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Michael Jordan, widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time, is closing in on another milestone off the court. The 62-year-old NBA icon is now worth $3.8 billion, just $200 million shy of the $4 billion mark, placing him firmly among the world’s wealthiest individuals.
At the start of the year, Jordan’s fortune stood at $3.5 billion. Since then, it has grown by $300 million, according to Forbes, which currently ranks him 1,023rd on its real-time billionaires list. He also sits among the ten richest Black billionaires in the world, holding the seventh spot.
Jordan’s wealth extends beyond basketball
Jordan, who became the first athlete to earn a billion-dollar fortune in 2014, has steadily grown his wealth far beyond basketball. He holds a minority stake in the Charlotte Hornets, has invested in the sports betting company DraftKings, and co-owns 23XI Racing, the NASCAR team he launched with Joe Gibbs and Denny Hamlin.
That portfolio took a major leap in 2023 when he sold his controlling stake in the Charlotte Hornets in a $3 billion deal, though he chose to keep a minority interest. The sale brought an end to more than a decade as the team’s principal owner, a position he had held since 2010. The price underscored how much the franchise’s value had grown during his tenure, rising nearly 17 times since he first took charge.
Jordan shines in global wealth circle
Jordan had earlier sold a minority stake in the Hornets in 2020 to investors Gabe Plotkin and Daniel Sundheim, but the majority sale marked his biggest return yet from the franchise. While his impact on the court has long been cemented, the transaction reinforced his influence in the business side of professional sports.
With his fortune at $3.8 billion, Jordan now ranks behind only six Black billionaires worldwide. The list is led by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, whose net worth stands at $24.3 billion, followed by U.S. business leaders Alex Karp, Robert F. Smith, and David Steward, as well as Nigerian billionaires Mike Adenuga and Abdul Samad Rabiu.
