I did it, though, but he did make me think I could be better with my life. Yeah. I mean, like, he's into anime, so you don't have to be a jock to be in jock shape. It's like he just kind of broke the mold on that. Like, just this swole nerd, man. That's what's up. I appreciate it. Although we could do an entire episode on Michael B. Jordan.

Unfortunately, today's episode is on... We're on the original. Michael Jordan. So was he named for Michael Jordan? You would assume. Yeah, and then, you know, SAG and shit. Yeah, you gotta throw the initial in there. If Michael Jeffrey Jordan hadn't done Space Jam

and Michael Jordan to the max and Heaven is a Playground, then he could have just went by Michael Jordan. But he had to Michael B. Jordan. I wanted to be like Mike. Well, maybe he'll hit the billion-dollar mark. Maybe. The movie did.

Yeah. It finally did. The highest grossing superhero movie to lead into a discussion on shorts. We burned 15. Killmonger had a point. Yeah. Hey, he had a... Okay, just real quick, old black man.

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Go on, talk, you're fine. The thing is, I feel like they did reshoots to make him seem like more like the actual villain. Like, it seemed like they added things later. It's like, wait, wait, wait, this guy is too much who we should root for. Right, right. let him throw an old black lady against the wall or something

so people will hate you and he like cursed out one of the elders like they threw in little things cause it's like damn everything he's saying is making sense right well that's they changed his name later to Killmonger cause people weren't like sure he was the villain

I made that up but like no no no they're identifying too much let's call to Killmonger because people weren't sure he was the villain. I made that up. No, no, no. They're identifying too much. Let's call him Killmonger. They won't get it if we just call him Warmonger. Every one of those weapon ships that the CIA colonizer shot down, that was just a blow. I was really sad for each one.

That's the thing I'm posting about. I don't want him to do that. Stop him. They should have had sad music. Can Killmonger kill that drone operator before he... I don't know. That is true.

Killmonger's entire purpose in that movie was to stop imperialism by arming countries that the CIA was overthrowing. Yeah. And the hero of the CIA was overthrowing. Yeah. And the hero of the movie is like making that not happen. Thanks, Disney. I like the notion of Disney executives being like, how do we make it so that a team of black people

don't all seem like a villain? And then they were like, I don't know. What do you want, man? Yeah, we need a white man to stop the killing of white people. Right, right. Real quick. Because Gilmonger too sexy. Ooh, man, bro.

My drooling. People don't like that. You're trying to fuck this guy, don't you? Yeah, I want to fuck this dude who wants to kill all the white people. Something about that genocide. He did make kill all white people seem so sexy. He just, with the hair and the muscles and the masks and the Migos glasses. Do I look like I'm left out bad in booze?

Although we digress, today's episode is about Michael Jordan. Michael Jeffrey Jordan. That's right. MJJ. Star of Fruitvale Station, Michael Jordan. I think he also played Creed's son He played Creed's son The star Villain in Hardball

With Keanu Reeves You know When Michael Jordan was drafted By the Casting at The Wire He played Michael Wallace Jordan Those braids

You know The best actor Of all the Michael Jordans As we've seen By his performances Opposite Bugs Bunny In a Hanes commercial Yes

With the Hitler mustache That Hitler mustache With those pants Why would you think that Okay drops I'll see you Steven's doing a great job He's doing a great job

Steven's on drops today Murdering Andy just doesn't come back next week. Steven does such a good job. He's like the black dude from ESPN. Is that a cornball? Or is he a cornball brother? Andy Hagswell is a brother or a cornball brother.

And they removed him from the podcast. Andy asked some kind of awkward questions about Clark dating a white girl. I'm just saying. Is he a comedian or a cornball comedian? Never heard from him again. Never heard from him again. You know, like, I just, like, if I'm collecting, I don't know, six-some figures a year to just say bullshit on TV for an hour a day, I'm just not going to touch the race thing.

You know? You just don't go there, man. You get uncomfortable. He didn't even know he was touching race. He thought he was on 125th Street at the barbershop. No, there's cameras on. There's advertisers. You're in Bristol, Connecticut, sir.

Please know where you are. All right. So the topic today is, of course, Michael Jordan. Speaking of sports. Yeah, yeah. Michael Jordan is a billionaire. According to Forbes, as of March 2018, he's worth $1.65 billion. A majority of that valuation comes from the fact that he owns about 90% of the Charlotte Hornets,

which Forbes estimates are worth about 1.05 billion. But, you know, he made like something like a hundred million from his endorsement deals last year. And that's for, you know, retired athletes. So Jordan makes a lot of money. And, you know, I guess myself and Steven don't really know NBA. Like I watched the playoffs, but I couldn't really tell you that much. So, you know, sports fans might cringe, but, you know, Clark and Yogi are here to hopefully correct some of our –

Why does he assume the brown people don't know about sports? I just know you like – I'm not athletic. You know what I will say? When I was writing the message to all of us, we had such a group chat, and I was going to say, like, and, you know, if you're going to be be late you can hit us up in the group chat and then i like stop myself because i didn't want clark being like why you why you assuming and i know you know it would have been safe i'm late for everything it has nothing to do with race yeah i'm just scared how could i be late it's my place

exactly what do you that would be amazing yogi's only late when he's not awake at recording time. And I'm just like buzzing the apartment trying to get in. It's such a hassle getting into this building. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If y'all have never been to it, I should have said the address. Yeah, yeah. I won't. Thank you, Clark.

I'm on my best friend here. Make it a live audience. Oh, man. That's why we do podcasts, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just for more stand-up bookings. So we can do a live. You man that's why we do podcasts yeah yeah yeah just for more stand-up bookings so we can do a live you know what i will say that is like where i most notice white privilege is being just let into buildings in brooklyn like that's where people just open the

door for you and they're like yeah you probably live here you're probably not gonna do anything black people let me in all the buildings so if we had if our privilege mattered yeah then it would be the same thing it would be just as problematic it'd just be the opposite yeah it's only 11 of the countries oh yeah all right well so michael jordan uh like we said worth 1.65 billion as of march 2018 um mostly self-made He grew up kind of middle class from my understanding. He was born in 1963 in Brooklyn, interestingly enough. He's today 55 years old. But when he was a toddler, his parents moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he went to high school and later played basketball for UNC, I believe. Yep.

Thanks. He was cut from his basketball teams, right? Oh, right, yeah. And he definitely got over it. Yeah. Oh, no, he's not petty at all. He didn't use that as motivation. He's still like, oh, fuck, I'm going to be a billionaire.

Damn, they cut me from the seventh grade basketball team? But, yeah, so Jordan grew up. His mom worked in banking. His dad was an equipment supervisor. So, you know, kind of middle class, but mostly, you know, self-made man. He was, I think, by and large, the best basketball player of all time, most everyone would say. Yes. Is the best basketball player.

Stop it. Stop it. I don't want to max. We kind of look like Stephen A. and Max a little bit. But, like, if they did stand up, that would be horrible. I've been to that high school, the one in Wilmington. Lainey. And you think that, like, you know, since Jordan went there,

like he would have at least had, like, a trace of his existence there. Because he got comfortable with the team, there is no trace. That high school is a dump. Really? I don't say that lightly yeah so when i did cape fear i was in williamton and we drove by it and you know that's the high school michael jordan went to i'm like really and it's like you think he donates some money to you know because it's the high school that took him in but he got cut he's a fuck that broken windows there's rats everywhere. People eating through the Jordan jersey that they salvaged. Slavery in the basement.

