Former NBA player Antoine Walker shared a wild Michael Jordan gambling story during an appearance on Run It Back on FanDuel TV. Walker revealed that a day before Jordan was supposed to announce he was coming out of retirement for the second time, he played Spades with him against two men for 36 straight hours.
“So, MJ was saying, ‘Hey, let’s all get together. Our last day, spend some time together before everybody head off to camp.’ He was going to make his big announcement the following day that he was coming back,” Walker said. “And we went to a friend’s restaurant which was actually right down the street from the gym.”
The group had a great time at the restaurant and even started playing cards. At one point, Jordan and Walker got into a heated Spades game against two individuals who were not players and found themselves in a hole very quickly.
“They got me and Michael stuck 100,000, then got to 200,” Walker stated. “Then MJ called home and got half a million. This all cash too, this is a true story. All cash and next thing you know we got a million dollars cash [and] we’re playing Spades I don’t know if you guys know how to play Spades, but Spades is not a game you play for that type of money.”
Well, Jordan probably didn’t care about that. He was used to gambling big amounts on various types of games and would have fancied his chances of winning. Things did not pan out in that way, though.
“They had us down 900,000,” Walker admitted. “… They were Spades sharks I guess. They had us down. But listen this is the funny part about the whole story. We get all the money back, except like 30,000. Michael Jordan is such a competitor, he was like, ‘I don’t wanna see them with that.'”
It’s not the first that we have heard about Jordan’s determination to not just get back the money he lost but also win some for himself. Jordan once lost $500,000 while gambling but stayed up all night and won $600,000. While he was determined to ensure that the men didn’t walk away with any of their money, he was spent.
“Mike ran out of gas,” Walker said. “And I think they end up winning like 180. Something like that, 160, 180 they end up winning… We felt good about ourselves. We came back from 900,000.”
Jordan was happy with the recovery job that he and Walker had pulled off, but he was now in no position to speak to the media about the comeback. He needed some rest and that delayed the announcement that he’d be playing for the Washington Wizards.
“He was tired, he was still married at the time,” Walker stated. “He was about to make a big announcement that he was coming back. He had the whole media circuit that was down at the gym waiting. They got ugly.”
The Wizards were reportedly ready to release a statement regarding Jordan’s return on Sept. 24, 2001, but had to delay it by a day because he needed some rest. He would go on to play two seasons for the franchise before walking away from the game once and for all in 2003.
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