Breaking down NC scenes & references in ‘Air,’ the new Michael Jordan shoe deal movie

Some things in life go together so well that we assume they’ve always been a pair — like the GOAT and Nike.

We’re talking, of course, about North Carolina’s Michael Jordan — considered by many to be the Greatest of All Time on the basketball court — who, as an NBA rookie in 1984, inked an endorsement deal with Nike and launched one of the most successful partnerships ever for the shoe and athletic apparel company.

The question of how that deal came to be has been addressed over the years, notably in the 2020 documentary series “The Last Dance,” which detailed much of Jordan’s career and his final NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls.

Now, though, the story of the Air Jordan deal, plus the brand executives and the members of the Jordan family behind it, is coming to the big screen in a feature film.

“Air,” directed by Ben Affleck, premieres in theaters Wednesday, April 5. Per Amazon Studios, the movie “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.”

Given Jordan’s connections to North Carolina, especially around the time that he signed his Nike deal, the movie includes several references to real-life people, places and events in the state.

After screening the movie, we’ve broken down the references for curious viewers looking for more information.

Here’s your guide to the North Carolina references in “Air.”

References to UNC basketball in ‘Air’ movie

Jordan’s deal with Nike came after his three-year college career playing basketball at UNC-Chapel Hill, from 1981 to 1984. The movie references Jordan’s time at UNC — and his famous game-winning shot at the 1982 national championship — but it first references a couple other basketball players with ties to the school.

In a scene near the beginning of the movie, Nike salesman Sonny Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon) is seen at a Las Vegas casino placing bets on various professional sporting events and players, including:

▪ James Worthy, who played at UNC from 1979 to 1982, then went on to become the first overall pick in the 1982 NBA draft and was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. Worthy, originally from Gastonia, North Carolina, was on the 1982 UNC team that won the NCAA national championship, along with Jordan. Worthy was named the Most Outstanding Player of that tournament.

Worthy’s name can also be heard in a later scene, in which Vaccaro is at a 7-Eleven store and it appears that a radio call of a basketball game is playing in the store.

▪ Bob McAdoo, who played at UNC for one season, from 1971 to 1972. McAdoo, who is originally from Greensboro, went on to play in the NBA, and in 1984 was playing for the Lakers.

Back at Nike headquarters in Oregon, Vaccaro attends a meeting with other Nike employees tasked with determining which NBA rookie players the brand will sign for endorsement deals that year. During the meeting, Nike marketing executive Rob Strasser (played by Jason Bateman), suggests several possible names and projects photos of the players, including:

▪ Michael Jordan, who is quickly dismissed because the company “can’t afford him.” As previously mentioned, Jordan played at UNC from 1981 to 1984, and was selected as the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls.

▪ Sam Perkins, who played at UNC from 1980 to 1984. Perkins, who was also a member of the 1982 national championship-winning team, was selected as the fourth overall pick in the 1984 draft by the Dallas Mavericks.

But Jordan continues to stick in Vaccaro’s mind. Later, he can be seen at his home watching game tape of the players Nike is considering — including the 1982 NCAA national championship game.

▪ That game, between the Tar Heels and the Georgetown Hoyas, earned UNC its second-ever national title, after Jordan — then only a freshman — hit the famous game-winning shot with mere seconds remaining on the clock. Vaccaro replays Jordan’s shot several times in quick succession, realizing that the play was not a fluke, but rather designed for Jordan.

Vaccaro takes this information to Strasser, explaining his vision for why Nike should sign Jordan. In his explanation, he references several additional North Carolina-related people and places:

▪ Lynwood Robinson, a freshman member of the 1982 UNC team who was recruited the same year as Jordan, initially receiving more attention from media — including The Charlotte Observer, Vaccaro says — but later transferred to Appalachian State University in Boone.

▪ Vaccaro says, like the media, few people expected Jordan, an “18-year-old skinny freshman from Wilmington” to become the star he was — except UNC coach Dean Smith, who saw “greatness” in him.

Vaccaro tells Strasser that he wants Nike to sign only Jordan for the 1984 season, not three rookies as the company intended, and build a unique shoe around him, much like Smith built the championship-winning play around him in 1982.

Vaccaro’s plan fights an uphill battle throughout the movie, receiving pushback from Nike executives and Jordan’s agent, David Falk (played by Chris Messina), who tells Vaccaro on a phone call that Jordan wants a shoe deal with either Converse — the leading basketball shoe brand at the time, and the brand worn by UNC during Jordan’s time there — or Adidas, which Falk says Jordan wore during practices.

Who are James and Deloris Jordan? What to know about parents in ‘Air’

As Vaccaro continues to pursue the deal with Jordan, he decides — against the advice and urging of Falk — to visit Jordan’s parents, James (played by Julius Tennon) and Deloris (played by Viola Davis), at their home in Wilmington. (Fun fact: Tennon and Davis are married in real life.)

The Jordans were both born in North Carolina and met while attending Charity High School in Rose Hill. They moved away from the state for a period while James Jordan was in the military and Deloris attended trade school, then moved back to North Carolina before leaving again for Brooklyn, New York, where Michael was born.

They moved back to North Carolina, to Wilmington, in 1968. In “Air,” Deloris Jordan tells Vaccaro that “five generations of Jordans” have lived in the area.

Michael grew up in Wilmington and attended Laney High School, where he failed to make the school’s varsity basketball team as a sophomore — a story that also gets a mention in “Air.”

James and Deloris continue to play a significant role in the eventual shoe deal signed by Michael, attending pitch meetings with Converse, Adidas and Nike with their son.

In Nike’s pitch meeting to the Jordans, Vaccaro makes a passionate speech focused on the greatness that he anticipates Michael will go on to have as a professional athlete, saying it will transcend the accomplishments of any of the executives sitting around the table and will come in spite of people who will try to tear him down or events in his personal life that may break him.

During that scene, flashes of Jordan’s real-life career and later life flash onto the screen, including images that allude to the 1993 murder of James Jordan in Lumberton. The images shown in the film include what appears to be the car Jordan was murdered in while he was taking a roadside nap, and a newspaper clipping from The Fayetteville Observer reporting his death.

As mentioned at the end of the movie, Deloris Jordan moved to Chicago, where Michael was playing in the NBA, following James’ death and continues to live there today.

How to watch ‘Air’ movie

“Air” premieres exclusively in movie theaters April 5. Learn more and find a showing near you at mgmstudios.com/air.

The film will later be available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, but a release date for that platform has not been announced.