He did talk about that, like, in high school at one point, he got called the N-word by some Muslim girl. And so he threw a soda can at her. And his self-proclaimed said, I used to be a racist. Like, he used to dislike all muslim people for a little bit which is crazy that this is a part of his high school like like tenure that nobody cared nobody knows about this i had to do deep google digging to find this research really and it's like you wouldn't expect that from michael jordan but apparently his mom took him

like he got um suspended for the day and his mom took him to work and just said sit in the car you can't just be racist to people. Come on, man. You gotta be better than that. First of all, where does a Muslim in the 60s have the gumption

to hate somebody? Like, in North Carolina? Yeah. How dare you? Yeah. How dare you look down on anyone? She's just trying to fit in, Clark. I mean, let's be honest here.

It's, you know, the oppressed mimic the actions of the oppressors. Sure. Of their oppressors. That's what that says. They're just 80 oppressors. Of their oppressors. That's what that says. That just ate the oppressors. Deep thoughts right there.

That's real, man. That's why black people suck at it. So hard. Jordan called the player he drafted a flaming faggot or whatever. Yeah, because he was called a flaming F-word. Yeah. But yeah, so. By that Muslim girl.

Michael Jordan, interestingly enough, is, as of today, Michael Jordan is one of three African-American billionaires in the world. Oprah is the other, and then a man named Robert F. Smith is the other. He's actually the richest.

He was a former Goldman Tech investment banker who founded Vesta Equity Partners, a tech investment private equity. But can he hoop? Yeah. Can he whoop my ass? Yeah. Can he dunk buckets? That's really good. He probably just refers to himself as the billionaire who didn't get crossed over by Allen Iverson.

Is he the only part of the Hornets? No, I don't think so. But so, yeah, you know, there's not that many. And interestingly enough, the first black billionaire, his name was Bob Johnson. He's the BET founder. He was the first one? Yeah.

I thought it was Reggie. It might be, like, adjusted for inflation, but I think, like, the first African-American to have like a billion in the bank. The guy I'm thinking of, most of his billion was like, it wasn't liquid. Right, yeah, yeah. It was like through stocks. So like, it's Reggie something.

I just got to look it up real quick. I like when Clark was like, I thought it was Reggie in my head. I'm like, yeah, Clark knows a guy named Reggie. Yeah. That seems pretty. Well, we got the first name right. It's like Sean being like, yeah, Tony did that. It's like, Sean knows Tony. No, no, no. Fat Tony.

Oh, okay. No, no. Fucking Rog did it, guys. Come on. It's Rog. It's like... Reginald Lewis. Reginald Lewis. Yeah, he was the first one. He was a corporate lawyer. And Reginald Lewis from Baltimore.

But most of his money, it wasn't as liquid as Lee Jordan. And the other motherfuckers. Right. Well, so it's an interesting story with Bob Johnson, the BET founder. Because I think it was like 2000, he sells BET to Viacom for something like three billion. So he becomes a billionaire and he buys at the time the Charlotte Bobcats. And then Michael Jordan becomes a minority owner in that has a minority stake. But Bob Johnson runs into financial problems because he made some poor investments.

You know, the 2008 recession hit but also he went through like a divorce the bet founder did where he had to pay out like hundreds of millions and one fun fact from that was uh his wife who he had to pay all this money to his ex-wife went on to marry the judge that presided over his divorce proceedings which is like a knife that's's the most bad I've ever felt for someone who's still worth $500 million. Yeah. Damn. Damn. Like, that's cucking right there.

He deserves it. He nicknamed his basketball franchise after himself. Oh, yeah, the Bobcats or whatever. Bob Jones. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck you. Right. It's not a family restaurant.

It's a team. Bob's barbecue joint. Come yeah, yeah. Fuck you. Right. It's not a family restaurant. Yeah. Bob's barbecue joint. Come on, man. Grow up. Yeah. Ain't no Bobcats in Charlotte. Stop it. But I guess we could talk a little bit just kind of about Jordan's playing career, his biography, before we get into how he...

Okay. Let's familiarize people with who Michael Jordan is. So, listeners, if you haven't heard of this guy, he wore the number 23. Often? Yeah. Except once someone stole his jersey and he had to wear the number 12. No name on the back, just 12. And he was mad about that.

He dropped like 40 points. That's right. Yeah, I read on the Wikipedia he has the points record for the number 12 on a jersey. Yeah. Really? I was like, oh, man. That's great. Somebody collects a check to keep track of this stuff.

That's true. Wikipedia. Yeah. But so anyways, yeah, he was drafted by the Bulls. I think they were the third overall pick. And the Trailblazers passed on him for Sam Bowie. Right, who I think was injured most of his career. And even had an injury history before they drafted him.

Oh, really? I think one of his legs was longer than the other one. And back then, you went with the tallest person. Right, right. And so that's why, like, Allen Iverson, as great as he was, he was the first point guard, I think, selected number one, and that was 1996. Wow. So, like, it was Akeem, I think, and then Sam Bowie.

And then, you know. That's why Jordan got cut for the high school team because he wasn't tall enough. He just wasn't. He was like 6'2". They needed somebody 6'2". You know, that's why Jordan got cut for the high school team because he wasn't tall enough. He just wasn't his six. He was like six, too. They needed somebody six. You know, his mom said, put salt in your shoes and pray. Yeah.

But the use lifts, you know, as I love that, like a sodium that's going to give you height. That's really just rub some Robita. Daddy, I got asthma. Robita. Also, Mike, you were the third pick in the NBA draft. Right. This is not something to be bitter about. Right. He'll turn anything into a struggle. Yeah.

I'll show them. You got to take a jersey. Me in the top five of a very touted NBA draft. It was like Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, all these Hall of Famers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was picked third and felt slighted. Well, it's like, well, Jordan's such like an interesting character

because like I think most people have like Googled him a little bit. They know all these stories about him like being an asshole basically. Right, yeah. Where it's like he is like this kind of hyper-competitive type A personality, which is like it's a great skill to have in like sports, you know, where there's like a winner and a loser and you just do everything you can to be the winner. But in terms of like actual life and being a human being, it's not quite as good. But like just the Charles Barkley thing, I was reading when we were looking stuff up for this,

I guess when they played in the 93 finals, after the Bulls had a 2-1 lead, Charles Barkley and um uh michael jordan went golfing and michael jordan bought him like a twenty thousand dollar watch or something no it was it was a diamond like earrings oh diamond earrings yeah and uh when they asked michael jordan why he did it he said twenty thousand dollars means nothing to me i hate that fat fuck yeah and then in the next game, dropped like 56 points. Like just straight destruction is what he did. It's so entertaining to him

to just be mean to people. But there was a story like I don't know if y'all ever read that Spike Lee story where he ran out of money for making Malcolm X and he hit up certain people. Oprah, he hit up Tracy Malcolm X and he hit up certain people.

Oprah, he hit up Tracy Chapman, he hit up Magic Johnson first. Magic Johnson gave some money and he called up Mike. He didn't just ask Mike for money. He told Mike that Magic gave a certain

number just so Mike would double whatever the number he told him that Magic gave that's so perfect that's great you gotta use that to your advantage Spike knew Spike definitely knew many people fuck up they make the wrong decision

and then Jordan goes fuck you forever but oh man Spike did that right he knew better than to call Jordan first call Magic first and then Mike was like well Magic gave this number you just made up I'll double it and that's how that's the story of Malcolm X getting

financed that was a good movie it was a very long and good movie yeah Sean can you just say Malcolm X was a bad movie? Just skip the list of this.

