Podcast appearances and mentions of Sonny Vaccaro

In this episode of the The Coach Mark Gottfried Show, Coach Gottfried sits down with the legendary Sonny Vaccaro. Known for his monumental impact on basketball, Vaccaro shares stories of his journey from humble beginnings to becoming a pivotal figure in the sports industry. He discusses his role in signing Michael Jordan to Nike, the founding of the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic, and his influence on young basketball stars like Kobe Bryant. Vaccaro also reflects on personal challenges, his work with Adidas, and the landmark Ed O'Bannon case that transformed college athletics. This episode is a testament to Vaccaro's enduring legacy.

Sonny Vaccaro on his new memoir: 'Legends and Soles,' his falling out with Nike, how Adidas let LeBron get away, why the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit is his proudest achievement and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sonny Vaccaro was the pivotal figure behind Michael Jordan's groundbreaking deal with Nike, which remains one of the most storied contracts in sports business history. So good they made a movie about it, "Air", in which Vaccaro was played by Matt Damon, with Ben Affleck in the Phil Knight role. Vaccaro's book Legends and Souls is the long-awaited memoir from one of the great American sports business insiders, telling the reality behind the film and shining a light in to the culture of Nike then and now.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner' on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you're interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

In Legends and Soles, Sonny Vaccaro, in collaboration with 11-time Emmy-award winner and six-time New York Times bestselling author Armen Keteyian, peels back the layers of sensational media stories and headlines, providing an unvarnished look at his pivotal role not only in Michael Jordan's ascent as arguably the world's most famous-and richest-athlete, but Vaccaro's other consequential relationships, including those with Hall of Famers Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. He reflects on the crushing disappointments, as well, detailing the shocking eleventh hour betrayal by Adidas that led to the loss of a then-18-year-old phenom, LeBron James. He describes reaching a career-defining "inflection point" where he abandoned the shoe industry entirely to pursue his advocacy of athlete's rights bringing readers into the tense, landscape-altering nine-year drama behind the O'Bannon federal lawsuit that changed the face of college sports.Considered basketball's ultimate insider, Vaccaro remains a formidable, passionate voice in the worlds of sports marketing and collegiate sports. His visionary promotional innovations-beginning with the signing of college coaches to Nike endorsement deals followed by the signing of Jordan, revolutionized sports marketing. An outspoken advocate for the rights of athletes, he was the catalyst behind the landmark Supreme Court decision giving control of Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) rights to tens of thousands of college athletes, recently affirmed by the historic $2.8 billion settlement by the NCAA and major conferences opening the door to fair compensation for the real stars-the athletes themselves. Recently he was the central character in the hit movie Air, directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon as Sonny, exploring a four-month snapshot of his extraordinary eight-decade life. Vaccaro, still an affable and outspoken personality, resides on the West Coast with his wife, Pam. "There have been literally thousands of stories written and broadcast about me over the years," said Vaccaro, "but this time the story is being told by the only person capable of setting the record straight-about Michael, getting blindsided when Phil Knight fired me, my battles with the NCAA, the seminal O'Bannon lawsuit, and many other personal revelations even my closest friends don't know. And I've got the documents to back up every last word." This memoir is far from a recounting of events; rather it's the never-before-told journey of a middle-class kid from a small steel town in western Pennsylvania who rose to the top of a mountain-a rich, revealing tapestry of relationships, triumphs, and challenges through the world of sports, business, and culture told by a man at the epicenter of it all, at Nike and beyond. With a 16-page photo insert illuminating some of Vaccaro's most treasured career memories, Legends and Soles is the long-awaited memoir of a giant of American sports.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

Noted sports journalist and author Armen Keteyian returns to the show to discuss his latest book, a memoir from Sonny Vaccaro.

Did you have Michael Doleac, Gov. Morrisey and Happy Gilmore on your D&S bingo card...how long could you be stranded in space....Dirt and Beavers fans seeing eye to eye...Armen Keteyian joins the Ticker to discuss Sonny Vaccaro, What do the robots see in the Blazers future, Stat or Story and tournament tidbits.

