At first, Jordan and Bouler said the money was a loan for a driving range Bouler planned to build, but in 1992 Jordan testified in federal court that the money covered gambling losses from a weekend in South Carolina. That year, IRS officials investigating James “Slim” Bouler, a convicted cocaine dealer, on drug and money-laundering charges discovered a $57,000 check from Jordan. Vancil said the two walked into the Bulls’ Philadelphia hotel around 6:30 a.m., just as coach Phil Jackson was walking out. Jordan’s feral competitiveness was well established early in his career, but his betting exploits reached a more public level in 1991 when Jordan spent a two-day break between playoff games against Philadelphia in Atlantic City, N.J., gambling all night with Chicago Sun-Times writer Mark Vancil. And just after he entered the NBA, Scottie Pippen recalled that Jordan purchased him a new set of golf clubs, a gift disguised as a means for Jordan to take Pippen’s money on the course.īut Sunday’s episode goes deeper on Jordan’s gambling.
After a Super Bowl victory by the Denver Broncos, Jordan, on a team plane, is seen telling teammates to pay up. Jordan, in the documentary, says his addiction was to competition, not betting, but previous episodes of “The Last Dance” have already shown how the two mixed.