We got to get to the comment section. Yeah, no, I agree with him. I'm not saying it's race, but it was a long movie. Please don't bring race into this, but the movie Roots was like...

They took a lot of artistic license with slavery, and I just as a movie buff, I feel like that was not how it went down. It was a long, joyless march to the credits. Joyless salt march to the credits.

My favorite argument you'll see online or just like you know in like places usually people won't make this argument in person where it can be traced to them but it's like slavery is um slavery is like slaves were very expensive is the idea so they would they never mistreat their slaves because that's like you know whipping your lamborghini or something or like you like keying it. Do people really say that? They say this kind of shit. Or they'll say slaves were very well treated

because they were so expensive. Why would someone whip their property? Also, why would you fight a war over something that's too expensive? Yeah. Why? It would help the economy. We wouldn't be here without it. Everything's about race.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I call me crazy, but I just don't see race. Why would you invite the Muslim girl to your induction into the Hall of Fame? She officiated the wedding just to prove to her that he was not a flamin' F-word. See, I'm marrying a woman. Shut up, you flamin' N-word.

I'll show you one day. I love the idea of Michael Jordan writing down the license plate of someone who cut him off in traffic and bringing him to their Hall of Fame induction. Every time he buys a Ferrari, he just brings that dude with him. He's like the Dan 9-in, but way more successful. That's the key.

If you're going to be petty, you've got to be successful. You know, because capitalism. You can be petty and not successful, but then no one cares. You're just weak. Yeah, then you're just, you got to be successful. You know, because capitalism. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can be petty and not successful, but then you just, no one cares. You're just weak. Yeah, then you're just a hateful bastard. Yeah, but if you're successful and petty, ooh. That makes it okay, doesn't it?

It was, I was just watching this one on YouTube where, like, he was playing, like, a scrimmage game. It was a preseason game against the Bullets. And the story had gotten out, like, the dude who was guarding, I forget his name, he scored like 10 points in the first quarter. He was like talking shit to Jordan. Like, we got you tonight, Mike. We got you tonight. And Mike comes back and he drops like 40, I think,

after that first quarter. And it came out later that the guy never said that. Jordan made the story up. Because people were wondering, like, why is he going so hard in a preseason game? He was talking trash, so I had to show him. And the dude never said that. He was like, I don't have any idea what you're talking about. I was just happy to be on the same court as him.

I actually told him how much I love him as a basketball player. But Jordan took that as trash talk. So, and the reason it dropped 40 points. Oh, you like me? Well, you're going to watch what you like about me. I bet you stop after I tell people this lie, this made-up story about you trash-talking me. Jordan was doing, I think in 2014, he was running the Charlotte Hornets Twitter account

and answering user questions or whatever for a special promotion thing. And the golfer Keegan Bradley tweets at the account, MJ, how does it feel to get beat by me every day at Bears Club, you know, at golf? Go Hornets. And Jordan from the Charlotte Hornets official Twitter account tweets back, last time I looked you were wearing my shoes.

You don't see me wearing Air Keegan's. Clap back. It's fucked up, man. Like, speaking of the Hornets, the Muggsy Bogues story. And this draws in Space Jam. This is why Muggsy Bogues was in Space Jam, because of what Michael Jordan did to his career. You know, everybody, y'all know the story, right?

I guess remind me. For our listeners. Muggsy Bogues is 5'3", made a lot of himself, grew up in Baltimore, and grew up to be an NBA professional. Played in a couple of all-star games, and looked, another person who looked up to Michael Jordan for some reason,

he was, they were playing against the Hornets and Muggsy Buggs was about to shoot and Mike just goes, shoot it midget. And he missed and like his career was never the same after that.

Because the thing is, this is their idols. This is the, you know, arguably the best basketball player ever telling you, you fucking suck. That's going to fuck you up for life. You also got to be careful because I'm sure, like, everybody was dick riding Muggsy Bogues. Like, dude, you 5'3", you made it.

So you get caught up in that. Kendrick said Be humble Because you like Oh of course Now I get to play against Mike And then Mike Calls you a midget You shoot an air ball

And you just spiral Into You know Infamy What would be like You know like Like if If Chris Rock said

My act sucked I don't think I could Recover from that I could I've already trained myself To myself to not idolize anybody. Sure, but what would be a situation where if you got hate from that specific individual, you'd be like, it would not ruin your career. Not in Muggs, but it hurts you too bad.

Only my mom's because I've had that situation. See, that happens to me every day. Yeah, no. I shouldn't even say his name because he's not alive anymore. But it's a comic I looked up. He's a historical icon. And just funny as all get out. And I opened for him.

And his people were all like, oh, man, good set, good set. And then he just walked past me, and the women he opened for, he said nice things. Oh, great job, great job. Wow. And he just acted like I wasn't even there at all. And, like, that was the last time. I wasn't even hurt by that. I was just like, you know, never meet your heroes.

Yeah. You know, because that kind of sucked. At least what's up. You know I went up because you saw everybody. I went up right before you. Right, right. So I was his shooted midget. That was his shooted midget. Just acting like, you know, because I was excited.

Like, yo, because and I purposely didn't do certain, because I'm like, I don't want to. Step on toes. Step on toes. He does politics. Yep. I just kept it about me, kept it, you know, kept it funny in my mind, at least. And he just, yeah, he just didn't acknowledge me at all. And so that sucked.

And I do think it makes a person better to be like, I don't ever want to treat a person like that. In that, like, if the world goes the way we want it to, I never want to belittle a person under me because, hey, everybody... That sounds like an attitude to not become a billionaire. You want to make $1.65 billion or not, man. You've got to step on some fucking toes. And people. Yeah. You've got to fuck over your players in the lockout.

I'd call somebody a midget. If you want to make it, that is. You know what's better than 10 broken ankles? 100 broken ankles. You know what's not cool, Bobby? But I guess just to talk real quick about Jordan's playing career. I mean, you know, so the Bulls draft him in 84. He's, you know, a great player throughout the 80s.

They eventually go to the playoffs, but then they get beat by the Pistons like three times in a row, I think, because they had the Jordan rule where they would always double or triple team him whenever he got the ball. They made him go down the middle instead of the outside. Right. They would just block the shit out of him. Beat him up. Yeah. There's one photo down the middle instead of the outside. They would just block the shit out of him. Beat him up. There's one

photo of Dennis Romney flattening him while somebody's giving him a forearm shiver. If you've seen that documentary, The Bad Boys, the Detroit Pistons documentary, he talks about, because they lost the first game and then Isaiah Thomas stayed up all night looking at the water and then called

the team manager the next morning and was like, I got it. We got the Jordan rules. I know how to do this. I just love the notion of Isaiah Thomas just being awake. It's 2 o'clock in the morning and I get a phone call and it's Isaiah. And he says,

I finally figured out what we need to do to stop Jordan. Yeah. It was crazy. It was, once again, using his ego against him because he didn't trust everybody else. So they're like, well, five on one is easier than five on five, obviously. So they focused on him, and he still wouldn't pass, and he was just so beat up by the end of the game. You know, it didn't matter.

It was very impressive and then i think uh in the um it's uh the 9091 season i believe was the first title yeah okay so yeah and then you know he gets a better support around him and then the 9091 season the first title and then the repeat and then the three-peat so he gets three titles in a row uh when starts to get more support around him. And then, of course, his father was murdered in 93. Yeah. A bit of a rumor. Yeah, man. He had at this point, and I think for most of his life, a serious gambling problem, Jordan did.

Still does. Yeah. So just like in 93. It's only a problem when you're losing. Right. When you're winning, it's just a good time. It all evens out. You're going to lose your father at some point.

