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Today I learned that Michael Jordan is a 20-page love letter kind of guy and I could not be more surprised if you told me that Dennis Rodman is abstinent.
The love letter, written by Jordan in 1989 to then 23-year-old actress Amy Hunter, sold for $25,703 at an auction Sunday morning after selling for $2,560 in 2014. That Last Dance publicity bump is tangible.
The letter is postmarked from Charlotte on July 11, 1989, and the stationary it’s written on is from the Guest Quarters Suite Hotel in Troy, Michigan, which is where the Bulls stayed when they battled the Pistons in the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals that May.
A 20-page handwritten Michael Jordan love letter, which sold six years ago for $2,560, sold early this morning for $25,703 in @IconicAuctions sale pic.twitter.com/rOs3X7zzQe
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 31, 2020
Before we get into the contents of the letter, the context is interesting.
As the Baltimore Sun points out, at the time he wrote the letter, Jordan was two months away from marrying Juanita Vanoy at A Little Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The couple already had a son, Jeffrey, who was born the year prior.
That context colors the content because the letter appears to serve as an apology for terminating their relationship.
“Amy, sometimes I am the most selfish person on this earth because for one whole year all I thought about was Michael,” Jordan wrote. “… I admit I made a mistake, but found it difficult to change it. Let’s say I do change the mistake. You would not believe the problems we would encounter. It is unthinkable. We wouldn’t have a pleasant relationship or a private one. Our business up for opinions by the whole world. This is a pressure I can’t live with.”
“Amy, if I was Michael Jordan, the ordinary man with a 9 to 5 job, then it wouldn’t be hard to admit my mistake,” Jordan wrote. “But instead, I am the Michael Jordan who is put on the pedestal and viewed to be the perfect role model. A lot of people, not just kids, but whole families. Can you imagine the responsibilities I have to deal with. Not to mention a baby by a lady who I have loved for 3 1/2 years.”
…
“Amy, I will always love you until the day I die!”
-Michael
Hunte would go on to play officer Jamie Strickland in Pacific Blue and eventually marry Tony Cornelius before getting divorced.
Jordan divorced Juanita Vanoy in 2006 and got remarried to Cuban-American model Yvette Prieto in 2013.
https://twitter.com/Ballislife/status/406942437311926272?s=20
BASKETBALL | Michael Jordan and his wife Yvette Prieto are expecting twins! pic.twitter.com/2L30fe7R0K
— SneakHeat.com (@SneakHeat) December 18, 2013
He’s doing alright.