“Air” is an entertaining dramatization of how Nike signed Michael Jordan in 1984

Air 2023

In 1984, the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan with the third pick in the draft. Many fans and basketball experts thought he would be special, but few staked so much on their analysis as Nike marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro.

The Nike of 1984 wasn’t the Nike that we know today. The company was built on running shoes, not basketball shoes. The market for basketball shoes was largely dominated by Converse and Adidas. Converse had Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Nike wanted to grow their basketball market share, and they knew they needed to sign some rising NBA stars to help elevate the brand.

“Air,” released earlier this year, tells the story of how Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon) became obsessed with signing Jordan to Nike, despite incredibly long odds. Jordan had zero interest in signing Nike. He was choosing between Converse and Adidas. And his agent, David Falk (Chris Messina), had no interest in helping Nike even get a meeting.

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PopDose’s Top 5 Miraculous Shots in Non-Basketball Movies

The title is kind of confusing, but PopDose breaks down the top five basketball shots in movies that aren’t primarily about basketball.

Any list that features a clip of “Teen Wolf” is worth linking to.

Take the Glory Road

Surprise, surprise. Despite its awful title (porno slang, anyone?), “Glory Road” is a hell of a movie. I’m not terribly well versed on basketball movies (I’m ashamed to say, I still haven’t seen “Hoosiers”), but I do know that they’re woefully underrepresented in the overall Sports Movie lexicon, or represented poorly (“Blue Chips”).

Disney’s been putting one of these “true sports” movies out every six months, or so it seems, but with the exception of “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” they’ve all been pretty damn good. But where do they rank with the all time great sports movies? Let us know what you think.

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