There is a new book out called, 'Legends and Soles'Co-written by Sonny Vaccaro and a guy we loved watching on HBO's 'Real SPORTS' ARMEN KETEYIANSonny and Armen talk:-How true is the movie 'AIR'-How much was Michael's Nike deal in 1984 and for how long-He brought in hundreds of millions of dollars to Nike and one day he walked in and was FIRED by Nike founder Phil Knight  To subscribe to The Pete McMurray Show Podcast just click here

Described as the 'Godfather of summer basketball', Sonny Vaccaro signed the relative-unknown Michael Jordan early in his career. 

In Legends and Soles, Sonny Vaccaro, in collaboration with 11-time Emmy-award winner and six-time New York Times bestselling author Armen Keteyian, peels back the layers of sensational media stories and headlines, providing an unvarnished look at his pivotal role not only in Michael Jordan's ascent as arguably the world's most famous-and richest-athlete, but Vaccaro's other consequential relationships, including those with Hall of Famers Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. He reflects on the crushing disappointments, as well, detailing the shocking eleventh hour betrayal by Adidas that led to the loss of a then-18-year-old phenom, LeBron James. He describes reaching a career-defining "inflection point" where he abandoned the shoe industry entirely to pursue his advocacy of athlete's rights bringing readers into the tense, landscape-altering nine-year drama behind the O'Bannon federal lawsuit that changed the face of college sports.Considered basketball's ultimate insider, Vaccaro remains a formidable, passionate voice in the worlds of sports marketing and collegiate sports. His visionary promotional innovations-beginning with the signing of college coaches to Nike endorsement deals followed by the signing of Jordan, revolutionized sports marketing. An outspoken advocate for the rights of athletes, he was the catalyst behind the landmark Supreme Court decision giving control of Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) rights to tens of thousands of college athletes, recently affirmed by the historic $2.8 billion settlement by the NCAA and major conferences opening the door to fair compensation for the real stars-the athletes themselves. Recently he was the central character in the hit movie Air, directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon as Sonny, exploring a four-month snapshot of his extraordinary eight-decade life. Vaccaro, still an affable and outspoken personality, resides on the West Coast with his wife, Pam. "There have been literally thousands of stories written and broadcast about me over the years," said Vaccaro, "but this time the story is being told by the only person capable of setting the record straight-about Michael, getting blindsided when Phil Knight fired me, my battles with the NCAA, the seminal O'Bannon lawsuit, and many other personal revelations even my closest friends don't know. And I've got the documents to back up every last word." This memoir is far from a recounting of events; rather it's the never-before-told journey of a middle-class kid from a small steel town in western Pennsylvania who rose to the top of a mountain-a rich, revealing tapestry of relationships, triumphs, and challenges through the world of sports, business, and culture told by a man at the epicenter of it all, at Nike and beyond. With a 16-page photo insert illuminating some of Vaccaro's most treasured career memories, Legends and Soles is the long-awaited memoir of a giant of American sports.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

Join our Sports Book Crew as they share their expert sports betting advice on 'Sports By The Book' here at the South Point Studio. Special Guests: Jimmy Vaccaro and Sonny Vaccaro.

A conversation with the man who took Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant's careers to legendary heights. From the biggest deals in the history of sports marketing to a campaign against the NCAA, we sit down with Sonny Vaccaro and his co-author, Armen Keteyian, to discuss his new book "Legends and Soles."

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to dish out the teams that truly have a chance to get to the NBA Finals from the Western Conference, break down and interesting statement from Gregg Popovich and preview a potentially telling matchup between the Cavs & Celtics. Then, renowned journalist & author Armen Keteyian joins to talk his new book 'Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original' on the legendary Sonny Vaccaro including some wild stories about LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He's got another terrific book that's a must read for all us hoop heads! "Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original" The gripping and eye-opening memoir from the “Savior of Nike” and the man who discovered Michael Jordan, Sonny Vaccaro.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to dish out the teams that truly have a chance to get to the NBA Finals from the Western Conference, break down an interesting statement from Gregg Popovich and preview a potentially telling matchup between the Cavs & Celtics. Then, renowned journalist & author Armen Keteyian joins to talk his new book 'Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original' on the legendary Sonny Vaccaro including some wild stories about LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sonny's new book Legends and Soles: The Memoirs of an American Original. Sonny thinks one of the five most improbable parts of his life is UNC beating Georgetown in the national title game because if they lost, he would have never known Michael Jordan. 16 year old Kobe Bryant, who just came to the United States after living with his family in Italy, apologized to Sonny for not being the tournament MVP as a junior and came back stronger.

