michael jordan biography netflix

‘The Last Dance’ Shows Why Michael Jordan Was the Last of His Kind (Column)

By Daniel D'Addario

Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

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The star of Jason Hehir’s documentary series “ The Last Dance ” isn’t Michael Jordan so much as his charisma, which seems at times to move independent of him. The nonfiction series, which was a sensation on ESPN this past spring ahead of its bow on Netflix this weekend, is flawed as documentary in all but one way: It provides a remarkable testament to the power of Jordan’s celebrity, a power morphed but not undimmed by time. His talent on the basketball court, massive though it is, may indeed come second to the sheer force of his personality.

The two were, naturally, linked — Jordan’s gameplay grew in power over time through the singlemindedness of his focus. And his celebrity derived from his gameplay with his Chicago Bulls, though that wasn’t the only thing. Among the more compelling aspects of “The Last Dance” is its use of contemporaneous media from the 1990s to show us exactly how mad the attention around Jordan could become. Press conferences were zoo-like affairs with Jordan the subject of the gawking; news anchors read granular updates on his career and mood with a tone of astonishment that so many headlines can emanate from from one man. Jordan’s tenor throughout historical footage is one of rigorous emotional control, just loose enough to allow the viewer to see that he was indeed feeling things beneath the reserve. If his gameplay was dominant, his public self off-court was elusive, and allusive, gesturing at a rich emotional life to which mere spectators would never get access.

“The Last Dance” was criticized, justly, for the nature of its access to Jordan in the present day; it’s less a journalistic examination of the Jordan phenomenon than a restricted view of the Jordan that Jordan himself would like you to see. It’s not that certain bits of Jordaniana aren’t touched on — the documentary doesn’t outright ignore his passion for gambling — but they tend to always land in a place that shows you Jordan in his best light. In this regard, “The Last Dance” is frustrating but enlightening in its own way. Jordan, in the present day, remembers feuds and disputes vividly, particularly with the media. Regarding one tell-all book, he notes airily that controversy is a necessary aspect of selling books (which, while true, is a deflection of the book’s claims whose lack of substance the series lets stand); regarding a scathing Sports Illustrated cover mocking Jordan’s time playing baseball, Jordan’s critique is that the magazine never asked to hear his side.

It’s a fair note. But his side, perhaps, would have swamped the story — as it does here. Jordan is the hub of “The Last Dance,” and everything it has to say about the efforts of a team in the crowded world of the 1990s NBA ultimately flows through him. (To wit: Dennis Rodman, a compelling figure in his own right, is deployed here ultimately as the Goofus to Jordan’s Gallant, the expressive counterpoint to Jordan’s diligence.) Jordan, slowed by age but only a beat, defines the story “The Last Dance” tells with such ease one doesn’t consistently realize it’s happening in the moment; his candor, still, seems freighted with what he is actively choosing not to say, so we hang on each word.

Part of his silence is especially notable: Jordan has made the choice not to engage on topics in the news, which is itself a political choice. Watching the series now, in an era in which athletes are engaged in protest at the highest levels of sport, provides another striking counterpoint: Jordan speaks, ultimately, with such care that the only topic we end up hearing him on is himself. It’s a self-referential celebrity of the sort that thrived in an era when we were not used to constant access to the stars, when Jordan alighting from Mount Olympus to engage with the public was an astounding, major event. In the end, Jordan seems not merely to be addressing his old gameplay triumphs, watching games back on the iPad during “The Last Dance” and reminiscing, but to be sharing what it felt like to be the last of something — the most major, and final, star to exist in a media environment where the star got to make the rules.

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Michael Jordan Documentary ‘The Last Dance’ Coming to Netflix Internationally in April 2020

Copyright.  Andrew D. Bernstein / Image via Getty

Basketball fans rejoice! The Michael Jordan-Chicago Bulls docuseries The Last Dance will be coming to Netflix Internationally in April 2020! We have everything you need to know about one of the most anticipated docuseries of 2020.

The Last Dance is an upcoming Netflix Original sports docuseries in a co-production with ESPN. The docuseries is a chronicle of the final championship-winning season of Michael Jordan’s career with the Chicago Bulls.

Please Note: The Last Dance will not be available to stream on Netflix US and will be airing on ESPN.

When is The Last Dance available to stream on Netflix?

The first two episodes of The Last Dance will be available to stream on Netflix on Monday, April 20th, 2020 .

There will be a total of ten episodes of The Last Dance released over five weeks:

New episodes will arrive on Mondays.

Previously, The Last Dance had been scheduled to arrive in June over April. With fans bored from the postponement of live-sport due to the coronavirus pandemic, the pressure was placed on ESPN to release the docuseries early.

They gotta drop the Jordan documentary. Now. https://t.co/eTRVuONCkl — garmai k. (@garmaikm) March 13, 2020

Many fans got their wish, as ESPN has now chosen to bring the release date forward by two months.

What is The Last Dance?

With new never before seen footage, and exclusive interviews from the Chicago Bulls players, including Jordan himself, The Last Dance chronicles the last and sixth NBA Finals win of the Jordan-Bulls championship run.

Who is Michael Jordan?

If you’ve never heard of His Airness, you’ve either been living under a rock or you’re below the age of 10.

Michael Jordan, six-time NBA champion, six-time- NBA finals MVP, fourteen-time NBA All-Star, and owner of the Charlotte Hornets is one of the most famous sports icons of all time. His basketball career with the Chicago Bulls lasted from 1984 to 1993, and again from 1995 until 1998. In that time he lead the Chicago Bulls to one of the most successful and dominant dynasties in NBA history.

Michael Jordan in the 1988 Dunk Contest – Copyright. NBA

Outside of his playing career Michael Jordan is famous for starring as himself in the 90s cartoon classic Space Jam. He also has his sporting clothing brand, Jordan, who in collaboration with Nike, produces the beloved Air Jordans.

Now at the age of 57, Michael Jordan is worth an estimated $1.9 billion . Considering the basketball icon earned less than $100 million in his entire playing career he’s done an extraordinary job of promoting his brand.

Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Brock Williams-Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)

Will The Last Dance be coming to Netflix US?

US subscribers will be delighted to learn that The Last Dance will be coming to Netflix, but it will be a long wait.

