Michael Jordan shows off his business prowess once again.
Michael Jordan is the biggest name in the NBA. While his on-court exploits obviously helped quite a bit, Jordan's ability to be one of the most marketable players in the world of sports also made folks who weren't even basketball fans aware of who he was.
It may seem easy to market Jordan, given his greatness on the court, and in a way, that's true. But MJ also explained the one key that allowed him to become such a popular figure both on the court and off the court as well.
Michael Jordan reveals why he was such a marketable player
Jordan is arguably the best player in NBA history since he racked up a huge laundry list of individual accolades and won six championships with the Chicago Bulls throughout his career. His legendary play quickly made him a star in the sports world.
Everyone wanted to work with him when it came to marketing Jordan because everything he touched turned to gold. The key, in MJ's eyes at least, was that he was never trying to fool consumers, and that he often made marketing easy for himself with his strong play on the court.
"No one had to market Michael Jordan. I marketed myself by what I did on the court," Michael Jordan said in Driven From Within. "It's easy to see a guy averaging 30 points a game and then use him as a marketing tool for your product. It's a lot more difficult to take a guy you hope can play, market him as a 30 point scorer, and then find out he's not nearly the player your marketing platform promised. You can't fake out the consumer."
"Some of these kids today can never live up to the expectations created for them. What I did on the floor drove the marketing, not the other way around. The Jordan Brand was driven by what I did every night playing the game. We had to earn what came to us. I never knew any other way, so I never thought otherwise," Jordan added.
Michael Jordan's greatness extended beyond the basketball court
At his peak, Jordan could seemingly do no wrong in the eyes of his fans, so many brands saw this as an opportunity to work with him to bring in some more money. Sure enough, MJ has made several sponsorship deals throughout his career.
Of course, Jordan's marketing skills were put to use on his own Jordan brand, which is one of the biggest fashion companies in the world now. Even to this day, Jordan is still one of the wealthiest NBA players of all time, with his net worth clocking in at well over $1 billion.
Jordan is now a billionaire
"Taken together with other business investments, Jordan was recognized as the first-ever athlete to crack Forbes' annual list of the 400 richest people in America. As of April 29, 2024, he had a net worth of $3.2 billion."
Jordan brand sneakers are still among the most popular shoes in the world, and of course, Jordan is profiting from this as well. Even though he's not responsible for making the shoes himself, he's still bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars a year thanks to his own brand.
"He gets 5% per shoe. Jordan is getting around 10-12 dollars per shoe, and he is selling millions. That's $150 million per year. That's a lot of money, and a lot of people were looking at it, and they were like, 'Why is he getting only five percent?'"
Jordan always did his best to stay true to himself, and he believes that's why he was such a marketable player. He rarely did anything that was considered out of character for him, which is why folks trusted him so much when it came to the companies he worked with.
Everybody knows how good of a basketball player MJ was, but his business prowess may be just as good as his basketball prowess. And his ability to decipher why he was such a marketable player is just another example of that.
