Michael Jordan: he still owes me that 75 cents | Part one

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0:36Then there's Mr. Pibb. No pitch, no promises, just bold cherry bringing the flavor. Bold kick of cherry. Hey, yo, Mr. Pibb. Last night, you spent two hours deciding what to wear to the party. This morning, it'll take you two minutes to list it on Depop and make your money back. Just grab your phone, snap a few photos, and we'll take care of the rest. the sheer dress and platform heels you'll never wear again there's a birthday girl searching for them right now your one and done look is about to pay for your next night out or at least the ride home your style can make you cash start selling on depop where taste recognizes taste the 1990s were a different time you could smoke on planes recite your best friend's phone number and get noshed off at the oval office and the biggest star on the planet was a tight-fisted genius from Teechee, North Carolina, Michael Jordan.

1:32He broke bread with drug barons, paid off his mistresses, and lost a hundred grand on a game of rock, paper, scissors. From cocaine in the dressing room to measuring his son's knob, this is his story. Welcome back to The Upshot. My name is Jack. Hello, Zach. Hello, Jack. Hello. George Wild is joining us. It's a biggie today. It's one of the naughtiest sporting icons. It's one of the biggest sporting icons. Yeah. I would argue this is the first global superstar in sport in a sort of media commercial, making loads of money on your billboards way. Everywhere, yeah. I'd say everywhere. So listen to this.

2:15In 1992, a poll among Chinese schoolchildren named Michael Jordan as the second most famous person in the world. That is crazy. behind well obviously number one was premier Zhu Enlai of course of course Zhu Enlai they're the big two really yeah Michael Jordan number two weirdly no male won't get into that but even in China where I because obviously Michael Jordan was so famous I think because of the the Nike adverts right that's why yeah and the film here I didn't think China in the early 90s was like people buying Nike trainers I guess Chinese school kids were making the trainers lady nike you're right lady michael what michael jordan what what the boss yeah yeah he's famous the one of the one of the little simba them jumping jumping back i know his silhouette on a trainer um yeah yeah we're allowed to watch five minutes of him every day if we're good um i would also say he's he's in the arsehole genius category right like Ronaldo yeah Kevin Peterson yeah I mean I Michael Jordan's a bit more fun but yeah he's a bit of a bastard isn't he as we'll see right should we get into it let's do it let's do it so Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn in 1963 family moved to to Tichy in North Carolina very small town when he was when he was a baby had four siblings and growing up there was a lot of competition for for attention between them which resulted in Michael getting in the odd bit of trouble most notably when he was four years old and his cousin paid him a dollar to chop off his own toe with an axe which he tried to do fortunately failed um did the axe come down the axe he like yeah he axed his he axed his toe but fortunately got the tip didn't yeah i mean that could have could have derailed his whole basketball could you play professional sport isn't isn't they're pretty important for balance yeah of all the sports yeah yeah um anyway he did give a four-year-old an axe yeah i mean an older cousin fortunately though michael did make it through childhood with his digits intact and in 1968 the family moved to wilmington this port city in the u.s not long after moving there Michael developed his famous phobia of water so he witnessed a friend of his drown in the sea we've got his recollection of it he said the current was so strong it took him under and he locked up on me it's called the death lock when they know they're in trouble and about to die I always had to break his hand he died

5:04I mean I'm not sure I would have put this forward in a court of law but it does sound to me here like Michael's friend was drowning and was holding on to him for dear life and he prized him and he prized him finger by finger he had his axe again hang on surely Michael's drowning too yeah I think I guess it's like you're caught in a riptide you've only got enough energy to break your friend's hand you can either yeah break your friend's hand and swim but yeah it was both of us or me yeah sure or him if you've got enough energy to break someone's hand nearly break it have you got enough energy to swim yeah it also makes it sound like it took a little while it did take quite a lot of energy to like prise the finger off one by one which you know begs the question put that energy into backstroke I mean obviously it's awful it's a tragic it's a tragic incident I'm sure he did all he could although just just saying again years later when he was in college there was another drowning incident one of his girlfriends got swept away in a flood Jesus and drowned and fooled me once again went into a death lock so the RNLI hates this man

6:34fucking hell she got swept away she's got swept away in a flood I mean that's actually this time harrowing Jordan hasn't given any accounts she just got swept away after I shoved her out of the off the balcony her hand was her hand was on the windowsill and you know I just every time you get into water with Michael Jordan does he think you're in a death lock and just off you under Yeah. I mean, he says that he's got a phobia of water. I think I've got a phobia of being a daughter with Michael Jordan.