Despite Disney 2017 decision to take back content from Netflix to prepare for @Disney +, their highest profile sports doc at ESPN is co-produced with @Netflix — will air on ESPN in US (not ESPN+) and Netflix overseas with reruns on Netflix in the US too 😉 https://t.co/DS2UJOBAYn https://t.co/mIVvMjZYov — Rich Greenfield, LightShed (@RichLightShed) March 31, 2020

As you can see from the tweet above, The Last Dance is a co-production between ESPN and Netflix, despite the fact that Disney had chosen to step away from Netflix content in 2017.

We’re not sure when The Last Dance will be coming to Netflix US, but we can confirm it will arrive eventually.

Are you looking forward to watching The Last Dance on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!

Jacob joined What's on Netflix in 2018 as a fulltime writer having worked in numerous other industries until that point. Jacob covers all things Netflix whether that's TV or movies but specializes in covering new anime and K-dramas. Resides in Norwich in the United Kingdom.

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This Michael Jordan Docuseries Makes a Perfect Double Feature With ‘Air’

If you weren't around to live it, then you need to watch this Netflix special.

Calling all '90s kids: the legends of Michael Jordan and the NBA are coming to the big screen! The anticipated upcoming release of Warner Brother Studio's film Air will follow the story of the lucrative sportswear deal made between Nike and upcoming basketball star Michael Jordan in the mid-1980s. A ir, directed by Ben Affleck , is set to focus on the politics of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro, played by Matt Damon , working to sign rookie player Jordan on a deal to wear and promote Nike sports shoes, which at that time weren't anywhere near as popular as they are today. However, Air isn't the first production based on the sports phenomenon that was Michael Jordan. Netflix's 2020 docuseries The Last Dance serves as a tell-all exposé of the highs, lows, friendships and betrayals that took place on and off the court during Michael Jordan's reign, and contains cultural history necessary to understanding the gravity of Jordan's deal with Nike.

RELATED: Why ‘Air’s Use of Michael Jordan Was the Right Choice for the Film

What Is 'The Last Dance' About?

From the mind of acclaimed director Jason Hehir , The Last Dance is an extensive 10-part series that covers the incredible story of Michael Jordan's rise to fame, his success in reviving the Chicago Bulls, and the impact this had on the notoriety of the National Basketball Association during the late '80s and early '90s. Ranging from topics of sportsmanship, childhood, politics, and even lawsuits, The Last Dance provides never-before-seen footage of what really went on during Michael Jordan's career. Pieced together through interviews with stars such as number 23 himself, his peers Scotty Pippen and Dennis Rodman, his role models like Magic Johnson, and even his rivals such as Isiah Thomas , Hehir's work delivers the inside scoop on the inner workings of one of sports biggest success stories and how this transformed basketball from a secular activity with specific audiences to a world-renowned sport that anyone with a TV could enjoy.

The series features 10 episodes that go back and forth between the history of the NBA, Jordan's beginnings playing college basketball and his journey climbing through the ranks in the late '80s all the way to the legendary back-to-back championship wins he led the Chicago Bulls to in the '90s. The episodes play out as pieces of a greater puzzle that connects several of the sport's great players and coaches to the major events concerning Jordan's success, including that of the 1992 Olympics Dream Team.

As a whole, The Last Dance serves as a map through time, guiding its audiences around key moments that made history, including that of Jordan's game-changing collaboration with Nike.

Michael Jordan: A Pop Culture Phenomenon

With that in mind, The Last Dance spends some time going into depth about the pop culture influence that these players and their craft had on the world, including how that spilled into fashion. At the time of Michael Jordan's rise to fame, Converse was the chosen shoe of the NBA and had been for quite some time. Big names like Larry Bird had worked with Converse in early brand deals and established a relationship between the basketball association and the global footwear company. Amidst all this, Nike was a relatively basic show brand that was struggling to make its place among the big brands at the time, such as that of Converse and Reebok.

The show details that while not being Jordan's first choice at a brand deal, Nike was willing to offer Jordan not only the money to promote the company, but his own shoe design, the now classic Air Jordans. In response to this deal, Nike gained notoriety from supporting the fast-rising sports star and was given the room to grow into the multi-billion dollar company it is today.

The Last Dance provides significant first-hand accounts of these early days in Michael Jordan's career and sports history that will greatly funnel into the premise of Air, and by watching the Netflix series before Ben Affleck's directorial piece, audiences get the opportunity to not only cement their background knowledge on the events, but also get to hear it straight from those who made this deal happen.

Air is anticipated to be a creative and drama-filled account of one of the most lucrative deals in sports and pop culture history, so before you tune in, immerse yourself in the whirlwind of the National Basketball Association and Michael Jordan's career in Netflix's The Last Dance.

How to watch 'The Last Dance,' ESPN's docuseries on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

• It doesn't matter what LeBron fans on Twitter or morning sports show hosts try to argue; Michael Jordan is still widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time.
• During his last season with the Chicago Bulls, 1997-98, a camera crew followed Jordan and the team, capturing never-before-seen footage.
• ESPN has now compiled that footage with new interviews to create "The Last Dance," a 10-part documentary series that premiered in April 2020.
• Though the show originally aired on ESPN, all ten episodes of the series are now available to stream on Netflix .
• Netflix costs $8.99 a month for the Basic plan, $12.99 a month for the Standard plan, or $15.99 a month for the Premium plan.

Michael Jordan is one of the most celebrated figures in popular culture and almost universally regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time. In a career filled with too many accolades to list, MJ dominated the '90s, leading the Chicago Bulls to six championships. The only years the team didn't win it all from 1992-1998 were when Jordan was either retired or trying his hand at minor-league baseball.

In 1997-98, Jordan's final season with the Bulls, an NBA Entertainment crew followed the team, capturing never-before-seen footage. ESPN has partnered with director Jason Hehir ("The Fab Five," "Andre the Giant") to use this footage to create a new docuseries called "The Last Dance."

In addition to the footage collected in the 1997-98 season, the documentary includes new interviews featuring various people involved with the team. The trailer features appearances by Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson, Dennis Rodman, and a modern-day Michael Jordan paired with a comically large cigar.

"The Last Dance" unfolded across 10 episodes over five weeks on ESPN. The first two episodes premiered on April 19, and two new episodes followed every Sunday. The final installment dropped on May 17. You can now watch the entire series through Netflix.

Updated on 07/24/2020 by Danny Bakst: We've updated this article to include details about how to watch the series on Netflix now that every episode has aired, plus how to watch additional content related to Michael Jordan that you can stream on ESPN+ .

