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16-year-old's mother wants Michael Jordan to take paternity test

The NBA icon denies any connection to the teenager.

THE MOTHER OF a 16-year-old boy who says Michael Jordan is the child’s father wants the retired NBA legend to take a paternity test, Atlanta television and radio stations reported yesterday.

Basketball Hall of Fame icon Jordan denies any connection to the teenager, Grant Pierce Jay Jordan Reynolds, and wants the case dismissed and Pamela Smith punished for making false claims, according to WXIA-TV and WSB radio.

In addition to having Jordan take a DNA paternity test, Smith wants the former Chicago Bulls superstar to pay child support. Smith says she has known Jordan for years and they began a relationship in the late 1980s before he led the Bulls to six NBA crowns in the 1990s.

“My son has the right to know who his father is,” Smith said.

In the lawsuit, Smith reportedly claims she became pregnant in 1995 and her son was born in 1996. That would have been while Jordan was married to his ex-wife, Juanita. They were married from 1989 to 2006 and had three children.

Attorneys for Jordan and Smith met privately in Fulton County Superior Court on Tuesday with judge Wendy Shoob, with Jordan’s lawyer filing a motion to have the case dismissed and Smith’s lawyer doubting that motion would be approved.

Six-time NBA champion Jordan claims that “Taj” Reynolds, who posted a homemade video on YouTube declaring Jordan was his father and that they had met and talked about the matter, is actually the son of Smith and her ex-husband. Jordan, who was not in court, is set to marry 34-year-old Cuban-American model Yvette Prieto.

- © AFP, 2012

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