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by Brendan Dunne
If you want to compete against Michael Jordan, you've got to be willing to put something on the line. At least, that's what longtime Nike exec and newly appointed VP of footwear for Nike Golf Gentry Humphrey says.
"If you win, you can go tell the world that you beat Michael Jordan," Humphrey explained in a recent interview while discussing the future of Nike Golf. "And if he wins, it doesn't mean much for him to say he beat you, because most people are not him. So he usually wants you to put something on the line."
Humphrey said that the first time he played golf against Jordan, His Airness asked what he wanted to play for. At first, Humphrey tried to take advantage of the difference in their pay grades to make sure he and Jordan were laying similar amounts of risk down.
"I told him, I said, 'Well, how about we play 1 percent of your income versus 1 percent of mine?' I said, 'If I set up a putt for $300, my butt's going to sweat a little bit, and he wouldn't sweat at all.' I said, 'If he had to put his $300,000 against my $300, then he might sweat.'"
Jordan wasn't having it though – he responded with "Get the hell out of here" and they ended up betting $100 instead.
