When I heard about a new movie portraying Michael Jordan’s recruitment to Nike, I knew I had to see it. The film, “Air”, describes the events of how Nike and Sonny Vaccaro made Jordan the face of the basketball brand for Nike. It lived up to all my expectations and the movie was much more emotional than I previously expected, however, it failed to depict the truth of how Jordan signed with Nike.
The movie is about Vaccaro’s relentlessness to bring in Jordan to be the face of the basketball side of Nike, which was about to collapse. For the most part, the movie accurately portrays the actual events of Jordan signing with Nike. The movie follows Sonny Vaccaro, played by Matt Damon, and how close he is to losing his job if he does not land a superstar talent for Nike. Let’s get into the good, the bad, and my overall thoughts on the movie.
The Good:
The first elite part of the movie that I realized as soon as it started was the multiple high-level actors. Ben Affleck, the director of the film, also played Nike CEO Phil Knight, who had a prominent role in retaining Vaccaro and his job. Jason Bateman played former Nike marketing director Rob Strasser, who was known for the change in sports marketing and specifically, the change in marketing of basketball. However, the most important actor in the film was Viola Davis, who played Jordan’s mother. Jordan specifically requested her to be in the movie and would not agree to it without her. The connection between Sonny and Phil delivered because of the relationship between Damon and Affleck, which brought a mix of emotional and hilarious interactions.
The movie itself had its fair share of bright moments including when Vaccaro begs to go after Jordan after watching his national championship game-winning shot, when they design the first ever Air Jordan, and when they eventually bring Jordan to Nike. One of the most impressive tactics Affleck used was emotional appeal, as a scene would go from serious to comical in a matter of seconds. The amount of scenes that made me laugh shocked me while there were also a number of scenes that were climatic.
Another part the movie nailed was the desperation Nike was in to land a superstar for its basketball division. The movie had an “urgency” type feel to it, as the stakes were high as soon as the first scene unraveled. There were scenes that displayed the urgency, including one where both Vaccaro and Strasser spent multiple nights at Nike to strengthen their pitch, another where Vaccaro drove all the way to North Carolina to pitch a meeting to Jordan’s parents, and yet another with Vaccaro saving the day at the meeting by saying Jordan will be the face of the NBA with Nike.
The Bad:
The main issue I had with the movie was the multiple differences between the actual meeting with Jordan and Nike compared to the movie version. First off, Vaccaro never drove all the way to North Carolina from Beaverton, Oregon in desperation like the movie showed. Next, Vaccaro predicted exactly what Adidas and Converse were going to act like and say during the movie, which never happened in real life. He told Jordan’s mother that if he predicted what his competitors said, Nike deserved a meeting with Michael, which also never happened.
Another issue I had with the film is the portrayal of Michael Jordan. The actor playing Jordan was never shown other than the back of his head, and he also never spoke. Other than the fact that he was rarely shown, the movie overemphasized the fact that Jordan was disinterested to begin with. Even at the meeting, Jordan treats some of the Nike employees disrespectfully and acts like he does not want to be there.
Overall:
The movie as a whole was entertaining to watch but struggled to deliver the facts on a few scenes. In the good moments, the film had the audience hooked on the process of bringing Jordan to Nike. It was a slow and gut-wrenching process for Nike, however, it was easy to connect to Vaccaro as he became relentless to bring a big name to Nike while keeping his job in the process. Overall, I’d give the movie an 8/10, with the only flaws being some inaccuracies in the true story of how Jordan was brought to Nike along with a poor portrayal of Jordan.
