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Michael Jordan shopping in empty grocery stores is a contrast to Dwyane Wade discovering Old Navy after retirement

Michael Jordan shopped in empty grocery stores while today's athletes have assistants run daily errands
Shandel Richardson|
Michael Jordan shopping in empty grocery stores is a contrast to Dwyane Wade discovering Old Navy after retirement
Michael Jordan shopping in empty grocery stores is a contrast to Dwyane Wade discovering Old Navy after retirement

A revelation of former Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan shopping alone is proof athletes today have it easier.

In a story published by The Undefeated, Bulls teammate Brad Sellers said Jordan would pay grocery stores to stay open after closing hours so he could shop.

“He told me he would call Jewel-Osco [a grocery chain] about 15 minutes before they closed, and let them know he was coming in,” Sellers told the website. “They would stay open later to let him shop.”

It was shocking considering most of today's athletes, such as Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade, are paid well enough to hire assistants to handle daily errands. Wade's popularity grew so much in South Florida he was unable to appear in public without drawing a crowd.

He was so sheltered when it came to shopping he rarely visited stores. That has changed since he retired after the 2018-19 season. Last year his wife Gabrielle Union made an appearance on "The Late, Late Show with James Corden" and told a story of Wade's first trip to an Old Navy.

“What is this place? They’ve got all kinds of khaki shorts, and cargo shorts, and there’s all different colors,” Wade asked Union.

Union responded, “That’s Old Navy."

Wade later explained the feeling after his discovery in an interview with SI.com's Rohan Nadkarni.

"So I go into Old Navy and I start buying stuff. So I grabbed what I felt was like, [laughs], a lot of stuff, like it’s got to be $100,000. Not a $100,000 but just speaking in that sense. I got up to the register and it was like $500. I was like, “Holy s**t, I thought this was way more.” So I’m kind of freaking out about that kind of stuff. And just to be able to be in L.A. and go shopping and nobody notices me was a cool experience. I never thought I would say that 16 years ago when I wanted people to notice me. Now I’m going places hoping people don’t, so I can enjoy myself and not have anxiety or anything."

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star. TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here

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