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Michael Jordan Smokes 6 Cigars A Day: 'I Like Variety'

By DNAinfo Staff | October 12, 2017 3:45pm | Updated on October 12, 2017 4:13pm
 Michael Jordan graces the cover of Cigar Aficionado.
Michael Jordan graces the cover of Cigar Aficionado.
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Cigar Aficionado

CHICAGO — All-time Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan loves a good cigar.

Actually, six cigars a day, Jordan told Cigar Aficionado magazine for its next edition, hitting news stands Oct. 29.

A video on the the cigar magazine's website shows him getting a rare box of 60-year-old Cuban cigars from the publication's founder, with Jordan telling him "You know that I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to take joy and smoke every f------ one of them."

Jordan said his favorite cigar is the Cuban Partagás Lusitania, which the magazine said retailed for about $13 each in Cuba two years ago. However, he allowed, "I like variety."

He also called going to Cuba to visit cigar makers "my dream trip" but said because his wife is from Cuba, there are political complications of him going there.

Here are some other cigar-related Jordan tidbits.

• Jordan started to smoke in 1991 and became a daily smoker by 1993, he previously told Cigar Aficionado.

• At some point, he began smoking a cigar while driving to the old Chicago Stadium before games.

• Roland Lazenby, in his book "Blood on the Horns" said after games "Jordan and various teammates would pound down five or six beers and often fire up a cigar. It’s not unusual for pro basketball players to drink beer after games. They’ve been doing it for decades. It helped them replace the body fluids they’ve sweated away.”

• His 28,000-square-foot home in Florida has a home theater built with an air-purifying system to remove "mass amounts of cigar smoke," according to TMZ. A penthouse apartment he bought for $3 million on Lake Shore Drive in the early 1990s had a smoking room.

• Jordan, of course, loves to smoke on the golf course.

 

Michael Jordan tees off at the Derek Jeter Celebrity Invitational in Las Vegas. #DJCI

A post shared by The Players' Tribune (@playerstribune) on

Michael Jordan's Highland Park home, now on the market, has a walk-in humidor and a ventilation system to clear the cigar smoke.

The American Lung Association warns that smoking cigars is hazardous to one's health.

"Cigars contain the same addictive, toxic and carcinogenic compounds found in cigarettes and are not a safe alternative," according to the association's website.

Cigar smoking can cause cancers of the lung, oral cavity, larynx and esophagus, and those who smoke cigars heavily or inhale deeply also increase their risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, the association says.

After the Bulls won the NBA championship in 1996, Jordan was photographed smoking a cigar in the locker room, prompting criticism from an American Cancer Society executive who said it sent a bad signal to kids.