The house always wins. But so in 93, Jordan, there was controversy because Jordan was seen gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the night before the game against the New York Knicks during the 93 playoffs. In the same year, he admitted he had to cover like $57,000 in gambling losses. An author, Richard Esquinas, I don't know. Look, I did the Wikipedia research. I don't know. But this guy wrote a book.

Open. Esquinas or something But this guy wrote a book. Open. Sinus or something. This idiot wrote a book. He wrote some shit I read. But basically, he wrote a book saying that he had won $1.25 million from Jordan on the golf course. That's right, yeah. And Jordan's given interviews about his gambling problem. But I think, Yogi, you were talking about there was some stuff about Jordan maybe being in debt to the mob or something.

Yeah, so there was this one guy who was a drug dealer, drug mule for the mob. And there was a check to him from Jordan for like, I think it was either $27,000 or $67,000. And initially, Jordan was like, no, that was just some money. I was like, no, that was just some money. I was like, no big deal. But then later on, during a court case, he had to go on trial and plead that, no, that was money that I owed due to gambling debt. Yeah. And then the $1.2 million he owed because he doubled down because he lost $600,000. He's like, let's double or nothing, and then lost again. And so basically he had gambling ties to the mob around the time his father was murdered. And so...

And right before he was retired from the NBA, quote-unquote. That's right. But it was supposedly because he was not making the league look good with all the gambling. And who knows what type of threats was going around, too, because

I honestly don't understand why more how they have security at basketball games yeah like how do they stop you know crazy shit from happening so i mean this shows they don't like the reality is that whatever industry it is whether it's basketball i mean even dairy to a certain extent like there is some shit going on behind the scenes when you have an industry of shit going on yeah and with basketball it's like you know you got people at the top that are like raking in most of the money and we'll talk about the lockout in a moment here but like you know you can't stop people from fucking shit up on the side all you can do is try and cover it up by yeah jamal carford

almost got killed trying to gamble with Jordan. Seriously. This was Jamal Crawford of the Bulls. They used to work out with Jordan in the summers and I guess he would want to go and gamble with Michael Jordan, which is not smart. Sounds like a good idea. Before he got his first paycheck.

So he's going in there and he's gambling with him, Ray Allen, a bunch of other people. People who have the money. Right. He does not. He loses big. And they let him go one time.

And he was like, I definitely had the money at the next game. And they're like, he in the NBA, he'll have it. Doesn't have the money again. Loses more. Michael Jordan isn't giving him the money to pay these people off. Ray Allen isn't giving him the money to pay these people off. Ray Allen isn't giving him the money. His agent had to call

these ruthless Russian gamblers to tell him, look, I'll make sure it comes out of his first check when he actually gets paid. Michael Jordan's just like, I don't know him. I don't know this play I just played with.

That attitude right there is also what when he's been approached about the Indonesian sweatshops for Nikes, he's been like, I hope Nike does the right thing. We're just trying to make some fun shoes. We're just trying to have a good time. It's crazy because he's never talked

about whether it's the kids in the sweatshops or kids in the street killing one another over it. Like, there was a quote that I sent about one of the Nike head-ups. Sean, talk for a second while I look this up. Sure. Well, so Jordan's father was killed. To lighten the mood. Speaking of mobsters. Jordan's father was carjacked and shot to death in July 1993. Two teenagers were convicted of the crime.

They were sentenced to life in prison. And basically they said they caught him because I guess one of them used Jordan's dad's cell phone to make a call or something. But... Let's not... Jordan's dad's Porsche, he was parked alongside a country road in a Porsche. I think it was a Lexus.

I'm sorry, a Lexus. Luxury Lexus. Yeah. But the story is that he parked on the side to take a nap. And it's like, who's napping in a Lexus

on a country road after a funeral? That's not a linear line of events. Yeah, none of it. None of it. None of it adds up. Nowhere near his house. He's just like,

you know what, I feel like taking... So I did more of the research on the two guys that went to prison for it. And basically, there's DNA evidence and that's why they went to jail.

And they also had video recording of them bragging about the murder but it turns out that Always a good idea. Yeah, yeah. Free Instagram too. While we're recording, you guys want to confess any murders? The DNA lab

that was a part of the conviction, 210 of their cases, 190 of them were corrupt. And so, their quote from Green is the last name of one of the guys that got in prison. He said that, we weren't even there for the murder, and we're

just pawns in a game. And that's literally like, I went to jail over some shit that I didn't even really know about, but I had some debts to pay, and I had to fucking get out of there. And it's like... It was just hitman. Yeah, exactly. And it's one of those things where we'll never know who killed Jordan's dad

probably. Damn. Yeah. How am I going to sleep tonight? Let's not fight it. James Jordan's... I got that quote I mentioned. It's Tinker Hatfield, Nike's vice president. He said about, you know, Air Jordanans being, you know, he said, We were all sad, but it was more much of a comment on materialism and people not respecting life.

There was something else in our society driving that behavior. So we never felt guilty or responsible or thought we would dial back and do less cool stuff. And Michael was adamant about that. This is about people getting shot for Air Jordans? Yeah, people being killed over Jordans. So, like, Air Jordans launched in 1985, and they become, you know, more and more popular. And then I think it's, like, the early 90s is when people start, you know, getting, like, jacked for their Jordans and stuff.

It was big in Chicago, yeah. And some people got killed over their Jordans, you know. Absolutely. Many people. It's just kind of funny that, like you were saying, this guy who runs a sweatshop being like, you know, it's just people not valuing human life. What's up with all the capitalism, bro?

By the way, these shoes are $200. Yeah, exactly. Those are the kid sizes. Adults are fine. We had to raise the prices. We had to raise the prices because the children who make them want it 25 cents instead of 15 cents. What are you going to do? We're struggling.

Our hands are tied on the matter. We got our price point is going up 30%. Tinker Heffield, yeah, he designed his designs are what made it like Jordan was doing fine with the first shoe and the second shoe, but the third one

when he took over, that's when the popularity of it exploded. There's a great documentary on Netflix about Tinkerhead Field. He's truly one of the most talented artists that I think exists, especially when it comes to fashion and the shoes that he's

designed for them to be able to keep reselling them. And people are like, yeah, yeah, more, more, more. It's like, this is the exact same shoe. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no. Right. Yeah, I think in red, like, Air Jordans are more than, like, half the sneaker market.

Oh, wow. Easily. It's like crazy. And it's saturated, but usually, you know, you know basic economics. The supply is ridiculous, but demand is still high. Right. And price is still high.

So that's three arrows trending upward. That defies basic economic tenets. I want to see how many people are killed over the shoes. And the website I got it from was Quora, which is below Yahoo Answers if you ask me, but they said that it was around 1,200 people die every year over Jordans. And it's like... Wait, that seems very high. You said 1,000 or 200?

1,200. 1,200. Oh, okay. I thought you said 1,000 or 200. No, no, no. 1,200. 1 of 2 people. They don no, no. 1,200. One of two people. They don't usually give the bigger number first.

That's how you know Cora's bad. It's like 1,200 or 8,000 people live over Jordan's. I don't know. Every year. Yeah, no, people used to get murdered in Chicago over, you know, in New York, too. The phrase was, you would ask somebody, you know, what's the other nose? And then, so if you're smart, you just take them off. Yeah, sure.

If you're smart. But if you're a brawler, you would say they're your size. And, you know, that mind game, sometimes it would call off the jacking. Yeah. If you could pull it off, pull it off if they believed you. How did they figure out the number? I mean, between people killing one another over the shoes, and obviously

people dying at the sweatshops. Let's be honest here. Well, yeah. They probably aren't even counting. They aren't even counting, though. So 1,200 people seems like a lot, but in a year, 365 days... They just found the body shoeless. They correlated.

