Remember those corny, yet amazingly funny Nike ads during the 80‘s and early 90‘s that featured a young Michael Jordan dunking over everyone and filmmaker Spike Lee? Lee ran commentary in the commercials while dressed as a Brooklyn born superfan of Mike, during the days even before the G.O.A.T had even won his first NBA title.
While I haven’t been the biggest fan of some of Spike’s movies, his work in the Air Jordan/Mars Blackmon themed, now legendary commercial spots were unbelievable. With his trademark lines such as “Do ya know, Do ya know, Do ya know”, “My main man Micheal Jordan”, and “It’s gotta be the shoes” Nike executives now seemed brilliant in the pairing which produced arguably one of the most memorable advertising campaigns ever.
My favorite had to be “It’s Gotta Be the Shoes” from 1991:
When Jordan decided to call it quits the first time in circa 1995, to ultimately try his hand at baseball, Mars and Mike did one last commercial to sort of poke fun at Jordan’s decision:
Then in 2005, Spike once again teamed with Nike in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Air Jordan Brand to give a hint at the series making a return. And as Jordan now does more behind the scenes as an NBA owner, the famous commercials seemed to fade into obscurity. Until now…….
In getting a tip from the always sports-minded Terez Owens.com, this year’s Slam Dunk Champion and probable ROY Blake Griffin was spotted on a phot shoot donning the trade-marked turned up Brooklyn bicycle hat and huge Mars gold chain for the newest Nike promotional ad. No word yet if Jordan or Spike Lee will be involved or if Nike plans to re-invent the series with Griffin starring as “Mars Blake-mon.”
Check out the leaked photo:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
