Michael Jordan Joins The Billionaire's Club

Somebody prep LeBron James' Mirror of Somber Introspection — as it turns out, he won't accomplish his long-since-established goal of becoming the first billionaire athlete. He's been beaten to the top of that particular mountain of cash by — who else? — Michael Jordan.

Forbes estimated back in June that Jordan, 52, had joined the ranks of the billionaires after increasing his stake in the Charlotte Hornets — the franchise in which he purchased a majority interest for $275 million in March of 2010, back when they were the Bobcats — from 80 percent to 89.5 percent. On Monday, the magazine confirmed Jordan's status as one of the world's 290 new billionaires, which sure must represent a nice cherry on top of the Hornets' 98-83 Sunday win over the Orlando Magic for Charlotte's Hall of Fame boss. From Forbes' Dan Alexander:

The most famous rookie on the billionaires list? Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time and indisputably the best-paid athlete of all time. Most of his cash comes from Nike payouts on his iconic brand. The Jordan brand grossed an estimated $2.25 billion in 2013, earning his Airness some $90 million. But his most valuable asset is his stake in the Charlotte Hornets, worth more than $500 million. When ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for a stunning $2 billion, values of all NBA teams skyrocketed, creating three new billionaires. Jordan’s old boss Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls, joined the list with a fortune of $1.3 billion, and Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander boosted his net worth to $1.6 billion.

As a matter of fact, as ProBasketballTalk's Dan Feldman notes, a whopping 18 NBA owners — a majority of the 30-team league — pop up on Forbes' list — 19 if you include James L. Dolan of the New York Knicks, whose individual net worth falls shy of 10 figures, but whose family fortune exceeds $4 billion.

That seems like the sort of thing that National Basketball Player's Association Executive Director Michele Roberts might file away for future discussions with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about how one-third of NBA teams are still losing money ... especially considering these net-worth evaluations come before the owners' coffers get reloaded with their share of the league's new $24 billion media rights deal. Saying the nay-no to cap smoothing, one would suspect, is just the tip of the iceberg when those negotiations open up.

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