Wait, you have on a Nike sweatshirt, Nike Air Jordan pants, and socks. You got 23 tattooed on your body? Yeah. There's a receipt. Survivors' families march on his house.

It's just all these bodies with Air Jordan bags in the box, but no shoes. They just count the bodies that are found with a note that says, I can be like Mike. Just empty Orange Gatorade bottles. Oh, Jesus. And copies of a Spaceship DVD. But no shoes. Where are the shoes?

Check the body for Hanes underwear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see if this is a Jordan-related murder. All right. This guy ate Johnsonville Franks. We turned to autopsy. But yeah, so Jordan, after his father's murdered, he retires from basketball for the first time,

and he goes and plays baseball for the White Sox minor league affiliate. Yes. And actually, like, an interesting thing, another good ESPN 30 for 30 is Jordan rides the bus, which I found very interesting for a variety of reasons. But one of those was, you know, the idea most people have is that jordan sucked at baseball but the reality is like he was you know he sucked at first but he you know goes from a guy who had like played no professional baseball to by the end of his baseball career he's hitting like 250 against some of the best prospects in the league and this is a guy pitching

against jordan i mean like you know with baseball experience. He could never hit a curveball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was also something I noticed. Like, fastball, yeah. No, he definitely could hit a ball hit, you know, throw directly down the middle. But, yeah, like, he sucked at baseball. He was trash. In fact, he even got that opportunity bullshit also. Well, it was because, like, the guy who owned the White Sox also owned the Bulls, so he just kind of

kept him on his good graces by being like, yeah, go play with the White Sox for a bit. That's another little caveat into the capitalistic nature of things. It's just like, yeah, I want to retire from basketball.

Okay, well come join this other department of my company that you can't just leave the company. You're going to play baseball now because I own them too. He can't just leave because he's still under contract. What was his thought

process on leaving basketball? Really? So there's two lines of theory. What are the theories? Yeah, I mean, one was that David Stern told him that. It seems totally counter to his nature. It was like a crazy competitor. I know why he came back.

But Clark, talk about one of the reasons why he might have left. They said David Stern, it was almost, it was a punishment slash advisement to get out of basketball because he was the golden boy. And he wouldn't stop gambling. Yeah. And they needed that image, that be like Mike. Right. If that tumbled, that would have cost the NBA over.

Millions. Millions. Over years. over years. So they told him, get rid of that. And I believe in the meantime, the guys who would have killed him probably got murdered. So it was like he was almost laying low from basketball. Right. Aside from retiring from it.

Yeah, it turns out when you owe people money, it's not good to have a schedule of where you'll be every night. Yeah. Ain't no mobsters going to minor league baseball games in Birmingham. Yeah, yeah. They'll definitely go to the Gardner. So the word was that they told them just be cool, go play baseball. We can monitor that a little bit better until our guys hit their guys. Just like random minor digression just about minor league baseball is like people always say,

and when we talk about the lockout, we'll say how people always say, oh, you know, these players are millionaires, and that's kind of a way the billionaire owners use to get the sympathy to them. But when it comes to like the minor leagues and basically every professional sport, these people get fucked over. So like minor league professional baseball players are making less than 22k a year but what i wanted to say as a random digression is the omnibus spending bill that president trump just signed uh actually had a provision inserted into it by major league baseball lobbyists saying

that they are allowed to play minor pay minor league baseball players less than minimum wage which is just like i don't know it's just crazy but it's it's also kind of funny to think about saying that they are allowed to pay minor league baseball players less than minimum wage. Which is just like, I don't know, it's just crazy. But it's also kind of funny to think about, and they talk about this a bit in the Jordan Rides the Bus documentary, is like this guy, you know, one of the richest athletes of his time is like hanging out with these like very relatively poor minor league baseball players. Yeah. You know, and being a competitor with them. That goes back to the other thing with him going to court and stuff like that. I don't think the word was David Stern didn't know. He believed this story about this money was owed over something else.

But then when it all came out in court, he was like, all right, this is getting out of hand. Well, I mean, because the thing is that the reality of... So Jordan is a true original. There's no one... There was no one like him. There's kind of no one like him even today. And I don't mean just in basketball. I mean, like, the height of Michael Jordan's appeal in the country is just as big as Michael Jackson's thriller.

Like, you know, whatever you want to call it. And so all of the stuff we know about his gambling and his infidelity and how Jimmy Butler might be his illegitimate son. And Kwame Brown who looks just like him. That's right. All of these things it's weird literally knowing the tip of the iceberg

on what is the Jordan conspiracy, what he got away with in his life. It's a few books out there that kind of touch on it some. You know, like the rumors or the theories are believable. They just don't have a lot of shit to back it up. Yeah. But it's out there, man.

His life is – there was a story with... He tried to take... Him, Scottie Pippen, and Horace Grant, they would pull their son's dicks out to see. They had a contest to see whose son had the biggest dick. He got so mad because Madonna was fucking Scottie Pippen and not him and so he like confronted Madonna like hey

Scottie got out and Madonna was like I don't think so and she never fucked Michael Jordan that's great allegedly these and other rumors can be found in books written by Stephen Ace

Madonna I don't mean no disrespect Rumors can be found in books written by Stephen A. Smith. Madonna, I don't mean no disrespect. Max, Max, hold on, hold on, hold on. Now, nobody knows. LeBron James. There is no greater Madonna fan than Stephen A. Smith. I would never diss Madonna. Let me say that. When Like A Virgin came out, I couldn't stop listening to that track.

Look, Vogue was a hit. It always will be a hit. I knew it was a hit came out, I couldn't stop listening to that track. Look, Vogue was a hit. It always will be a hit. I knew it was a hit. Skip. Skip. You cannot skip Madonna's Like a Virgin or Like a Virgin. Her discography is the anthem to my life. Her discography.

We were talking before I started recording, and I know I do like these tedious political bits Or whatever but in stand up comedy There's nothing in the world that makes me laugh More than a Stephen A. Smith impression I got no idea The guy just talks so funny He's got such a great broadcaster voice It's like the slow

And then the high build And then he's like real passionate He's just so mad at Kevin in the morning He went to bed mad Because Kevin Durant missed two free throws. Wait till I wake up. I'm going to be still pissed. I'm going to be so mad. He gets to the office and he gets this list of things he has to be mad about today.

He just slams the empty briefcase down on the conference table. I saw Black Panther. I saw it. And Michael B. Joy was not as cut as everybody said he was. I don't care who it is. Killmonger is not my hero. He is not. Max, I'm going to let you finish.

But this point must be made. Let me make it clear. Skip, first of all, I thought Black Panther was going to be about the political movement, not about these comic heroes. Now look, I'm a black man, okay? And let me be the first to say, Wakanda is not for us.

Let me be frank and let me be T'Challa. Now let me be clear. Killmonger had a lot of legitimate grievances. I would never say that Killmonger had a lot of legitimate grievances I would never say That Killmonger did not have legitimate grievances No no he should have been mad

No no no I said everyone should be mad What I'm saying is this And I'm making it very simple He's making it very simple Discography. Let's talk about that lockout real quick. I guess we'll give the condensed biography for the rest of Jordan's career.

