Air

("Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits playing)

Five! Four! Three!

Two! One!

- (crowd cheering) - (noisemaker blows)

Happy New Year!

MAN (over radio): You're on your way now.

Where's the beef?

Converse All Star basketball shoes.

- (crowd cheering, shouting) - (basketball bouncing)

- Are you guys gonna go out for regionals? - Yeah, yeah.

- You getting pretty excited about that? - (laughs)

- (whistle blows) - (crowd cheering)

How you doing, Brandon? I'm Sonny Vaccaro.

I'm with Nike. It's good to see you.

I'll come down and say hello.

- Hey, Terence. How are you? - Hey, man.

- Thanks for the shoes. - Yeah, yeah.

They're looking really good.

I mean, everybody's gonna want you.

You're not gonna have a problem.

You're gonna get a scholarship.

That's gonna happen, right?

I hope so.

Hey, just don't forget about Nike.

Well, I'll see you guys at regionals in two weeks, yeah?

- Yeah, all right. - All right.

All right, great game, guys.

("Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes playing)

MAN (over speakers): Lucky, lucky, lucky...

All right, uh, game five tonight,

- six bets, hundred dollars each. - Okay.

Magic Johnson: under on points, over on assists.

James Worthy: over on points. Bob McAdoo: over on points.

Dennis Johnson: over on points.

And what's the over-under on Rambis?

- Just take the under. - Okay.

Uh, and ac... one more, one more.

Uh, give me Lakers under, third quarter.

There you go.

Thank you.

- (bell ringing) The Boston Celtics

take a three-to-two lead in the World Championship Series.

Thank you for gambling at the Dunes,

the hotel, casino and country club.

Place all your bets. No more bets.

Hey, uh, press the four and the eight.

Give me four the hard way.

Dice away.

Dice are up.

- Four! - (onlookers cheering)

- Come on! - (claps) - Hard way four!

1,400 right there.

Yeah. 1,400?

Yeah, no, leave it up.

And dice away. Good luck, Mr. V.

- (onlookers groaning) - Seven up.

Line away.

- You want some water, Sonny? - Why?

You breathing heavy.

Ah, you still can't shoot worth a damn.

- Another brick. - What about my players?

- I'm trying, I'm trying. - Well, when they coming?

I-I can't... just can't figure out why these kids want to take

less money to sign for a rival shoe company.

I mean, why would a kid from Baltimore want to wear

German soccer shoes?

Because Adidas is what's hot right now, man.

The rappers are wearing them in the videos.

The break-dancers are break-dancing up in the Bronx.

They're on the floor breaking their ankles and their elbows for no reason.

And these kids ain't cool unless they got Adidas on.

And them some badass jogging suits, too.

You got to admit we can't touch their jogging suits.

I got my cousin in South Korea done sent me two knockoffs.

I wear them on the weekends. I don't wear them up here.

What is wrong with Nike?

Nike is a damn jogging company, man.

Black people don't jog.

You ain't gonna catch no Black person running 26 miles for no damn reason.

Man, the cops probably pull you over thinking you done stole something.

'Cause these kids are talking about Isiah and Magic.

They don't give a damn about Bruce Jenner

throwing a Frisbee around in a damn decathlon.

And people don't know what the hell a Nike is.

What's a Converse?

NBA All Star shoe.

Play like Magic, dribble like Isiah.

That's what it is.

Man, do you know Run-DMC doing a song about Adidas?

What, who?

Run-DMC making a free song

coming out on their next album about Adidas.

Who's doing it?

See, that tells me something right there, Sonny.

Hey, when you signed Moses, how'd you do it?

Mary Malone. His mama.

I... She thought the world of me.

But, you know, I always go through the mamas, man.

The mamas run stuff, especially in Black families.

Man, we need some more players, Sonny.

You got to get me somebody else.

Well, we got Moses.

I know we got Moses, man.

I was up in the club with him 3:00 in the morning last night

trying to get him out of there 'cause he got a 5:00 practice.

I told him, I said, "Moses, you can't hoot with the owls

all night and fly with the eagles in the morning."

Yeah, I could not do what you do.

I know you can't do what I do.

You can hardly do what the hell you supposed to do.

Hey, one more chance.

You want that Adidas suit from South Korea?

No.

- Better not tell nobody neither. - No. No.

Phil better not come up talking about no damn,

"Where's your Adidas suits?"

I need my job, Sonny. Don't play.

Uh, shit, I'm late.

You hit one shot in 30 minutes. Let's get out of here.

I got to stop by my office.

Damn back and my knees are messing up now.

Hey, Sonny, look at these damn posters down here.

They upstairs in the running department got Picassos.

- No. - We got cartoons down here.

They don't give a damn about our division.

You know, I-I like the, uh... that new slogan,

the one for the whole company that they're talking about.

- I don't like it. - What?

- You know where it came from? - No.

That damn slogan came from a convict about to get executed

in front of a firing squad, and they asked him,

"What's your last words?"

"Just do it"?

- Yeah. - That's where that comes from?

Yeah.

- Bullshit. - Dan Wieden told me, man.

He ain't got no reason to lie to me.

Ah, kind of a fitting metaphor

for the way basketball is viewed at this company.

I know. "Nike. Just get the shit over with."

- (laughs) - Ow.

What'd it say about me that I liked it?

That says that you a fat middle-aged white guy

that don't want to exercise.

That's fair.

So, Mr. Orwell was right.

1984 has been a tough year.

Our sales are down, our growth is down,

but this company is about

who we really are when we are down for the count.

Am I right, huh?

When you're down on the canvas, bang, we pop right back up.

Like Balboa.

We got the eye of the tiger.

We're not gonna go down to Mr. T.

Pity the fool. Here we go.

Olajuwon.

Off the table.

Number one pick is not gonna be wearing our shoe.

Sam Bowie?

Picked by our local pro franchise, uh, at number two.

He's gonna go to Converse.