Niche how? You don’t need to be a basketball fan to appreciate it. In fact, the basketball footage is just a complement — it’s about the strength and vision of the characters behind the signing of Jordan, the improbable odds faced by Nike who was lagging behind Adidas and Converse on revenue at the time, the incredible vision and gumption of Nike’s Sonny Vaccaro in how he locked in on Jordan cause he saw something in him that few others had — and his hands on approach in how he got his foot in the door with the Jordan family, when Jordan himself preferred and wore Adidas shoes and announced that he was not interested in other brands.
It’s also about how smart and tenacious Jordan’s mother was. The deal she made for her son completely changed how athletes would get compensated on shoe deals. What she did and insisted upon, had never been done before. She was a trailblazer and so was Sonny Vaccaro — he blew all of Nike’s budget on one player rather than the three signings that their board of directors had tabbed the money for.
That’s what makes this movie tick. Sure, it was a nice shoe and its color scheme was illegal by the NBA rules of the day. But, several strong minded individuals made it happen. It’s how there was so much adversity and how a few visionaries managed to get past it.
Viola Davis is so sharp as Jordan’s mother. And she was not even initially thought about for the role — when Ben Affleck met with Michael Jordan, he asked him what were elements that he absolutely had to have for this movie.
One of them was how much influence and impact Jordan’s mother exerted in getting the deal done. And another was how Jordan wanted Vilola Davis to play his mother. That was something that Affleck wasn’t prepared for and he feared he wasn’t going to be able to get her to commit to the role.
The whole thing is just so interesting from both sides of the camera. And for one of those rare times, no guns, explosions nor CGI needed.
