Oscar Winner Viola Davis, Who Worked in Hollywood Alongside Stephen Curry, Landed This Huge Role in a Michael Jordan Film

NBA superstar Stephen Curry and Hollywood star Viola Davis once worked together on a documentary called Emanuel as executive producers. The 2019 documentary is about the Charleston church shooting that killed nine Emanuel AME church members in an act of terror. It is a critically acclaimed documentary.?Now, according to reports, Viola Davis has landed a huge role in a Michael Jordan film.?

Davis will play the role of Jordan?s mother, Deloris Jordan. And Davis’ real-life husband Tennon, will play Jordan’s father, James. The unnamed movie is a Nike biopic by Ben Affleck. Deloris played a huge role in Jordan?s decision to sign with Nike as she insisted that he listen to their offer.?

Reportedly, Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, who created Nike from the ground up. He also secured the seemingly impossible partnership with Jordan. Affleck plays the co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight. Jason Bateman will play Rob Strasser, who was important in securing the Jordan deal.?

Michael Jordan and Nike’s successful partnership

In 1984, Michael Jordan signed a contract with Nike as more of a legacy deal. During a time when Adidas and Converse ruled the NBA, it was a gamble by both parties. The five-year deal awarded Michael Jordan $500,000 per year. Nike also promised Jordan his own signature line. MJ went on to win Rookie of the Year and sold sneakers worth $126 million.?

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Fast forward to 2022, the Jordan brand just crossed $5 billion in annual revenue for the first time, as per reports. From this, MJ earned more than $150 million last year. That would be twice his earnings from his overall NBA career.?

But there were bumps along the way in the relationship between Nike and Jordan. Nike?s first release of Jordans faced controversy when the shoes were banned for not meeting the design standards.?

When Nike was struggling, they had to let go of employees, and their stock dropped by 50%. So they decided to shake things up and held a 24-hour design competition. Shockingly, the winner was Tinker Hatfield, who was an architect. Two years later, Hatfield designed the iconic Nike Air Max 1.?

Then in 1987, former employees of Nike tried to sign Jordan to their new brand. MJ had a discussion with them and was ready to sign. But Hatfield revealed the Air Jordan III with the iconic Jumpman logo.?

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He also presented apparel designs centered around the logo. MJ was impressed with the idea of building his own brand and extended his contract with Nike. And the rest is history.?