Hour 4 with Bob Pompeani and Joe Starkey: Sonny's new book Legends and Soles: The Memoirs of an American Original. Sonny thinks one of the five most improbable parts of his life is UNC beating Georgetown in the national title game because if they lost, he would have never known Michael Jordan. 16 year old Kobe Bryant, who just came to the United States after living with his family in Italy, apologized to Sonny for not being the tournament MVP as a junior and came back stronger. Tonight is our Fan 15th anniversary event! We share our favorite memories of The Fan.

Joe Starkey shares his weekend of sports and pop culture watching... sports movies and documentaries. Joe watched Bohemian Rhapsody, Air, and the new Elvis movie. Sonny Vaccaro was a huge voice and face for changing sports marketing FOREVER.

Former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro joined the show to talk about the movie AIR surrounding Michael Jordan. Sonny was in the building when Michael Jordan hit the game winning shot in the national championship game "I thought he was special."

Hour 3 with Joe Starkey: Former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro joined the show to talk about the movie AIR surrounding Michael Jordan. Sonny was in the building when Michael Jordan hit the game winning shot in the national championship game, "I thought he was special." Donny joins us to discuss his engagement!

We'll talk all about the Grizzlies win in San Antonio, Zach Edey's dunk on Wemby, Ja Morant's dunk on Wemby, what we were disappointed in, JJJ's 4th quarter performance (4:49) + GG Jackson made his season debut for the Memphis Hustle last night and we give our thoughts on his performance (41:10) + Chris got a call from Sonny Vaccaro last night (1:02:39) + Tigers/Temple and Coach Prime talking with the Cowboys (1:22:34) + Fill In The Blank (1:28:19)

Send us a textder ya Sinema Kulübü'nün onikinci buluşmasında başrollerinde Matt Damon, Jason Bateman ve Ben Affleck'in oynadıkları, Ben Affleck'in yönettiği 2023 yapımı Air: Courting A Legend adlı filmi konuştuk.Film Nike için çalışan yetenek avcısı Sonny Vaccaro'nun o zamanlar bir çaylak olan ama sonrasında basketbol tarihinin en büyük sporcularından Michael Jordan ile zorlu anlaşmasının perde arkasında yaşananları anlatıyor.Nike satış anlamında 1984'te çok kötü bir dönem geçiriyor, yönetim kurulu beklenen performansı gösteremeyen basketbol ayakkabıları bölümünü kapatmayı düşünüyor. Zira Nike bir koşu ayakkabısı olarak biliniyor, bu da markayı siyahiler arasında oldukça sevimsiz yapıyor. Şöyle bir espiri de var filmde, “Hiçbir amaç olmadan siyahiler durduk yere koşmazlar. Zaten polis seni durdurur bir şey çaldığını zannedip” Öte yandan Adidas ve Converse ise basketbolu domine ediyorlar. Michael Jordan da bir Adidas hayranı, Converse açık ara ikinci tercihi. Nike'ın kapısından bile geçmek istemiyor.Film Nike Prensipleri adı verilen şirketin manifestosu niteliğindeki 10 maddelik metne atıflarda bulunarak hikayeyi işliyor. Bu metni 1977'de Pazarlama Direktörü Rob Strasser'in kaleme aldığı söyleniyor ama Nike'ın kurucusu ve CEO'su Phil Knight'a ithaf edenler de var. Film boyunca pazarlama ve iş yönetimi hakkında Hollywood prodüksiyonu bir vaka analizi izliyor gibisiniz. Hikaye iyi oyunculuklar ve derin diyaloglarla çok güzel işlenmiş.İnsanı düşündüren konulardan biri de pazarlamanın gücü. Air Jordan serisi Nike'a her yıl 4 milyar dolar kadar katkı yapıyor. Ama insan asıl Michael Jordan'ın olağanüstü kariyerinde Nike'ın etkisini merak ediyor. Gerek motivasyon gerekse kendi markasını oluşturmada sağladığı imkanlar olarak.Ben de çocukken bir Nike'cıydım. 80'lerde çocuk olanlar bunu anlar, bütün giyiminiz bir yana ayakkabınız bir yana, her bir ayakkabıyı alışınızın hikayesini hatırlarsınız. Her şeyin bu kadar kolay erişilebilir olması da hayatın büyüsünü fena bozdu diye düşünmeden edemiyor insan.Bu bölümde sözlerine yer verdiğim arkadaşlarım  (02:38) Engin Öztornacı, (04:43) Hale Acun Aydın, (05:21) Engin Öztornacı, (07:12) Aydan İrem Sungur, (13:02) Mete Yurtsever, (13:46) Aydan İrem Sungur ve (16:45) Suat Soy Support the show

