,quality(10),blur(50))
Jay Mariotti: “All of these gambling stories are true. Richard Esquinas in San Diego, the murdered bail bondsman in North Carolina, the convicted cocaine trafficker ‘Slim’ Bouler. These are all true stories of scumbags gambling with Michael… 1993 was a blur… All these stories started to hit us -- the Atlantic City story, then David Stern announces he’s ‘investigating Michael’s gambling’, then his father is murdered, and then Michael retires. We’d be very irresponsible to try and connect those dots, but with that being said, the problem that I have with it is that the media went very soft… If a problem gambler, and he certainly was, is sitting on the 18th green with Richard Esquinas, maybe Esquinas tells him ‘hey look, you’re down $1.2 million’... How do you know Michael in that state of mind, Esquinas asks him to screw around with an over/under? Who knows what he would do. I’m not suggesting that happened, but if I’m the NBA commissioner I am frightened if my meal ticket is in the middle of this nonsense. David Stern NEVER investigated this in any sort of way, and they announced the end of the probe two days after he retired. I wanna know EVERYTHING Michael was up to, and I don’t think Stern had any interest at all in knowing what Jordan was up to… I would have loved to see Adam Silver in the middle of this Jordan investigation. How does Pete Rose, Lance Armstrong, Tom Brady, or the Houston Astros feel about this?? “ (Full rant above)
Listen to Jay Mariotti explain why he thinks the media has been way too soft towards Michael Jordan’s dark history with gambling, as ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’ documentary didn’t really offer a contrarian viewpoint when they presented the highly anticipated episode detailing Jordan’s gambling, his father’s murder, and his sudden retirement.
Jordan’s involvement with shady individuals on the golf course is well-documented, and so is his history of racking up substantial amounts of debt with these mischievous figures as well.
Check out the audio above as Mariotti says the NBA conducted a puppet investigation in the mid-90’s into Jordan’s gambling tribulations, and says we don’t know if Jordan could have possibly messed with over/unders of games he was playing in to get out of a gambling debt.