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Michael Jordan once gave his luxurious Ferrari 550 Maranello to a fellow NBA legend because he knew how desperate he wanted it.
Former Chicago Bulls superstar Jordan is one of the richest men in sport and boasts an incredible car collection.
He had no issue with flaunting his wealth during an incredibly successful career, which caught one teammate’s eye.
Scottie Pippen has been called Jordan’s greatest teammate by the man himself and the pair dominated in the 90s.
They won six NBA championships together with the Bulls and in 1997, Jordan decided money was no object.
Chicago reporter Melissa Isaacson wrote in a 2010 column for ESPN: “For the Christmas of ’97, Pippen had an earring made for Jordan – a diamond-encrusted replica of the NBA championship trophy.
“Jordan, who had planned to give Pippen a box of cigars, reconsidered and instead gave him his red Ferrari, which Pippen had long admired. ‘He wanted it so bad,’ said Jordan. “It wasn’t a double locker, but it would do.”
At the time, Jordan’s Ferrari was worth around $170,000 and that’s increased to $331,000 in modern money.
Despite the generosity from Jordan, Pippen seems to have never considered him a close friend off the court.
“Michael was bigger than the game, you know. Even my initial arrival to Chicago he was a big, iconic figure for the NBA. So, we never really had that off the court relationship,” Pippen told GQ per CBS Sports.
“Our relationship between the lines was impeccable. We pushed each other to be great. We trained with each other to be the best. So, everything we did, from a basketball standpoint, it was a high level of respect there that we knew we could be the best.
“We could be dominant. We had went through pretty much the Vietnam War to get where we got to. We were battle tested.”
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Jordan was famously demanding and very rarely lost… although one night in Las Vegas, he did.
Per Fadeaway World, Rich Strafella, former VP of Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, told the story of Jordan gambling with ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky as a waitress brought their drinks.
“I remember a night when Wayne Gretzky insulted Michael Jordan at the table,” Strafella said.
“It was a private salon game. Michael had ordered a drink from the cocktail waitress, and he gave her a five-dollar chip.
“Wayne took it off the cocktail waitress’s tray, gave it back to Michael, grabbed a hundred-dollar chip from Michael’s stack and put it on the cocktail waitress’s tray. Then he said, “That’s how we tip in Las Vegas, Michael.”
Savage stuff from Gretzky. Calling out Jordan in public and remaining on good terms.
