Tragic News: Legendary Basketball Player and Businessman Michael Jordan, aged 61years old, it’s with Heavy Hearted We Share Sad News About As he’s Confirmed To be…See more

Michael Jordan is one of the few elite athletes in the world to have truly reached the absolute apex of his sport.

That’s evident in his record with the Chicago Bulls, leading the team to two consecutive “three-peat” NBA championships — only to retire, return to the Bulls and do it all over again to rack up three more, also won during three straight seasons. Along the way, he’s been named league MVP five times, ranked as the No. 1 athlete of the 20th century by no less an authority than ESPN, won two Olympic gold medals, and co-starred with Bugs Bunny and Bill Murray in the hit movie “Space Jam.”

Jordan has also proved to have a canny eye for business. His longstanding partnership with Nike to produce his monstrously successful Air Jordan sneakers has brought him unfathomable wealth, estimated at being in excess of $1.5 billion — and that’s not counting the millions more he’s earned from his basketball career. He then segued from superstar basketball player to team owner, pocketing even more when he sold his controlling interest in the Charlotte Hornets for a staggering $3 billion in 2023.

Yet amid all that success and adulation, he’s experienced the darker side of life. He’s lost loved ones, experienced racism, endured scandal, felt the sting of divorce, and has been forced to come to terms with regret. To find out more, read on to explore some tragic details about Michael Jordan.

He helplessly watched his childhood friend drown

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Michael Jordan may have been a fearless competitor on an NBA basketball court, but he’s had a lifelong phobia about swimming due to a tragic childhood accident. John Salley, Jordan’s former Chicago Bulls teammate, offered details after telling VladTV that Jordan can’t swim, and is terrified of getting into the water. “He had a bad situation,” Salley explained, “his best friend died drowning and all of that.”

Jordan himself discussed the incident in an interview with Playboy. “I went swimming with a close friend one day, and we were out wading and riding the waves coming in. The current was so strong it took him under and he locked up on me. It’s called the death lock, when they know they’re in trouble and about to die. I almost had to break his hand. He was gonna take me with him,” Jordan sadly recalled, as reported by Ballislife.com. Asked if he had been able to save his friend from drowning, Jordan confirmed that he had not. “No, he died,” he replied. “I don’t go into the water anymore.”

According to Jordan, his friend’s drowning death occurred when he was quite young, estimating he was seven or eight years old at the time. The trauma of helplessly watching his childhood friend drown has lingered with him, leaving Jordan with an ongoing fear of water that has, seemingly, been the one thing in his life he’s not been able to conquer.