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The Suspicious Retirement Of Michael Jordan - YouTube
Channel: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network
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(light bulb buzzing)
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(whistling and squeaking shoes)
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- Hello, and welcome to
Unsolved Sports Conspiracies,
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a show where we examine
sport's greatest myths
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and debate their validity.
[10]
This week we explore Michael
Jordan, AKA the Goat's
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departure from basketball to baseball.
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Was it a decision made on his own volition
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or were their other factors involved?
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- Just blasphemy.
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- I know we're talking about the GOAT,
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we're talking about the
shiny god of basketball,
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perhaps the man who saved the sport,
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but you know what, we're
doing the Lord's work here.
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- Alright.
- So all you Jordan stans
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sharpen your knives and let's dig in.
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In October 1993, just one
day before the start of
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training camp for the Chicago
Bulls 1993, 1994 season,
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Michael Jordan, widely considered to be
[45]
the greatest basketball
player of all time,
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announced his retirement from the NBA.
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The announcement came as quite the shock,
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considering Jordan was only 30 years old,
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in the prime of his career,
and was dominating the NBA.
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Jordan was also coming off a three-peat.
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I think we need to give
a little perspective
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about how insane it was that he moved
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away from basketball at
the prime of his career.
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And one day before training camp.
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I think we should also
put into perspective
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if this was in the age of Twitter,
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Twitter would explode if
Lebron decided, "You know what?
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"Just won three in a
row, time to hang it up."
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- [Zack] It's like a, "Screw you, guys.
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"I'm outta here, you can't
do anything about it."
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- Phil Jackson's looking at his playbook,
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all of them just have a triangle
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with 'Jordan' written in the middle of it.
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Following his NBA retirement,
Jordan went on to play
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professional baseball with
the Birmingham Barons,
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a AA Southern League
team, to mixed results,
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never achieving a spot
in the Major Leagues
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as Jordan had planned.
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Then, on March 18th,
1995, Jordan announced
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he was returning to basketball
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by sending out faxes via
his agent, David Falk,
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with a two-word quote from Jordan,
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quote, "I'm back," end quote.
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Just reading that gave me chills.
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- That's incredible.
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- [Ryan] Just 17 months
after his retirement,
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Jordan returned to play
out the rest of the season
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with the Bulls and, as many of you know,
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would later go on to
achieve a second three-peat
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in the year 1998 before
he retired for good.
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Those are the facts, but what
has puzzled many is the why.
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Why leave a sport when you're at the top?
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Especially when you consider the fact that
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Jordan is famous for being
intensely competitive,
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taking pleasure in not
just beating his opponents,
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but dominating them.
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One possibility was to honor his father.
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Tragically, at the time
of his first retirement,
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Jordan was in mourning after the recent
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murder of his father, James Jordan,
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that had occurred less
than three months prior.
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The murder was said to be the result
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of a robbery gone wrong.
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Michael had been very
close with his father
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throughout his career and James Jordan
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was an avid baseball fan
who reportedly had said
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he wished Michael had
been a baseball player.
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- [Zack] That makes sense to me.
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His dad was a baseball guy,
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always wanted Jordan to play baseball.
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His dad passes away and
he's like, "You know what?
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"I need to honor my dad."
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I think that is a huge
factor in the whole reason
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why Jordan went on to play baseball.
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- [Ryan] And I know I'm
pushing the conspiracy here,
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but I gotta say, that's a
pretty good explanation.
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I would want to honor my pop if he
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wanted me to play baseball.
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- [Zack] Now I will
say it's a little fishy
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just because you are the
greatest basketball player.
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Like, people are already considering him
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one of the greats after his
first three championships.
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- [Ryan] In a weird way, though,
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it almost added to his legend and lore.
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Like, now the debate is
how many would he have won.
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- [Zack] Seven or eight.
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- [Ryan] Another
possibility was that Jordan
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simply wanted to try different things,
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perhaps bored by his steady
dominance of basketball.
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Jordan said during his
retirement press conference,
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quote, "I've always stressed
to people that have known me
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"and the media that has
followed me that when I lose
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"the sense of motivation and the sense of
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"to prove something as
a basketball player,
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"it's time for me to move away from
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"the game of basketball," end quote.
