Michael Jordan was one of the most ruthless competitors in the history of basketball during his playing days. Naturally, the same can be said of his days as an NBA owner.
Jordan, the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets, has presided over a franchise whose valuation has grown by nearly a billion dollars in the last 10 years. Despite those gains, however, His Airness is reportedly frustrated over his inability to “compete” with owners like Joe Lacob of the Golden State Warriors.
As veteran sports reporter J.A. Adande told Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports, Jordan's financial standing is nowhere close to some of the other owners in the NBA (via Drew Shiller of NBC Sports Bay Area).
“He can't compete with the Warriors and the Joe Lacob's and the Peter Guber's and all these tech guys that are coming in. He can't compete in that realm. Financially — as successful as he's been — this is a whole different level that these tech guys and these venture capital guys are playing at,” Adande said about the NBA legend.
“And it frustrates him to no end that he can't play at their level, when his whole life he's used to playing at levels higher than everybody else. He can't beat them in this realm.”
Jordan's net worth was estimated at $2.1 billion in March. Lacob's net worth is $1.2 billion, according to Forbes, but his 25 percent stake in the Warriors alone is said to be worth $900 million.
Adande's statement might seem a little unclear, but generally speaking, it adds up.
The likes of Lacob, Steve Ballmer and other ownership groups are coming in and bidding for NBA franchises, investing tons of capital in their teams and thus earning the capacity to spend close to (or over) the luxury tax to keep the franchise on a winning track. The Hornets do not quite have the revenue stream to keep up in that regard.
But in the same token, Jordan has a pretty atrocious resume in terms of drafting and giving free-agent contracts, which certainly have not helped matters.
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