The historic story of how shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro would lead Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in basketball, before anyone really knew who he was, Michael Jordan.
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Air is a fantastic journey towards a deal that would change not only basketball but the way in which endorsements were handled and paid for athletes across all sports and around the world.
We follow Sonny who knows everything about basketball and had set up all star games, but the issue was that he was at Nike who did not compete within the basketball shoe market. Adidas had taken the lead with the key players with Converse being in second place, Nike weren’t even in the running for basketball and were very much leaders when it came to running shoes though.
The film highlights everything that happens behind the scenes for this type of deal, which quite frankly I didn’t really know all that much about so it was interesting in that sense. Especially when you see Sonny trying to find the next big star to really push Nike basketball forward, although Rob Strasser trusted him and wanted to back him he also thought that they needed three or four players for the budget.
Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike is shown to want success and the key attributes of working at Nike are shown throughout the film. It actually is quite crazy to think now that Nike nearly ended up our of the basketball game completely and when the majority of us have grown up with Air Jordan it’s crazy to think how close it was to failing within that sport.
David Falk was Michael Jordan’s agent and really highlights just how much influence they would have in the years to come when it was about deals. Especially when you then see his parents Deloris and James more wiling to actually listen to different people talk. Sonny turning up at their house was a very bold move and quite frankly paid off, with his passion and commitment towards Michael.
I really did find myself loving everything about the film and thought it was all put together in a very good manner, highlighting this different side to sport. Everything happening behind the scenes which might well impact the performance of an athlete with too much drama going on, especially when you think of Jordan in this instant, he hadn’t even stepped foot on the court of the NBA.
The cast is impressive and Matt Damon taking the leading role was as engaging as ever, he’s seriously one of those actors who I just love more and more with each film I watch. They certainly wanted to make sure we were aware of his body image in this one with some of the shots. Ben Affleck directed the film as well as taking on the CEO role as Phil Knight and quite frankly stole a few scenes. Chris Messina who spent majority of his scenes shouting into a phone was good to watch. Viola Davis was perfect as always and Chris Tucker was probably the biggest scene stealer going!
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