It is no secret that NBA legend Michael Jordan is an avid golfer and enjoys playing just as much as he did basketball and baseball.
It’s also not news that the six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls enjoyed his celebrations, and underlined his competitive edge by gambling huge amounts of money.
Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all timeGettyHaving reportedly lost $500,000 at an Atlantic City casino midway through the 1993 Eastern Conference finals against the New York Knicks, which left Jordan feeling vilified by the media, NHL legend Jeremy Roenick later gave an account of an interaction he had with Jordan prior in the early 1990s.
According to Roenick, Jordan reached out to the Hockey Hall of Famer late in the NBA season, and mere hours before the Bulls were scheduled to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers about playing a round of golf.
Speaking on radio station 670 The Score, via Golf Digest, Roenick detailed how after completing a round of 18 holes – and winning lots of money off of the Bulls star – Jordan demanded a re-match straight away.
As such, they filled up their bag of beer and ice and repeated the course for a second time.
“This was like end of the season for us, end of the season for them. I get a call from Michael, ‘meet me at Sunset Ridge early, we’re going to go play 18 holes,” Roenick, a former Chicago Blackhawk, recalled.
“We didn’t have a game, we actually had a day off. So I meet him at Sunset Ridge… we played a round, beat him for a couple thousand, and I’m getting ready to leave.
“Now, the Bulls are playing that night. They play Cleveland, that night. So I’m thinking he’s leaving, it’s 10:00, he’s like ‘no, let’s go play again.’
“So we fill up a bag full of ice and Coors Light and we walk again. We roll around another 18 and I take him for another couple. We’ve been drinking all afternoon. Now he’s going from Sunset Ridge to the stadium to play a game.
“And I’m like messing around, I’m like ‘I’m going to call my bookie, all the money you just lost to me I’m putting on Cleveland tonight.’
“He goes ‘I’ll tell you what. I’ll bet you that we win by 20 points and I have more than 40.’ I’m like ‘done.’
Former Blackhawks star Roenick played golf with Jordan in the 1990sGetty Former NHL star Roenick now spends his retirement playing golfGetty“Son of a gun goes out, scores 52 and they win by 26 or something… after [36] holes of golf and having maybe 10 Bud Lights.
“The man, to me, is the best athlete that I’ve ever seen.”
Although his story had some holes in it, such as the brand of beer mentioned changing, it has been determined that the contest against the Cavaliers in which he was referring to was likely the one that took place on March 28, 1992.
It was during that game when Jordan erupted for a game-high 44 points as Chicago cruised to a 126-102 victory, a margin of 24 points.
It is just one of a string of infamous stories such as his legendary ‘Flu Game’ in Game 5 of the 1997 Finals when he dropped 38-7-5 on 48.1 percent shooting from the field, may cement his place as the greatest basketball player of all time over LeBron James.
Nonetheless, this isn’t the only story that depicts Air Jordan’s love for golf.
Jordan once dropped 38 points in the NBA Finals despite suffering from the fluGetty Jordan is as competitive on the course as he was on the courtGettyAccording to current world No. 3 Xander Schauffele, Jordan once beat him in a round of golf, and embarrassed him in the process.
“I did my best version of it,” said Schauffele, in the days leading up to the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst.
“He beat me straight up which is embarrassing.
“I pancaked him. And on his stroke holes, I started talking s*** to him.
Schauffele has nine career PGA Tour wins and has 47 top-five finishes, but even that wasn’t enough to beat the five-time NBA MVP on his day.
World No. 3 Schauffele once admitted that Jordan beat him in a round of golfGetty Jordan has beaten golf world No. 3 Schauffele in a round beforeGetty“He got all quiet, focused and then he birdied 15, 16, no strokes,” Schauffele said. “He beat me straight up.”
“As soon as he hit it towards the bunker, I was like, ‘Please, please, please, stay in it.’ And then it splashes out.”
However, Jordan isn’t indestructible on the course.
In fact, he once lost to legendary Detroit Pistons head coach, the late Chuck Daly in 1992.
Ahead of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona that summer, the assembled ‘Dream Team’ that featured the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley took to the golf course regularly.
It was there that Daly once beat the 14-time All-Star.
“Michael always had a little game going with everyone,” Daly said. “I ended up shooting a 78 and beat him one day.”
But being as competitive as he was, the 10-time scoring champion just could not let it go, and vowed to get Daly back at the next available opportunity – and knocked down his coach’s hotel room door at 4am raring to go for the re-match.
“When he beat me at golf, it was just like the Detroit Pistons beating the Bulls,” Jordan said. “That just ate at me because I didn’t think he was capable of beating me.
“So, yes, I wanted to play him. And the next available time, I got back at him.”
Jordan was such an impressive athlete that he excelled at an elite level in whatever sport he wanted to play.
So forget basketball GOAT, Jordan may well be the greatest sportsman of all time.
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