How to watch 'The Last Dance'

With fans ( including LeBron James ) pining for content in the wake of sports shutdowns, ESPN released "The Last Dance" earlier than expected. Though the documentary series was originally set to debut in June, the first two episodes premiered on April 19 at 9 p.m. ET via the ESPN cable channel. The docuseries concluded with its final two installments on May 17.

On July 19, the entire series became available to stream on Netflix in the United States. A current Netflix subscription starts at $8.99 a month for the Basic plan, $12.99 a month for the Standard plan, or $15.99 a month for the Premium plan.

"The Last Dance" is presented in up to 4K Ultra HD resolution through Netflix. With that said, you will need to subscribe to the Netflix Premium plan in order to watch the series in 4K. 

The Netflix app is available on most connected devices, including smart TVs , streaming players , and iOS and Android smartphones.

Get more Michael Jordan with ESPN+

If a 10-part docuseries just isn't enough to sate your appetite for content about Michael Jordan and his legendary run with the Chicago Bulls, then ESPN+ has you covered. While "The Last Dance" itself is not available on ESPN+, the subscription streaming service has released a historical version of its popular sports analysis show "Detail".

"Detail: 1998 Chicago Bulls" is hosted by Phil Jackson, former coach of the Chicago Bulls, and two of his former players, Steve Kerr and Dennis Rodman. Throughout the series, the hosts analyze specific moments from the team's 1997-98 season. The fifth and final episode of "Detail: 1998 Chicago Bulls" aired on Sunday, May 17, exclusively on ESPN+. 

Additionally, if you never got a chance to watch Jordan play in his heyday, ESPN+ has also released 15 classic Chicago Bulls' games from 1986-98. Get a first-hand look into why so many people agree that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever hit the hardwood. The last batch of games dropped on Sunday, May 17, to coincide with the last two episodes of "The Last Dance."  

You can sign up for a monthly subscription to ESPN+ for $5.99 a month, or a yearly subscription for $49.99 a year. You can access ESPN+ via the existing ESPN app . You can also  bundle ESPN+ with Hulu and Disney+ for $12.99 a month . 

Subscribe to our newsletter. You can purchase syndication rights to this story here. Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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Commentary: Michael Jordan docuseries ‘The Last Dance’ is more than a TV show. It’s a cultural event

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In 1998, on the home stretch of his sitcom’s final season, Jerry Seinfeld submitted to a courtside interview about the era’s premier sporting dynasty.

“The similarity between ‘Seinfeld’ and the Bulls?” he repeats for the camera, before heading to the locker room to greet the game’s star, Michael Jordan. “The show of the ‘90s, the team of the ‘90s.”

By the time spring turned to summer, his comparison would be borne out: Love it or hate it , the series finale of “Seinfeld” became an epochal TV event ( 76.3 million total viewers ), and Jordan led Chicago to its sixth NBA championship in eight seasons before retiring, not for the last time, at age 35.

While it’s the latter that forms the backbone of Jason Hehir’s extraordinary new docuseries “The Last Dance” — a co-production of ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, and Netflix, the worldwide leader in just about everything else — it’s the series’ attention to Jordan’s place in the broader cultural firmament that suggests its ambition, and its achievement.

Woven from archival video, in-depth interviews with Jordan and his contemporaries, and never-before-seen footage shot by a camera crew embedded with the Bulls for the 1997-98 NBA season, “The Last Dance” jumps between the basketball dynasty’s farewell tour and the arc of Jordan’s remarkable career, with detours into the lives of teammates Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman and coach Phil Jackson.

In the process, its multi-layered treatment of what sportscaster Bob Costas calls “one of the most consequential teams in American sports” emerges as the latest in a line of TV series, fiction and non-, to reconsider that decade and its defining figures : the post-Cold War, pre-9/11 period in American life that was the monoculture’s last dance too.

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It seems at once a cruel caprice and an eerie reminiscence, then, for the 10-part, five-week event to arrive at a moment marked by the shared experience of the COVID-19 pandemic , in which the vast majority of us are staying home to halt the spread of the coronavirus and the world of sports is in suspended animation. When the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” premiere on Sunday, they will of course compete with other new TV shows, streaming movies , video games , beloved albums , countless books , not to mention TikTok dance challenges , stress baking , doomscrolling , sex . But for the diehard (and fair-weather) sports fans missing March Madness , The Masters and Major League Baseball’s opening day , the series may feel like manna from heaven: For the time being, “The Last Dance” is one of the only games in town.

For anyone capable of feeling a flutter at what one thickly accented Chicago fan calls Jordan’s “poetry in motion,” there’s no shortage of fodder. In the absence of postseason fever, “The Last Dance” employs the star’s on-court fireworks to approximate the playoffs’ particular intensity — with his outrageous, record-setting 63 points against the ’86 Boston Celtics, for instance, or with the buzzer-beater known as “The Shot” against the ’89 Cleveland Cavaliers.

But the series — reliant as it is on the “SportsCenter” segments and Finals broadcasts of yore — is as much about the media landscape Jordan swept into as his athleticism or competitive drive. Even its rendering of the locker-room drama swirling around the ‘97-98 season has a familiar tabloid feel, like a purloined special of “Inside Edition” in which the Bulls come to reflect the tropes of fiction: the epochal hero, his trusty sidekick, the misunderstood rebel, their inscrutable sage. (There’s even a villain of sorts in general manager Jerry Krause, though he is the most underdeveloped, and thus unsatisfying, of the central figures. Krause died in 2017.)

Hehir and company lean into this angle from the outset, with an operatic score and a title sequence that emphasizes “back-stabbing” over points and rebounds; to wit, one of the most compelling subplots in “The Last Dance” is the bitter rivalry between the Bulls and the Detroit Pistons, which can be understood even if your primary point of reference is Sharks versus Jets. For every comparison of Jordan to Babe Ruth or Muhammad Ali , there is another to Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, the Beatles, the pope. McDonald’s sponsors an international basketball exhibition in Paris. Spike Lee appears as Mars Blackmon to promote Nike’s Air Jordans. Gatorade commands us to “Be Like Mike.”

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“It was the first time that sports were being sold in a cultural way,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver says of The Dream Team’s dominant performance at the 1992 Olympics, comparing the U.S. export of sports to that of fashion or music. “You were selling Americana.”

And what is modern Americana if not salesmanship itself? As I once wrote of Jordan’s friend and fellow sports icon Tiger Woods, our nostalgia for the monoculture’s mid-’90s zenith — in which a sitcom’s finale could attract fully one quarter of the U.S. population, and Game 6 of the NBA Finals more than one-tenth — cuts both ways. One person’s “fracture” or “fragmentation” is another’s hard-won time to shine.

