CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Michael Jordan took 18 steps from the front row of the courtroom to the witness stand in a Charlotte courtroom Friday. He raised his huge right hand, swore to tell the truth, and sat down, somewhat uncomfortably, in a witness stand chair not used to supporting someone who is 6-foot-6.

“Can this chair be moved up a little bit?” Jordan asked.

Once adjusted, Jordan introduced himself as “Michael Jeffrey Jordan” from Wilmington, North Carolina. He then proceeded over the next hour to describe everything he thought was wrong with NASCAR — the sport that he loved road-tripping to with his family at age 12, that he bought into five years ago as the majority owner of a racing team and that he is suing today.

Jordan and his co-plaintiffs believe NASCAR is an unlawful monopoly. With this antitrust suit, they basically want to blow up the way NASCAR does business with its teams, like the 23XI Racing team that Jordan co-owns with driver Denny Hamlin.

NASCAR, a private, family-owned and operated business that grew into a sports colossus over the past 75 years, is fighting to keep its business model intact.

‘I never saw Jim France risk his life’

One memorable line delivered by Jordan under cross-examination Friday concerned NASCAR CEO Jim France and the lack of risk that France takes, compared to the sport’s star drivers when they race each weekend.

“I never saw Jim France drive a car,” Jordan said. “I never saw Jim France risk his life. What I’m saying is give a little more credit to the people who take that risk each and every day.”

That statement, as well as everything else Jordan said during questioning by attorneys on both sides, echoed across a pin-drop quiet courtroom. The jury was riveted to Jordan, arguably the best basketball player ever and certainly one of the most successful sportsmen-turned-businessmen.

The courtroom, unsurprisingly, was packed for Jordan’s testimony as the trial’s sixth witness. When Jordan took the stand at 1 p.m., Judge Kenneth D. Bell ordered guards to not allow anyone in or out of the courtroom until he was done. For an hour, we were sealed off from the rest of the world, without cellphones, and it was a little bit glorious.

If you’d like to feel old today, please note that Jordan is 62 years old. On Friday inside the courtroom, he largely came across well. He had been well-coached, sure, but His Airness has always known how to play to an audience.

‘Serious Michael’ takes the stand

I’ve known and covered Jordan for decades now. We overlapped in college. I covered him occasionally as an NBA player. Jordan then served as the Charlotte Hornets’ majority owner for 13 years until selling most of his stake in 2023 (he remains a minority owner), which led to me being around him a fair amount.

I will tell you that Jordan is not only the most competitive person I’ve ever come across, but that he can also be egocentric, aggressive and cheerfully profane. He loves to win a game — any game, at any time, be it golf, blackjack or basketball — and he loves to bust someone’s chops.

What the jury got Friday, though, was very much “Serious Michael” — a dispassionate, smart businessman successfully burying that alpha male personality in support of the cause.

When asked early in his testimony whether he was a good basketball player, Jordan said only: “I used to be.”

When asked if he had played for any other team than the Chicago Bulls, Jordan said: “I did, though I try to forget it.”

Michael Jordan and the art of mystery

Jordan has always cultivated an air of mystery. Since he retired from the NBA in 2003, you rarely hear from him in public for more than a few minutes at a time. That’s part of why ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary was so successful. When MJ wants to talk, as he did at length in that documentary, he’s always engaging, and it’s hard to take your eyes off him.

That was the case Friday, as Jordan told the story of why he decided to sue NASCAR after only five years as an owner in the sport (Jordan said he owned 60% of 23XI and that he has invested $35 million to $40 million into his race team).

In Jordan’s telling, the teams that have owned NASCAR Cup cars for decades have been “browbeaten for so many years” that they can’t fight NASCAR’s charter system but simply need to sign what is placed in front of them, no matter how much they might disagree with parts of it.

As Jordan said, however, of NASCAR: “Someone had to step forward and challenge the entity. I sat in those meetings with longtime owners who were browbeaten for so many years trying to make a change. I was a new owner. I wasn’t afraid. I felt like I could challenge NASCAR as a whole.”

Bitter infighting exposed during NASCAR trial

The trial really is about money, as well as whether the “charters” that NASCAR teams get (those are similar to franchises in the NFL) should be permanent or not. Teams want them to be; NASCAR doesn’t. It has in the meantime exposed bitter infighting in the sport; everyone is getting some bruises in this one.

Jordan said he was brought into the sport by his father, who occasionally would drive Jordan, his mom and some of his siblings to tracks in Charlotte, Daytona and Talladega to watch racing. “We’d call it a weekend vacation,” said Jordan, adding that he began as a Richard Petty fan but then gravitated toward Cale Yarborough.

For 23XI Racing, Jordan said his role was “more or less a fan and financial support.” He said he attended 10-12 Cup races a year in person and watched the rest on TV. He made a good case that he was once a race fan, happened to get very rich through basketball and his popular shoe brand and then bought into a NASCAR team with Hamlin, whom he had gotten to know when Hamlin owned season tickets to the Charlotte NBA franchise.

Jordan says he’s pushing NASCAR to be better

‘Once inside, he thought that NASCAR’s terms weren’t nearly as favorable to its teams as those in other pro sports, and so now he is trying to disrupt everything like he used to disrupt a defense attempting to stop him. Because NASCAR wouldn’t significantly alter its terms, Jordan said: “This is where we ended up.” He gestured to the courtroom.

“I’m not discrediting the things NASCAR has done for the sport, but I’m pushing them to be better,” Jordan said. “The risk is to the drivers and the teams. The credit is not being given to the drivers who risk their lives every week without an insurance policy or a union.”

I’m sure the defense always knew that the day Jordan got on the stand would be a tough day for NASCAR. His combination of star power and smarts is such that a jury is going to give him far more attention than, say, some random NASCAR executive trying to say that the race teams have it good and should be grateful.

So Jordan shot and scored Friday. NASCAR’s lawyers didn’t try very hard to trip him up in cross-examination — they were practically deferential.

Then again, it’s a lot easier to cast someone else as the villain than Michael Jordan, whose celebrity is such that the next witness after Jordan took the same seat and said: “I just realize Michael Jordan has been in this chair.”

The defense hasn’t gotten to present its case, though. That won’t happen until next week.

Jordan was a star for his 60 minutes, but was it enough?

That we won’t know for a while. The trial is expected to last at least another week and perhaps a little more, although Judge Bell has counseled both sides to speed things up.

What we do know is that Michael Jordan is a formidable foe, and proved to be so again Friday.

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