He comes back from the baseball career. He wins three more titles, one of which I remember very clearly as a kid growing up in Seattle. Huge fan of the Supersonics. It was a great team. titles, one of which I remember very clearly as a kid growing up in Seattle, a huge fan of the Supersonics. Yep. It was a great team. Of course, got crushed by, at that time, the best record in basketball history, Chicago Bulls, I think 72-10, which the Golden State Warriors beat. But yeah, so of course, the Sonics get crushed by them.

Then they crushed the Jazz twice. So he comes back, does another three-peat. And then I guess he retires again and then he goes to the the washington wizards and becomes in charge of basketball operations where he drafts kwame brown and then return legitimate exactly he returns to basketball uh to play for the wizards and was you know not great then but he was still like an above average player. And just like a couple of things on his competitive nature. There's stories of him making Kwame Brown

cry during practices. And of course, he called him a flaming faggot and other things. And an N-word. And there were stories like he would make Kwame stay and play one-on-one with him after everyone else was done practicing and stuff like that.

He was a good father. People say, if you get drafted on the team that I'm on, then maybe I'll play catch with you. But other than that, you've got to prove yourself. Thanks, Dad. So he retires from the Wizards, and then he gets fired as the head of basketball operations for the Wizards. He was very salty about that. He was very salty. They. He was very salty. They didn't need him anymore.

And he buys a minority stake in the then Charlotte Bobcats, now the Hornets. Why does it got to be a minority? Yeah. A not majority stake. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Just politically correct stock market animals.

Please get woke. But so, and part of the mistake with that was that he gets to take over basketball operations for the Bobcats, and he does that for a while, and then the aforementioned Bob Johnson has financial woes, and then Jordan becomes majority holder. I think he got it for like

$175 million, and now that team's worth over a billion dollars. 175 million? Yeah. I mean, it was like... Bargain. Yeah.

That's low. I think that was the Forbes figure that I got. But yeah. And I think Jordan only put up like 25 million cash because he also assumed a lot of debts of the Bobcats. Oh, interesting. But basically, he gets the Bobcats for pennies on the dollar. And that brings us to the 2011 lockout.

Yay. So he gets the Bobcats in 2010. He finally got to the lockout. We've teased it. All that to say. You waited for the lockout. We teased it. So he buys the Bobcats in 2010.

And then the NBA had a collective bargaining agreement with the players, I think dating back to 2005, 2006. But the basic details of that were at the time, players got about 57% of basketball-related income. They got about 70%. 70%. In February 2005, the lockout caused a 75% decrease in all February attendance for the month of February. Now let me be clear.

There is no greater Mike Tyson fan than me. There's no more servant or affirmative fan of Featherweight Foxen. Let me be clear. Let me be clear. Let me be frank. But so basically under the previous agreement, players got about 57% of basketball-related income.

They get the majority of income, and then the other 43% goes to the owners. Now, the owners obviously weren't happy with that situation, so they play hardball. And then quoting from the hollywood reporter here the nba claimed that it was losing 300 million a year it claimed 22 of its 30 teams were not were losing money i think that's bullshit the players associated at the time said it was bullshit but that was the argument they made so essentially jordan uh led a group of 10 to 14 hardline owners who quote wanted to cap the player's share of basketball-related income at 47%. He wanted to go down to 47%.

The Players Association at the time offered to go down to, I think, 52%, 53%. Jordan was like, no fucking way. We're going down to 47%. The deal that they sign eventually, it's kind of like it's – so there's a whole bunch of different issues, but what happens here is these kinds of disputes with any sport, these happen where the owners and the players kind of argue, and the owners and their supplicant media people,

they're always like, oh, these millionaire players, they want too much money. But what they're always distracting from media people. They're always like, oh, these millionaire players, they want too much money. But what they're always distracting from is it's like millionaire players, some of them, some of them are struggling, and they only get X amount of years in the pros, and then that's their money. They have to make that work for the rest of their life

or go work somewhere else. But so these billionaire owners, they're making so much of the revenue for really not doing anything like and many of them never did anything to even acquire the funds of course right generational money exactly and it's also like one of the biggest issues if you watch the other 30 for 30 about the broke uh yeah yeah that was a good one yeah that was one of the best ones it's not in the best interest of the owners to teach financial

responsibility to players. Because then, what do you plan for? Exactly. You know what I mean? You go hard that contract year so you can get it even bigger. But if you save your money and you're like Kendrick Lamar or somebody buying houses and flipping property, then

it's in their best interest to keep them broke. Of course. So they would need the NBA. Exactly. It gives them a leverage in negotiations. And I think one of the most interesting things about the 2011 lockout is they skip like a month of the regular season, but what happens is in November 15th,

that was the first day players were supposed to receive their checks had the season been played, and they have a deal on November 26th. So it's like as soon as the players aren't getting their checks, then they come to the table and they basically sign this deal that was almost entirely what the owners like Jordan want. The deal they end up signing is the players get 51% of basketball-related income, which goes down to 49% in the following years. So you go from 58% all the way down to 49%

or, sorry, 57% all the way down to 49%. And then the vast majority of this revenue is going to people who, like you said, a lot of them just had money. They're just getting money for having money. Right. Also, ironically, the big contradiction with Jordan was that in the 99 lockout, he was on the

player side. And that's when they actually cut the season in half. Crossed the picket line, crossed the line, just to get money. That's the thing, though. When it comes to all of these arguments about money, the people with money will always

argue they need more yeah and you know in this case it's like you know they went from getting 43 percent to 51 and it's like they just want majority of the money they just want us to be able to say because a 50 50 split although not fair it wouldn't be terrible i mean it's, right? Right, but it's like, we want that one. It's something about that majority. But yeah, it's quoted a lot, but during the other lockout, Jordan was quoted as telling the Wizards owner, if you can't make a profit, you should sell your team.

And then, of course, when he actually owned a team, he didn't take his own advice. But yeah, it's just a bunch it's just like um a bunch of different issues and like a bunch of players uh several players tweeted about how they weren't going to wear jordans anymore after that and that just must have been like you know heartbreaking for a lot of those players because of course they came up idolizing michael jordan and then he's like the owner who's fucking them out of their money now um but it's like just one other thing that i want to mention on this um

another thing that they did in this contract is they lowered the salary cap and i think salary caps are really bullshit because owners always talk about how salary caps are necessary to keep you know competitiveness but i think the actual reality is salary caps allow them to take more of the money for themselves whereas you know like the MLB doesn't really have a salary cap. They have a luxury tax. But it's still pretty competitive. But what you'll see is, like, players actually getting much larger contracts. Whereas, like, you know, in the NBA, what will sometimes happen is players will take a pay cut

in order to play on a better team. And that extra money they should have been getting is going to instead go to the owners so salary caps are just kind of a way of putting more money into the owner's pockets and interestingly enough there was like an esbn article which they essentially said that the majority of a basketball team's success can be traced to they argued to draft picks rather than actual salary amount. So it's like. Which, like, and I had made a post about this a while ago, and Bill Marhead said something to it, too. But, like, that's socialism.

Yeah. Oh, God, yeah. And it's like, everybody's like, socialism is bad. Not everybody, but people argue against it. They argue against it as a system. But, like, when you're, once again, when you're on the losing side, you're like, yeah, we should get the number one pick because we suck. And that would make things even.

But it's like, I thought you loved capitalism. That means the best should keep getting better and keep doing as well as they can by any means necessary. But when it can help you, you're like, we need so, it's like, they just hate the name. But they love the things. But I love it as a system.

Period. Give it to me. Are you pro-socialist? Yeah, I'm a socialist. Everybody here is, right? Yeah, for the most part. We're in a democratic socialist of America. Yeah, okay. I just wanted to make sure. People get real mad when they hate socialism.

