Even as a young, lovestruck teenager, Michael Jordan’s heart belonged to basketball.
As revealed in a letter he sent to a high-school sweetheart in May of 1981, Jordan was clearly struggling to balance his love life with the game he would come to define.
‘Laquetta you are my whole life next to basketball,’ the 18-year-old Jordan wrote months before he began to play for coach Dean Smith at North Carolina.
‘Please don’t get mad about that statement,’ he wrote, backtracking from the dubious compliment. ‘You are my whole life. But you can’t have basketball. It (sic) hard for me to do this because one day I hope to make a living of this and I want you to be by my side. I can never show you how much my love goes for you but each day I try to show you.’
That letter, scripted in blue ink on two separate sheets of lined notebook paper, is now being auctioned by Lelands, where the starting bid is $10,000.
Jordan’s neat handwriting is easily intelligible, although his grammar could use some work as the 18-year-old omitted a few question marks, among other errors: ‘How has life treated you since the last time I seen you. (sic) How are your parents and the rest of your family doing, fine I hope. (sic)’
Last year, a prom photo of Michael Jordan and Laquetta Robinson sold at auction for $3,960
Thr letter, scripted in blue ink on two separate sheets of lined notebook paper, is now being auctioned by Lelands, where the starting bid is $10,000
The famously self-confident Jordan does make a few prophetic remarks, vowing ‘next year I will show you things you can’t believe’ and adding: ‘Some of these things will amaze you.’
Less than a year later, Jordan would hit the game-winning shot to beat Georgetown in the 1982 NCAA Championship.
Jordan also attempts to demonstrate his love for Laquetta by repeatedly stating his desire to get closer to her and her family. Although he does mention someone named Lynwood who opposes their relationship.
‘Laquetta, I will go out my way just to speak to you,’ Jordan wrote. ‘This show you how much I really care. My love for you will never run out. It will continue on through life. I am trying to get closer and closer to your family.
‘I want them to know that I love you, but if Lynwood doesn’t want that, then it will be sort of hard for me to do this,’ he continued. ‘I hope you love for me and my love for you can overcome his reasons for us not getting together.
‘Well, I think I have explained myself pretty good,’ he concluded. ‘I guess I better go. Hope to speak or see you soon.’
Jordan’s neat handwriting is easily intelligible, although his grammar could use some work as the 18-year-old omitted a few question marks, among other errors
The self-confident Jordan makes a few prophetic remarks, vowing ‘next year I will show you things you can’t believe.’ In 1982, he’d hit the winning shot over Georgetown in the NCAA final
He signed his letter ‘Michael Jordan’ just a few short years after growing up as ‘Mike.’
Laquetta Robinson attended Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carlina with the future Chicago Bulls legend. In 2011 she claimed other love letters from Jordan had been stolen from her North Carolina home, and even threatened to sue after the items were sold at auction.
This item, which is not claimed to have been stolen, had its authenticity co-signed by a collector, DailyMail.com has learned.
Last year, a prom photo of Jordan and Robinson sold at auction for $3,960, although not much else about their relationship is known.
Jordan and Laquetta would drift apart. He would go on to win a national championship with the Tar Heels before being drafted with the third pick of the 1984 draft and going on to NBA superstardom.
Since then, he’s been romantically linked to actress Robin Givens, married Juanita Vanoy, who gave him his three children before their 2002 divorce, and later wed Cuban-American model Yvette Prieto.
Confusingly, another woman named Laquetta sued Jordan for paternity in 2013, but the case was dismissed after another man was found to be the father of the child. That woman, Laquetta Theus, was ordered to pay Jordan’s legal fees of $6,510.61.