“The Last Dance” trades on this nostalgia, and given the strange, fraught moment of its debut, may do more than that: It is not only an ode to the years in which “ everyone knew Michael Jordan,” as journalist Willow Bay says in the series, but also an attempt to recapture their magic. As such, while Hehir’s vision is not terribly sophisticated when it comes to race or politics or the long arc of social history, it is extraordinarily perceptive about celebrity — what makes it, what breaks it, what shapes its character and magnitude. Without downplaying Jordan and his teammates’ remarkable prowess, the series tacitly acknowledges that fame, even in sports, is a function of framing, of timing — that what the show of the ‘90s and the team of the ‘90s had in common, as Seinfeld intuited, was first and foremost the ‘90s.

The nature of change means the phenomenon of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, like that of the “Seinfeld” finale, is unlikely ever to be replicated. But it can be relived, or at least revisited, in the cultural time machine of “The Last Dance.”

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Michael Jordan

Basketball legend Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships and won the MVP Award five times.

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Who Is Michael Jordan?

Quick facts, early life and family, college career, professional basketball career, jordan’s jersey numbers, awards and honors, retirements from basketball, jordan’s business ventures, wives and children, michael jordan in pop culture.

1963–present

Latest News: Michael Jordan Completes Sale of Hornets

Basketball icon Michael Jordan officially sold his majority ownership in the Charlotte Hornets NBA team on August 3. The team was sold for an estimated $3 billion, more than 10 times the $275 million Jordan purchased it for in 2010. The Hornets made the playoffs only three times under Jordan’s leadership. “I’m excited about the future of the team and will continue to support the organization and the community in my new role in the years ahead,” said Jordan, who kept a minority stake in the franchise.

Michael Jordan is a former professional basketball player, American Olympic athlete, businessperson, and actor. Considered one of the best basketball players ever, he dominated the sport from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships and earned the league’s MVP Award five times. With five regular-season MVPs and three All-Star MVPs, Jordan became the most decorated player in the NBA.

FULL NAME: Michael Jeffrey Jordan BORN: February 17, 1963 BIRTHPLACE: Brooklyn, New York SPOUSES: Juanita Vanoy (1989–2006), Yvette Prieto (2013–present) CHILDREN: Jeffrey, Marcus, Jasmine, Ysabel, and Victoria ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Deloris, was a bank teller who has since written several books. His father, James, was a maintenance worker turned manager at General Electric. Jordan, the fourth child of Deloris and James, has four siblings: James Jr. (known as Ronnie), Deloris, Larry, and Roslyn.

Growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina, Jordan developed a competitive edge at an early age. It was James who introduced his son Michael to baseball and built a basketball court in their backyard. Michael idolized his brother Larry, and the two would often play one-on-one into the night. Michael wanted to win every game he played.

Jordan attended Laney High School in Wilmington. He was notably assigned to the school’s junior varsity basketball team as a sophomore—he was still under 6 feet tall then—before developing into one of the country’s top recruits.

During a basketball camp in the summer of 1980, Jordan grabbed the attention of legendary University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill head coach Dean Smith and his staff. He signed his letter of intent with the school in 1981.

Jordan enrolled at North Carolina in 1981 and soon became an important member of the university’s basketball team. UNC won the NCAA Division I championship in 1982, with Jordan scoring the final basket needed to defeat Georgetown University. He was also singled out as the NCAA College Player of the Year in 1983 and in 1984.

Jordan left college after his junior year to join the NBA in 1984. In 1986, Jordan finished his bachelor’s degree in geography as he continued to play basketball professionally.

The 6-foot-6 Jordan began his professional basketball career when he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1984. He was the third overall pick, behind Hakeem Olajuwon, who was selected first by the Houston Rockets, and Sam Bowie, taken by the Portland Trail Blazers; the draft also featured legendary players John Stockton and Charles Barkley.

Jordan soon proved himself on the court. He helped the Bulls make the playoffs and scored an average of 28.2 points per game that season. For his efforts, Jordan received the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and was selected for the All-Star Game.

Although his second season was marred by injury, he broke new ground on the court during the 1986-87 season. He became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to score more than 3,000 points in a single season. By the late 1980s, the Chicago Bulls were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with, and Jordan was an instrumental part of the team’s success.

The Bulls made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1990 and won their first NBA championship the following year by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers. Jordan was well known by then for his superior athleticism on the court and for his leadership abilities.

In 1992, the Chicago Bulls beat the Portland Trail Blazers to win their second NBA championship. The team took their third championship the following year, dominating in the basketball world.

Following the 1993 death of his father and a short stint in minor league baseball, Jordan returned to the basketball court and the Bulls in March 1995. He came back even stronger the following year, averaging 30.4 points per game to lead the Bulls to a then-record 72 regular-season wins before they defeated the Seattle SuperSonics for the NBA championship.

Chicago nearly matched the previous year’s record with 69 wins in 1996-97, a season that ended with a Game 6 win over the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals. The two teams faced each other again for the championship in 1998, with Jordan sinking the winning shot in Game 6 to claim his sixth and final title. In addition to those six rings, Jordan won each of his five league MVP awards with Chicago.

After his second retirement from basketball in 1999, Jordan joined the Washington Wizards in 2000 as a part owner and as president of basketball operations. In the fall of 2001, Jordan relinquished these roles to return to the court once more. He played for the Wizards for his final two NBA seasons.

Jordan is most famous for donning No. 23 during the majority of his career. He once said the number was a reference to brother Larry, as it was roughly half of his elder sibling’s high school number 45.

Jordan did wear 45 upon his 1995 return to the NBA because 23 was the number his late father knew him by, and he wanted a new beginning. That lasted only a couple months before Jordan switched back to 23 during the 1995 playoffs.

Jordan famously wore No. 12 for one game on February 14, 1990, because his jersey had been stolen. The Bulls didn’t have a backup and tried to locate a 23 jersey in the stands that would fit Jordan but couldn’t. The temporary change didn’t affect his performance, as Jordan scored 49 points in a loss to the Orlando Magic.

During the summer of 1984, Jordan made his first appearance at the Olympic Games as a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team. The team of college amateurs won the gold at the games that year, which were held in Los Angeles.

Jordan later helped the American team bring home the gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games, held in Barcelona, Spain. The U.S. squad featured professional players for the first time that year, including Larry Bird , Magic Johnson , and Jordan, and became known as the “Dream Team.”

