Friendship with Michael Jordan entails a few perks – Alex Rodriguez and Clark Hunt can testify. The host of The Deal can vouch for that Jordan brand of competitiveness and a sharpness while golfing and sports betting. Much of the A-Rod playbook of success is modelled after MJ. But Hunt – the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and whose family was one of the first minority investors of the Chicago Bulls – has been around His Airness often and learned quite a bit from him. Including Jordan’s astute business principles that take priority over his favorite leisure activities.

With Hunt as a guest on The Deal, A-Rod described businessman Jordan as, “He’s [Jordan] so competitive and that’s what I get from Michael. He is I think the most competitive person on the planet I know and learning from him that spirit I want to win was and is for me a great exercise.”

He proceeded to say, “And he is a fantastic businessman which many many people don’t realize too much. But the things what he is doing is very well organized, he’s very much looking to the details, he’s very attentive, and he want to provide value. He understands sport on a level I’m not able to understand it and he understands sports betting on a level where we are competing. So I see the directions here and he’s seeing that thinking ‘that would be a cool thing to do.’ That’s a perfect mix to engage on a business level.”

Hunt had a very recent Michael Jordan story to confirm A-Rod’s observation. He narrated to the hosts that he was at the GroveXXIII, MJ’s golf club in Florida, looking to play a few holes with the boss of the place as they usually do. But Jordan was occupied in a discussion with his business partner.
“They’re sitting there for like four hours going over all these PnLs line by line by line. And I asked him, ‘Michael, are you playing today?’ He goes, ‘Nah, today’s my business day. I got to go down the numbers.’” And now we know what golf-obsessed Michael Jordan would put down the clubs for. It’s a regular thing too as Clark Hunt said, “And he probably does this once a month right?“
It’s incidents like these why Clark Hunt, a born-and-bred businessman, credits Michael Jordan as his mentor in the field.
From owner to Michael Jordan’s friend

The late Lamar Hunt also took a huge gamble in 1966 when he bought less than 5% of the NBA expansion team called the Bulls. That entry fee of $1.25 million felt like a sunk cost along with all the money drain for decades till 1984. The Bulls selected Michael Jordan third overall in the draft and finally the dividend checks started rolling in to the Hunt family.

Clark Hunt maintains Michael Jordan was the family’s best investment yet. From their myriad businesses, they earned a solid footing as team owners with the Chiefs and FC Dallas. That’s how Lamar’s son, Clark formed a friendship with Mike but it goes beyond that. The Chiefs boss refers to him as his “a great friend and mentor of mine.”
While both Jordan and Rodriguez started as athletic stars and transitioned into multi-faceted businessmen and team owners, Hunt grew up in a business family and is connected to both through the Hunt Family’s ownership stakes in various teams. Yet he and A-Rod prove there’s a lot to learn from the Michael Jordan playbook.