"They were averaging 6,000 people a game": Michael Jordan and agent, David Falk, once tried to bump his $850,000 salary through clever clause

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan is the wealthiest basketball player of all time. According to Bloomberg, Jordan’s net worth increased to a massive $3.5 billion after he sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets last month.

However, early on in his illustrious 15-year NBA career, Jordan was far less financially secure and even tried to increase his earnings through an attendance clause.

During an interview with the Cigar Aficionado’s Marvin R. Shanken in 2005, Jordan spoke about his first contract with the Chicago Bulls. He had signed a seven-year rookie deal worth $6.3 million in 1984.

However, his agent, David Falk, anticipated that Jordan would quickly outperform his contract. So, before Jordan had signed the deal, they looked for additional ways to increase his earnings.

That included asking Chicago’s ownership for an attendance clause in his contract that would pay Jordan a bonus for increasing fan attendance.

“Financially? People are going to love this,” Jordan said. “It was a seven-year deal. I averaged about $850,000 a year. The first year's compensation was $650,000. There was no signing bonus. We tried to get an attendance clause.

"They were averaging 6,000 people a game. So, we thought, ‘Okay, we're going to ask for an attendance clause.’ At the time, Jonathan Kovler was the owner. My agent, David Falk, went in and asked for that.”

However, according to Jordan, then-Bulls owner Jonathan Kovler had no interest in negotiating an attendance clause, as Jordan was expected to bring in additional fans:

"We're not going to give him an attendance clause because if we draft him at the three spot, he'd better put people in the seats.’ So they never gave us an attendance clause,” Jordan said.

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Michael Jordan on whether he was unhappy with his first contract

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan

Later in his interview with Marvin R. Shanken, Michael Jordan was asked if he was unhappy with his first contract.

Jordan denied having any resentment toward the Chicago Bulls' ownership at the time. He said that money was not his primary motivation early on in his career. He added that he was also paid more than a fair rookie salary at the time:

“No, I wasn't unhappy. Money didn't drive me at that time, so I wasn't worried about it,” Jordan said. “Once I signed my contract, I felt like, ‘Let's go out and earn the money.’ And, I was the highest-paid rookie at the time.”

Jordan later signed an eight-year, $25.7 million contract extension with Chicago in 1998. Overall, he earned nearly $94 million in career earnings over his legendary 15-year career.

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