Michael Jordan – Memphis Flyer

It’s newsworthy that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are once again making movies together in 2023. The duo first burst onto the scene in 1998, when their script for Good Will Hunting won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and also saw Robin Williams earn a Best Supporting Actor trophy. Fast-forward 25 years, and the duo is back with their new film, Air. Unlike Good Will Hunting’s coming-of-age plot, Air is a true story: the history of Nike footwear.

Air begins in 1984 when shoe companies Adidas, Nike, and Converse are battling for market share. The three firms are fighting, with varying levels of success, to catch famous athletes’ attention — especially in the NBA, where Michael Jordan is a rising star. Jordan has a clear interest in Adidas and a sponsorship from Converse; Nike, with its 17 percent market share, is an afterthought.

Basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) sets out to make Nike a force to be reckoned with. Vaccaro goes way beyond his jurisdiction to create the Air Jordan, the now-legendary sneaker that catapulted Nike to the top table. Although Vaccaro’s risks lead to eventual success, many of the hurdles he encounters threaten the company’s stability and reputation. But in the end, Vaccaro created a new paradigm for celebrity endorsement.

Damon is only one of many familiar faces in Air, along with Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, and Viola Davis. As a director, Affleck uses each actor’s individual styles to evoke the very real people they’re portraying. One example is Viola Davis’ portrayal of Deloris Jordan, Michael Jordan’s mom. Making most of the decisions for him during that time, Michael Jordan’s parents were pivotal figures who negotiated contracts and dealt with the media. Davis’ firm motherly hand and emotional balance makes you believe Michael Jordan is her actual son. Similarly, Chris Tucker’s portrayal of Nike executive Howard White leverages Tucker’s comedic chops during tense scenarios, while also sincerely conveying the loyalty White had for Vaccaro and Nike.

From the start of the film, Affleck takes the viewer back to the ’80s, with clips of Mr. T and popular infomercials; ’80s hits like Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” soundtrack long drives. Even Affleck’s camera shots look like they came from ’80s films, like the repeated extreme close-ups of Sonny’s face. The bright wardrobe colors worn by Damon made this Gen-Zer run to my grandfather’s closet to find his Members Only jacket.

There’s one thing about the cast list that stands out: Michael Jordan, the man himself, is not in the film. Really? You had a $60-$70 million dollar budget, and you don’t even have a cameo of Michael Jordan? But Air is all the better without him. We get to know Vaccaro as a risk-taking go-getter, although he makes everyone around him anxious. Other minor characters like Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) are given opportunities to shine, especially through Strasser’s arc about his daughter and the risks he wasn’t able to take. Add in Michael Jordan and Air becomes all about him. The movie’s message about taking risks and the qualities that made it special would be overshadowed by the presence of the superstar.

The messages of this movie can be encompassed in one quote which keeps getting repeated: “A shoe is just a shoe until someone puts their foot in it.” This story was just an idea until Affleck and Damon got their hands on it — and made it something special.

Air
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The pandemic has turned the lights off when it comes to live sports, but we’re not entirely lacking sports drama. Not with The Last Dance, ESPN’s 10-part series on the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. (Six episodes have aired to date, with two more this Sunday, and the final two on May 17th.) It’s fascinating journalism, and really only set in the world of sports. ESPN was able to give the Ken Burns treatment to a basketball franchise because of one transcendent human presence: Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Soak up all 10 hours, but you’ll be left with zero ambiguity when it comes to the most famous man of an otherwise ho-hum decade. And I find the reflection significant on two levels.
Noren Trotman/NBA

First of all, how many athletes would you give 10 hours of your life’s attention in documentary format? My short list: Muhammad Ali, Ted Williams, Bill Russell, Julius Erving, and Wayne Gretzky. I reached out to my Twitter pals and received the following submissions: Serena Williams, Jack Nicklaus, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose, Tiger Woods. This kind of star power, in Jordan terms, is rarefied air. But quite honestly, those of us a certain age have read and heard the stories of Ruth, Robinson, and Ali, told well and told poorly. If John Goodman can play you in a movie, you take a backseat to Michael Jordan.

Rose and Woods are as infamous as they are famous (though both extraordinarily accomplished athletes, to say the least). Jordan, somehow, remains atop Olympus, even with his own shortcomings: that bizarre early-retirement-to-pro-baseball chapter, the gambling, the grudges. Similar to Erving, Jordan personifies cool when he walks in a room … but he won five more titles than did Doctor J. Back when posters were an actual thing, no one leaped from more walls than Michael Jordan. (I happen to own the finest Jordan poster ever printed, which I’m sharing with you here.) ESPN has reminded us that we have an actual living legend, one with juicy opinions on the likes of Isiah Thomas.

The second fascinating element of this mega-series is the temporal component. Jordan’s magnificence shone brightest before the Internet. He is the last sports great to do his thing before Twitter and Instagram could micro-analyze every achievement (or transgression) before sunrise the next morning. It took a book being written — printed pages! distribution! — for us to learn details about Jordan’s one-punch fight with teammate Steve Kerr during a Bulls practice. I’m not convinced LeBron James can ever achieve Jordan’s Olympian perch for the simple fact that his docu-drama has already been told, one tweet, gif, or meme at a time. (We had footage of James getting off a plane after learning of Kobe Bryant’s death before many of us learned of Bryant’s death.)

I’ve been in close proximity to my share of celebrities, and exactly three have given me goose bumps: Robert Plant, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Michael Jordan. I didn’t see Jordan play in person until he came to Memphis to play the Grizzlies in 2001 … in a Washington Wizards uniform. And that’s precisely the magnitude of Jordan: He could have walked onto the floor at the Pyramid in Baryshnikov’s tights or Plant’s bell-bottoms and he would have raised goose bumps. A legend among us. I’m grateful for the folks at ESPN reminding their younger audience that a standard was set for basketball greatness in the last decade of the twentieth century. I’m not sure it’s a standard that can be matched in this century or any century to come.

• The football revolution at the University of Memphis continues. When Antonio Gibson was chosen by the Washington Redskins with the 66th pick in this year’s NFL draft, it marked the third straight year a former Tiger’s name was called in the first three rounds. (Darrell Henderson was taken by the Los Angeles Rams in the third round last year, and Anthony Miller went to the Chicago Bears in the second round in 2018.) You have to go back more than 30 years to find a similar stretch (1985-87) for the Tiger program. All the more impressive, these are “skill position” players, the kind who make highlights on Sunday wrap-up shows. Win on Saturdays and a region will respect your college program. Help teams win on Sunday and the entire football-watching country will salute.