![]() Lee knew sneakers represented more than footwear. Nike couldn’t have asked for a better partner. Lee owned the rights to the Mars Blackmon character, Davenport said, and nobody knew Mars better than the guy who created him and played him. Now he was poised to be the face of its ad campaign alongside one of America’s most popular athletes. The director had to buy two pairs of Air Jordans out of his own pocket. Nike gave Lee only a Jordan poster-which hung in Mars’s bedroom-for the film. The lifelong Knicks fan would star and direct the commercial (a rarity for African-Americans back then), take home a $50,000 paycheck, and work with Jordan. It sounded great to Lee, who had craved this kind of exposure since graduating from film school. Davenport couldn’t believe his luck and gave Lee the pitch.ĭavenport finally convinced the auteur he wasn’t a film school classmate pulling an awful prank. Soon Davenport was speaking to the future director of Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and Black KKKlansman. Davenport took a shot.¹ He picked up his office phone and dialed 71, information for Brooklyn. Wieden + Kennedy had Nike as a client Jordan was a layup. “Once it’s on paper,” said Davenport, who didn’t recall this follow-up, “you can react to it and you can make sure everyone is on the same page.” The idea was too much damn fun to pass up, especially if the hip, young director with that unapologetic style worked behind the camera.ĭavenport hounded Riswold, a brilliant and prolific talent, to see if he had written the script for the commercial. Davenport said Riswold saw the opportunity to unite Blackmon with his basketball infatuation. Riswold said he and Davenport turned to each other and said, “You’d better be thinking what I’m thinking.” Davenport, in particular, loved She’s Gotta Have It. ![]() Then, said Riswold, came the “wonderful, serendipitous stubbing of the toe.” In a memorable scene, Mars has sex with his dream woman in his Air Jordans. ![]()
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