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Jordan reportedly did not want
his NBA career to fade out
[251]
and, according to his teammates,
had been talking about
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the possibility of
retirement for some time.
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He was so dominant that
he was able to say,
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"I'm bored of this, I'm gonna
move on to something else,"
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and nobody was like, "(beep) you, Mike."
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- [Zack] Well, once again,
I still think it was
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a sigh of relief for all
the NBA when Jordan left.
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- Well, that's what I'm saying,
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that's the point I'm making.
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If we were playing pick-up and we'd won
[274]
six games in a row and
we went, "You know what?
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"Competition isn't good
here, you all bore me.
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"It's time to leave and
go to a better park."
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- I think that the players that
you're playing pick-up with,
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they're mad because they're like,
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"No, we wanna stay on the court,
we wanna play these guys."
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- I realize I just
casually made a comparison
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between me and Zack
Evans to Michael Jordan,
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I realize that, but it was
for the sake of an example.
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- It will also happen
four to five more times
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in this episode.
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- Because it's an easy comparison to make.
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- Easy, easy, I've been called
[302]
the Michael Jordan of things before.
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- If I was a foot taller,
you'd read about me
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in the history books.
[308]
(laughing)
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That being said, some have theorized that
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Jordan's abrupt departure from basketball
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and his subsequent
return so soon afterward
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was a coverup to hide
a gambling suspension
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and that it was in the
best interest of the NBA
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to keep this quiet to maintain the image
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of the league and its star player.
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Let's get in to the conspiracy.
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Before we get into this, I gotta say
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I am as big a Jordan fan
as most of you out there,
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but to establish this conspiracy,
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we do kind of need to establish
that he liked gambling.
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I may say some things that a lot of you
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out there don't want to hear.
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- [Zack] Yeah, just 'cause he spends,
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you know, $100,000 in a
night just for no reason.
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- [Ryan] I don't think he's a bad person.
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You know what, it's Monopoly money to him.
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I don't give a (beep), he's an adult.
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Do what you want with it, it's your money.
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- Michael Jordan was the NBA, right?
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So I understand if you
were going to suspend him,
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you would maybe wanna keep it quiet,
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but there is so much trust in that,
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knowing that David Stern,
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the commissioner of the NBA at the time,
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being like, "Hey, here's
our great idea, Mike,
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"you're gonna fake retirement
and go play baseball
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"and we're just gonna
cover this whole thing up,
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"but really you're suspended
but just don't tell anyone.
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"You can be back in a year."
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Why would you suspend someone
just 'cause he gambles a lot?
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- Well, it's good that you asked that
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because I'm about to get into just how
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possibly bad this actually was.
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And once again, Jordan stans,
stay out of my mentions.
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- Stay out of my mentions,
@ZackEvans on Twitter.
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(laughing)
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- [Ryan] In May, 1991, during the playoffs
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against Philadelphia,
Jordan used a two-day break
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in the series to go to Atlantic City,
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returning at 6:30 AM before
attending a 10 AM team workout.
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Two years later, in May, 1993,
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Jordan once again took a detour
[414]
to Atlantic City to gamble in the midst of
[417]
the Eastern Conference
Finals against the Knicks.
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He was reportedly gambling
until around 2:30 AM
[424]
on a Tuesday morning
and returned to New York
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just ten hours before a game that night.
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He later explained he made such trips
[431]
when he was too wound up to sleep.
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- [Zack] This is just
showing also how good
[436]
Michael Jordan was, is
that he would stay up
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'til 5 in the morning in Atlantic City
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and then just drop 40.
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- [Ryan] Yeah, (laughing) I know.
[443]
- That's my thing, like, it
never really affected Jordan.
[446]
- It's almost like he was so
bored that he felt the need
[448]
to put challenges against himself.
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- Yeah, that's crazy.
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- That's one way to spin it.
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Another way to spin it is maybe
he had a gambling problem.
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Although Jordan's
penchant for gambling was
[458]
already established, it was
news of his associations
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with a few specific men
that brought his gambling
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into the media spotlight
in the early '90s.
