A teenage Michael Jordan's love poem could be yours at auction
I know it’s been said ad infinitum, but Michael Jordan really is the greatest love poet who ever lived.
Before the six-time NBA champion was His Airness, he was Michael Jeffrey Jordan, hopeless romantic. This much we learned when a high school love letter to his dearest Laquette surfaced in 2011. In it, he essentially invented emojis, writing “(smile)” and “(joke)” in long-form, so add that to his résumé.
If you just can’t get enough of sweet MJ nothings like, “I am finally getting use to going with a girl much smaller than I,” then you’re in luck. More love literature from the five-time MVP is now up for auction, this time in the form of a poem, which also features a totally normal obsession with height.
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Only you can brighten my day
Only you can show me the way
Only you can except (sic) my love
You and the great man above
Only you can kiss me on my cheeks
When I with you, I never fear defeat
I hope you grow very, very tall
Because right now you haven’t grown at all
My face shows happiness and blue
Because I will love “Only You.”
Move over Dick Lovelace. Step aside Bill Shakespeare. Debonair Jordan just rewrote the poetry game.
Actually, it’s believed he penned this gem some time in the late 1970s at either Emma B. Trask Middle School or Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C. The recipient is unknown, although we can’t rule out an undersized Laquette. Regardless, even as one of the most competitive humans alive offers a window into a soul that is in its essence the same as those of us who spent our teenaged years trying to woo the object of our affection, we are reminded Michael Jordan never feared defeat.
I do appreciate Jordan finishing with quotes around “Only You,” leaving the door open for future lovers, of which he’s had a few. I’m also not ruling out Jordan writing this letter to himself, because it’s far funnier re-reading the letter and imagining a singularly focused MJ reading this into a mirror.
Anyhow, bidding started at $1,000 on goldinauctions.com and rose to $1,400 after five bids on Wednesday morning — a relative bargain, considering this love poem features one of the earliest known “Michael Jeffrey Jordan” signatures and his earlier love letter sold for a cool $5,100.66 in 2004.
So, here’s hoping one of Jordan’s young protégés on the Charlotte Hornets puts in a winning bid and dares pin this letter to his locker, high school style. That’s right, I’m looking at you Frank Kaminsky.
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is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