In 1988, Jordan received his first MVP Award from the NBA, an honor he would earn four more times, in 1991, 1992, 1996, and 1998.

In April 2009, Jordan received one of basketball’s greatest honors: He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Attending the induction ceremony was a bittersweet affair for Jordan because being at the event meant “your basketball career is completely over,” he explained.

In 2016, Jordan was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama .

Here is a rundown of Jordan’s NBA career averages and totals, according to Basketball Reference :

Career Averages

• Minutes: 38.3
• Field Goal Percentage: 0.497
• 3-Point Field Goal Percentage: 0.327
• Free Throw Percentage: 0.835
• Offensive Rebounds Per Game: 1.6
• Defensive Rebounds Per Game: 4.7
• Assists Per Game: 5.3
• Steals Per Game: 2.3
• Blocks Per Game: 0.8
• Turnovers Per Game: 2.7
• Personal Fouls Per Game: 2.6
• Points Per Game: 30.1

Career Totals

• Games: 1,072
• Games Started: 1,039
• Minutes: 41,011
• Field Goals Made: 12,192 of 24,537 attempts
• 3-Point Field Goals Made: 581 of 1,778 attempts
• Free Throws Made: 7,327 of 8,772 attempts
• Offensive Rebounds: 1,668
• Defensive Rebounds: 5,004
• Total Rebounds: 6,672
• Assists: 5,633
• Steals: 2,514
• Blocks: 893
• Turnovers: 2,924
• Personal Fouls: 2,783
• Points: 32,292

Jordan retired from the sport three times over the span of his 19-year professional career. He first stepped away on October 6, 1993, at age 30 to pursue a career in baseball following the death of his father. In July of that year, James was murdered when two teenagers shot him in his car in an apparent robbery as he was driving from Charlotte to Wilmington, North Carolina. He was missing for 23 days until his body was found in a swamp in McColl, South Carolina. The teens were later tried and convicted of the crime and received life sentences for first-degree murder.

Jordan retired from the Bulls again on January 13, 1999, at age 35 before eventually returning to the court with the Wizards. He finally hung up his jersey for good at age 40 on April 16, 2003.

In a move that shocked many, after the end of the 1992-93 basketball season, Jordan announced his retirement from basketball to pursue baseball. For one year in 1994, Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, as an outfielder.

This decision came shortly following the murder of Jordan’s father, who always wanted him to play baseball. He had last played baseball as a high school senior in 1981.

“You tell me I can’t do something, and I’m going to do it,” Jordan said.

During his short career in baseball, which many fans considered a whim, Jordan had a rather dismal .202 batting average. However, many of the people who worked with him at the time said he was an extremely dedicated player with potential.

“He had it all: ability, aptitude, work ethic. He was always so respectful of what we were doing and considerate of his teammates. Granted, he had a lot to learn,” former Barons manager Terry Francona said . “I do think with another 1,000 at-bats, he would’ve made it. But there’s something else that people miss about that season. Baseball wasn’t the only thing he picked up. I truly believe that he rediscovered himself, his joy for competition. We made him want to play basketball again.”

After his season with the Barons, Jordan went to the Arizona Fall League to play for the Scottsdale Scorpions. After hitting .252 and naming himself the team’s “worst player,” he returned to the NBA in March 1995 with a two-word press release: “I’m back.”

Outside of his career in basketball, Jordan has been involved in a number of profitable business and commercial ventures, including a longtime partnership with Nike. Jordan signed his first deal with Nike in 1984. The company launched its signature Air Jordan basketball sneakers in 1985. In its initial contract, Nike gave Jordan a generous 25 percent in royalties.

The Air Jordan quickly proved very popular, and it continues to be a best-seller for the apparel maker more than 30 years later. The collaboration mints money for Nike and Jordan, with Nike reporting nearly $2.9 billion in revenue for the Air Jordan line in 2018.

The story of Jordan’s partnership with Nike is the subject of the 2023 biographical drama Air , which stars Ben Affleck as Nike founder Phil Knight and Matt Damon as marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro.

Over the years, Jordan has signed a number of other endorsement deals with brands like Hanes, Upper Deck, Gatorade, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Chevrolet, and Wheaties. The Gatorade partnership featured a memorable ad campaign encouraging kids and adults to “Be Like Mike.”

In 1998, Jordan launched into the restaurant business as the owner of Michael Jordan’s The Steak House N.Y.C. Designed to reflect Jordan’s tastes and style, this typical steakhouse seated 150 and 60 at the bar, occupying 7,000 square feet in Grand Central Terminal, before closing in late 2018.

As of April 2023, there are four Michael Jordan’s Steak House locations: in Chicago; in Oak Brook, Illinois; at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut; and at the Ilani Casino in Ridgefield, Washington.

Part Owner of the Charlotte Hornets

In 2006, Jordan bought a share of the Charlotte Hornets (formerly known as the Bobcats) and joined the team’s executive ranks as its managing member of basketball operations. In 2010, he became the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets and serves as the team’s chairman.

Improving the team’s less-than-stellar record seemed to be Jordan’s priority. In November 2012, he told ESPN: “I don’t anticipate getting out of this business. My competitive nature is I want to succeed. It’s always been said that when I can’t find a way to do anything, I will find a way to do it.” While the Hornets’ on-court record wasn’t hugely successful—they failed to make the playoffs six straight seasons from 2016 through 2022—the organization grew from a $175 million valuation in 2006 to $1.7 billion by October 2022.

In March 2023, ESPN reported that Jordan was in talks to sell his majority stake in the franchise to a group led by two NBA minority owners. Five months later on August 3, Jordan completed the sale to a group including the team’s minority owner, Gabe Plotkin, as well as music artists J. Cole and Eric Church. Jordan kept a minority stake in the franchise.

Jordan’s NASCAR Team

In 2020, Jordan partnered with NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin to form the 23XI Racing team. The name is a reference to Jordan’s basketball number and Hamlin’s No. 11 race car.

Jordan is a longtime NASCAR fan and grew up watching legends of the sport like Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, and Dale Earnhardt . Hamlin is a Jordan brand athlete and fan of the Charlotte Hornets, so the two were friends before the NASCAR partnership.

The team debuted in the 2021 Daytona 500 with Bubba Wallace driving the No. 23 car. Wallace picked up the team’s first NASCAR Cup victory later that season on October 4 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.

The team expanded to two cars for the 2022 season, with former champion Kurt Busch driving the No. 45 car. Busch and Wallace each won a race at Kansas Speedway that year. Tyler Reddick replaced Busch in the 45 for the 2023 season and quickly gave the team a fourth race win at Circuit of the Americas.

