Michael Jordan joins Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans
Michael Jordan, looking on from the 23XI Racing pit box during the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500, is the first pro athlete to make the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans.
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Michael Jordan has joined yet another exclusive club.
Forbes announced that Jordan, with a net worth of $3 billion, became the first professional athlete to join its Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people in the United States. Elon Musk tops the list with a net worth of $251 billion.
Jordan selling his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets for $3 billion helped propel him into the Forbes list.
“Michael’s one of the few people that have had success three times,” Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards, Mystics and Capitals, told Forbes. “A lot of entrepreneurs, they make it once. They have a big win, take their winnings, retire and [we] never hear from them again, or they try something a second time and it doesn’t work. He’s had three mega successes,” Leonis said, referring to Jordan’s career as a player and owner, and Jordan brand at Nike.
Jordan, Tiger Woods and LeBron James, according to Forbes’ calculations, are the only professional athletes to become billionaires.
Though Jordan is now just a minority owner of the Hornets, he is still a co-owner of NASCAR Cup Series team 23XI Racing.