7:17Losing a few listeners.

7:22So anyway, a couple of tragic water-related incidents in his childhood. but Michael does does get over that you'll be glad to hear and back in Wilmington on dry land his father strangely drowned in the bath Mike's father father built himself a basketball court in their backyard in Wilmington and Mike he played a lot of 1v1 with his brother Larry which it was pretty competitive games often ended in physical fights It's partly fueled by Mike's obsession that his dad preferred Larry to him. Don't know whether or not that's true. So this is why he's so confused. His dad had never killed a friend, Larry.

8:10Do I love him more? I fear him less. Put it this way, Mike. I get in the bath with Larry.

8:22You know, you are my son. so this is the origin of why michael jordan is so insanely competitive yeah sure yeah yeah he grew up yeah with this with this like sort of complex between him and his brother he's actually also a really talented baseball player though uh in 1975 he was named the state's most valuable little league star okay by the time michael had started high school though he was he was fully focused on basketball. He was a good baller. Just this expert. No, he was a good basketball player, but actually didn't make the varsity team in his first year because he was only five foot nine.

9:05Right, short king. Short king. But, you know, that really, really stuck with him and he became obsessed with getting taller. So apparently he'd spent hours hanging from this bar in his backyard or anything that he could find that would, you know, give him enough of a good grip to try and stretch himself out. He's just trying to get gravity to do its thing, is he? Yeah. Does that work? Your grip would be good. Yeah. Although famously already quite good. Yeah. He was sort of, he was height maxing before it was, before it was cool. Yeah. Can you stretch yourself or did puberty just did it for him?

9:40I don't know about the science behind it, but whatever, whatever he did, it worked because he shot up to six foot three in the space of a few months. six foot six by college lovely yeah so 1979 Mike's lovely lovely

10:01so 1979 when Mike's 16 it's a pretty formative year for him got his first car got his first girlfriend as well the lovely Lakita Lakita Robinson got a picture of him here at the prom together he's a he's an absolute beam pole we've got a picture of Michael Jordan and we've got a picture of Laketa Johnson's head. Such is the height difference. It's a lovely, lovely get-up he's got on. That is a bright white suit. He's a lot taller than her. Yeah. How does that work? Kissing. Yeah. Stepladder. Yellow pages. I mean, that's probably a pretty age-old problem for basketball players. I don't think you could even lean down and kiss her.

10:38He's got to be on knees, maybe. Yeah. Anyway, that year, he also became obsessed with Magic Johnson so Magic he'd led Michigan State to the NCAA championship that spring and Mike was enamored with this player and she bought him a Magic Mike personalized number plate for his new car in tribute to Magic Johnson that's a serious gift isn't it? it's also that year that Michael discovers his legendary love of gambling which we'll come on to quite a bit later on outside of basketball though he's He's pretty lazy, pretty work shy in general. He did briefly get a job as a hotel maintenance man, but quit after a week because he was expected to do pool maintenance.

11:29And he says he didn't mess with water. Yeah. Say he quit. We're just going to run a quick background check, Mike, I'm sure. You've got all the lifeguard qualification. Yeah. It was an unfortunate accident at the pool. Won't do pool maintenance though. can he just do the washing up Michael no it's only water oh so that yeah okay so he's that scared of water he's that scared of water I'm sure I've seen him on like jet skis and stuff he does later yeah he does overcome it at some point but yeah he basically his dad says that he's he just doesn't want to work at all won't even chores around the house he refuses to do he actually vowed he'd be a wino before he got a 9 to 5 job what's it just a piss head piss head Yeah.

12:18Luckily though, he never had to because by now Mike was excelling at basketball. Yeah. So he goes to UNC University of North Carolina. Big basketball school. One of the best in the country. The Tar Heels. Chill. Really nice sky blue kit. You ever seen it? Yeah. One off. You can picture the sky blue basketball show. 23 on it. That's really nice. So he's actually not that popular at first because he's so cocky. He rocks up in his, you know, he's got his Magic Mike license to play and he starts telling people, call me Magic. Yeah, that's not going to go down well, is it? Which is a bit like that call me...