Forbes listed Jordan’s net worth at $2 billion as of April 3, 2023. According to Sportico , he is the highest paid athlete of all time.

From 2001 through 2014, Jordan hosted an annual charity golf event known as the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational, with proceeds benefiting foundations including Make-A-Wish, Cats Care, the James R. Jordan Foundation, Keep Memory Alive, and Opportunity Village.

The four-day tournament and celebration attracted celebrity participants, including Wayne Gretzky , Michael Phelps , Chevy Chase , Samuel L. Jackson , and Mark Wahlberg .

In 2023, Jordan made a $10 million donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation—the largest by an individual in its history—in honor of his 60th birthday.

In 1989, Jordan married Juanita Vanoy. The couple had three children together: Jeffrey, Marcus, and Jasmine. After 17 years of marriage, they divorced in December 2006.

On April 27, 2013, Jordan married 35-year-old Cuban American model Yvette Prieto in Palm Beach, Florida. Tiger Woods , Spike Lee , and Patrick Ewing, among other celebrities, reportedly attended the wedding ceremony. The couple welcomed twin daughters, Victoria and Ysabel, in February 2014.

Jordan and Juanita’s two sons, Jeffrey and Marcus, both played basketball in college and had dreams of making it to the NBA.

Jeffrey joined the basketball team at the University of Illinois in 2007. Both Jordan and his ex-wife, Juanita, supported their son and tried to help him deal with playing in the shadow of an NBA legend. “The thing that we have tried to tell Jeff is that you set your own expectations. By no means in this world can you ever live up to someone else’s expectations of who you are,” Jordan said during an appearance on the Today show.

Jeffrey played for the University of Illinois for three seasons, from 2007 to 2010. He then played for the University of South Florida for one season, from 2011 to 2012, before retiring from basketball. He later entered a management training program at Nike.

Jordan’s younger son, Marcus, played basketball for the UCF Knights, for three seasons from 2009 to 2012. He went on to open a basketball shoe and apparel store in Florida. “They wanted to be like their dad. What boy doesn’t? But they both got to a point where they said, ‘We’re not going to the NBA,’” Juanita said in 2013.

Jordan made a big splash as the lead actor in the 1996 movie Space Jam . The film mixed live action and animation and paired Jordan with Looney Tunes legends Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck on screen. Jordan did not appear in the 2021 sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy , which features LeBron James .

Jordan and the 1997-98 Bulls were the subject of the 2020 documentary The Last Dance, co-produced by Netflix and ESPN Films. ESPN aired the 10-part series after the COVID-19 pandemic halted the 2019-20 NBA season, and it became a must-watch for basketball fans. Along with featuring archival footage of Jordan and interviews with teammates and opponents, The Last Dance explored the tension between the Bulls front office and its peerless superstar over his final triumphant year with the team.

Jordan has also appeared on the cover of the popular NBA 2K video game franchise four times , including as recently as 2022.

A photograph of Jordan in tears during his 2009 induction into the Hall of Fame turned into a popular internet meme called “Crying Jordan,” in which Jordan’s teary face is superimposed on pictures of other people suffering mishaps.

• You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
• By no means in this world can you ever live up someone else’s expectations of who you are.
• My competitive nature is I want to succeed. It’s always been said that when I can’t find a way to do anything, I will find a way to do it.
• I’ve reached the pinnacle of my career. I just feel that I don’t have anything else to prove.
• I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
• Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.
• [A]t the end of the day, the team’s got to go out and play. I think the players win the championship, and the organization has something to do with it, don’t get me wrong. But don’t try to put the organization above the players.
• The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I’ve always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It’s been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It’s a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game.
• I try to be a role model for Black kids, white kids, yellow kids, green kids.
• Enjoy every minute of life. Never second-guess life.
• I always thought I would be a professional athlete. I always loved sports. I knew one thing I didn’t want was a job. Me and working were never best friends. I enjoyed playing.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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'One Man and His Shoes': Why You Should Make Room for Another Michael Jordan Documentary

You might think The Last Dance said it all, but a new film thinks not

Which makes One Man and His Shoes , a new feature-length documentary by British filmmaker Yemi Bamiro that has its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 13 October and goes on wider release on 23 October, a bona fide bold move. Bolder still, when you realise – as you quickly do – that Jordan himself has gone nowhere near it, and that this is a decidedly smaller operation that will need to be light on its feet (the Spud Webb of basketball docs, perhaps?).

Fleetness of foot is, in fact, the film’s main focus, as it seeks to unpick and understand the phenomenon of the Air Jordan sneaker, both what Jordan did for the shoes, but also what the shoes did for him. There are no Magic Johnsons and Scottie Pippens to hear from, but rather a series of journalists, academics, sneakerheads and former Nike executives, who nonetheless have some fascinating insight into the bold business moves that led Nike, a plucky running company at the time, to sign Jordan while he was still a college player in North Carolina, and create what continues to be the most lucrative sports shoe of all time.

The first hour of the film is, in fact, almost more of a marketing case study – albeit an unusually interesting one – rather than attempting a psychological profile, as did The Last Dance . It highlights figures who received little or no mention in the ESPN/Netflix series, such as Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, who masterminded the Jordan deal, and Spike Lee, whose nine “Mars Blackmon” ads with Jordan gave the Chicago Bulls' 23 a street cachet that, the film argues, he might not otherwise have had. The whole operation helped Nike shift $126m of Air Jordans in the first year, to Black inner-city kids and affluent white kids alike; the film estimates that Jordan continues to make around $130m a year from the deal.

After the first hour, however, the film takes a sharp turn (an ankle breaker dribble, if you will). We meet collectors around the world – America, Japan, France – whose love of Jordans has become a very expensive obsession. We see distressing CCTV footage of a teenage boy being beaten in a bathroom stall by three other boys, before they pull his Jordans from his feet and run. We meet Dazie Williams, whose 22-year-old son, Joshua Woods, was shot and killed for his newly purchased Air Jordans in 2012. We learn that for all the genius of the marketing strategy – teasing the shoes on court before releasing them, making sure supply never quite met demand – this was, as Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times describes it, “advertising that worked too well”.

If you’d wondered, as I had, about the slight lack of snappiness of the title of the film, this is when “ One Man and his Shoes ” starts to make sense. The man in question is Jordan, yes, but it’s also every young person (and yes, usually male) for whom the shoes start to embody something more: the promise of Air Jordans as “anti-gravity machines”, not just to lift a player off the surface of the court, but to lift a boy beyond the limits that a prejudicial society has set for him.