  THE PRICE: What It Takes to Win in College Football's Era of Chaos w/ Sports Writer John Talty   AZ TRT - S05 EP35 (251) 9-8-2024     What We Learned This Week NCAA fought lawsuits for years to avoid paying the players, had chance to solve the issue Sonny Vacarro (Nike fame) convinced Ed O'Bannon of UCLA to sue, led to NIL NCAA cannot enforce rules on NIL, free for all Transfer Portal happens 2x / year, can change teams 2x in the same year! Nick Saban quit at Alabama because of the chaos Likely resolution is a Salary Cap in College Football   Guest: John Talty, CBS Sports College Football Writer College Football Segment with John Talty on What It Takes to Win in This Era of Chaos in College Football and Their New Book THE PRICE  “THE PRICE: What It Takes to Win in College Football's Era of Chaos” (Harper, August 27, 2024) by six-time New York Times best-selling author Armen Keteyian and award-winning national college football reporter John Talty, is an in-depth and revealing investigation into the tumultuous state of college football—and the financial, physical, emotional, and psychological toll taken on everyone involved. Keteyian and Talty pull from over 200 interviews to exposes everything from the fall of the Pac-12 to the exploitation of underprivileged young athletes.      Their research culminates into a meticulously constructed portrait of the NCAA's crumbling foundations and new inside information on college football's biggest names—Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, and Lane Kiffin.   Two of the nation's most respected sports journalists team up for a vital, hard-hitting investigation into the tumultuous state of big-time college football. We are living in the Wild West of college sports. Name, Image and Likeness endorsements, the transfer portal, collectives, conference realignment, the powerful influence of media companies have all rendered the notion of amateur athletics a quaint relic of the past, replaced by a Brave New World where money and self-interest rule.       About the Authors Armen Keteyian is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and the author or coauthor of six New York Times bestsellers, including The System and Tiger Woods. He lives in Connecticut. John Talty is the national college football writer for CBS Sports and 247Sports and the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban. He lives in Alabama.    https://www.cbssports.com/writers/john-talty/       Here are some of the reveals in THE PRICE:    Exclusive behind-the-scenes reporting on the bitter legal battle between University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA, and his chilly relationship with athletic director Warde Manuel   An inside look at Nick Saban's final year in college football and what ultimately drove him away from the sport   New detailed, behind-the-scenes reporting surrounding the shocking demise of the Pac-12   Inside the feud between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher   The bombshell details behind a top college quarterback demanding tens of thousands of dollars from his head coach in order for him to play in an important game   Exclusive reporting on the rise of Arizona football under head coach Jedd Fisch   The behind-the-scenes story of Julian Sayin, a top-rated quarterback in the Class of 2024 and his decision to play for Nick Saban and the University of Alabama – a decision gone wrong when Saban suddenly retired   A major profile on quite possibly the sport's biggest power broker: The uber successful yet mysterious agent Jimmy Sexton   A rare interview with controversial Auburn University trustee and mega-booster Jimmy Rane, the only billionaire in the state of Alabama   Behind-the-scenes reporting on the rise and fall of Jimbo Fisher in College Station   Unique access to and interviews with high-ranking members of the NCAA Enforcement staff, including Vice President Jon Duncan   The inside story on Jaden Rashada and his college-aged agent who sent the sport into a tizzy when his $13.8 million deal to Florida blew up spectacularly   Exclusive interviews with former NCAA president Mark Emmert who describes a broken system, assesses the mistakes he made during twelve-plus years guiding the organization, and his surprising predictions on where it's all headed.     Notes: Seg 1   The book is a deep dive into college football, the NIL and paying players.   John got into sports at age 14 writing for scouts.com. He has been in the business 20 years already, and covering college football for the last 15 years.   