Michael Jordan became one of the most famous men in human history during his peak as the greatest basketball player in the world with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.
Jordan was popular across the world, even people that didn’t know anything about basketball or the NBA had heard his name. And it’s wild to imagine what his fame might have been like if social media were around like it is for today’s NBA stars. Kenny Smith had some ideas about that.
“To see Michael instantaneous around the world, he would be a, he’s like a 10-time billionaire now, he’d have $100 billion. Easily. Because he would be too popular, he would just be too popular. Because he was doing things we’d never seen. As great as LeBron is, we’ve seen a little bit of it before. We’d just never seen that the way Michael did it,” Smith said on Undisputed.
(starts at 00:55 minutes)
Michael Jordan is worth over $2 billion and perhaps a bit more after he recently sold his stake in the Charlotte Hornets. He made his money from NBA salaries, his relationship with Nike and the creation of the Jordan Brand, and other endorsements. He achieved all of this in an era before the internet and social media had connected the whole world.
If MJ was around in the current era, he would have many different avenues to make advertising money, especially off of social media. His hype would mean he would be getting potentially hundreds of million for posting minor endorsements on social media. That’s because the time it would save to advertise online using his platform would allow him to work with many more brands.
Michael Jordan was viral before that was even a concept and before instant information transmission even existed. In the era of social media, he would thrive. However, it wouldn’t all be peachy either.
Kenny Smith Pointed Out The Constant Attention Might Also Have Gotten Overwhelming For Michael Jordan
Jordan was under immense scrutiny during the prime of his career. And the constant questioning and people trying to get a piece of him every day eventually contributed to his first retirement in 1993. And Smith did point out that it would have become too much in the same video.
“It would have been too much. Because think about how much everybody in the world knew about him. He was like, our version of musically, Michael Jackson. Like, around the world, he was the most recognizable person in the world. And I don’t know if… It would be too much. It was already too much and there was no social media. All you saw was Michael everywhere.”
The advent of social media has changed the world completely, and it is very much a double-edged sword. Michael Jordan managed his fame to ever-increasing success in his life more than anything else though, and there’s no reason to believe it would be any different in this era. The GOAT would simply adapt.
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