“They’re jewels in the eyes of young Black kids,” says sports marketing lecturer Professor Antonio Williams. “When you’re wearing these types of jewels on your feet, especially in the neighbourhoods where wealth and status is scarce but heavily coveted, you have things like this happen.” Sports writer Jemele Hill goes further: “Things like Jordans become very big status symbols in communities of colour, and communities that are historically and presently under-served, and the value of life is just not as appreciated when you’re hearing from every corner of society how much you’re not worth.”

In the inquest into Joshua Woods’ death, there were repeated calls for Nike – or even Jordan himself – to make a statement. To say something . (He did, Woods’ sister tells us, send some shoes.) Perhaps it is too much, and unfair, to expect them to accept responsibility for Woods’ death, but could they acknowledge that the company’s business strategy, however innocently embarked upon, had fatal flaws? Jordan has been criticised before for not taking a vocal position on issues, particularly surrounding race, and it was a long shot for the film-makers to expect him to speak up this time. Nevertheless, as Jordan would be the first to tell you, the shot is always worth taking.

More info at Onemanandhisshoes.com . One Man and His Shoes premieres at the London Film Festival on 13 October.

Miranda Collinge is the Deputy Editor of Esquire, overseeing editorial commissioning for the brand. With a background in arts and entertainment journalism, she also writes widely herself, on topics ranging from Instagram fish to psychedelic supper clubs, and has written numerous cover profiles for the magazine including Cillian Murphy, Rami Malek and Tom Hardy.

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‘Michael Jordan changed the world’: the true story behind Nike movie Air

Ben Affleck’s buzzy drama tells the story about how Nike transformed into a major force in the sneakers market thanks to a young basketball star

“I didn’t give a damn about Michael Jordan,” recalls Sonny Vaccaro . “He did not play in my all-star game that I had for 20 years. I didn’t pick him; I picked somebody else who was damn good too.”

But lodged somewhere in the brain of Vaccaro, an executive at Nike hunting basketball’s next big thing, was the memory of 1982 and a moment for the sporting gods. Jordan, a 19-year-old freshman displaying preternatural calm, had made a 16ft jump shot with 15 seconds left to win the national college championship for North Carolina.

The importance of this moment is vivid in Air, a new movie in which Matt Damon plays Vaccaro as middle-aged, out of shape and short of breath – literally gasping for air – as he tries to save what in 1984 was Nike’s fledgling and flailing basketball division. Director Ben Affleck plays the Nike co-founder Phil Knight while Viola Davis brings steely dignity to Jordan’s mother, Deloris.

Jordan himself is not shown in the film apart from some archive clips including that life-changing shot in 1982, which Damon’s Vaccaro is seen studying on VHS video tape again and again. “That is such a great scene because you can watch it happen now,” Vaccaro, now 83, says by phone from Palm Springs, California. “It was 40 years ago and there are kids who weren’t born yet.”

In the movie version, Vaccaro becomes convinced that Jordan is special and that Nike should bet everything on him to achieve success in the NBA. But he faces scepticism from Knight and fierce competition from more established shoe rivals Adidas and Converse.

The real Vaccaro, who was an adviser on the film, recalls that he had only met Jordan once. “He basically said he loved Adidas right up front. He was probably going to Adidas if they gave as much money as other people. I said, ‘Michael, who are you the closest to?’ I thought he’d say [North Carolina coach] Dean Smith or one of his fellow team-mates. He said, ‘My family’. It just stuck in my mind. ”

The dogged Vaccaro found out the Jordan’s family home phone number and began calling the player’s mother Deloris. “ We made a relationship over the phone right there,” he says. “She was an alpha human being .”

Vaccaro says Nike colleagues came up with the novel idea of building an “Air Jordan” shoe around the young star and ended up signing him in a $2.5m five-year deal. But Jordan’s mother added a crucial clause, insisting that the player get a share of the profit from every pair sold – perhaps the shrewdest bit of business since Alec Guinness secured a percentage of Star Wars’ earnings.

It also heralded a global revolution in the way sport was marketed and players were rewarded. Vaccaro comments: “Michael changed the world. People think he’s the greatest basketball player that ever lived and he may well be. I don’t go in for icons or Goats and all that on team sports but what I can say – and I never thought of it till I saw the movie – is Michael opened up the door for Black athletes in earning a lot of money off their endorsements.

“It was like a set fee in the 80s; the most that anybody got was maybe $100,000. But now you were free to make deals. He opened up a business world that was not available to anybody else and he created an item that will live on. Where else in the world can you see somebody’s old shoe now worth $1m at auction? ”

The gamble paid off in spectacular fashion. Jordan won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, became a billionaire and now owns the Charlotte Hornets. Last year the Jordan brand made Nike $5.1bn. The “Jumpman” logo – a silhouette of Jordan jumping with a ball in his hand – is a staple in the fashion and sports industries. Nike, whose revenue topped £37bn in 2022, is the world’s number one shoe and sports brand .

But Air does not tell the whole story. Vaccaro was fired by Nike in 1991. He recalls: “One day I just walked in and Phil made an agreement that I would no longer be there. That was the business and I always understood that. Things carry on and I’ve gone forward in my life and he certainly has. There was nothing like competing against them too.”

Vaccaro went to work for the old foe, Adidas, and signed Kobe Bryant to a major shoe contract straight out of high school. Bryant went on to a stellar 20-year career at the Los Angeles Lakers. It was poetic justice for Vaccaro but he denies feeling any lingering bitterness towards Nike.

“Differences in stories take place. A lot of people do a lot of things but I have no animus towards anybody. Phil is the last person I would even remember from the old days. He opened the door for me. He believed in Michael so I can’t ever be mad at them. I just go on with my life.”

There was obvious acrimony, however, in a 2015 article in the USA Today newspaper about who was responsible for the Nike deal. Knight was quoted as saying: “Sonny helped, but he wasn’t the MVP in that process.” Jordan told the paper: “Sonny likes to take the credit. But it really wasn’t Sonny.” And Vaccaro himself said: “Phil Knight’s lying, Michael’s lying more than Phil.”

Roland Lazenby , a sportswriter and biographer of Jordan, Bryant and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has interviewed Vaccaro at length. He says: “Sonny was the mind and, by his own admission, the somewhat devious mind of Nike basketball in a lot of ways. The thing that’s so painful for him is that Nike has gone to great lengths to create this revisionist history that writes Sonny’s role out of everything. The bad blood between Sonny and Nike has just gotten worse.”

