Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan deal revolutionized the athlete endorsement industry. It wasn’t just the shoe – or the shirts and other apparel that would soon follow. Rather, it was the nature of the deal. Where other shoe companies had their athletes wearing the same shoes, Nike designed the Air Jordan’s around Michael Jordan. That was one aspect that set the deal apart. But there was another, much bigger sticking point: Jordan received a percentage of all Air Jordan sales. It had never been done before, and as soon as his signature went on that first contract, the nature of shoe deals and athlete sponsorships shifted, and shifted massively.
And everyone knows – at least to some degree – what happened from there. Michael Jordan went on to become the best NBA player of all time, Nike went from a bit player in the basketball shoe game to the top dog, earning the company billions of dollars in revenue, along with Jordan himself raking in enough money to last many, many lifetimes.
But as monumental as that deal was, it’s not really the Jordan of it that’s all that interesting. He was a no-doubt superstar coveted by every shoe company. Michael Jordan’s full life would be worth the biopic treatment. The real story here is on the Nike side of things.
Nike CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) brought Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) to Nike to grow its basketball brand. Until the Jordan deal, the company hadn’t seen exciting results. Their routine was the same each year. Vaccaro would scout the next year’s prospects and along with the rest of the marketing team they would choose their target players. They would sign 2-3 decent prospects to modest deals, rinse and repeat.
At the point Air picks up the action, the team had seemingly resigned themselves to the fact they simply weren’t going to be able to sign any of the top players. But the basketball division would never thrive that way. In may not even survive if that mindset continued. They all saw it, but Vaccaro is the one who emphatically decided to do something about it. It started with one simple question: “Why not Jordan?”
It takes some convincing, as Vaccaro proposes using the company’s entire annual basketball endorsement budget on Jordan, but eventually he gets Knight on board. Vaccaro pours all his time into his pitch to Jordan. But it’s not so much Michael he has to worry about it, it’s his parents, James and Deloris (real-life husband and wife Julius Tennon and Viola Davis). They run the show, Deloris in particular. Vaccaro has to pitch to them as much as to Michael.
And that’s the plot. It’s about as simple a setup as you’re going to find. It’s also as predictable as they come. Every single person on the planet knows how this story ends. But that doesn’t matter with Air. It’s not about the “if.” It’s about the “how” and the “why.” How will Nike and Vaccaro prove themselves a better fit than Converse and Adidas? How will they come up with new, innovative ideas to show they’re not just another shoe company looking to cash in on a star athlete? That’s the “how” and it’s a big part of what makes Air so entertaining. But the “why” is what gives it meaning and depth.
Everyone on the Nike team wants to prove themselves, and none more than Sonny Vaccaro. He wants his life to mean something. He wants to leave his mark. And it’s not driven by ego. Basketball is his life’s work. To dedicate that much time, that many years to something, of course it should have a bigger meaning. And Vaccaro truly believes in Jordan, in this idea. He’s like a dog with a bone. He knows this is it, and he won’t stop until he sees it through to the end.
And then there’s the Jordan’s “why.” Deloris knows her son’s worth and fights for him. Not because she’s greedy or because Michael is too scared to do it himself. This is a mother looking out for her child. She refuses to let him settle for anything less than what she believes – and knows – his true value to be. This family-focused feel helps make Air so much more relatable than a story about history’s most important shoe deal would otherwise be.
That same family vibe is present with the team at Nike as well. Jason Bateman plays Rob Strasser, VP of Marketing, who approaches Vaccaro’s plan much more cautiously. He has his own family to look out for, and Bateman gets what may be the movie’s most emotional scene where he explains his views on the plan to Sonny. Chris Tucker brings his signature energy as Howard White, who would eventually become VP of the Jordan Brand.
Those three, along with Affleck’s Knight and shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), form the Nike “family.” Each brings their own unique perspective and insight, everyone has their role to play, everyone has their reasons for throwing their chips in with Sonny. You can’t help but root for every character here.
But those characters and their motivations wouldn’t matter much without great direction and a great script to work with. Affleck is in total command here (it might sound cliché, but whatever, it’s true) as he returns to behind the camera for the first time since 2016’s Live By Night. It’s the script though, from Alex Convery, that deserves even more praise. Air is a legitimately hilarious movie, with a steady stream of laughs throughout, and some genuine laugh out loud moments. Convery found a near-perfect mix of drama and comedy, knowing when to lean into the lighter side, and when to let the more intense, human moments take center stage.
With such a solid script to work off, Air features some truly terrific ensemble work. Damon, Affleck, Bateman, Tucker, Davis, they’re all great. Chris Messina is an especially fun highlight as Jordan’s slightly unhinged, money-obsessed agent David Falk. Most of his screen time happens over phone calls with Vaccaro, but Messina and Damon still manage to create impeccable chemistry.
But one of Air’s best choices is a character it doesn’t highlight: His Airness himself. Air actually shows us very little of Michael. He’s only in a couple scenes, we never see his face, and he only has a few lines. This was such a smart decision. The story at large revolves around Jordan, but the story Affleck is telling isn’t really his.
It’s Sonny Vaccaro fighting for his career-making deal. Phil Knight returning to running his company in the fearless way that he founded it. Deloris Jordan fighting for Michael. And yes, it’s even David Falk trying to make his client a boatload of money so he too can make a boatload of money. Michael Jordan defines the larger than life persona. Making Air instead about the people behind the brand keeps the story much more grounded, which the movie needed to be in order to turn out as good as it did.
The biggest drawback to Air – and there aren’t many – is how familiar the story is. And even that’s maybe a little unfair. The story told here was always going to be that way. But even though it’s one audiences will have seen time and again, it’s done in about as good a way as you could ever hope for.
Behind stellar filmmaking from Affleck and a great cast bringing their A-games to Alex Convery’s script, Air exceeded all expectations I had for it. This isn’t just a movie for sports fans; it’s arguably more a sports-adjacent movie than a true sports movie, anyway. It’s a winning story about the triumph of the human spirit, about finding meaning in life, and how it’s always worth it to stand up and fight for something you believe in.
Score: 94/100