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In December, 1991, it came out that Jordan
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regularly participated
in high stakes gambling
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with a man named James Slim Bouler.
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- [Zack] I don't like it,
anyone named like Slim, Slick.
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- [Ryan] Or if you have
little in front of face,
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like Little Jimmy.
[483]
- [Zack] And if your name is Little Jimmy,
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but you weigh 300 pounds.
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- [Ryan] You don't
(beep) with Little Jimmy.
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- [Zack] You don't wanna
mess with those guys.
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- [Ryan] And Jordan messed with them.
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- [Zack] And Jordan was messing with them.
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- [Ryan] Bouler had twice been convicted
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for cocaine possession and
was facing a third charge
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which, if guilty, would saddle
him with a life sentence.
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He was also charged with money laundering.
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When investigators seized
Bouler's belongings,
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they found a $57,000 cashier's check
[509]
made out to Bouler and
signed by Michael Jordan.
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- That's bad.
[515]
(laughing)
[517]
Don't like that.
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- Also, once again, not to
keep looping back to this,
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a testament to how good
he was at basketball.
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He was so good that things like this
[525]
were like, "Eh, let him play."
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Jordan explained that
the $57,000 was repayment
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for money Jordan had lost to
Bouler betting on golf games,
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as well as money Jordan
borrowed from Bouler
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to cover debts from poker
and other gambling endeavors.
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Also that year, on February 19th, 1992,
[545]
bail bondsman Eddie Dow was shot dead
[548]
by four men just outside
his home in North Carolina.
[552]
The men who killed Dow
robbed him of the roughly
[554]
$20,000 in cash he had in
his briefcase that night,
[558]
but left the papers inside.
[560]
Among those papers, police
found photocopies of
[564]
three checks written by Michael
Jordan totaling $108,000,
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funds that were also related to gambling.
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- [Zack] No, Mike, come on.
[576]
How much were, like, NBA
players getting paid back then?
[578]
'Cause now they're signing
$120 million contracts.
[581]
- [Ryan] $108,000 to Steph Curry
[583]
might as well be (beep) Disney dollars.
[584]
In March, 1992, the NBA launched an
[587]
investigation into Jordan's gambling.
[590]
While the league had no rules
against gambling in general
[593]
and Jordan was not under
investigation by law enforcement,
[597]
they wanted to ensure
Jordan had not bet on
[599]
professional basketball games
and that his associations
[602]
would not bring disrepute to the league.
[605]
- [Zack] Okay, say he was
betting on basketball games.
[609]
90% of, like, crooked people
in professional sports
[611]
who would bet on it, they
would bet on their team to lose
[614]
and they would throw the game.
[615]
- [Ryan] Yeah, they would shave points.
[616]
- [Zack] Where Jordan
would do the opposite.
[617]
He would bet on the Bulls to win
[619]
and just go out and ball out.
[621]
- [Ryan] Yeah, he's like,
"Bet on me, I'm dropping 50."
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- [Zack] Yeah.
[624]
- [Ryan] A three-week
investigation turned up
[626]
no evidence of wrongdoing on Jordan's part
[629]
and was laid to rest with
a promise from Jordan
[632]
that he would no longer associate himself
[634]
with high stakes gamblers.
[636]
There you go, he didn't do anything wrong.
[638]
- [Zack] He's clean, he's like,
[639]
"Hey, I have some shady friends."
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I feel like that's everybody.
[643]
- [Ryan] Then on June 3rd,
1993, Richard Esquinas,
[647]
a former general manager of
the San Diego Sports Arena,
[651]
alleged that he and Jordan had gambled on
[653]
golf games for years and that Jordan had
[656]
racked up a debt of 1.25 million,
[659]
which, according to Esquinas,
[660]
was negotiated down to $300,000.
[664]
In an interview with Connie Chung,
[666]
Jordan denied Esquinas's
figure of 1.2 million
[669]
and claimed he only
ever owed him $300,000.
[672]
- If Michael Jordan owes you 1.2 mill,
[676]
you're not gonna
negotiate down to 300,000.
[678]
Almost a million dollars
less, $900,000 less.
[681]
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[682]
- Also, Michael Jordan's good at golf.