NCAA had their chance to change the system about playing paying players, but fought it for years. NCAA had beat prior lawsuits for years, where they would either win or pay very small amounts.   Sonny Vaccaro of Nike shoe fame had a moral reckoning. In the early 2000s he convinced UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon to sue.   Ultimately this partially led to the NIL - multiple lawsuits, and eventually California overturned the rule that the players need to be paid. Ed O'Bannon was the face of the lawsuit.   NCAA does not make money off football. They do make $ billions off of basketball and other sports.   A school might make $200 million in a year. Problem with the NIL - now that you have to pay players, lesser or non-revenue producing sports could be canceled. Example: women's sports like softball or volleyball.   NCAA cannot enforce rules on NIL, it's a total free-for-all, wild west with kids switching schools for paychecks.     Seg 2   The transfer portal is two times a year. A player can literally change schools every year, and even two times in the same year. Currently colleges are pushing for a salary cap, and this could be the likely solution.   Coach Nick, Sabin of Alabama quit after the 2023 season because of the chaos. Saban is someone who is all about control and likes to have his day planned to the minute.   Part of the reason he quit was because of the breakdown structure and players jumping ship. Saban worked on agreements, no promises, the players he recruited must work hard. Money portion blows out that plan.Game is changing rapidly and he decided to get out before it got bad. He did not want to leave Alabama Football in a bad position.   Jim Harbaugh of Michigan was busted on NCAA rules during 2019 in Covid. He received a multi-year penalty because they felt he was lying and denied the cover-up.   Similar situation for Bruce Pearl of Tennessee, basketball coach busted for lying about a barbecue with athletes.   Boosters spend $ millions currently on college programs. Unsure to see the future of where boosters will be in the new NIL or salary cap system. Salary Cap system may be coming in the next one or two years, 2025 or 2026 and a revenue sharing plan also.   Currently there is a potential settlement in legal action dealing with the whole issue as well as Title IV.         Related Article – How Sonny Vaccaro accidentally created the Ed O'Bannon case Jon Solomon explores the genesis of the Ed O'Bannon trial https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/how-sonny-vaccaro-accidentally-created-the-ed-obannon-case/         Football Done Right, History of the NFL with Ex GM Mike Lombardi + Rick Horrow on Stadiums - AZ TRT S04 EP38 (201) 9-24-2023   What We Learned This Week ·    You don't work in the NFL. You live in the NFL. – Al Davis, Raiders Owner White Oaks of Football – 5 Coaches who revolutionized how the game is played Paul Brown's Operating System – responsible for so many of the ways football teams are run, from headsets, to play calling & playbooks, to scouting systems  West Coast Bill Walsh – created an offensive philosophy by passing early to get the lead, and running late to keep the lead Pete Rozelle (former NFL Commissioner) propelled football into the #1 sport thru Television, starting with Monday Night Football in 1970 Scouting for players is about elimination, never about finding. Need a Profile to know what you are looking for.   Full Show: HERE     Sports Themed Show: HERE   ‘Best Of' Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+of+BRT      Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the BRT Podcast.     AZ Tech Roundtable 2.0 with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, Top Executives, Founders, and Investors come to share insights about the future of business.  AZ TRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, & how classic industries are evolving.  Common Topics Discussed: Startups, Founders, Funds & Venture Capital, Business, Entrepreneurship, Biotech, Blockchain / Crypto, Executive Comp, Investing, Stocks, Real Estate + Alternative Investments, and more…    AZ TRT Podcast Home Page: http://aztrtshow.com/ ‘Best Of' AZ TRT Podcast: Click Here Podcast on Google: Click Here Podcast on Spotify: Click Here                    More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/azpodcast/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/     Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional

