Michael Jordan
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Michael Jordan set plenty of records in his legendary basketball career and now he’s breaking records in the realm of charitable giving. This coming Friday (Feb. 17), Air Jordan will donate $10 million to Make-A-Wish America, making it the largest individual donation in the organization’s history.
Michael Jordan will be turning 60 this Friday and is using the milestone birthday to make the donation as shared in a press release released on Wednesday (Feb. 15).
From Make-A-Wish American’s website:
“For the past 34 years, it’s been an honor to partner with Make-A-Wish and help bring a smile and happiness to so many kids,” said Michael Jordan. “Witnessing their strength and resilience during such a tough time in their lives has truly been an inspiration. I can’t think of a better birthday gift than seeing others join me in supporting Make-A-Wish so that every child can experience the magic of having their wish come true.”
“Everyone knows about Michael’s legacy on the basketball court, but it’s what he has consistently done off the court when no one’s watching that makes him a true legend for wish families and the wider Make-A-Wish community,” said Leslie Motter, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish America. “Michael using his birthday as a chance to make history for Make-A-Wish speaks to the quality of his character and his loyal dedication to making life better for children with critical illnesses. We hope that the public will be inspired to follow in his footsteps by helping make wishes come true.”
The funds will be used to establish an endowment to distribute monies in support of creating future meetings between the children and their favorite stars they’re hoping to meet.
Solid work from Michael Jordan here and an early happy birthday shout from us!
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Photo: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty
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Source: Amazon Studios / Amazon Studios
A year after it was announced that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would be making a movie behind the signing of Michael Jordan to Nike, the first trailer to Air has landed and it actually looks pretty damn interesting.
Source: Amazon Studios / Amazon Studios
Starring Ben Affleck as Nike co-founder Phil Knight and Matt Damon as Nike marketing executive, Sonny Vacarro, Air takes place in the 80’s and centers around a somewhat struggling Nike and how they went about becoming the hottest brand in the sneaker game. Looking to make the brand popular and compete with top tier sneaker lines such as Converse and Adidas, Knight tasks Vacarro with the seemingly impossible task of taking their struggling basketball division and figuring out a way to make it grow in popularity.
Looking to pull a rabbit out of a hat, Vacarro decides that a possible solution would be to sign a college basketball star to Nike and give him his own signature sneaker line. That man was none other than Michael Jordan. Hoping to convince Michael Jordan to take a chance on the Nike brand, Vacarro attempts to smooth talk Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis), his father, James Jordan (Julius Tennon), and Michael himself. Though we still don’t know who’ll be playing Michael Jordan in the film, don’t be surprised if it’s the GOAT himself as we all know CGI can de-age actors by decades nowadays.
Though we don’t actually get to see Michael’s face in the trailer, we do get to see the actor actually hold a pair of the OG Air Jordan 1 “Chicago”‘s which is all sneakerheads really want to see anyway. Watch the price for those silhouettes skyrocket once this film hits Amazon Prime on April 5th.
Check out the trailer to Air below and let us know if you’ll be checking for this in the comments section below.
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Source: Bennett Raglin/BET / Getty
Sneakerheads are pretty aware that the Retro Jordan line of Nike’s sneaker division has been it’s biggest cash cow for the company for decades now. But we didn’t know just how big those numbers actually were until now.
According to The Sports Rush, the Jordan Brand has earned over $19 billion dollars in revenue over the past five years for Nike with numbers calculating that the swoosh brand generates $3 million every five hours thanks to Jordan Brand related sales. While we know that sales of the Retro Jordan sneaker line is what helped Michael Jordan reach billionaire status, the G.O.A.T himself only gets a small percentage from every Jordan Brand item sold.
Michael Jordan receives 5%, a percentage that is abysmally low, on every single sale from a Jordan brand product. As of 2020, he had earned $1.3 billion from his contract with Nike, the most by any athlete in NBA history by a wide margin.
That doesn’t sound right. But if those are the conditions that Michael Jordan agreed to which helped him get to a billi, it is what it is.
And to think Michael didn’t even want to take a meeting with Nike back when it was basically a startup company. Meanwhile adidas and Converse were the hottest sneaker brands in the streets. Luckily he had some pretty persuasive parents who browbeat him into meeting with Nike. They ultimately came to an agreement on a partnership that made sneaker history.
Since then, the Air Jordan sneaker line has produced some of the most iconic silhouettes in the game and continues to be the most popular sneaker line to this day. You’d think at some point Mike would try to renegotiate his deal or something. But ultimately, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? The man is a billionaire and continues to rake in money hand over fist on a yearly basis. Imagine how much more money he and Nike would be making if they didn’t drop so many unnecessary and unwanted colorways of our beloved Jordan silhouettes? Not hatin’, just sayin’.
What do y’all think of his Airness only getting 5% of the pie he helped cook up in the kitchen? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: Variety / Getty
One would think that a movie centering around the partnership between Nike and a then NBA rookie known as Michael Jordan would be a straight-to-streaming affair, but apparently Amazon believes in the film so much that it’s actually going to be getting a theatrical release.
According to Deadline, Air, the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon film about how Nike landed Michael Jordan in the early ’80s, will be foregoing the straight to Prime premier and will instead be released in movie theaters globally. Warner Bros. will be handling the international distribution of the film. Originally set to debut on Amazon Prime, Air will be seeing a theatrical release weeks before the film ultimately hits Amazon Prime for sneaker aficionado subscribers to indulge in.
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While Air isn’t exactly a film that people have been begging to be made or even asked for, it is one that’s peaked the interest of sneaker heads around the globe since it was announced last year. And Affleck and company have recruited some Hollywood heavyweights to partake in the production.
Air reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. The story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.
Damon plays maverick Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro and Affleck plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight with Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan, Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler and Julius Tennon as James Jordan – among others. While Damon and Affleck starred in such movies together such as Good Will Hunting and Dogma, Air reps the first time that Affleck has directed his longtime friend.
Talk about an all-star cast. Keep in mind, Michael Jordan wasn’t only reluctant to sign with Nike back in 1984, but he actually wanted to sign a sneaker deal with adidas or Converse who were more popular than Nike at the time. What a time to be alive. It took all kinds of pushing and convincing to get Michael Jordan to even meet with Nike executives about a potential deal. Luckily, it happened. And we have all kinds of Air Jordans in our closets as a result. Now we get to see how history almost wasn’t made.
Ben Affleck for one is excited to show the world what he and Matt Damon have been cooking up.
“Matt and I are very excited for audiences to see Air and proud that it’s the first release from Artists Equity. The movie was an extraordinary experience where we had the honor of working with some of the best cast and crew in the business, all of whom brought passion, persistence, and creativity to a collective effort at recreating a remarkable and aspirational story.”
“I appreciate and value Jen Salke’s faith in our ability to execute on and deliver a movie we are proud of, as well as her and Sue Kroll’s incredible ongoing support of the film. Amazon Studios, Skydance, and Mandalay were all critical to getting this done, and the film couldn’t have been made without them. We value the steps it took on each of their parts to make it happen and want to thank them. This was the best creative and personal experience of our lives and we look forward to many more like it.”
You have to wonder if they’re going to be getting their own friends and family Air Jordan exclusives when it’s all said and done. Watch them be in “Bawsten” colors or something.
Air is set to hit theaters April 5, 2023. Will you be heading to theaters to see it or will you be waiting for it to hit Amazon Prime instead? Let us know in the comments section below.