It's official ,Michael Jordan has now joined the billionaires boys club according to Forbes.
According to Forbes, the basketball Hall of Famer, shoe magnate and NBA owner is now the only athlete in the billionaire’s club. The financial magazine’s estimates show that Jordan crossed the threshold from super rich to insanely wealthy, as his stake in the Charlotte Hornets (isn’t that so much better to read than “Charlotte Bobcats?) recently increased from 80% to 89.5%. Given the 2014 sale prices of the Milwaukee Bucks ($550 million) and Los Angeles Clippers ($2 billion), Forbes now estimates Jordan’s Hornets are worth between $600 million and $625 million.
Mike Ozanian writes:
Our net worth figure for Jordan uses the $600 million figure. The Hornets have $135 million of debt, which makes Jordan’s equity in the team worth $416 million. After
subtracting all the cash Jordan has invested in the team, we estimate his net worth outside of the Hornets to be $600 million, giving him a net worth of a $1 billion.
As with all valuations, this is an estimate. It’s not as if there’s a running tally of the money in Jordan’s Bank of America account and, voila, he just hit nine zeroes in his checking. It’s all an educated guess. Plus, Forbesvalued the Los Angeles Clippers at $575 million at the start of this year and the team sold for almost four times as much. Maybe Jordan is even richer than they think.
So is MJ the first billionaire athlete? Sort of. In September 2009, Forbes bestowed that title upon Tiger Woods. Two months later, Tiger crashed his Escalade and began his fall from grace. He’s not currently listed on Forbes‘ comprehensive list of the world’s billionaires.