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Michael Jordan's 20-page handwritten love letter to actress and model Amy Hunter sold for more than $25,000 at auction

Jun 1, 2020, 22:57 IST
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Ken Levine/Allsport/Getty Images
  • A love letter Michael Jordan penned to actress and model Amy Hunter sold at auction Sunday for more than $25,000.
  • The 20-page handwritten letter has sold twice in the past and, prior to this weekend's auction, most recently changed hands six years ago for $2,560.
  • Jordan wrote the note to Hunter in 1989, mere months before he would marry his now ex-wife Juanita Vanoy, according to The Action Network's Darren Rovell.
  • In the letter, His Airness writes that bringing his relationship with Hunter into the public eye would bring "a pressure I can't live with."
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Michael Jordan's got game off the court, too.

A 20-page, handwritten love letter His Airness penned to actress and model Amy Hunter back in 1989 sold at auction for a whopping $25,703 on Sunday, according to The Action Network's Darren Rovell.

The envelope containing Michael Jordan's 1989 love letter to Amy Hunter.Ionic Auctions / Beckett/BAS & JSA LOAs

The note was postmarked from Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 11, 1989. However, it's likely Jordan composed the letter months earlier, as it was written on stationary from the Guest Quarters Suite Hotel in Troy, Michigan — where Jordan's Chicago Bulls stayed during the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals that May.

Jordan's note to Hunter — who was 23 years old at the time and living in New York — has changed hands twice prior to its $25,000+ sale at Iconic Auctions Sunday. Roughly 17 years ago, Hunter sold it to a private collector, according to auctioneer Jeff Woolf. Then, in 2014, the letter sold $2,560.

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The unprecedented success of "The Last Dance" — ESPN's 10-part documentary series about Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls that captured the nation for five consecutive weeks — likely played a role in the massive increase in sale value for the letter. But Iconic Auctions' decision to publish never-before-revealed sections of the rather long love letter prior to the sale probably didn't hurt, either.

A portion of Michael Jordan's 1989 love letter to Amy Hunter.Iconic Auctions / Beckett/BAS & JSA LOAs

"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."

Michael Jordan.Focus on Sport/Getty Images

Months after writing the letter, Jordan went on to marry Juanita Vanoy — the mother of his eldest three children. The pair already had a son, Jeffrey, together at that point. Jordan references having "a baby by a lady who I have loved for 3 1/2 years" in the note, suggesting he was being unfaithful in his relations with Hunter.

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"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."

Jordan then described feeling like a "kid in the candy store" in that he wanted to be in a relationship with both Hunter and Vanoy.

"Amy the perfect solution for this would be to move to Utah and practice polygamy, but our society would accept and neither would I," he wrote. "So what do you do. I tried to establish a friendship but it's hard to be in love with someone and be their friend. I understand it too painful but does that mean we must hate each other and don't speak. I hope not. I could never find it in my heart to hate you."

Two pages of Michael Jordan's 1989 love letter to Amy Hunter.Iconic Auctions / Beckett/BAS & JSA LOAs

"Amy I love you so much!!! Well I know this was long but I think you deserve a long letter. It's so much more I want to say but I tire of writing plus there's no more paper," Jordan added.

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He added "Amy, I will always love you until the day I die!!" on the back of the final page.

Jordan eventually went on to marry, and later divorce, Vanoy. He's since remarried, wedding Yvette Prieto in 2013.

This is far from the first time of the the Bulls legend's romantic notes has come into the public spotlight. Two of Jordan's musings from his high school days — a love letter and a poem — sold at auction years back for a couple thousand dollars apiece.

Hunter herself has even sold other items connected to Jordan — like letters and memorabilia — at auction in the past, but the 1989 note was the most expensive of the collection. The letter, which is certified to feature Jordan's own handwriting by Beckett Authentication and James Spence Authentication, contains five different Jordan signatures and mutliple insights into the NBA legend's romantic affairs.

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