12:53In Freshers Week. Name it harder, yeah. Yeah, but I guess it's your classic reinvent yourself in Freshers Week, isn't it? It's like, yeah, no, I'm Magic. This is Magic Johnson's like at the peak of his powers. Anyway, Michael does win over his peers in college and he becomes a star as he helps them win the NCAA championship. I think he throws the winning shot in overtime. Right. Okay. This is like March Madness. Yeah. That's when it all comes to a head. So suddenly he's a superstar and on campus, he can't get out of his car without being mobbed. He can't even go around Chapel Hill, the city without people constantly harassing him for autographs.

13:31The city hosts a Michael Jordan appreciation banquet in his honor. This is just, I think for people from the UK, like being to university in the UK, This is just such like a foreign concept that the city hosts a banquet for your like uni team star player. It's pretty sick. Even the fact that you're like, you're going around campus as a, as a celebrity. There are celeb students. Yeah, it's quite no university in the UK would you have like such a big difference in status. You don't have celebrity students. But I bet in Max Downman's high school, like, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that is. That's sort of.

14:11The closest thing, I guess, isn't it? Someone like... But like, the sports stars on campus are just living like such a different existence. I mean, Max Diamond's going to get like an assembly. Got a telephone. Special assembly. You know, maybe put like his name on the AstroTurf pitch in the playground. Yeah, it's hard to imagine. So at UNC, the campus restaurant unveils a new sandwich called the Jordan, which is a crab salad on pitta. don't think max downman would choose that no feeling but it's quite you know in the south craps quite sort of sure uh and of course the real perk for any campus sports star is the shagging and mike goes on a big old spree so him and his roommate buzz peterson have apparently a regular queue of girls waiting outside their their dorm sure it's quite funny that he's the superstar and yet he starts to share a bedroom yeah with buzz his pal uh and when they're not shagging or on the court is all about betting on cards uh just constant betting also like there's him and his roommate buzz peterson have a cue is that the story that buzz tell so yeah there's yeah there's a big cute always outside me and michael's room i was both in our room they could be there for either of us buzz is pretty handy on the court although he never he never makes it to the nba they stay friends and yeah could have been for either of them anyway the betting is where Mike starts to show what a competitive weirdo he truly is because Buzz one holiday is like why don't you come and stay with my family come and meet my folks so they go off to Buzz's house and while they're there it's like let's play a game of cards that's what you do with his mum so they're all playing cards and then at some point this old lady Buzz's mum needs to use the bathroom.

16:05So off she heads. And while she's in the toilet, Buzz catches Michael Jordan cheating, like looking at a card, swapping them. So yeah, he's a cheat. Yeah. And actually another student at UNC says they remember they won 75 cents off Michael Jordan on a bet and he just refused to ever pay up. Wow. Okay. That's what we're dealing with. Yeah, he's an absolute shit when it comes to paying gambling debts, as we'll see. Anyway, he does three years in college and then he actually drops out the final year because the NBA is calling. It's 1984. It's the draft. Actually, that same summer, he also goes to the Olympics and wins gold.

16:41Wow, yeah. The USA in LA. So he's an Olympic gold medalist before he's really started in the NBA. In the draft itself, he ends up, he's picked third by the Chicago Bulls who they give him a seven-year,$6 million deal. Third seems... Yeah, you think... Michael Jordan's a super star and he'll be first draft pick. Yeah, I bet they're kicking themselves to the first and second pick. Do you bet the Chicago Bulls are known as a really unlucky team in the draft around this era? Yeah. Isn't there one occasion where there's a coin toss decides who gets a pick? Who gets first pick and I think, yeah, the Lakers end up...

17:16Oh, it's Magic Johnson. Yeah, they end up winning and getting Michael Jordan... Sorry, getting Magic Johnson and, yeah, probably cost the Bulls like$200 million or something. Well, they got Michael Jordan this time. At this time, though, they are not a popular team. so they're very poorly run according to someone at the time several players had deeply invested in the idea that things go better with cocaine things just they just go better everything goes swimmingly anyway yeah they're a bit of a joke they're struggling to pull crowds so apparently the stadium's like half full the arena none of the matches are picked for TV even the local media aren't interested in covering the pools that's just an absolute joke They're known as the traveling cocaine circus because they just go around the country just on benders, not winning basketball matches.

18:06And their stadium gets nicknamed the Madhouse on Madison because apparently it's in quite a rough neighborhood of Chicago. And when you park up, a kid will appear at your window and be like, hey, mister, can I wash your car? And apparently if you didn't give them some cash there and then, they would just slash your tires when you bring it. So it's a rough neighborhood. It's a shit ground. No one's going. Apparently attendance is so bad that the ticket director would just come out in the middle of the game and just count the people by hand who were there. Right, okay. Which was a bit of an issue for Michael Jordan when he made his debut in October 1984.

