The NBA regular season is down to its final two weeks as team jockey for playoff positioning. The Charlotte Hornets are five-and-a-half games out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with only seven games to play and could be officially eliminated from contention as soon as tomorrow night. It would mark the 11th time missing the playoffs in 14 seasons since the franchise was reborn in 2004.
NBA legend Michael Jordan took ownership control of the team in 2010 and hasn’t been able to replicate his on-court brilliance from the owners’ suite. Jordan won six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls, but the Hornets have not won a playoff series under MJ’s watch.
Despite the lack of on-court success, the Hornets have been a slam dunk for Jordan as an investment. Jordan was a minority investor in the club starting in 2006 before he paid a grossed-up value of $175 million in 2010 for the team—mostly inherited debt—along with the promise to fund tens of millions of dollars in future operating losses. Forbes valued the team in February at $1.05 billion, including $150 million in debt. Jordan owns roughly 90% of the Hornets.
The soaring team value and continued success of Nike's Jordan Brand pushed Jordan’s net worth to $1.65 billion in Forbes’ billionaires' list this month. The tally is up $350 million from 12 months earlier. Jordan ranks as the 1,477th wealthiest person in the world, up 90 spots from last year. His rank in the U.S. is No. 455 (the cutoff for the Forbes 400 was $2 billion last year).
Every NBA team is now worth $1 billion for the first time due to soaring TV contracts, an owner-friendly labor deal and the best international growth prospects of any major U.S. sports league. The average NBA franchise value has tripled over the past five years to $1.65 billion.
The value of the Hornets rose 35% over the past year. Low revenue NBA teams benefitted exponentially from the increased revenue from national TV and international components, which are both shared equally among the league's 30 franchises. Teams like the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers rely on their arenas and local TV deals to drive franchise values north of $3 billion.
The Hornets still rank near the bottom of the NBA’s financial hierarchy with only the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans worth less by Forbes’ count. But fan support for Charlotte has been stronger since it Jordan re-branded from the Bobcats to the Hornets for the 2014-15 season. The team ranked near the bottom of the league in attendance for a decade before the switch back to the club's original moniker. Last year it ranked 17th in the NBA with 17,332 fans per game before dipping back to 26th this season.
The Hornets’ fortunes got a boost this month from a new TV deal with FS Southeast that kicks off next season. Fox will pay an annual rights fee in the “low-to-high $20 million range, up from about $14 million this season," according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
Jordan’s pre-Hornets fortune was built on the back of his NBA career and more specifically his endorsements. Jordan earned $90 million in playing salary during his 15-year playing career. He was the NBA's highest-paid player only two seasons during his career, but he has earned another $1.4 billion (pre-tax) from corporate partners since he turned pro in 1984, including his post-playing career earnings. Jordan's career earnings of $1.85 billion (adjusted for inflation) make him the highest-paid athlete of all time.
Jordan’s biggest benefactor has always been Nike. The Swoosh originally signed Jordan out of North Carolina to a five-year deal worth $2.5 million total, plus royalties. MJ hung up his hightops for good in 2003, but the Jordan Brand still dominates the retro basketball shoe market with a 65% share last year in the U.S., per market researcher NPD Group (the Nike brand has 23% and Adidas 9%). The Nike-owned Jordan Brand also has a substantial business in China, according to NPD's Matt Powell.
The legacy Jordan and Nike built generated $3.1 billion in revenue for the Swoosh during its 2017 fiscal year. MJ’s cut is well over $100 million. Jordan still also pitches for Hanes, Gatorade and Upper Deck, further adding to his net worth.
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