Air (2023)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on April 17, 2023 @ tonymacklin.net.

Air takes us back to 1984.

For many viewers, it will be a trip into that past that revives memories. A year later I was in the last row in Rupp Arena in Lexington as Villanova won the National Championship against Georgetown.

It was the last year before the shot clock.

That time was not the only period of essential changes in basketball - both collegiate and professional. It was part of a sea change that revolutionized sports financially.

In the early '80s Nike only had a 17% market share, and was far distant from the more successful shoe companies Adidas and Converse.

Air - based on actual events - is a slick, entertaining story about the pursuit by Nike personnel to try to secure a contract with NBA rookie Michael Jordan to represent the company's faltering basketball shoe department. It's the brainstorm of "guru" Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) to compete with the bigger, much more successful companies.

No one else in the company thinks it's a feasible idea, but Vaccaro is stubbornly convinced and tries to get them on board. His greatest challenge is getting to Jordan, who already seems totally committed to Adidas. Vaccaro has to rely on personal relationships to give him a chance.

The cast of Air is capable and appealing. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are united on the screen in their 50s. Damon is 52, two years younger than Affleck, who is 54.

In Air, Damon is believable as Vaccaro. It's like Jason Bourne gone to seed. Affleck also is effective as the uniquely-spirited man who created Nike 20 years in the past in Oregon. [It was given the name Nike in 1971.]

Viola Davis grounds the film as Michael's mother Deloris, who is a staunch, independent force and the major influence on her son. Viola's role was increased when she began her performance and was so affecting and creative.

Affleck, who directed, decided to show Michael's form but not his actor's face, because he didn't want the actor who portrayed Jordan to draw attention. It was a wise decision, because Vaccaro remains the focus.

Jason Bateman is especially strong as Robert Strasser, the head of marketing at Nike. Chris Tucker as Howard White an executive at Nike, improvises a lot. Chris Messina is fervently vulgar as agent David Falk, but he seems like a character from a cruder movie. Waylon Mayans has a critical scene as former player and coach George Raveling, when he tells Vaccaro a story about himself and Martin Luther King, which leads to a later action by Vaccaro.

Writing matters. Novice writer Alex Convery creates an effective screenplay, though it has an over-the-top phone sequence with agent Falk and has an ending that seems a bit anticlimactic.

There is an excellent interview in The Hollywood Reporter with writer Convery, who was given total credit as writer by Affleck and Damon in a gesture in recognition of the help they had received in the start of their careers.

Convery tells how Affleck would not have made the film if Jordan had not agreed when he visited him. Jordan did make three requirements. He wanted Viola Davis to play his mom, he wanted Howard White to be in the film. and he wanted George Raveling to be in the film.

Howard White was an executive with Nike, who ultimately became vice president of the Jordan Brand.

Jordan credits Raveling, not Vaccaro, for his going to Nike. Raveling was assistant coach of the Olympic team which Jordan joined in 1984, and kept mentioning Nike to him. He says he hardly knew Sonny Vaccaro at the time.

It's ironic that Raveling and Vaccaro were good friends at one time. Raveling was Best Man at Vaccaro's wedding, but their relationship soured. After Vaccaro ultimately was fired from Nike, Raveling criticized him for helping players get money. It was a harbinger of things to come.

Air brings back a lot of memories for me.

My son went to Vaccaro's basketball camp. He became point guard and captain of his basketball team at Centerville High School in Dayton Ohio. Kirk Herbstreit is a graduate.

George Raveling was my main contact with the Villanova basketball team, when he played and I wrote for the Villanovan, the campus newspaper.

My most vivid memory of George was when I travelled to Morgantown to see him play at West Virginia against Jerry West. West led his team out on a lengthy carpet. In the game George fouled West and the crowd rose as one in anger. George, in a hasty nervous gesture, held his hand out to West to shake it.

After the game people called to Villanova fans, "Is Villanova a nigger school." Times have changed, haven't they?

In the 2,000s, when's the last time you heard the term "student-athlete"? When, if ever, have you heard about the players' scholarships having value?

In 2023, universities are judged mainly by their sports teams. Education seems irrelevant. NIL - name, image, and likeness - rights abound.

Air embellishes what happened in 1984. Sports movies often embellish to be more dramatic, e.g. Vince Papale never scored on a fumble return, Invincible (2006).

But once again, money wins.