Tag: Sonny Vaccaro

The Nike Air Jordan film from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon is receiving tons of early praise

Ben Affleck’s sports drama Air is getting great early notices out of South by Southwest.

The upcoming sports drama Air had its world premiere at South by Southwest this weekend, and the early reactions are incredibly encouraging.

The dramatized telling of how Nike landed Michael Jordan for the legendary Air Jordan shoe deal comes from actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck, who directs and plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight in the project.

Affleck’s longtime collaborator and buddy Matt Damon plays Nike employee Sonny Vaccaro, who worked to get Jordan on board for the shoe deal that changed both of their lives.

Affleck showed the film at the Austin, Texas, film festival on Saturday, and the early returns are quite encouraging. Affleck and the Air team got a standing ovation from the SXSW crowd.

Affleck seemed to really hype up the importance of the film premiere in the grand scheme of his career.

In his review, Variety critic Peter Debruge called it “this generation’s Jerry Maguire.”

More reactions praised the cast, Affleck’s direction and the film’s uplifting message.

If you’re excited to check out Air, it’ll hit theaters nationwide on April 5.

Michael Jordan required Ben Affleck to cast this Oscar winner to play his mom in Air

Michael Jordan wanted this Oscar winner to play his mom in the upcoming sports drama Air.

While meeting with NBA legend Michael Jordan ahead of making the upcoming sports drama Air, actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck got a few requests from the basketball legend.

As he premiered the film at South by Southwest this weekend, Affleck talked about what Jordan had hoped to see in the dramatized telling of the Nike shoe deal that changed his and the company’s lives forever.

Via Variety, Affleck shared that Jordan wanted to see Howard White in the film, who is the vice president of sports marketing for the Jordan Brand. Affleck said the casting opportunity gave him a chance to work with actor Chris Tucker, who appears as White in Air.

Jordan also had a specific casting request for who would portray his mother, Deloris Jordan. The Chicago Bulls great told Affleck he wanted Oscar winner Viola Davis to play the part.

“I got the script and then had the chance again to talk to Michael. Michael Jordan, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the most intimidating, impressive men you’ll ever see in your life,” Affleck said (via Variety). “He told me about is father. And then he talked about his mother. It was the first time I saw this look cross his face. It was a look of reverence, of awe, of love, and gratitude, and innocence. He said, ‘None of this would have ever happened without my mother.’ I said, ‘Who would you like to play your mom?’ He said, ‘Well, it has to be Viola Davis.”

Jordan got his wish, as Davis indeed appears in the film as his mother. Affleck had a very apt comparison as to what it meant to cast Davis in the project.

“That’s like saying, ‘Can I play basketball on your court?’ ‘Yeah, if you get Michael Jordan.’ “Viola Davis is the best actor I’ve ever seen,” Affleck continued. “This is a hard business. It’s hard to know if you’re successful. It’s hard to know if you’ve accomplished something. But honest to God, I always felt that if i was a director one day, and I had Viola Davis in a movie, that would really be something. That would mean the world to me. And it does.”

Affleck co-stars in Air as Nike co-founder Phil Knight, while his longtime collaborator and friend Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, who spearheaded the effort at Nike to bring Jordan aboard for a shoe line.

The film opens on April 5 nationwide.

Why Michael Jordan isn’t in the trailer for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Nike film ‘Air’

The movie “Air” is all about Michael Jordan’s deal with Nike. So why isn’t MJ in the film?

It seems almost counterintuitive to make a movie about the greatest sneaker deal in sports history, featuring the most marketable player in sports history, and leave that athlete almost entirely out of the script.

So you’re going to have to trust Ben Affleck and Matt Damon when it comes to their new Nike biopic “Air”. The film focuses on the quest to sign a rookie Michael Jordan to what was then a third-place company in the basketball market.

Though the trailer released on Thursday shows Viola Davis and Julius Tennon portraying Jordan’s parents, the NBA legend won’t make an appearance on screen. Not a cameo nor an actor portrayal. And that’s by design.

 

Affleck and Damon—who reworked a script originally penned by Alex Convery—are focusing less on Jordan and more on Nike execs Phil Knight (played by Affleck) and Sonny Vaccarro (Damon) as they work to build the company’s basketball brand.

Per The Hollywood Reporter:

The story will focus on Vaccaro’s relentless quest to sign Jordan to what was then the third-place shoe company, a journey that took him to Jordan’s parents, and in particular his powerful, dynamic mother, as well as to former coaches, advisers and friends. Jordan will be a mythic figure hovering above the movie and never seen, even as Vaccaro tries to reach him by gaining access to those close to him.

Jordan isn’t listed in any credits, so if there is a cameo the filmmakers are keeping it tightly under wraps. Certainly there’s enough star power attached to the project to interest Jordan, but considering the movie isn’t about MJ’s greatness, he likely doesn’t care to get involved.

Either way, fans of sneaker culture and basketball history should find themselves entertained by the story of a plucky little basketball division that took over the world.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski calls out Hall of Fame for omitting Sonny Vaccaro

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski took issue with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s omission of Sonny Vaccaro over the weekend.

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2021 on Sunday. Among the group were NBA greats Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce and Chris Webber, but one basketball pundit had an issue with one high-profile omission.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski took to Twitter following the announcement of the class to criticize the snub of Sonny Vaccaro. Vaccaro is best known for his work with Nike, but also co-founded the first national high school basketball All-Star game — The Dapper Dan Roundball Classic — in 1965.

“The list of powerbrokers determined to deny his impact on the game, but it’s impossible to write the history of basketball without Sonny Vaccaro,” Wojnarowski tweeted. “His imprint is massive. He deserves election to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. It’s an embarrassing omission.”

While Vaccaro was left out of the Hall of Fame for another year, seven others were directly elected by committees. Val Ackerman, Cotton Fitzsimmons, and Howard Garfinkel were inducted by the Contributor Committee, Clarence ‘Fats” Jenkins from the Early African American Pioneers Committee, Toni Kukoc from the International Committee, Bob Drabdrige from the Veterans Committee and Pearl Morre from the Women’s Veterans Committee.

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021 will officially be enshrined on Saturday, Sept. 11. For the first time in the history of the Hall of Fame, two different classes will be inducted in the same year after the Class of 2020’s enshrinement original ceremony was rescheduled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For the first time in our history, we’ll enshrine two Classes in one calendar year,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome the Class of 2021 to Springfield – the Birthplace of Basketball – where we can celebrate them and honor their remarkable achievements and contributions to the game.”