In 2003, John W. Rogers Jr. beat NBA legend Michael Jordan in a real one-on-one game at Jordan's Senior Flight School in Las Vegas, Nevada. The matchup ended 3-2 in Rogers Jr.'s favor. When he sank the final shot, Jordan reacted with a simple, "Oh, no." The moment was captured on video and confirmed by people at the camp. As of 2025, it remains the only proven and documented one-on-one win against Michael Jordan, and it still surprises basketball fans today.
"We all know that if I had played him 100 times, he would have beat me the next 100 times, but it was a memorable moment that I’ll always cherish," Rogers Jr. said in a 2020 interview with ESPN's Andscape.
Rogers Jr. was born on March 31, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. He played Division I basketball at Princeton University from 1976 to 1980 and even served as the team captain his senior year. So, he was no stranger to basketball.
At the beginning of his sophomore year, he told his parents that he was thinking about leaving Princeton to go home and play for the University of Chicago. Coach Pete Carril at Princeton gave him the last uniform on the team. Carril said, "John was not a star, but he was scrappy," according to Rogers Jr. One of his teammates Stephen Mills said, "Rogers Jr. never took a day off."
His father John W. Rogers Sr. was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen and flew over 100 missions during World War II. His mother Jewel Lafontant was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School. When Rogers Jr. was 12 years old, his father bought him stocks instead of toys. This would become the spark that started his investment career.
After graduating from Princeton, Rogers Jr. began his career at William Blair & Company in Chicago, Illinois. In 1983, he founded Ariel Investments at 24 years old. And over the next four decades, he built the firm into one of the largest Black-owned investment companies in the United States. Ariel Investments now manages over $14.5 billion, according to Forbes. Some of their major clients include the California State Teachers' Retirement System and United Airlines.
Mellody Hobson, who also graduated from Princeton University, joined Ariel Investments in 1991 and now serves alongside Rogers Jr. as Co-CEO. Since he launched the Ariel Fund on November 6, 1986, it has earned an average annual total return of 10.91%. In his investor letters, Rogers Jr. uses the motto, "Slow and steady wins the race." His firm didn't try to go for the highest returns like most traders and investors on Wall Street.
Coach Pete Carril passed away on August 15, 2022. Carril taught Rogers to be patient, disciplined, and to wait for the right moment instead of forcing a play. The same steady mindset that built his firm is the one that helped him beat Jordan. He didn't rush. He didn’t panic. He just waited for the right moment and took the right shot.
