James Jordan said Michael was the laziest among his children: "If he had to get a job in a factory punching a clock, he'd starve to death"

James Sr. and Deloris Jordan have five kids. Among the five, the fourth child, Michael Jeffrey , is the most successful. He is also (arguably) the best player in basketball history and the first NBA billionaire.

However, it didn't look like Michael would find the most success. As his late father once said, the Chicago Bulls legend was the laziest among his children.

"Michael is probably the laziest kid I had," James Jordan said . "If he had to get a job in a factory punching a clock, he'd starve to death. He would give every last dime of his allowance to his brothers and sisters and even kids in the neighborhood to do his chores. He was always broke."

Michael didn't like to work

When James Sr . married Deloris, the Jordans were a low-income family. After he left the Air Force, the former worked in a textile mill. To make ends meet, his children cropped tobacco. However, Michael lasted only one day because he said his back hurt.

MJ's two older brothers drove buses to earn a living while studying. Meanwhile, his sisters worked at McDonald's and a local department store. Deloris helped Michael get a summer job as a maintenance man in a hotel. However, MJ quit again because he was lazy.

"Man, I quit that job so quick," said Jordan via GQ . "I just couldn't do it. I could not keep regular hours. It just wasn't for me. From then on, I never ever had a job."

MJ dreamed big

While young Michael didn't want to work, he dreamed big and wanted to be a professional baseball player. When he was in ninth grade, that sounded unlikely. But his brother Larry knew Mike was destined to be great .

"We had this barbecue pit that we'd use as the backstop, and we'd play baseball with a tennis ball, and we had numerous battles," Larry recalled . "If I lost, I had to keep playing until I won. That's why, more often than not, it would end in a fight…I was the guy who would go for base hits, and Michael would go for home runs. He always had that little glamor about him."

Michael did not end up playing professional baseball—he quit in his attempt to make the majors. Instead, he focused on basketball, and it paid off big time, with MJ establishing himself as one of the hardest-working payers the NBA has ever seen.

Related: "I felt naked" - Michael Jordan's reaction after playing in the NBA for the first time after his father's demise