“His greed was deeper than his respect for me” – MJ took exception to Jerry Reinsdorf’s comments after he signed his last contract with the Bulls originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Michael Jordan made more money off the basketball court than from his salary with the Chicago Bulls. For most of his career, MJ did not mind if he did not rank among the top salary earners in the Association.
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However, during his last two years with the Bulls, Jordan wanted his salary to reflect his actual value to the organization and the league. Somehow, the Bulls did not want to pay him that, causing Michael to lash out at team owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
“The money never had anything to do with me playing basketball,” said MJ. “But money always had a way of becoming an issue for someone. And it was always an issue for Jerry Reinsdorf”.
Reinsdorf told Jordan he’s gonna regret paying him $33 million in 1998
When Mike was negotiating his 1997-98 salary, his agent, David Falk, asked for the maximum allowed 20 percent raise. Since he made $30 million in 1997, his asking price was $6 million higher.
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Coming off another scoring title, All-NBA first team, All-Defensive first team, and fifth NBA title in seven seasons, it was justifiable, although the amount was still astronomical. For Jordan, however, it was the principle, not the money.
However, Reinsdorf did not want to give in to MJ’s demands. The negotiation dragged on too long to a point where Mike felt it should not have gone. In the end, Jerry gave him a $33 million deal, but instead of celebrating their agreement, the Bulls team owner said something to the effect that he would regret paying Jordan that much one day. Reinsdorf’s comments triggered an angry Michael.
“After all these years, after all these championships, after all I had tried to do for the Bulls organization, after all those years of being underpaid, and you regret paying me market value? It was like a punch in the heart. His greed was deeper than his respect for me,” he firmly stated.
The Bulls nearly “lost” Jordan the previous year
As MJ said, money was always a big deal with Reinsdorf. A year earlier, Michael had just completed an eight-year contract worth $25 million, where he made just $3.8 million in 1995-96.
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Although he was grossly underpaid in the last couple of years of that long-term deal, Michael did not complain and simply played it out. However, since it was time to negotiate again, Jordan felt that it was time to get some back, especially since many unproven stars were making more than he already.
“Nobody can really pay me what I’m worth,” Jordan said. “I look at it like this. If you pay a rookie all this type of money and he doesn’t perform in the next few years, does he give the money back? When they were making all this money when I was clearly a bargain, did they give me more money? No. Now you’re asking me to have consideration for them because they’re not making as much money as they did in the past? I was in the same scenario in the opposite form.”
To prove his point, MJ threatened to leave Chicago and sign elsewhere for a deal much lower than what he was asking for. The Bulls could not afford to lose him, so they ended up giving him an unprecedented $30 million salary for the 1996-97 season. But as Jordan told Cigar Aficionado in 2005, he was 30 minutes away from signing with the Knicks.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 22, 2025, where it first appeared.