[684]
- [Ryan] The NBA launched
a second investigation
[687]
shortly after Esquinas made
news with his allegations,
[691]
but just a week and a half after
[693]
Jordan's October 6th retirement,
[695]
NBA commissioner David
Stern announced that
[697]
the investigation was concluded
and Jordan was cleared,
[701]
which some point to as evidence
of the conspiracy theory.
[705]
You get that, right?
[706]
He says he's going to
retire and then suddenly
[708]
Stern comes in and goes, "He's clear.
[710]
"The investigation proved nothing."
[712]
Could be coincidence.
[714]
- Man, slippery Stern.
[715]
Let me just say, he did
great things for the NBA.
[717]
(laughing)
[719]
- [Ryan] Jordan's wording during
his retirement announcement
[721]
has been examined as possible evidence
[724]
that Jordan made a secret
deal with David Stern.
[727]
In the conference Jordan said,
[729]
quote, "Five years down the line,
[731]
"if that urge comes back,
if the Bulls have me,
[734]
"if David Stern lets
me back in the league,
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"I may come back," end
quote, the key part being,
[742]
"If David Stern lets me
back into the league."
[745]
- [Zack] "If Stern let's me back in,"
[746]
what do you mean if,
you're Michael Jordan.
[748]
Imagine even, like, let's say the Bulls
[750]
before Michael Jordan got there,
[751]
how much they were worth and then after
[753]
the three championships
how much they were worth.
[755]
- [Ryan] Yeah, I get
the point you're making.
[756]
You're saying, like, if he's
essentially saved the league,
[758]
why is Stern then nickel-and-diming him
[761]
over this (beep), like, gambling thing
[762]
when in reality he can just
keep raking in the cash.
[765]
And if Stern's real interest
is saving the league,
[767]
why not just let him play?
[768]
- But if he did, say,
suspend Jordan, right,
[772]
and gave him a secret suspension,
[774]
you let Jordan leave for
a year and come back,
[777]
all of a sudden those gambling
problems magically disappear.
[780]
- Time heals everything.
[781]
- You could walk up to Michael
Jordan right now and say,
[784]
"I'll bet you $1,000 that I could beat you
[786]
"in a footrace from here to that door--"
[788]
- Do you think you could,
50-year-old Michael Jordan?
[791]
Let's make it happen, I think I could too.
[793]
- Yeah, MJ.
[794]
- I'm calling you out, Mike.
[795]
That being said, Stern insisted
there was no connection
[799]
between this investigation
and Jordan's retirement,
[802]
stating, quote, "As far
as the NBA is concerned,
[805]
"Michael Jordan did
nothing wrong and I resent
[808]
"any implications to the
contrary," end quote.
[811]
I don't trust this man.
[813]
- Here's the real conspiracy,
and it's the movie Space Jam.
[817]
- Okay.
[818]
- Someone pitched him the
idea, the script for Space Jam,
[822]
and it was a little soft,
"Why would I do this?
[825]
"It's just I'm gonna go
save the Looney Tunes?"
[828]
And they go, "Here it is.
[830]
"You retire from the NBA
and go play baseball.
[833]
"We write this into the script."
[834]
It was all a marketing ploy
for the movie Space Jam
[837]
'cause the Space Jam movie does not work
[840]
without him retiring and coming back.
[843]
- I think it's incredibly stupid.
[844]
- Tell me it's not crazy.
[845]
- Oh, it's crazy.
[846]
- I'm just saying you saying that there is
[848]
some weird secret suspension is crazier
[853]
than me saying that it was all marketing
[856]
for a movie that was a smash hit.
[859]
I don't think that gets talked about.
[860]
Like, Michael Jordan just
opened up his entire life.
[864]
Him retiring, the whole
reason why he comes back,
[866]
for a movie with Looney Tunes.
[869]
- [Ryan] Over the course
of his storied career,
[871]
Michael Jordan has managed to
[873]
astound the public at every turn,
[875]
inspiring legions of
fans, including myself.
[879]
The question of why perhaps the greatest
[881]
basketball player of
all time left the sport
[884]
only adds to the legend
and will remain unsolved.
[892]
(suspenseful instrumental music)
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