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Only days before the docuseries premiere of The Last Dance, former teammates Scottie Pippen and Steve Kerr reminisced on anecdotes from their playing days with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
A particular anecdote was surprising, as the Bulls forward explained how Michael Jordan hustled an arena security guard out of $100 every game, betting him the results of a jumbotron race while being tipped off of the outcome by the arena video crew.
“We used to have a security guard sitting at the top of our bench, it was John Capps. He's now passed away,” Pippen told ESPN's Rachel Nichols in a recent interview. “Capps would bet Michael every game. The only way Capps would win is if he was able to pick the right one. Because if Michael picked, obviously he would pick the right one. He probably beat the guy out of $4,100.”
Michael Jordan would learn the results of jumbotron races and then bet a security guard, fully knowing the outcome.
Scottie Pippen: "We had a security guy John Capps [who] would bet Michael every game. … He probably beat the guy out of $4,100."pic.twitter.com/s7uaWzu4qe
— Kendall Baker (@kendallbaker) April 15, 2020
The $4,100 is assuming the Bulls legend picked right every time for every home game. It's likely Capps and Jordan would flip a coin for who picks first, but knowing Jordan and his maniacal competitiveness, he was probably was equally good at heads and tails.
This anecdote comes as a surprise, however, considering Jordan was never known to cut any corners and went about his work ethic the right way, without cheating.
Jordan is also a known gambler who's spent (and lost) millions of dollars in casinos at high-stake games. This seems like a rather innocent way to take a friend's lunch money, though it's likely that Jordan made it up for it in some other way.
