AIR Review: Entertaining, uplifting, and a perfect basketball flick, especially as we head into NBA Conference finals

Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, and Chris Messina are a winning combination in this classic sports movie genre of hungry underdog triumphs over the elitist big wigs.

It’s pro basketball season crunch time in the U.S., in case you weren’t aware. Being Boston-based, the pulse of this Mother’s Day will be heard loudest in North end of the city later this afternoon where the fate of the Celtics, now the leading team in the East (since Milwaukee was eliminated by the Heat surprisingly), are on the cusp of either sealing their fates as Eastern Conference final contenders or losing out on the chance. Either way, it’s going to be a nail biter and trust me, you don’t want to be around our house, during this tense period, no matter who wins because unless it’s a blow out game with the Boston-Bird-Pierce-Allen-Garnett-Parish-McHale-Russell player gods favorably watching over this outcome, the Celtics postseason could come to an end in Game 7 today against the 76ers. But not if the guys below have something to say about it.

Source: CelticsBlog / L-to-R: Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, and Jaylen Brown - the Michael Jordan, B.J. Armstrong, and Scottie Pippen of our times

So what do the Boston Celtics have to do with the movie AIR, about Nike’s rise to fame in the 80s with their Air Jordan basketball shoe line, under the legendary CEO Phil Knight, that released for streaming on Prime this weekend, after a Spring theatrical debut in the theaters?

I’m so happy you asked this question.

Ode to Affleck

This movie is the love child of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who are as Boston baked beans as you get. Good Will Hunting anyone? Yeah, that was theirs. Any Boston noir novelist Dennis Lehane book adaptation? Yeah that’s Affleck’s domain (Gone Baby Gone, Live by Night - lesser known). In fact, Lehane and Affleck are so coupled in my mind as cinematic partners, akin to “Matt & Ben” (also the name of book by another Boston native, Mindy Kaling, who as a Dartmouth undergrad was obsessed with the lore of Damon and Affleck) that I could have sworn Affleck was in Mystic River and scoured the film’s credits, but came up empty. Then I remembered Affleck did the Boston-based crime movie, The Town, which may as well have been a Lehane novel, for it read like one, hence my confusion.

Source: Boston Magazine / Ben Affeck in “Live by Night”

So we’ve established that Affleck has an affinity for Boston-based stories, notably crime ones and ones that have complex and dysfunctional family dynamics in which “family” invariably translates to chosen people with conflicting interests, betrayals and profound sense(s) of loyalty, albeit sometimes misplaced.

What’s with the feet?

Then there’s AIR, his latest, which comfortably rests outside of the Argo genre on the surface, at least (although I’d argue it’s also a classic underdog, down to the wire type story in which good triumphs over some lesser good or evil and is based on real-life events). This one is set far from the Boston locale, on the West coast, Oregon to be exact at the headquarters of the Nike corporation in mid 80s when the company wasn’t doing as well as they could have been. This was before they endorsed any basketball stars (Jordan was their first), and were still primarily known for their running shoes, and desperately trying to break into the basketball business, competing with the market share majority #1 Adidas and #2 Converse. Not everyone however was convinced basketball was the way to go, especially Knight, as this telling of the story goes. Vacarro was the one, in partnership with Marketing head Strasser (played by Jason Bateman) and backed by Nike exec Howard White (Chris Tucker) who saw the potential of basketball and notably, going all in, in pursuit of Jordan.

Ben Affleck plays Phil Knight, Nike CEO who liked to put his bare feet on the desk. Sonny Vacarro (played by Damon), the famed wunderkind, who is the hero of the movie and this version of events

The movie centers around Vacarro and his efforts to bring in Michael Jordan (a hotly sought after college player on the cusp of going pro) for an exclusive deal with Nike. Jordan was dead set against Nike and wanted Adidas. He wasn’t even taking a meeting with Nike. He was rumored to have worn Adidas when he played and loved their tracksuits. Unfortunately for Adidas, with the death of one of the co-founders, Adolf, or Adi Dassler, the company’s leadership was in disarray and this proved to be advantageous to Vacarro who upon meeting, Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis), breaking bro-code and visiting the Jordans’ home in Wilmington, NC, tells Michael’s mom that when she meets with Adidas to ask them who is in charge. Much like he predicts, everyone starts to argue and this shows a vulnerability. Similarly, for Converse, he says that all of the guys she meets with will be wearing a red tie for the Bulls and talk about all the greats (Bird, Johnson, etc.) but not how Michael is different. They won’t appreciate him. To Vacarro’s credit, this all goes as expected and Deloris agrees to fly out with Michael and her husband, and their agent, Falk (Chris Messina) to the Nike headquarters.

And we’re back to smart mamas who look after their cubs

What transpires after this agreement is all nighters with Bateman, Damon, and the guy who makes the shoes, Nike’s Peter Moore who, in real life died before the movie came out (played by Matthew Maher, Gone Baby Gone, Hello Tomorrow!, Our Flag Means Death). Affleck comes in and Tucker too. And it’s a thing of pure creative passion and strategy. All of these guys have such good banter and with Knight’s iconic Buddhist aphorisms (thanks Damon, for enhancing my vocab) pitted against Vacarro’s dreamer, get-things-done mentality, it’s fun to watch.

History will tell us, without this movie’s stamp, that the Jordans did sign with Nike, cause duh “Air Jordans” and part of what made this offer the most talked about one in the history of basketball, was that Deloris Jordan, negotiated, smart mama that she was, got Michael a piece of the gross revenue of each of the sales of the shoes that had his name or logo on it. This is now a customary business practice, but it wasn’t before Deloris disrupted the industry. That’s pretty cool.

Anyways, I guess this story did find its way back to Mother’s Day after all so I’m able to tie this up in a nice a little bow. Go watch it today or tomorrow - alone, with your family, friends. You’re going to enjoy it and kudos to another film well done, but the team of Matt & Ben, but really Ben, directed this so we’re giving this to Ben, even though Matt’s in like 95% of the film.

Lesser Known Facts:

• I spent the 1980s living near Chicago and was a huge Bulls fan. Michael Jordan was a god. He’s still the greatest bball player of all time in my books, stats be damned.

• I’ve lived my adult life in Boston - close to 25 years, and so can easily connect with any Damon-Affleck film.

• Per the film, the NBA has a ratio of colors for their basketball shoes - needs to be a majority white. For the Air Jordans, Nike agreed to pay the fines (roughly a couple thousand dollars per game) to have Michael Jordan wear the red

• There’s some debate about how profound an impact Vacarro had in the Air Jordan deal. With Nike execs, like Knight contesting it. Others saying, a minor character in the film, George Raveling (Marlon Wayans) and his backing of Nike was the major reason the Jordans went with Nike, after all.