- Michael Jordan was grossly underpaid for most of his NBA career
- After the 1995-96 season, Jordan was up for a big contract, and he used a bluff to get it
- Jordan's $30.1 million contract in the 1996-97 season was the first NBA contract to reach $30 million
Michael Jordan was the NBA's most popular athlete by the late 1980s and up until he retired from the game for good. Despite this, Jordan was not the highest-paid player in the league for most of his career.
On September 20, 1988, Jordan signed an extension on his rookie contract, which gave him an eight-year, $25.7M deal. Jordan retired in 1993 to play baseball but returned to the NBA in 1995, as we all know.
After leading the Chicago Bulls to their fourth NBA championship in the 1995-96 season, Jordan became a free agent. Jordan wanted a pay raise, and he used a clever bluff to get it.
“I was on the phone with Michael and [David] Falk and offered $20 million. No one ever had made that much before. Falk said they wanted $30 million for one season or $55 million for two,” Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf explained.
“If I didn’t give in, I don’t know if he said he’d go or might go to New York and take less money. I didn’t put much into it, that it was a bluff. But we were going to have a deal [the Knicks supposedly were trying a back door move as they were then owned in part by the people who owned Sheraton Hotels, and there was an indication Michael might find a hotel in his portfolio one day if he came to the Knicks for their $5 million available].