In this week's episode, I rank the movies and streaming shows I saw in the first half of summer 2024. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction, Writing Updates, and Reader Question Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 210 of the Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is July 19th, 2024, and today we are discussing the movies and streaming shows I watched for the first half of summer 2024. Before that, we'll have an update on my current writing projects and then we will go into Question of the Week. So, my current writing projects. I'm pleased to report that the rough draft of Half Orc Paladin is finished at about 81,500 words. Next up, I'm writing a short story called Paladin's Hunt that newsletter subscribers will get for free in ebook form when Half Orc Paladin is out, hopefully in early August. I'm also 23,000 words into Ghosts in the Tombs. I'm not 100% decided what I'm going to write next once Half Orc Paladin is out. I have to make a decision soon obviously, but it's probably going to be either Shield of Conquest or Cloak of Illusion. In audiobook news, the audiobook Wizard-Thief, as narrated by Leanne Woodward, is almost done. It's just got to get through the various approvals at the audiobook sites, so hopefully that should be out in early August. Recording is going to start very soon on Shield of Darkness. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects. We have a question about the Shield War series from reader EM, who writes in to ask: I was rereading Shield of Darkness and occurred to me that Connmar Pendragon would have had a much easier time finding his way to Owyllain if he had a Corsair Lord or whatever they called themselves back then, who had the Hidden Eye navigating for him. Am I right and this will be revealed in the Shield Wars series? No, Connmar did not have a Corsair or anyone with the Hidden Eye ability navigating for him, and he basically found his way to Owyllain by accident. At that time, there were people living on the Isle of Kordain, but they hadn't really coalesced around the Corsairs of the Isle of Kordain as their national identity yet. I mean the process was underway but hadn't reached the form it would by the time of the Frostborn series. And while some of them had the Hidden Eye ability, they hadn't quite fully understood what it meant yet, and they hadn't lived on the isle long enough for the mutilations from the dwarven engines to fully take hold. We'll reveal more details about that in Shield of Conquest when I write that as my next book or the book after my next book. 00:02:26 Question of the Week Now on to Question of the Week. Question of the Week is designed to inspire enjoyable discussion of interesting topics. This week's question: subscription services such as Kindle Unlimited, Spotify, Netflix, Thrive Market and Xbox Game Pass are an inevitable part of modern life. If you have a subscription service, which one is your favorite? No wrong answers and bear in mind that “subscription services all cost too much and I hit them all with the fiery consuming heat of 1,000 cores of 1,000 suns” is a perfectly acceptable answer as well. Surabhi said: Disney Plus, because Marvel movies are my therapy. Ray says: I only use Bookbub and Google Play. Justin says: I do not use subscription services. I prefer to purchase the books, games, and programs I buy outright rather than rent them. Connectivity can be a problem where I am so being able to read, work, or play without being tethered to the Internet is a good thing. That is something to keep in mind when considering a subscription service. If you have questionable Internet connectivity in your area, that may not be the best choice to sign up for a subscription service that relies on the Internet. Our next comment is from Venus, who says: I can't afford any subscriptions services, although if Barnes and Noble did one for ebooks, I'd consider working something out. I refuse to support Amazon and don't like the fact that apparently books on Kindle Unlimited can't be anywhere else. That is indeed one of the annoying features of the Kindle Unlimited program, which is why only four of my 153 novels are currently on Kindle Unlimited. Barbara says: my husband and daughter subscribe to some streaming services, but I'm not sure which ones. I don't subscribe to any. I don't watch television. I already own the games I play and I purchased my digital books so I don't have to give them back. John says: I think I get by far the most bang for the buck from Amazon Prime, but my favorite subscription service is probably my local weekly seafood delivery service, Sea Forager. Bonnie says: I gave up the ones I had because I don't watch TV anymore and can't afford it. I have Prime, but only really use it for ebooks. If I need background noise, I use local radio. Local radio remains free, so I suppose that is the most cost effective of all the subscription services. Juana says: Kindle seems to have the most content and good price. I looked at the other platforms, too. Becca says: I have Prime and agree it has a ton of benefits. I canceled Netflix because it doesn't work on my TV. Hulu has some great shows (I recommend Crazy Fun Park, an Australian teen show about ghosts and friendships and changes. Surprisingly mature and well-acted). William says: given the sheer quantity of great Star Wars series that Disney produces, theirs is hard to beat. Gary says: Spotify. David says: for value, you can't beat Prime: movies, free shipping, and music. Netflix is very good for original content and Hulu for old stuff. And Joseph says: I also have Prime mostly for the free shipping. Everything else there is just a bonus. I also have Kindle Unlimited. Totally worth it for me as I read daily and read two or three hundred books a year. That is down from 400 to 500 the first couple years of retirement. It is diverse enough that I can always find a good read. For myself, the one I enjoy most is Nintendo Switch Online. I'll pay for a month of Netflix when they have something I want to see and then we'll cancel again after I've seen it.  