Michael Jordan

Retired basketball star Michael Jordan was paid more by Nike each year than they paid the total of all their workers in Malaysia. Of course he was paid to wear Air Jordan shoes, by Nike. What you may not know is that those shoes were not NBA-legal. The Basketball Association fined Michael every time he wore them in a game, but Nike was happy to pay the fines.

Michael was born in Brooklyn, New York, but his family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina when he was less than five years old. Michael has two brothers and two sisters. He is the fourth of five children. When he was around 16 years old, in 10th grade, he had not yet attained his full 6’6″ (198 cm) He was only 5’11” (180cm) tall, and did not make the varsity basketball team. However his friend, Harvest LeRoy Smith, who also went on to become a professional basketball player, did make the team. Although this must have been a huge disappointment for the teenager, Michael was not deterred, and showed great athletic ability on the football and baseball teams. The following year, four inches taller, he was admitted to the basketball team, and made rapid and breathtaking progress.

In 1989, he married Juanita Vanoy. After a tumultuous 18 years, they divorced in 2007. She won a $168 million settlement, on which she’ll probably be able to live OK, and put their three children through college.

His second wife, Yvette Prieto, gave birth to identical twin daughters in 2014.