"I took my punishment in that situation and I am done with it" - Michael Jordan opens up on gambling addiction in rare interview from 1993
Michael Jordan had a legendary career in the NBA and is widely considered the greatest player of all time in the league.
Winning six NBA championships and six Finals MVP awards with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan revolutionized the game of bsketball and dominated the league.
While he was amazing on the floor, he was battling with off-court issues that could affect his career and jeopardize his legacy.
One of them was gambling. Michael Jordan lost a lot of money in gambling, while it was rumored that his gambling issues led to his first retirement in 1993. During that year, the NBA legend and Hall of Famer addressed this issue several times.
"I think I have a very positive life. Naturally, there have been some things that I have done wrong, and most people have. The gambling thing is something that kind of get out of proportion."
"I took my punishment in that situation and I am done with it. But most of my life is as normal as it can be. I am an easy guy to get along with, I am a people-type of person and it's kind of understandable that people seeing me out doing things are like 'hey he is not doing things that nobody else would probably do'," Michael Jordan said in an interview with Australian TV back in 1993.
Michael Jordan always denied having gambling issues
Michael Jordan had a love for gambling and showed it several times during his career. Whether this was with his teammates in Bulls road games, with Team USA in the 1992 Olympic Games, or during the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals, where he was spotted gambling in Atlantic City on the eve of Game 2 of Chicago's series against the New York Knicks.
However, he always called it a 'hobby' and never admitted that he was addicted to it. “I can stop gambling,” Jordan said in a 1993 interview with Connie Chung that was featured in the Last Dance documentary. “I have a competition problem, a competitive problem.”
In another 1993 interview with Ahmad Rashad, Jordan described his gambling as a "hobby."
"I enjoy it, it's a hobby," Jordan said. "If I had a problem, I'd be starving. I'd be hawking this watch, my championship rings, I would sell my house. My wife would have left me, or she'd be starving. I do not have a problem, I enjoy gambling."
Michael Jordan denied any allegations of wrongdoing with his gambling, saying he never bet on NBA games during his career. The league investigated Jordan's gambling habits and ultimately cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Yet, there were always rumors that linked his gambling debts with his father's death, who was murdered in 1993. Still, nobody ever proved that these rumors were correct.
Though Jordan claimed he could stop gambling, there is no public evidence suggesting that he ever did. It is unclear when he really started gambling, but rumors suggest he had already started gambling when he entered the league in 1984.
Overall, Michael Jordan admitted that he took his punishment for his gambling addiction. However, this addiction didn't prevent him from winning six NBA championships and cementing himself as the greatest to ever play the game of basketball.