Michael Jordan‘s gambling habit brought a lot of media scrutiny to his otherwise clean career. However, the Chicago Bulls legend never caved into the pressure and continued to live life on his terms. This led to him gambling huge sums of money on several occasions. One such time was when he went double or nothing against his golf partner Richard Esquinas. In Roland Lazenby’s book, ‘Michael Jordan: The Life‘, Esquinas revealed the time when they put $1.2 million on the line.
One day, Esquinas ended up losing $98,000 on a golf bet to Jordan. Although they were “flexible” with the payment, this time Esquinas wanted to go all in. He cut two checks of $98,000 each to Jordan and offered to go double or nothing against him. He didn’t inform Jordan about the fact that there wasn’t enough money in the bank to cash in even one of those checks.
Regardless, the two went in on the bet and Jordan ended up losing the game. MJ had money to burn and would often boast about his massive wealth. He also used that argument to convince his partner of the gambling bets.
Lazenby wrote, “Jordan not only lost the $98,000, but ended up down an additional $626,000. Jordan, too, wanted a double or nothing. Esquinas, who was on a hot streak, said he pleaded with Jordan not to go double or nothing but finally agreed to it.” This time the stakes were up to $1.2 million on Jordan’s demand. However, Esquinas wanted to implement one change, whoever loses this game would have to pay upfront and after that, the double-or-nothing clause would go out the window.
Jordan ended up losing the game and had to pay the money, but it only happened after Esquinas went public with the money Jordan owed. There are countless stories of Jordan’s gambling, and he was often put under the spotlight because of his habit. The biggest blow in his life at the time came when Esquinas published his book Michael & Me: Our Gambling Addiction… My Cry for Help.
Richard Esquinas aired all his dirty laundry against Michael Jordan
Following the release of Esquinas’ book, several aspects of Jordan’s off-court personality came to light. However, nothing hurt his reputation more than his golf partner’s admission that Jordan owes him money which he is refusing to pay. Esquinas detailed the $1.2 million bet they had which was supposed to be paid upfront. After losing the game and the bet, Jordan refused to meet his end of the bet and later stated that the amount of money being demanded was an exaggerated figure.
Lazenby wrote in his book, “In a taped interview on NBC at halftime of Game 1 of the Finals, Jordan admitted that he had lost substantial sums to Esquinas but nowhere near the figure claimed. Esquinas, meanwhile, presented copies of his tax returns and copies of Jordan’s checks. He had apparently paid off approximately $300,000 of the debt before turning to a Chicago lawyer to keep Esquinas at bay.”
Jordan’s reputation was tarnished for a while because of all these claims. He was even being dubbed as an addict among many other things. It’s been a while since Jordan’s gambling addiction made the news. Either he has left that behind or has become better at keeping things under wraps.