Eminem once almost lost a business deal with Michael Jordan.
If there’s one thing you don’t do with Michael Jordan, it’s indulging in trash-talking, especially when it comes to basketball. If The Last Dance is any indicator, MJ will almost certainly get the final say, and if you ever find yourself in business with him, that kind of rhetoric might cost you a lot of money. When Eminem was talking with Michael Jordan about partnering on an Eminem-branded Air Jordan, he almost learned that lesson the hard way. The rapper was recently on Sirius XM’s Shade 45, where he told a story about being on the phone with Michael Jackson and how a fun joke rapidly turned serious.
It was one of those things that sounded funnier in one’s brain, as Eminem put it. He went on to say that the shame did not go away when they hung up the phone. He said he was wondering if Jordan realised he was kidding since Jordan is a fierce competitor. Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s manager, said that Eminem was ‘sort of humiliated’ after saying that to Michael Jordan because he believed he ‘blew it.’
Eminem and Jordan are the GOATS in their field and once they had an interaction over a phone call which ended awkwardly for the Detroit Rapper. Earlier this year, Marshall appeared on SiriusXM’s “Sway in the Morning” show where he and Sway Calloway talked about the Michael Jordan ESPN docu-series ‘The Last Dance’.
Then Eminem recalled his only conversation with the Chicago Bulls legend over a phone. “We had a conversation about a shoe collab, I was on the phone with him,” says Eminem. “We were talking, like everything was cool like, he’s super cool like, Everything was good until we get to the end of the phone call and I said, ‘Yo man, when are you going to come to Detroit so I can dunk on you.’ It was crickets. When I got off the phone, I remember thinking, ‘I don’t think he knew I was joking.’” He then revealed that Michael responded with a quiet laugh.
“You guys have continued to do business with one another in a few ways since then, so I’m sure it’s all good,” Paul Rosenberg said.
