Jake Paul Says He Might Pull A Michael Jordan And Leave Social Media Altogether

Michael Jordan is on a lot of people’s minds of late.

Today is the 18th anniversary of Michael Jordan’s last game in the NBA. 

And in just a few days it will be the one year anniversary of one of the most viewed sports docs of all time: The Last Dance. This was a unique communal event in the middle of lockdown and was the only taste of sports we had until the NBA bubble at the end of July. I don’t think we’ll ever have anything like this again. Everyone live tweeting during each episode and analyzing each episode the day after on the sports shows. Many young athletes and creators said they found a ton of inspiration from getting that unique inside look into Michael Jordan’s mindset. 

One athlete that found a different kind of inspiration from Michael Jordan and the Last Dance was Youtube media star turned boxer Jake Paul, who has a big PPV fight with MMA star Ben Askren on Saturday night.   

In September, Jake shot a video for his single called 23, which frankly had ZERO to do with Michael Jordan except for that Jake Paul was celebrating his 23rd birthday, his Jordan year. We could do an entire dissertation on this song but for now, let’s move on. 

I had the chance to talk to Jake about his upcoming fight with Ben Askren tomorrow. It was a fascinating conversation that turned into a discussion about the inspiration behind that song, and like Jordan, his willingness to embrace the bad guy role.

TK: Do you think you leaned into the villain role in the past? 

JP: I think I had to. At many points, I didn’t have a choice. I don’t think I would have the career I’ve had without leaning into it. … A commenter said if Jake just talked like this all the time, he would have a lot more fans but then he wouldn’t be as wealthy and rich because people wouldn’t talk about him. It’s a double edged sword. I’m a villain, but I feel like I’m not. It’s a weird tightrope to walk. 

One of the things that Jake talked about was how he took inspiration from Jordan, and all the struggles he went through navigating fame. He actually said he uses things he learned from the Last Dance in his preparation for fights. Then, he dropped an absolute bombshell.

TK: Have you ever considered taking a sabbatical like Jordan did, just kind of walking away from social media?

JP: Yes. Yes I have. I’ve thought about it tons of times. There might be something coming soon with that, I don’t know. I’m sort of just exhausted from all this shit. It’s just toxic. There’s really nothing good that comes out of social media if you think about it. I’m just over social media as a whole.

Remember, this is a man with 60 MILLION followers across various social media platforms. If his followers were a country, they’d be the 25th largest nation on earth. He has 20 million YouTube subscribers alone and makes over $20 million a year just from his social presence. 

And he’s thinking about walking away from it because it’s just so toxic. 

I know you probably hate Jake Paul. Jake Paul knows you probably hate Jake Paul. But if you listen to the interview, you’ll find he is much more thoughtful and introspective than you might think. This exchange, for example, was fascinating. 

TK: Do you think Jake Paul becomes Jake Paul without becoming a heel, that bad guy?

JP: No. For example, this fight this weekend [with Ben Askren], so many people are interested in it because a lot of people want to see me lose. A lot of people want to see me on the canvas and be HAHA we got the last laugh. The Jake Paul haters finally won because Jake Paul lost. And there’s a lot of them … but hey, at the end of the day, it’s making the fight bigger.

Jake had a lot more to say about the nature of social media, what it means to play the villain role, and why fighting is so important to him in the latest episode of This League (he also talks about Jordan, Lebron, Kyrie and a lot of other NBA stuff). People slept on Jake Paul before he made Nate Robinson into a meme. Can he do the same to Ben Askren or will he become the meme this time? One thing’s for sure, a lot of people will tune in to find out. 

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