Then, just last week, he took an equity interest in fantasy sports betting outfit DraftKings, announcing that he would be advising its board of directors. As a result, shares in the company surged by 12 per cent. Both moves should come as no surprise: Jordan is in fact the world’s first athlete billionaire.

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So how did he accumulate such wealth, and what else does the two-metre-tall (six-foot-six) retired basketball legend spend all of that cash on? The answers may surprise you.

Despite his staggering pay packet as a young basketball player, Jordan’s income today far exceeds the amount he made during his career. He earned a total of US$90 million in NBA salary, with about US$63 million of that coming from his final two seasons with the Chicago Bulls.

As of 2015, he was reportedly making US$100 million a year from Nike royalties alone.

These days much of the US$1.6 billion fortune comes from the value of his NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets.

He bought the Hornets in 2010 for US$175 million and he officially became a billionaire in 2014 when the value of the NBA franchise value rose.

The team is now worth more than US$1.5 billion, and he owns a 97 per cent equity in the club. Jordan did sell a minority stake in the club in 2019, but he reportedly has no interest in giving up control of the team.

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Jordan is still waiting for the day the Hornets will win a championship for the big payout, however. He has said that winning a championship as an owner would be more gratifying than any of the six rings he won as a player.

According to Forbes, Jordan’s yearly earnings were roughly US$145 million. For comparison, LeBron James is estimated to earn less than US$90 million a year from salary, winnings and endorsements.

Nike founder Phil Knight famously said that signing Jordan was the best decision he ever made as a young entrepreneur, nabbing the NBA rookie for US$250,000 a year in 1984. Nike’s Jordan brand alone now brings in roughly US$3 billion a year in revenue.

The popularity of Air Jordans has surged in recent years thanks to celebrity partnerships connecting to a younger audience, while new versions of retro styles reconnect to the older fans.

Nike’s Jordan brand has even partnered with the popular video game Fortnite and has several endorsement deals with companies like Gatorade and trading card company Upper Deck and Hanes, who he’s been a spokesman for nearly 30 years.

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Jordan maintains he has always been picky about his endorsements because he wanted to be genuine and build a brand of his own he could be proud of. He once rejected a huge endorsement deal with Beanee Weenees because he did not like the name.

So what does he spend it on? He has several sprawling estates, his own golf course and multiple restaurants, including 1000 North in Jupiter, Florida, and Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse, with branches in Connecticut, Washington and Chicago.

In 2019, many billionaires lost money – but not Jordan. His net worth rose by US$300 million. It’s that steady stream of income that lets him live a pretty amazing lifestyle. He has a private jet painted “Carolina blue”, and the plane’s ID number features his jersey number (23) and the number of titles he has won (6).

In 2002 he spent US$12.8 million building his dream house, and reportedly decided to build the aforementioned private golf course because he was annoyed by the pace of play at his local country club. The course in Florida is called Grove XXIII – in keeping with his obsession with the No. 23 – and opened in the autumn of 2019.

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He wasn’t so lucky with his apartment compound in Chicago, however, which originally listed for US$29 million and which, eight years later, is still on the market at the much lower price of US$14.9 million. The estate’s gate is (of course) emblazoned with his jersey number. The quirky property has its own basketball court, as well as a pool with a patch of lawn in the middle of it.

A decent chunk of the basketball star’s money has also been ploughed into legal battles. In 2016, Jordan won a case against a Chinese sportswear company that was using his Chinese name. The company had been using a logo similar to Jordan’s Nike Air Jordan one, alongside the characters of his name in Chinese, Qiaodan. He first sued the company in 2012, but lower-level courts ruled in favour of the company.

In 2016, Jordan also pledged two large donations to the NAACP Legal Defence Fund and the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s new Institute for Community-Police Relations. This came after a string of unlawful police shootings in the US. He also pledged US$7 million to open two medical clinics in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2019.

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Jordan has three children from his first marriage with Juanita Vanoy. The pair married in 1989 and divorced in 2006. The 17-year marriage cost Jordan a whopping $168 million in the settlement.

Jordan’s three oldest children have all followed their father into the shoe business. Jeffrey, the oldest, works at Nike in Oregon, and Jasmine, the youngest, has worked for her father’s NBA team as well as been an Air Jordan representative in Charlotte.

Jordan later married Yvette Prieto, in 2013, and they welcomed twin daughters, Victoria and Ysabel a year later.

Jordan is also famous for being a gambler. American basketball player Charles Barkley told sportscaster Dan Patrick that Jordan used to wager hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single hole when he played golf. While others, like Barkley himself, would only ever wager a few hundred.

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Jordan plays a lot of golf. But, as Barkley put it, what‘s the point in playing the sport if not for some cash?

This article originally appeared on Business Insider

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