MICHAEL JORDAN is donating $7M to "launch two medical clinics in troubled Charlotte communities, in one of the largest gifts ever from the basketball legend with deep ties to North Carolina," according to a front-page piece by Roberts & Bonnell of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Jordan's donation will "fund Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Clinics to be built in north and northwest Charlotte." Opening of the clinics is projected for late '20. Jordan's manager ESTEE PORTNOY said that Jordan began having conversations with Winston-Salem-based Novant Health -- for years the Hornets’ official health care provider -- about 16 months ago as he "sought ways to help poor populations in Charlotte." She added that Jordan was "largely spurred" by a '14 study from Harvard and Cal that "found poor children in Charlotte have the worst odds of those in any big U.S. city to lift themselves out of poverty." Portnoy said that though his primary residence is in Florida, Jordan "considers Charlotte his second home." Novant said that the two clinics "will offer not only family physicians and pediatricians, but also behavioral health, physical therapy, social work, oral health and family-planning services." Portnoy said that the gift ranks among the "biggest charitable gifts from Jordan," whose recent donations include $5M last year for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/9). Meanwhile, in Charlotte, Katherine Peralta noted Jordan last week wrote a letter to Amazon CEO JEFF BEZOS and other execs "urging them to consider Charlotte" as the site for their second HQ, which would "employ up to 50,000" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/7).
