Matt Damon (‘Air’) and the Michael Jordan anecdote that reveals why he was invincible: “Michael crushed him”

The first thing we said in our review of ‘Air’, Ben Affleck’s film about the birth of the Nike and Michael Jordan union that led to the mythical Air sneakers, is that the film starring Matt Damon is not a film about Michael Jordan. But we have already detailed the true story about Jordan’s first contract with Nike that inspired ‘Air’. We have even spoken with Ben Affleck and he has told us in detail how as a child the sports genius marked him by scoring no less than 63 points for his team, a Boston Celtics who, at that time, had several legends, legends eclipsed since then by the greatest figure in American sports. Yes, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck return to their old ways again, and we could remember all their films, but the figure of Michael Jordan is so gigantic that even a film that is not about him, a film that represents the return of a mythical movie couple, still going from Michael Jordan.

In fact, the mythical 23 of the Chicago Bulls had several demands on Ben Affleck to do ‘Air’. Demands that good Ben met because one does not say no to Michael Jordan no matter how many Oscars you have on the shelf between Grammys from your brand new wife, Jennifer Lopez.

In the video that you have in the headline of the news we spoke with Marlon Wayans and Matt Damon, two of the stars of the film that “does not go” by Michael Jordan but that is totally marked by his shadow. While Wayans emphasizes that much of Jordan’s greatness is based on how he improved in everything throughout his career, how he went from being a great penetrator and killer to becoming an excellent shooter from the middle, 3 points and shots books, Damons reveals a great anecdote. Howard White is the mythical Nike marketing director who, together with the player, created the most mythical line of sports shoes in the history of sports.

Obviously, the relationship between the two is a fundamental part of the birth of Air and, therefore, of the film. Well, according to Matt Damon, Michael Jordan refused to ride a bike against Howard White without further explanation. A year later, in Barcelona 92, Jordan suddenly accepted the challenge. They covered a whopping twenty miles, which would be about 20 miles, and Jordan crushed Nike’s sports marketing director. It was not something casual, Jordan refused at first so as not to lose, to prepare for a year with an exercise bike in his facilities, and go out exclusively to crush his “rival”. “It made him physically sick to lose”, something that was also evident in the Netflix documentary ‘The Last Dance’, where Jordan’s degree of competitiveness was even scary.

‘Air’, with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Olivia Wilde and Marlan Wayas, among others, in the cast, is already in theaters.