Affleck’s film offers a corrective, however (Nike did not respond to a request for comment). Speaking from Salem, Virginia, Lazenby, 70, adds: “I’ve been told Sonny is not getting a dime for this movie but he is very appreciative of it. It’s very important to him because Sonny is an old gentleman now and Nike is still big and strong and powerful. It controls the messaging, sets the agenda itself pretty well, and so this is the chance for Sonny’s side of the story to be told.”

Critics have blamed Vaccaro for the commercialisation of college basketball. But in recent years he became an advocate for players included in a class-action antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) over athletes’ rights to profit from their name, image and likeness. A supreme court ruling went against the NCAA in 2021.

Lazenby comments: “Sonny’s not quite a hidden figure. I first did a story on him in 1984 for the Sporting News and he was a notorious figure in some regards. In many ways Sonny is a sweetheart and a champion of players and coaches; he’s also a very tough guy and has a fierceness. He is one the great mysterious figures of American sport and he has been right in very big ways.”

Jordan, now 60, was introduced to a new generation in 2020 in The Last Dance , a documentary looking at his last championship season with the Chicago Bulls. The 10-part series, which included never-before-seen footage, was released sooner than expected to fill the sporting vacuum caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Lazenby reflects: “One of the themes of Michael Jordan’s life is this unbelievably perfect timing. I was sitting up top alone with Michael Jordan at the pre-draft camp in Orlando in 2008. Kobe was on his way to winning the league MVP and the league had set Jordan up to be owner in Charlotte. He looked at me when I asked him to look back on his life and he said, ‘Timing is everything’.

“The real relevant point here about Sonny Vaccaro is that he played a key role in that timing. He was part of the great ignition that set everything in motion. When I look back on it, Sonny Vaccaro was the accelerant for the business of basketball and shoe marketing.”

He adds: “All over the world very quickly Jordan became the primary figure of global sports merchandising. I wouldn’t say it’s the last great American phenomenon globally but at a time where American influence is being challenged – some would say it is waning – Jordan is a figure that is immune to the future.”

Air is now out in US cinemas and will be in UK cinemas on 7 April with an Amazon Prime release later this year

• Michael Jordan
• Ben Affleck

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Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan. Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan. Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan.

• Ben Affleck
• Alex Convery
• Jason Bateman
• 422 User reviews
• 270 Critic reviews
• 73 Metascore
• 5 wins & 47 nominations

• Sonny Vaccaro

• Rob Strasser

• Phil Knight

• Deloris Jordan

• James Jordan

• Michael Jordan
• (as Damian Young)

• Howard White

• Peter Moore

• Horst Dassler

• Kathe Dassler

• John Fisher

• John O'Neill

• George Raveling

• 7-Eleven Clerk

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Big Cars, Big Dreams With the 'Air' Cast

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• Trivia Though Michael Jordan was not directly involved in the film, Ben Affleck consulted him numerous times to get details on how to accurately portray the story. According to Affleck, Jordan's only two requests were that Viola Davis play his mother and that his longtime friend Howard White be included in the film. Affleck always wanted to work with Chris Tucker , so he was cast as White. Tucker was also friends with White, and Affleck gave him a lot of flexibility for his performance.
• Goofs The "Just Do It" slogan didn't come out until 1987. It was created in 1987 by Wieden + Kennedy to accompany Nike's first major television campaign, which included commercials for running, walking, cross-training, basketball and women's fitness.

Sonny Vaccaro : [to Michael Jordan] Forget about the shoes, forget about the money. You're going to make enough money, it's not going to matter. Money can buy you almost anything, it can't buy you immortality. That, you have to earn. I'm going to look you in the eyes and I'm gonna tell you the future. You were cut from your high school basketball team. You willed your way to the NBA. You're gonna win championships. It's an American story, and that's why Americans are gonna love it. People are going to build you up, and God are they going to, because when you're great and new, we love you. Man, we'll build you up into something that doesn't even exist. You're going to change the fucking world. But you know what? Once they've built you as high as they possibly can, they're gonna tear you back down - it's the most predictable pattern. We build you into something that doesn't exist, and that means you have to try to be that thing all day, every day. That's how it works. And we do it again, and again, and again. And I'm going to tell you the truth. You're going to be attacked, betrayed, exposed and humiliated. And you'd survive that. A lot of people can climb that mountain. It's the way down that breaks them, 'cause that's the moment when you are truly alone. And what would you do then? Can you summon the will to fight on, through all the pain, and rise again? Who are you Michael? That will be the defining question of your life. And I think you already know the answer, and that's why we're all here. A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps into it. Then it has meaning. The rest of us just want a chance to touch that greatness. We need you in these shoes not so you have meaning in your life, but so that we have meaning in ours. Everyone at this table will be forgotten as soon as our time here is up - except for you. You're gonna be remembered forever, because some things are eternal. You're Michael Jordan, and your story is gonna make us want to fly.

• Connections Featured in CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley: Episode #45.26 (2023)
• Soundtracks Money for Nothing Written by Mark Knopfler , Sting (as Gordon Matthew Sumner) Performed by Dire Straits Courtesy of Warner Records By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User reviews 422

• Apr 12, 2023
• How long is Air? Powered by Alexa
• April 5, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• Los Angeles, California, USA
• Amazon Studios
• Artists Equity
• Mandalay Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $90,000,000 (estimated)
• $52,460,106
• $14,456,279
• Apr 9, 2023
• $90,060,106

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 51 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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EXCLUSIVE: New year, new Liv. For real this time.

After her tiff with Jordan (Michael Evans Behling) during Monday’s episode of All American , it looks like Olivia (Samantha Logan) has learned her lesson when it comes to her dad’s biography.

Deadline has an exclusive clip from next week’s episode, where Liv is off to her first interview for her book.

She excitedly tells Layla (Greta Oniegou) that she’s off to interview Grace James (Karimah Westbrook), but Layla has some hesitancies about Billy’s high school sweetheart being the first person to contribute to Liv’s book.

All American  is exec produced by Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, John A. Norris, Jameal Turner, Mike Herro and David Strauss.

Season 6 kicks off over a year after Season 5 left off, with Olivia back in LA after spending a year in London. Meanwhile, Jordan and Spencer are locked in on GAU football as their NFL prospects become closer than ever.

Episode 3 airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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