MJ’s price too steep

MANILA, Philippines — Basketball legend Michael Jordan has never been to the Philippines yet in 2016, he came close to making a three-day trip but a Filipino group involving businessman Dondon Monteverde and sports agent Charlie Dy of Virtual Playground found his fee of $5 million too steep to wrap up the deal.

Dy said Monteverde and Patty Scott of East West Private Ltd. tendered an offer sheet to Jordan through his business agent David Falk. The offer was for a $3 million fee, private plane travel and five-star accommodations. The proposed activities for Jordan’s visit were a golf or poker tournament or both, a kids basketball camp, a mall appearance and a gala dinner with an auction where 50 percent of the proceeds would go to a Philippine charity of his choice.

Falk negotiated to up the fee to $5 million. Dy said it was too much money to raise and the project wouldn’t be viable. That ended the talks and to this day, Jordan has never tasted the warmth of Filipino hospitality.

A few days ago, Falk was quoted in media claiming “a woman in the Philippines” offered $7 million for Jordan to visit. But Dy said from his knowledge, no other group approached Jordan. “It happened four years ago so maybe, there was some confusion on the numbers,” said Dy.

In the offer sheet, the proponents told Jordan that “the Philippines is a country where basketball is the No. 1 sport and you are the greatest player the sport has ever produced…every young Filipino who loves basketball, who nurtures a dream of being on a collegiate or professional team, has one inspiration, one idol to emulate – Michael Jordan…we are committed to make this trip not only a historic one for the entire Philippines but also a truly enjoyable one for you.”

Twice, Jordan went to Japan for promotional tours and has visited Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei. In 1996, he starred in a two-hour extravaganza at the Yokohama Arena with Charles Barkley, Jason Kidd, Mike Finley and Damon Stoudamire. It was a carnival-like show with Jordan doing court drills, refereeing a 3-on-3 game pitting Barkley, Kidd and Finley against sumo wrestlers, going one-on-one with a 10-year-old Japanese boy, engaging Barkley in a game of H-O-R-S-E (changed to N-I-K-E) and scrimmaging with Japanese national players. In 2004, Jordan was back in Japan, this time in Tokyo to promote his new Flight line of sportswear. That same year, Jordan went to Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei.

“Michael was going to China in 2016 so we thought it would be easier to bring him over to Manila since he would already be in Asia,” said Dy. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. Our group, Virtual Playground, got to know East West in 2015 when they arranged for Ray (Parks) to play in the NBA Summer League and pursue his NBA dream. I remember meeting Patty and Chao (Espaldon) of East West with Mr. Hans (Sy) in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League where Ray played for the Dallas Mavericks. The next year, we thought of doing a project together in the Philippines and since Jordan has never been to Manila, we came up with the idea of a tour.”

Dy said early in the 1996-97 season, he watched Jordan in action against the Miami Heat at the United Center with Gatorade executive Freddie Herrera and four Adamson high school players (Chris Mijares, Jake Van Cleave, Carlo Paningbatan and Terrence Ferrer) who won a Gatorade-sponsored junior 3-on-3 nationwide tournament. Chicago won, 103-71, with Jordan scoring 28 points on Nov. 13, 1996. “Zamboanga won the championship in the senior division but since the players had no US visas, they cashed in instead,” recalled Dy. “The prize was to watch an NBA game live. Since our Adamson team won the junior division, we flew to Chicago. We were on the second row across the Bulls bench. We never got to meet Jordan. We went to his restaurant in Chicago hoping to meet him there but he didn’t come.” With the global popularity of the ESPN docu series “The Last Dance,” there is a renewed interest in Jordan’s history. When the pandemic is over and things are back to normal, maybe, Jordan may still find his way to Manila where Dy and millions of fans continue to wait for the chance to meet the GOAT.