Nah, you know what? You're behind enemy lines. We're all capitalists here, man. Don't be coming up in this building. This is a show about billionaires. What are you talking about? This podcast costs $100 an episode, motherfucker. What are you talking about?

We're going to turn this whole ep around And praise Michael Jordan I got to Venmo you for being able to be on the podcast I got to pay to be a guest $250 to be a guest on it Like a Mar-a-Lago membership These lights ain't cheap Now let me be clear

I have never said anything bad about socialism But Socialism is not a failure. It works in a terrible way. 57%. Skip. You got to hold up. Skip.

You might be a fan of socialism, but capitalism is the way to go. All I need you to know is if you didn't have capitalism, you wouldn't be wearing that nice shiny suit right now. Skip. But just like one other random thing for this lockout. Oh, man. A lot of the staff at the stadiums get fucked over by these things. So it's also something where it's like billionaire owners, A, they're fucking over the players,

but B, just like the low-wage people who actually work at the arenas. I think it was 16 games total that they had to skip for that season but um yeah the people on the bottom of the total are always the bottom of the total gets fucked the low wage players get fucked and i think one estimate uh was that average salary loss was like 200 000 for these players and again like some of them do live you know paycheck to paycheck uh dependent and so it's like like we've said the owners rely on this precarity where they're like we know that november 15th was the first day they're supposed to get play get paid they don't get their checks and suddenly november 26th they're coming to us and they're basically acceding to all their all our demands um so you know it's just kind of

fucked up because again these are billionaire owners who i think are absolutely profitable and they're just making money for doing nothing. They're totally unnecessary to the process. Really? You know, I think a hundred percent of the revenue should go to the players because that's the doesn't exist without them. They can be busy.

They're at the games all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you can be out doing whatever the fuck that you claim that you do to be that fucking rich. But shout out to Art Rooney, though, owner of the Falcons. His concessions at his stadiums are like $3.

Seriously. He kept them low. Now, it's the Mercedes-Benz dome. Yeah, right. So I'm sure whatever they paid for that, branding kind of offsets price. But, yeah, count your victories, I guess. You know, in doing Stephen A. Smith and President the entire time,

I did have to realize, Skip Bayless talks like he just said the N-word and is backing up from the situation. Now, wait, wait, wait. I'm not trying to say, what's going on here? It's not about what's going on. Are we really arguing?

Madonna's discography? And you said it, Steve. I didn't. You said it. I never said that. What I'm trying to say is that you said the N-word and you do not like Madonna. Okay, you said it first. Did we not?

Was I the only one here? I was patient. Michael Jordan scored how many points? I was patient. Michael Jordan scored how many points? I mean, these are the facts. There are many N-words. Right? Why are we focusing on this one?

Why is there one time while I was drinking and with other N-words that we want to single out that time. You said it first, right? Alright, well, so just a couple more things before we wrap.

I love how you're like the guy with dudes at a bar just trying to talk about it. You're just like, okay, but what about the lockout though? I know these women are here. Can we get back to the lockout okay, but what about the lockout, though? I know these women are here. Can we get back to the lockout? One more thing about the lockout. 2011, that also was the year.

Real quick, Jordan got divorced. Oh, yeah, he paid out a fat half. $169 million is the amount he gave to his first wife. Equivalent to $204 million in 2017 dollars. How much in 2011? The year of the lockout. It was at the time the largest

celebrity divorce settlement on public record. The word is he was forced to marry her. Really? Yeah, that was also in the book about Jordan that it was a, you know, they were building his brand. Yeah. And he got a woman pregnant and he can't be

this global phenomenon that they had plans for and just have, you know, illegitimate kids out there. It was the first one. So, you know, and man, I can't I can't even speak like his son was at the same high school that I went to. And like he obviously played for the basketball team. The team was down three. Jordan was at the game. The coach calls a timeout. Jordan

just comes down and takes the clipboard and tells them what play to run. And they win! Sure. I'm not going to listen to Jordan. They win the game. The other team's like, Jordan's coaching them? What are we going to do? You haven't said nothing about Jordan coaching.

This is Illinois. That's a high school game. What are we doing here? He just came down and said, this is the play you are running. He just came down. He's like, all right, you're putting me in. And by the way, yeah, the shot taken was not by his son. He did not drop the play where his son gets to be.

Oh, that must have hurt. Listen, Jordan Jr., you ain't getting the rock. That ain't happening. Jordan, what I need you to do is get me some water. Right now. Jordan Jr. He doesn't even call him by his name. He calls his own.

Jordan Jr.? He didn't actually name him Michael Jordan Jr., but called him Jordan Jr. Jordan Jr., I need a fresca. All right, this is the play we're going to run. Jordan Jr., get those chili dudes over here. He's like, look, you've got to have at least six inches to take the final shot. Yeah, look, Jordan. Salt your shoes and pray.

Today, we're going to run this play. But he got a new wife, Cuban supermodel. Gorgeous. She's gorgeous. I'm sure. But you know what's funny? So they're meeting. You don't know this, but I do the dirt on this podcast.

I try to find whether or not the billionaires eat butter or not. And so with the new wife of his, they talk about how they met. And they met at a nightclub in miami and in the article it says the the cuban supermodel was dancing extremely freakily those are the words they use and i was like that's what seduced jordan he was like that cuban supermodel i'm doing that tonight she over there dancing freakily i'm a wife i'm into that that's horrible but yeah and uh i guess there was also like uh one of his mistresses tried to sue him for like, I guess he paid her like a quarter of a million to keep quiet about it.

I don't know if this was like the late 80s, early 90s or something. And so she kept quiet about it and then like either didn't get the money or like didn't get enough of it. So then she sued. Basically, I don't know how much money Jordan might have given out to people because he had sex with them, and then was like, I use a condom, but this is enough. You know what's up. I'm surprised Me Too hasn't hit Jordan.

Yes, I bet. I'm surprised. I mean, because he, yeah, around a lot of Chicago circles, he's a known sexual harasser. Yeah, Jesus. Man, he just doesn't hire women. So he don't have to worry about me too. Or maybe just not in the HR department.

Yeah. Nowhere near him. His empire is like 92% men. Yeah. Yeah, the other eight he don't ever come in contact with. And you know what? 92% men that wouldn't call out Jordan even if he raped those men. Yeah.

That's crazy. That's a global icon. Because the Hall of Fame speech he gives, incidentally, 23 minutes and 22 seconds, I don't know how he did that. Seriously? I never knew that. In that speech,

it feels like a dictator doing stand-up. Because it's a room full of people that are like, huh, yeah, he's talking shit about me to my face. Yeah, because he invited them to be there, and then he talks shit about them in the moment honoring his own self. It's like, that's maniacal. You're probably wondering why I've gathered you all here. Yeah, well, let me tell you.

You got punch under your chairs. Trust me, you're going to drink. Everyone look under your chair Listen y'all Tonight is not about me It's about all the roasting I'm about to do And he told people

In the beginning of the speech He goes I told people That I was gonna come here And say thank you And walk away But now that that's over with Oh man

He's He's Yeah Unrolling a rolodex Of people talking shit to him There's only one Michael Jordan Oh who's left Okay 1982 The girl from lunch unrolling a Rolodex of people talking shit to him. There's only one Michael Jordan. Oh, who's left? Okay.

1982. The girl from Lunch. Yeah, she's here. Yep, she's here. 1963, the doctor who slapped me. And not only... He likes Seinfeld inviting every audience he bombed in front of. Yeah. Let's see.

