Imagine having to show up for work every day knowing your boss is Michael Jordan.
MJ is inarguably one of the greatest of all time: A 6-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls, a 6-time NBA Finals MVP, a 14-time NBA All-Star and a 5-time league MVP, just to name a few of his many accomplishments.
Talk about pressure trying to meet his expectations.
Since retiring from playing basketball, Jordan has stayed busy with plenty of other business ventures. In 2010, MJ bought a majority stake in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, making him the only former NBA player to be the majority owner of a team.
And in 2020, he ventured outside of basketball to become a NASCAR team owner, joining with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin to form 23XI Racing, which today fields the #23 car for Bubba Wallace and the #45 car for Tyler Reddick in the NASCAR Cup Series (with both cars carrying Jordan’s former NBA numbers).
Jordan has been much more than a passive investor in his race team. The NBA superstar is often at the racetrack and sitting atop the team’s pit box, remaining closely involved with the team’s operations.
In 2023, Jordan sold his majority share of the Hornets to an investment group that includes Eric Church and rapper J. Cole, along with investors Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, among others.
And according to Bubba Wallace, that’s freed up Jordan to be much more involved with 23XI Racing.
Bubba joined his spotter Freddie Kraft, who is a co-host of the popular Door Bumper Clear podcast for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Dirty Mo Media, where he talked about MJ’s role with his race team:
“It’s growing rapidly. Because of the sale he has more time, he wants to be at more races.
You often asked him before, ‘Hey, you coming to any races?’ And he was like, ‘Eh, I’ll see what the basketball schedule is.’ That’s not the case anymore…
He’s definitely involved. He’s been on a couple of our team meetings. But Curtis, his right hand man who basically runs our ship over there, he’s involved each and every phone call.”
Curtis, who Bubba referred to as MJ’s “right hand man,” is Curtis Polk, who has been with Jordan for decades as his advisor and is credited with helping the NBA superstar build his business empire, including his partnership with Nike and his Jordan line of shoes and his Cincoro tequila line.
Jordan is notorious for his expectation of greatness, so it’s really no surprise that he’s more involved with his race team now that he has more free time.
And you’ve gotta think that’s just going to mean better performance on the track for 23XI Racing. When you go to work for Michael Jordan, he’s not going to expect anything less.
