From Air to The Last Dance, the anthology of films about Michael Jordan

Sport is made up of stories, anecdotes of feats and deeds accomplished both individually and as a team. Every sporting discipline has had and has its protagonists: champions or champions for some years or seasons, legends in some cases who, however, have marked the development, diffusion and knowledge of that specific sport or competition. As we have just said, there are champions, there are legends and then there is a very small circle of sports icons, demigods, in some cases venerated as divinities. They are men and women, individuals and teams who in some way (and almost always outside the box) have revolutionized sport as a whole and not just their own discipline of reference. These are sportsmen, athletes who, through their activity on and off the field, through their example, through the hardships of their careers, have brought the perception of sporting competition to another level.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan falls into this category, "… by acclamation" as his biography on the official NBA website states, "the greatest basketball player of all time". Jordan was and is arguably the most popular sportsman in the world. Few others can boast of having had the same impact on the media, social, economic, technical and psychological level on almost all sections of modern society. Jordan was not only the greatest basketball player with his Chicago Bulls in the NBA but he was also the one who rewrote the way of playing professional sports. Basketball champions and stars existed even before MJ's arrival on the NBA floors in the United States, yet today they all agree in defining basketball (NBA and otherwise) pre and post Jordan, as can be widely read in many analyzes and discussions on the web and on the Marathonbet blog , one of the best sports information sites.

Also for this reason there have been so many personalities from the world of communication (writers, screenwriters, directors, photographers, designers) who over the years have tried to tell the story of the man Michael Jordan, his love for basketball, his nose for the business, its successes and its falls. And yes because like all the heroes of times gone by, even Michael Jordan was not exempt from dark periods, from sensational falls, from failures that undermined his path to eternal glory. In this article we will try to take stock of the most important film productions that have centered on the life and deeds of the all-time basketball champion Michael Jordan.

Who is Jordan

Jordan was born in February 1963 in New York, to Deloris and James Jordan. Growing up in North Carolina , in Wilmington, the young MJ was immediately passionate about sports, dedicating himself little to his studies but a lot to basketball, baseball and American football. In his high school days Jordan was not very tall (by the standards of a basketball player of the time), a factor that led to his exclusion from the first team of Laney's high school. Yet Jordan was already very strong and made the difference between the same age groups. He made his high school senior in his fourth grade, leading Laney's high school to the regional finals. Not yet of age, the name of Michael Jordan was already on the lips of all the insiders of the best American professional teams. But the young MJ preferred to accept the scholarship offered to him by Dean Smith, then coach of the University of North Carolina. Under the guidance of coach Smith (and with future NBA stars James Worthy and Sam Perkins on the team), Jordan, in his freshman year of college, led the Tar Heels to the top of the world, winning the NCAA tournament. From there other victories would come and Jordan obtained the definitive consecration on the international scene. In 1984 came the call from the NBA (in the first round with number 3) and the marriage with the Chicago Bulls franchise that in Wilmington's shooting guard saw the possibility of reaching the ring and creating a dynasty. And so it happened.

Michael Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA championships in the 1990s. Personally, he was named Regular Season MVP 5 times, All-Year 10 times, All-Star Scorers 10 times (his average of 30.1 points per game is the highest in NBA history). ). With the stars and stripes national team he won two gold medals at the Olympic Games, in 1984 in Los Angeles and in 1992 with the Dream Team in Barcelona. During his pro career he had to fight and beat legends such as Larry Bird and Magic Johnson , Detroit's Bad Boys, Karl Malone's Utah Jazz and John Stockton.

The NBA championships won by Jordan

• 1991 (Bulls 4-1 Lakers)
• 1992 (Bulls–Blazers 4-2)
• 1993 (Bulls–Suns 4-2)
• 1996 (Bulls–Sonics 4-2)
• 1997 (Bulls–Jazz 4-2)
• 1998 (Bulls–Jazz 4-2)

All the best movies about the life of Michael Jordan

As mentioned, his impact on the world of professional basketball has been devastating, not only in terms of sporting results. Jordan is also responsible for the change of role experienced by the professional sportsman between the 1980s and 1990s.

Air – The story of the great leap

The Bulls star first of all had the intuition of being able to make his image of sport icon pay off, as well as on the field also at a media (and therefore economic) level, succeeding where not even the great Muhammad Ali had succeeded.

Thus was born the agreement with Nike, masterfully narrated in the film "Air – The story of the great leap" by Ben Affleck, a film which narrates the events that led to the creation of the Air Jordan brand and the birth of an industry of hundreds million dollars in revenue each year. While focusing on the figure of the young champion just signed by the Bulls in 1984, Jordan never appears in "Air" (except at the end of the film), but his presence and the specific weight of his role have been skilfully underlined by the director in every part of the film.

Space Jam

Also in collaboration with Nike, in 1996 Michael Jordan starred in the Warner Bros animated film " Space Jam ". The film was produced in a very particular period of the champion's life, i.e. in the summer following his return to the field after his first retirement. Jordan in October 1993, after winning his third ring in a row with the Bulls months earlier, retired from playing basketball, citing personal reasons for the sensational choice. In reality, the public figure Jordan was becoming something too unmanageable for man. Add to this the gambling scandal and the murder of his father James (in July of the same year). The Bulls guard said goodbye to his teammates to try a career in professional baseball (unsuccessfully), his father's old passion. After a year and a half of pause for reflection, the love for basketball was so strong that Jordan decided to put his shoes back on and lead the Bulls again in the second three-peat (ie three consecutive championships won) in eight years. The film Space Jam celebrates this very moment.

The Last Dance

But the film production that better than others has been able to tell the life of this champion was the TV series produced by ESPN and Netflix and winner of an Emmy "The Last Dance". This ten-episode docu-film retraces all the stages that led to Jordan and his team's last success in the NBA in 1998. A mix of emotions and twists to be seen in which all the strengths and above all all the weaknesses of the one who was the GOAT, or the greatest ever, are laid bare.

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The article From Air to The Last Dance, the anthology of films about Michael Jordan comes from Scenari Economici .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/da-air-a-the-last-dance-lantologia-dei-film-su-micheal-jordan/ on Thu, 24 Aug 2023 22:05:35 +0000.