LaVar Ball has always been an enigmatic figure, and his opinions have sparked many conversations over the years. While his statements are mostly geared toward defending his sons (Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo), he has no problem making his stance known on other NBA topics.
Recently, the family patriarch made headlines for his latest statement on Bulls legend Michael Jordan. Specifically, Ball claims that Michael has been criminally underpaid by Nike, which has profited greatly from his world-famous ‘Jordan Brand.’ He suggested that if MJ got paid his true worth by the company, he’d have made well over $100 billion by now.
“Everybody who’s really good at something, they’re gonna come from a lower-income neighborhood,” said Ball. “So you give them a little bit of something, they think it’s a lot, but it’s nothing. Jordan, he made Nike over a trillion dollars. What did he say? His bank account never went over three or four billion. If I make anybody a trillion dollars in anything, you better at least give me a hundred billion. That makes sense.”
LaVar Ball has always been a staunch supporter of Michael, but he’s overestimating his worth to Nike. While the six-time champion remains a legend in his own right, he hasn’t made Nike $1 trillion; it’s more like $10 billion. It’s still an unbelievable amount of money, but Nike couldn’t afford to pay him his “true worth” even if they wanted to, because it’s worth more than their company right now.
To Ball’s credit, it’s true that Michael makes a lot of money for Nike. Since their partnership began in 1984, the Jordan Brand has made over $35 billion in cumulative revenue and is valued at over $10 billion today. In 2025 alone, it accounted for $7.3 billion of Nike’s annual earnings. To this day, Michael and his iconic “jumpman” logo remain among the most popular and recognizable symbols in sports culture, and it’s hard to put a value on that.
Despite his importance, MJ himself is only taking a fraction of the company’s revenue, an annual total of about $250 million. It sounds like nothing comparatively, but it’s worth noting that most of MJ’s earnings today still come from that Nike deal. While his net worth is over $4.3 billion, he’s earned well over $2.4 billion through Jordan Brand alone, far surpassing his NBA career earnings of just $94 million per year.
Not only that, but Nike doesn’t rely on Michael nearly as much as Ball claims. The company is worth $46.4 billion today, and the Jordan Brand only accounts for a relatively small percentage of that. Outside of Jordan, they have a star-studded list of athlete sponsors, including LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Victor Wembanyama.
So, while Michael Jordan and the iconic “jumpman” logo are undeniably important parts of the Nike brand, it’s not enough to warrant the kind of payout LaVar is arguing. The truth is, Nike can’t afford to pay Michael his “true” worth, and there’s no company that really can. For someone with his impact and legacy, MJ’s endorsement is priceless, and all he can do is settle for the best deal he can.
In the end, it’s hard to call Jordan’s deal with Nike anything other than a huge success, but it almost went down very differently. Back in the day, Michael initially wanted to sign with Adidas, but he ended up with Nike after his mother forced him to hear their pitch. It was clearly for the best, as what started as a simple $2.5 million contract eventually exploded into one of the most lucrative partnerships in NBA history.
