Who Is ‘Air’ About? The People Who Inspired the Nike Jordans Film

The Ben Affleck-directed Air, now in theaters, reveals the behind-the-scenes of the industry-shifting sneaker deal between Nike and then-rookie Michael Jordan, which created what we today know as the Jordan Brand.

The creation of the Air Jordan became a first-of-its-kind revolutionary collaboration that shifted the way athletes and sports companies did business forever. While the basketball giant is not involved in the film, and doesn’t appear in it either, he made sure to set some ground rules to ensure that this portion of his legendary story was told correctly.

He requested for certain details and for specific and influential people to be included in the film before giving Affleck the greenlight to produce and direct the film. Jordan wanted his mom, Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis), to be a focal point in the story, and asked for the inclusion of key people like Howard White (Chris Tucker) and George Raveling (Marlon Wayans) who helped facilitate the partnership.

The idea from the script originally came to writer Alex Convery while watching the Jordan documentary The Last Dance in 2020, but the script began to shift and take a different shape after Jordan’s input and Affleck and Matt Damon’s involvement. Air tells the story of how talent scout Sonny Vaccaro’s larger-than-life idea to sign Jordan as the face of the brand’s basketball division helped rescue the sportswear company from bankruptcy in 1984, even if it meant blowing the entire budget on just one player.

There were a lot of significant people involved in the pitching, decision-making, and creation of the Nike deal with Jordan, and Air does its best at highlighting its impact in permanently changing the world of sneakers and sports. Now that the movie is available to stream on Prime Video, check out our explanation for each one of the real people who inspired the characters in Air and their part in making the deal a reality. 

This story was originally published on April 7.