18:40Michael Jordan's a big star by this point, Olympic gold medalist, third draft pick. A lot of ladies are interested in him. And so he decides to invite two different girlfriends to come and watch his debut. Quite greedy. Neither of them knows about each other. Right. Unfortunately, the stadium's so empty that it's, It's quite likely that they will see each other. It's going to be a problem. He can't just sort of blend them in. And he has to scramble just before the tip off to make sure they're seated at opposite ends of the arena just so they won't see each other. But actually, not long after this, he does meet his future wife, the lovely Juanita Vannoy.

19:14Right. And they begin what's best described as an on-again, off-again relationship. Okay. I mean, like, he's doing a lot of shagging. Sure. He's an important player, but he actually doesn't get on well with the teammates, the traveling cocaine circus at this point. He's got quite a different vibe. He tells a story of how before an away game, he's walking around the team hotel and he can't find anyone. And then he finds them in their den of iniquity. Here's the clip. I came from a program in college. It was about team game. You know, it was a clean program. It prepared me to go into the Chicago situation, which was totally different.

19:51One of the articles I read, they called it the most traveling cocaine circus.

20:02I never read that.

20:07Accurate? Look, guys were doing things that I didn't see. I had one event preseason. I think we were in Peoria. So I'm trying to find my teammates. So I started knocking on doors. And then you hear this deep voice says, who is it? I says, MJ. I walk in and you got all, you got your lines over here. you got your weed smokers over here, you got your women over here. So the first thing I said, look man, I'm out. You know, because all I can think about if they come and raid this place right about now, I am just as guilty as everybody else has had that's in this room. And from that point on, you know, I was more or less on my own.

20:41So he's an absolute square in the eyes of the team. If they raid this place, come on. The only thing I thought from that clip is, fucking hell, Michael Jordan's an alpha male. like when he slaps his thigh the room like shudders he's so like everything about him is so like just a massive hand yeah deep voice booming god it must feel good to make him laugh like that yeah yeah yeah but it's weird he'll take away I just like the way the guy's yeah so it's weird to think of him as this like slightly awkward like basically teenager who's like hey guys what are you doing anyway he does have one voice at this stage and that is the gambling he's basically up all night like playing cards all the time.

21:24So he's kind of part of the team when it's gambling stuff. With Buzz Peterson's mum still a little stiffener. 75 cents. So he sort of gets on with his teammates when it's gambling. But when the drugs and the girls come out, he's like, no, no, thank you. And instead he starts actually whipping the team into shape. So apparently in training, every day he'll come in and just pick on someone, just rile them up to try and get them to take the, take the basketball seriously. And it actually works. He basically makes them so angry that they're like, I'm going to prove this little punk wrong. Now, if you made it through the first few minutes of this episode, then you're probably the sort of person who Googles some quite dodgy shit in your spare time.

22:03In which case, may I recommend NordVPN, which protects you from the snoopers watching your every move online. It also lets you change your location, meaning you can access content which is not available in your region. I don't know what Michael Jordan will be using it for, or probably online casinos, or I don't know, pretending he's on holiday, so he doesn't have to pay back that 75 cents. He'll have an angle, something like that. It's also really good for booking flights. I did this recently. You can change your location to China, and then it gets cheaper. A bit like if you're running a sneaker factory.

22:40And there is an exclusive discount to Shotters on NordVPN. So if you go to nordvpn.com forward slash Upshot, you get an extra four months free and you get a 30-day money-back guarantee. So just go to nordvpn.com forward slash Upshot. There is a link in our show description. He has got another reason to be cocky as well, hasn't he? Yeah, he does. It was around this time that he gets his big Nike deal. So this Nike exec, Sonny Vaccaro, had seen him while he was playing for the Tar Heels and had decided on the spot that this guy was going to be the best player in the world. and he convinces his bosses to throw their entire marketing budget at Michael Jordan.

23:24Wow. So they put together their best minds and they release the Air Jordan shoe and they give Mike this two and a half million dollar package and 25 % royalty on each shoe sold. Wow. 25 % is an unprecedented deal. So that's why he's like flogging them so hard. He's such a good salesman for it. When I said flogging them hard, it did not mean the Chinese Floyd. He doesn't do the vlogging personally. Us all taking care of further up the supply chain. But this is the thing that makes it big in China, right? I mean, yeah, famously, yeah. And is that what's new, the whole, like, it's a long-term deal, you get a cut of the money?

