Michael Jordan once spent an entire season winning $100 a game off Scottie Pippen over Jumbotron races, and Pippen was none the wiser as to why Jordan kept getting the better of him.
ESPN’s Amin Elhassan relayed the story in an episode of “The Lowe Post,” with Jordan, a notorious gambler, figuring out who was going to win prerecorded races and betting Pippen $100 on the winner.
While Elhassan doesn’t specify which season it was, the Bulls ran video of three cartoon bulls racing, with each bull assigned to a group of fans. The winning bull got its section a free prize. Jordan showed up early for a game and took notice of the video operators running through the segment.
“Mike is watching this and says, ‘You guys already know (who’s going to win?)’ And the guy says, ‘Yeah, it’s all pre-recorded,'” Elhassan said, via Aaron Mansfield of Complex.
Jordan promptly found out who the night’s winner would be and cornered Pippen during a huddle.
“Fast forward, game, timeout, Phil’s drawing up some play, Mike goes to Scottie, ‘Hundred bucks the red one wins,'” Elhassan said.
Jordan apparently did this for the remainder of the season, and Pippen never figured out why he kept on losing.
A newer generation of Bulls players once bet on Rock, Paper, Scissors, but this is even more clever and cruel. You have to wonder how much money Jordan made off Pippen – if this started early enough in the season, you’d imagine that he lifted at least a couple grand off him.
H/T theScore
