Ben Affleck Interview: Why Michael Jordan Is Barely in Air

Ben Affleck’s Air is about how Michael Jordan completely changed the game for Nike’s struggling basketball division, but Jordan is barely seen in the movie. While that might come as a surprise to some, it works. Exceptionally well, in fact. In the 80s, Nike couldn’t compete with juggernauts Converse and Adidas when it came to basketball shoes. Converse had Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and Adidas was attracting some of the biggest rising stars including Michael Jordan himself. In a last-ditch effort to keep the basketball division afloat at Nike, Matt Damon’s Sonny Vaccaro opts to risk it all on one player; he wants to use all of their resources (and then some) to sign Jordan. Given the fact that some referred to Air as “the Michael Jordan Nike movie” leading up to its release, it might come as a surprise that Jordan is rarely seen in the flesh in the film. Most of the negotiating happens between Vaccaro and Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan, played by Viola Davis. Air certainly emphasizes Michael