Background and career
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman, former professional basketball player, and former baseball player. He played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between 1984 and 2003, winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. Jordan is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and is regarded as one of the most influential sports figures in history. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he was pivotal in popularizing basketball and the NBA internationally.
Jordan played college basketball with the North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982. In 1984, he was the consensus national college player of the year and was selected by the Bulls with the third overall pick of the 1984 NBA draft. With the Bulls, he emerged as a league star known for prolific scoring, defensive prowess and intense competitiveness. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free-throw line in Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". Jordan won his first NBA title with the Bulls in 1991 and followed that with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a three-peat.
Citing exhaustion from basketball and superstardom, Jordan abruptly retired before the 1993–94 season to play Minor League Baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. He returned to the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three more championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as a then-record 72 regular season wins in the 1995–96 season. Jordan retired for the second time in 1999, then returned for two NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards. He was selected to play for the United States national team during his college and NBA careers, winning four gold medals—at the 1983 Pan American Games, 1984 Summer Olympics, 1992 Tournament of the Americas and 1992 Summer Olympics—while also being undefeated.
Jordan's individual NBA accolades include six Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, 10 scoring titles (both all-time records), five MVP awards, a Defensive Player of the Year award, 10 All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, 14 All-Star Game selections, and three All-Star Game MVP awards. He holds the NBA records for career regular season scoring average (30.1 points per game) and career playoff scoring average (33.4 points per game). Jordan was named the 20th century's greatest North American athlete by ESPN and was second on the Associated Press' list of athletes of the century. Jordan was twice inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2009 for his individual career, and in 2010 as part of the 1992 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team"). The trophy for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award is named in his honor.
One of the most effectively marketed athletes in history, Jordan made many product endorsements and fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers. He starred as himself in the film Space Jam (1996) and was the focus of the Emmy-winning documentary series The Last Dance (2020). He became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets (then named the Bobcats) in 2006 and bought a controlling interest in 2010, before selling his majority stake in 2023. Jordan is a co-owner of 23XI Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. He is the wealthiest athlete of all time with official records, and one of the world's richest celebrities, with a $4.7 billion net worth as of 2026. In 2016, U.S. president Barack Obama awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
How Michael Jordan makes money
On July 21, 2006, a judge in Cook County, Illinois, determined that Jordan did not owe his alleged former lover Karla Knafel $5 million in a breach of contract claim. Knafel claimed Jordan promised her $5 million for remaining silent and agreeing not to file a paternity suit after Knafel learned she was pregnant in 1991; a DNA test showed that Jordan was not the father of the child.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