24:12Previously, it's just like being the ad. I think it goes above and beyond just like an advertising contract where they pay him however much it is to appear in the ads. Because he's getting an actual cut, a royalty on each shoe sold. He's got a personal vested interest in flogging them to death. Yeah, exactly.

24:34So this is what leads to the George Foreman grill, I guess. All that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's along the long path to ice-cold Palmer. And to be fair, yeah, like you said, he takes selling the shoe very seriously. So at some point, his mom asks him to endorse this black Democrat candidate in the Senate election. And this candidate is running against a pretty hardline, pretty racist Republican candidate, but still Jordan refused to back him publicly. tells his mum, look mum, Republicans buy sneakers too. Right, okay. That's always held up as an example of how mercenary he is. The deal, it pays off for Nike very quickly.

25:21So Mike's first season in the NBA, he wins Rookie of the Year and he's featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. So in the first three years, Nike make$150 million in Air Jordan sales. Wow. And a quarter of that's straight to him, right? straight to him he's raking it in still not paid that 75 cents back yeah yeah I mean that's presumably that's the majority of his income is now yeah imagine he's getting that much from from the bulls well he was on a 2.5 million dollar 2.5 million exactly chump change yeah and Nike they're pumping him and these shoes relentlessly he's on billboards TV adverts wherever you look it's Michael Jordan and that makes him world famous.

26:12And because of that, he's obviously getting a lot of attention wherever he goes and he begins traveling everywhere with this entourage. It's a weird one. They're described as a revolving group with an understood mission of keeping Jordan company on road trips. The agenda included car games, golf, mixed drinks, pool, whatever it took to lighten the mood. So who's in the crew? So that was his brother, Larry. Oh yeah. His old college roommate, Buzz Peterson. And another old Tar Heels teammate, Adolf Schriever. Oh, yeah. Oh, Adolf. You know, Shiver. Shiver, sorry, not Shriever. Adolf Schiver. I was waiting for Adolf to be corrected, but no, that is his name.

26:54This would be... Early 90s. Yeah. Late 80s. Okay, and bloke's in his 20s. Adolf? Presumably, yeah. Presumably, 60s. Is somebody calling their kid Adolf in 60s America? Yeah. he's also a black guy okay which also surprised me yeah are there many black guys called Adolf what do you mean people called Adolf it's alright though because it's spelled A-D-O-L-P-H so that's fine oh okay so there's no mistake in that different alright so it's Buzz Adolf and Larry the lads Buzz is still brave he's saying yeah there's queues of girls waiting to see me outside the private jet every day so did Larry not become a basketball player or anything he's just an entourage no I don't think so I think he's now just part of the part of the entourage which is a it's a pretty weird existence reminds me a bit of Elvis Presley's the Memphis Mafia you know yeah it's that like gang that just hung out with hung out at his his pad in Memphis yeah that's what you do isn't it it's Jimmy Fivebelly's basically yeah yeah same thing again so you're like pay your whole life is paid for but you have to be the brunt of the joke and if you try making a joke back you're like no but I think Gaz the great thing about Gaz is Gaz would take some jokes whereas Michael Jordan do you know what I mean it'd be a lot of laughing a bit more at his jokes than you need to yeah is that fun or is it a bit it's quite precarious yeah for someone who's as thin skinned as Michael Jordan I'd be nervous do we like it laughing at jokes jokes I'm just going to say it's a bit close to home that one isn't it

28:44just don't be too good at the comeback so 86-87 Jordan he has one of the most prolific scoring seasons in NBA history he's the only player since since Wilt Chamberlain to score 3 ,000 points he's the guy who claims to have slept with 20 ,000 women Wilt Chamberlain which feels too many It's a lot. It's definitely too many. So Jordan individually has an amazing season that year, but it's the following year when the Bulls team really starts to come together. So they draft Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant as well. And the pair of them become pretty inseparable, much to the annoyance of Michael Jordan.

29:27So Scottie and Horace, they do everything together. They shop. They go on double dates. They drive the same type of car. They even get married a week apart and they serve as each other's best men at the weddings. What, it was in two weddings, back-to-back weddings? Back-to-back weddings a week apart and they're each other's best man. It's actually one of my favourite stories from this whole episode from one of the former trainers of the Bulls. He said, Scotty called in one day and skipped practice because his cat died. Horace called about 15 minutes later and said he was with Scotty because of the grieving.