CHICAGO, June 5: Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan broke his silence on Friday to deny allegations that he lost upto 1.25 million dollar gambling on golf games with a San Diego businessman, reports Reuter.

The allegations of Jordan's gambling losses were made in a book titled Michael and Me. Our Gambling Addiction ... My Cry for Help” by Richard Esquinas, a San Diego businessman.

"I have played golf with' Richard Esquinas with wagers made between us," Jordan said in a statement released through the office of his agent David Falk just before the Bulls played the New York Knicks in game six of the National Basketball Association Eastern

Conference Championships.

Jordan said that while he kept no records of the amount that was wagered, "I can assure you that the level of our wagers was substantially less than the preposterous amounts that have been reported."

Jordan had not spoken to the media since last week following reports that he went to an Atlantic city casino the night before a playoff game against the Knicks.

The book, to be published later this month by a company owned by Esquinas, was cowritten by Dave Distel, former sports editor of the Los Angeles Times San Diego edition.

In it Esquinas, who described himself as a compulsive gambler and friend of Jordan,

alleges that in 1991 he won 1.25 million dollar gambling on golf with the Bulls superstar.

He said the figure was later negotiated to 300.000 dollar two thirds of which Jordan had paid.

Esquinas, who said he wagered hundreds of thousands of dollars with Jordan during their four-year relationship, said he would not mind if the book made money but that was not his motive.