According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the Oscar winners behind Good Will Hunting, are teaming up to make a film about Nike’s efforts to land Michael Jordan in a sneaker deal.
Former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, who appeared on ESPN 30 for 30 “Sole Man” in 2015, and Nike co-founder Phil Knight will star in the film.
Damon will reportedly play Vaccaro and Affleck Knight. Affleck and Damon won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting, and the two collaborated on the script and starred in 2021’s The Last Duel with producer for Argo.
The film will focus on Nike’s efforts to sign Jordan in 1984 when Jordan entered the NBA. Coming from North Carolina, Jordan was the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft, and Vaccaro managed to bend back for what was then a small shoe company, keeping Jordan away from Adidas, Reebok, and Converse. In this way, Vaccaro helped transform Nike, the relationship between an athlete and a brand, and the athletic footwear industry as a whole.
“Although I never imagined wearing the (Nike) shoe, the creativity it brought me and the education it brought me about what it is about, what I wear on my feet and how it improves my athletic ability has gotten me , made happy, I’m happy with the choice,” Jordan said in 2004.
In 2021, Yahoo! Finance reported that Jordan Brand, an offshoot of Nike, had sales of $5 billion, and in 2020 Forbes estimated that Nike had paid Jordan an estimated $1.3 billion since 1984.
Affleck and Damon get to the bottom of the origins of it all.
The 75th NBA season celebrations continue with the playoffs, which you can watch on all ESPN family channels, including ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.
Friday 22.4
• Heat at Hawks, 7:00 p.m. ET
• Bucks at Bulls, 8:30 p.m. ET
• Basking at Pelicans, 9:30 pm ET
Saturday 23.4
• Celtics at Nets, 7:30 p.m. ET
• Grizzlies at Timberwolves, 10 p.m. ET
Vaccaro, now 82, helped make the sneaker industry what it is today by signing Jordan and Kobe Bryant on multi-million dollar deals for Nike.
“I don’t think people understood how my career unfolded. I wanted the public to know how sneaker marketing started. For better or for worse, that’s me,” Vaccaro told ESPN in 2015 “Sol Man”. I don’t think people understood how my relationships with coaches developed and how I came into contact with Nike. That’s how it was with Jordan, that’s how it was with Kobe.”
“Sole Man” was co-directed by Skydance Sports President Jon Weinbach. Weinbach also served as a producer on the Emmy-winning ESPN series The Last Dance, which he co-produced with Mandalay Pictures President Peter Guber, who will produce the upcoming film. Now they will reunite for another part of Jordan’s story.