How do you pronounce Spokane and Gonzaga? Don’t ask Hollywood, they keep getting it wrong

Every Pacific Northwest native has a go-to response when certain places are mispronounced. Some roll their eyes, some immediately correct the presumed tourist, some groan to their friends.

This reaction isn’t just for in-person interactions. Some people yell at their TV when a regional location is said wrong. Perhaps most often, despite the school’s growing standing in college basketball, Gonzaga University and the city it resides in, Spokane, get botched by out-of-towners all the time.

The 2023 film about Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan, ”Air,” stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman and more high-profile stars. A good portion of the movie takes place in the Pacific Northwest, at Nike’s Beaverton, Oregon headquarters.

“Air,” directed by Affleck, is a sports drama that deploys the trope of a long-term chase through the story of Nike executives’ inspiration and near-desperation in the mid-80s leading to a desire to recruit Michael Jordan. The biographical flick has been well-received since its premiere March 18.

A movie tackling such a large story with such daunting overarching themes and a star-studded cast, it’s no surprise critics and audiences alike have praised the film. But details of Nike’s PNW-based beginnings weren’t perfect, with one critical error serving as a stark reminder that filming was completed in Los Angeles.

During one important scene, the actors mispronounced Spokane and Gonzaga.

Bateman plays Rob Strasser, the vice president of marketing at Nike. Affleck plays CEO Phil Knight and Damon appears as Sonny Vaccaro, Nike’s basketball talent scout. Vaccaro had to decide who would be the new Nike basketball shoe spokesperson out of the 1984 NBA draft.

While the executives discuss their options, one ever-so-familiar name to Washingtonians is mentioned repeatedly: John Stockton.

The Spokane-born point guard played for Gonzaga University before being drafted by the Utah Jazz and leading a successful career. But Damon mispronounces Gonzaga as ‘Gon-zah-gah,’ after Bateman said the college’s name correctly. Damon says it again later at the convenience store, asking the clerk where the school is. The clerk, played by Asanté Deshon, replies ‘Spoke-un.’

Why is Spokane said wrong?

Of course, Pacific Northwest natives know this isn’t the first time Spokane or Gonzaga have been said wrong, nor will it be the last. With an increase in production quality across media, the normalization of various advisors on film sets has led to dialect coaches for actors trying new accents, historical advisors for period pieces and more.

Does anyone confirm Pacific Northwest details?

People from outside here tend to pronounce locations here phonetically, hence Spo-cane. In some dialects, it’s said with an emphasis on the first syllable, resulting in the ‘un’ sound heard. Since there is no identified Pacific Northwest accent, it’s not hard to believe there wouldn’t be a local advisor on a film set verifying these pronunciations.

Why are Pacific Northwest locations so hard to pronounce? These names are often derived from Indigenous populations that inhabited the space when European settlers arrived. Spokane is one of these, as are Okanogan and Yakima.

Does it matter?

Why is this indicative of a mistake rather than a choice? Could it have been intentional?

Probably not.

Skydance, a production company involved in making “Air,” was not immediately available for comment.

Vaccaro is referred to over and over again as Nike’s basketball guy, the wizard who knows about high school and college basketball. Someone like this would be familiar with Gonzaga, especially when living in Beaverton.

Gonzaga had nine drafted basketball players before Stockton, dating back to 1960. The Bulldogs were recruited more regularly by the 2000s, but Gonzaga was not an unknown school around 1984, especially in the region.

The point of the conversation derives from the problems every other draft pick poses as a spokesperson for Nike. Each young player has a caveat why it shouldn’t be them — one of Stockton’s is that “nobody knows where Gonzaga is.” But this group of executives would certainly know Gonzaga’s in Spokane.

Who else says Spokane wrong?

Plenty of movies and shows have been set in the Pacific Northwest without ever filming there over the years. Even when the plot takes place elsewhere, there are plenty of instances where Spokane and Gonzaga have been mispronounced.

• ER: In Season 15, Episode 19, a character who’s supposed to be from the PNW mispronounces Spokane.

• Brooklyn 99: In Season 6, Episode 15, an agent says a video blew up from “Spokane to Spain,” rhyming the two places.

• Gonzaga Athletics: The university has been mispronounced by dozens of unfamiliar announcers, as has Spokane. Fans and administrators alike have tried to make it easier to say it correctly the first time around, like pronunciation signs and decor.

• Late night TV: In the heat of the Jim West scandal, both Jay Leno and Jon Stewart mispronounced Spokane.

• A Behanding in Spokane: Several known film actors, including Christopher Walken and Anthony Mackie, put away the cameras in 2010 for the Broadway play “A Behanding in Spokane.” While there’s no evidence of the cast mispronouncing Spokane while on stage, many reputable media sources said the city name wrong multiple times during the interview circuit.

• Song lyrics: The city of Spokane is also mispronounced often as a lyric, being used to rhyme with “cane” sounds. One popular example is in Ray LaMontagne’s “Jolene,” where it’s used to rhyme with “rain” in the first verse.