Michael Jordan (left) and Yvette Prieto flash their biggest smiles (Ethan Miller/ Getty).
Any discussion of the NBA postseason eventually turns to Michael Jordan, the greatest player in NBA history and a strong point of comparison for today's stars 15 years after he participated in his last playoff game. That was particularly the case on Saturday, when Chicago Bulls guard Nate Robinson came up one point short of Jordan's franchise record for fourth-quarter scoring in the postseason in a wild Game 4 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
However, the day was an important one for Jordan for reasons entirely unrelated to basketball. More than a year after becoming engaged in December 2011, Jordan married fiancee and former model Yvette Prieto, his girlfriend of five years. People.com has details:
After five years of dating, former NBA star Michael Jordan, 50, and his model-fiancée, Yvette Prieto, 35, made it official with a wedding in Palm Beach, Fla., on Saturday.
About 500 people arriving by tour buses piled into an Episcopal church called Bethesda-by-the Sea, where Donald Trump was married to Melania in 2005.
Jordan invited another 1,500 to join them for the reception at the Bears Club, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course community in Jupiter, Fla., where Jordan recently built a 38,000-square-foot home.
While 2,000 combined guests does not exactly suggest a modest affair, the full size of this monstrous event cannot be communicated by words. After the jump, check out aerial photos of the wedding tent.
Michael Jordan’s Wedding Tent is 40,000 sq ft, 5000 sq ft larger than his 35,000 sq ft home in the elegant and classy Bears Club in Jupiter, Fl. As you can see from the aerial, Jack Nicklaus has graciously allowed Jordan to place the largest tent in wedding history on the driving range of his renowned golf course in order to house the only 2,200 invited guests! [...]
The sound system for the affair arrived in four semi-trailers and the band spent the entire day Friday rehearsing for the BIG EVENT. Golfers had a great time on the course, with a backdrop of music to play to.
So, to recap, Michael Jordan's wedding reception occurred in a temporary tent larger than his own house, complete with bathrooms big enough to host a separate large wedding and a dance floor with its own lighting effects system. What an intimate affair!
This is Jordan's second marriage. In 2006, he split with Juanita, his wife of 17 years, in what Forbes called the costliest divorce ever. He has two sons and one daughter from that marriage.
There are as yet no details on the content of Saturday's ceremony and/or reception, so we can only speculate if His Airness wore special Air Jordans or how many buttons were on his suit jacket. It's safe to guess that several of Jordan's former teammates were in attendance, although chances are he didn't invite Craig Ehlo.
Also, while it may seem odd for the owner of an NBA franchise to schedule his wedding during the playoffs, please remember that Jordan presides over the Charlotte Bobcats, the second-worst team in the league this season at 21-61. I'm pretty sure both MJ and Prieto knew their schedule would be free.
By Eric Freeman | Ball Don't Lie –
