A federal judge has called out Michael Jordan, for being greedy after the Charlotte Bobcats owner, sued a grocery store for $5 million after they used his name in a congratulatory ad without his permission.
U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, also scolded the 6-time NBA champion and his attorney Frederick Sperling, for trying to avoid appearing in court for the lawsuit he waged against Dominick’s Finer Foods LLC in 2010, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“I thought the demand was greedy,” Shadur said of Jordan, who is seeking $5 million in damages for a one-page ad that ran in a Sports Illustrated commemorative issue celebrating Jordan’s induction into the Hall of Fame.
“Are you allergic to the notion that he somehow ought to participate in a lawsuit that he brought?” Shadur asked Sperling at the May 22 hearing, a transcript shows.
Jordan sued the company after his financial adviser Curtis Polk, just happened to see the unauthorized ad while flipping through a magazine during a visit to the doctor’s office.
“Congratulations, Michael Jordan” the ad said in large lettering above the phrase, “You are a cut above.” Below the phrase was a $2-off coupon for a Rancher’s Reserve steak from Dominick’s.
The judge did say however, that Dominick’s decision to use Jordan’s name without his permission was “ultimately stupid and really totally without common sense,” but that the Bobcats owner was making a big deal out of a trivial matter.
According to his lawyers, any money won in the lawsuit would go to legal fees and the charity he started after his father who was murdered, the James R. Jordan foundation.
I would be shocked by this if it wasn’t common knowledge that Jordan is known to exhibit traits of mercilessness.