Let's see. The Comedy Hall of Fame induction speech. Not only is he basically roasting people to their faces, but clearly the organization knows because they got cameras rigged up on the people that he's about to talk shit on. So they know.

He's talking about when he left basketball and he's like, this one player said that, oh man, I bet you can't guard me. And then two years later, I let him know. And he cuts that guy's face and his wife chuckling because she's just like, yeah, you fucked up, kid. You fucked up. It's like late night.

He got to send a transcript to the NBA. Like, damn. He said that? All right, well, let's get that camera ready. Yeah, they didn't say no. They said, oh, we're going to get our cameras ready. Exactly. He dissed some player he played in high school with.

That got picked over him. Right, yeah, yeah. By saying his game hadn't improved since high school. Just like, you're the greatest basketball player of all time. Why do you care? Can you imagine how honored that dude was and excited? Like, what? Michael won't meet him?

He wore a suit. Finally. My luck is changing. Michael Jordan wants me. How did he find me? He paid for my flight. He said, come on in. He put me up.

He said, here's a $200 to Men's Warehouse. Get yourself a new suit. He told me what camera to sit in front of. That's right. What a guy. Mike's changed. What a good dude. Make sure y'all get me close

What? This is my good time Some of them know why they're there They exploit it It's very true Their careers It's nice man I thought Michael was a jerk

Oh okay Sorry about that And it's funny Like at the end They show the audience clapping And it's literally like A 30-70 split 30% people people clapping.

70% being like, this motherfucker's an ass. That was from the start of the ceremony. They just repeated the footage. Nobody was clapping when he walked off stage. Everybody left before he could finish.

And they just used... It was like Shug Knight at the Source Awards. I guess we should, before we get out of here, talk real quick about Space Jam. Because if Andy was here, that would have been his contribution. But just a fun story is Andy brought this up. One of the famous Looney Tunes, Mary Melody's directors, Chuck Jones, hated the Space Jam movie. The director. Yeah. Hated the Space Jam movie.

The director. Yeah, he hated the Space Jam movie. He said it was terrible, and he said, I can tell you with the utmost confidence, Porky Pig would never say, I think I wet myself. And just like, just a funny story, is like, Jones said that after the film's released, he was invited to a dinner at the Warner Bros. studio lot with the executives that produce Space Jam and was asked to give a speech with his thoughts on the film.

And Jones said that he tried to give his honest opinion in a polite and respectful manner, but before he could finish, Warner Bros. security proceeded to escort him off the lot. Damn. And what was fucked up about this was Yogi was saying he had had a stroke at this point or something. Right. This is an old man who's just genuinely talking shit about a movie that's kind of like ruining his life's work. Why would Bugs Bunny need Michael

Jordan? He's Bugs Bunny. But all of that makes sense though. So he's not even like Quincy Jones in it right now. He's actually saying things that make sense. Warner Bros. didn't care. They're like, we got Jordan and Bugs. Get the fuck out of here, Jones.

That's the two biggest icons, or top five at least, in the world. Yeah. We don't need any negative press. Main thing is, though, is that if you want to be a billionaire you have to be relentless not just in your business pursuits but genuinely in all interactions of your life yep and that's the thing that's crazy is that like you know whether it's like there's a story about jordan uh they got off a flight right and he bet his teammates i bet my bags will show up before your bags yeah nine at nine people were yeah, I'll take that bet.

$100, no big deal. And then his bags came out first because he bribed the baggage handlers. How could they not know that Jordan would cheat to win? They played cards and gambled on the team plane. Any opportunity he could to gamble. All I know is if I ever see Michael Jordan in the flesh, I'm going to be like, yo, Jordan, rock, paper, scissors? Let's go. Let's do this.

Let's see. $5 million. He's going to cut off two of your fingers. How did I buy an NBA team? Well, let me tell you about the time I met Michael Jordan at Barclays Center and challenged him to rock, paper, scissors for the Hornets. When Yogi Paul

challenged Jordan, I followed him to the Gaffier's restaurant and there I waited for him. His discography is one of the best. Yeah, man. Speaking of restaurants,

Michael Jordan's got a steakhouse at Grand Central Station. It's a fine dining experience. It actually doesn't have any of his memorabilia for, like, sport. It's more about him as a businessman, apparently. Interesting. None of his sports stuff.

His steak place closed in Chicago. Then he reopened another one. That's the thing about him. He doesn't care. It's all about the numbers for him. Just get the numbers, man. As long as we're buying Jordans they make like what

a two like two million percent profit on every pair pair of shoes depends on how few

cents per hour you can pay the workers right dude yeah there are no child labor laws at the Nike factory but yeah

it is like you were saying. That's relentless. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's that kind of hyper-competitive thing. Like on the basketball court, it serves you really well. And then like if you want to be a billionaire, well, if you treat money as like a high score instead of something that millions and billions of people would need to live, that you're just kind of hoarding. If you're just like, I'm hitting the high score by racking all this up just for me you know it's like that's how a lot of billionaires operate i think you have to justify in your mind that you know like we were talking about earlier

like you know manifest destiny and all of that that it's a i'm winning because i'm supposed to yeah i'm the best and then the money reflects I'm the best. The reason why these people are suffering under the weight of the capitalist regime is because... They don't have a good jump shot. That's how God... Right, right, right. You should have introduced...

You should have introduced... You should have introduced this episode as like Michael Jordan, renowned basketball player and textile magnate. You know, it's not too late. That's what the title on SoundCloud could be. Oh, just one thing we forgot to mention. The Crying Jordan meme comes from the 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame in Dutch.

Yes. And then they remixed it because he cried when Obama gave him his Presidential Medal of Freedom. So there's the original, and then there's the new Grunt Jordan meme somebody at the White House staff probably pissed him off he did talk shit about Obama's

golf game he talked shit about Bill Clinton's golf game too they didn't even ask him that question they asked him something like

who'd you want to play golf with yeah not Obama that guy sucks yeah he was like Obama wait nevermind he probably got a trash golf game

Yeah That King and Muslim Don't know shit About golf Like damn Jordan Shoot it Shoot it

Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it

Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it

Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it

Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it

Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it

Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it

Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it Shoot it. All right. Anything we missed about Jordan? I think we're winding down here. I like ending it on shoot it, you fuck. Shoot it, you fucking boss love. Clark Jones, thanks for being with us.

I know I think your website's classicblackdude.com. Yeah, that's my road to a billion. Yeah, yeah. You know, y'all see me. Just follow me. Yeah, yeah. Clark Jones. Yeah, we'll post in the description how you can find Clark Jones. If you live in

New York, he does Knitting Factory in Brooklyn every Sunday. One of the best shows in New York. It's great. He owns a knitting factory? He's trying to be relentless. Ten cents on the dollar. Textile factory. Just be relentless. And with that, I'm

Yogi Paiwong. I'm Sean McCarthy. Steve Jeffries. Clark Jones. Thank you very McCarthy. Steve Jeffries. Clark Jones. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening. See you next time. I dream I grew like Mike. If I could be like Mike. I want to be like Mike. Like Mike.

If I could be like Mike. If I could be like Mike. Be like Mike. Be like Mike. Yeah, I try. Just need to fly. Just wonder if I could be that way I'd do my move

Oh I'd do my move Like Mike If I could be like Mike I wanna be, I wanna be like Mike If I could be like Mike If I could be like Mike If I could be like Mike If I could be like Mike

For the first time in my life, a human being didn't look real to me. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike and I'm saying to myself, like, man, that's Mike. And I'm looking at him, I can't stop looking at him. Like, I'm looking at his shoes, and I'm like, man, he got on the Jordans. You know what I mean?