Like Mike: Michael Jordan’s right-hand man buys condo in Palm Beach

UPDATED May 25, 4:35 p.m.: A top Charlotte Hornets executive who is known as Michael Jordan’s right-hand man just purchased a $5.4 million condo at the Palm Beach Biltmore.

Curtis Polk, who handles Michael Jordan’s business and financial affairs, bought the 6,378-square-foot condo from the trust of Leandro Rizzuto, the late co-founder of Conair Corp, property records show. Rizzuto paid $3.7 million for the unit back in 2011.

The condo at 150 Bradley Place includes a cabana and has five bedrooms and six-and-a-half bathrooms. The 11-story Palm Beach Biltmore was built in 1925 on the Intracoastal Waterway as a hotel. It was converted into condominiums in 1978.

At his new residence, Polk will be close to Jordan, who has a home in Jack Nicholas’s Bear’s Club Residences in Jupiter.

Polk, a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets, has largely stayed out of the media spotlight but is a long time confidant of basketball legend Jordan, according to media reports. He is currently the chairman of sports and entertainment for the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets and a managing partner of the Hornets.

During the summer of 1996, Polk negotiated four of the five highest contracts in NBA history at the time. He negotiated Alonzo Mourning’s $105 million contract with the Miami Heat and Dikembe Mutombo’s $56 million contract with the Atlanta Hawks. He also helped negotiate Jordan’s record-setting contracts in 1996 and 1997 and worked with Jordan as a co-producer of Space Jam.

The seller’s attorney for the Biltmore deal was Leslie Evans, a Palm Beach attorney who is now facing federal fraud charges pertaining to a condo-hotel project in Palm Beach. Prosecutors accuse Evans and the project’s developer of defrauding about 60 Chinese and Iranian EB-5 investors out of $50 million. Evans has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated which party the attorney for the deal represented.