I used to have Xbox Game Pass, but all I ever actually play on the Xbox is Skyrim, Starfield, and the first three Halo games, so there is no point in keeping it. But Nintendo Switch Online lets you get the classic Mario and Zelda games from the NES and Super Nintendo era. Given that Nintendo's attitude towards the legacy properties tends to veer between complete indifference and wrathful litigation depending upon the month, it's good that Nintendo offers a relatively affordable way to get them legally because at my age, sometimes the best way to relax at the end of the night is to just play a few levels of the original Super Mario Brothers. So that's it for Question of the Week this week. 00:06:26 Main Topic: Summer 2024 Movie/TV Show Review And now let's move on to our main topic: 2024 Summer Movie Roundup, Part 1. Summer always has a lot of movies, so I usually split the Summer Movie Roundup post in two halves and this would be Part 1. I was surprised at the number of sports movies I watched this time, since, as I've mentioned before, I don't usually follow professional sports all that closely. That said, while the NFL and the NBA might not have quite the cultural hegemony they had at their peak in the 1990s and early 2000s, they're still hugely central to American culture. I don't think you can really understand the United States without grasping the central role of professional sports in mainstream culture. I expect there's a similar phenomenon with association football clubs in the UK and many European countries. Besides, one of the abilities of good storytelling is to make you interested in a story about a topic you might not otherwise care about, like athletic shoes. So here are the movies and shows I watched in the first half of summer 2024, ranked from worst to best. As always, the rankings are totally subjective and based on nothing but my own opinions and observations. So first up is Madam Webb, which came out in 2024. Oofffff. This wasn't quite the crime against cinema that the Internet thought it was, but it still wasn't great. Sony has the rights to a bunch of Spider-man adjacent characters, and the company is holding those in a death grip and has been trying to make a Spider-man Cinematic Universe happen for some time, with mixed results. The Tom Hardy Venom movies had been pretty good, the others, not so much. The plot of Madam Webb: cynical and jaded EMT Cassandra Webb works with her partner Ben Parker (later in the Uncle Ben of Spider-man fame) and is almost drowned in an accident. While drowned, Cassandra starts developing precognition and clairvoyant powers. She starts seeing visions of three young women who will be murdered by a powerful real estate developer named Ezekiel. Turns out that Ezekiel has Spider-man powers that also include precognition, and he wants to kill the girls before they someday kill him. The scenes where Cassandra wonders if she is going mad, but gradually starts to realize that she can see the future were actually quite good and cleverly laid out since they did in sort of a time loop where she experiences the event before it happens. That said, this movie could have been an interesting concept, but it didn't really work. For one thing, the dialogue was just clunky. Dialogue is a hard, hard art to master, both in movies and writing novels (as I know first-hand). But Madame Webb didn't get there. Many of the dialogue scenes were just wooden. Additionally, the movie felt padded and drawn out, which is interesting because the runtime was under two hours. Ultimately, I think Madam Webb succumbed to the illness of a shared cinematic universe. It felt like the incomplete prologue to a more interesting movie, and not every side character in the Spider-man mythos needs an origin story. The trick to making a shared cinematic universe is that each movie must stand alone on its own, especially in the beginning, and the stories have to be interesting. Madam Webb, alas, couldn't quite manage either. Overall grade: D- Next up is The Acolyte, a streaming series which came out in 2024. There is quite a furor about this show on social media, but you can't believe most of what you see on social media. To be blunt about it, I've come to believe that social media is designed to induce mental illness in as many of its users as possible in order to increase their time spent on the site, which in turn raises ad revenue. Very cynical. But I suspect that's the basic business model of Facebook and YouTube, which is why you see so much rage-filled clickbait on both sites, since that's what drives engagement and increases revenue, but that's a problem beyond the scope of a movie review podcast episode. Back to The Acolyte. I would say that The Acolyte wasn't the crime against cinema that YouTube thought it was but instead an uneven mixture of some strong points and some weaknesses. The plot: former Jedi Osha has left the Order and is working as a mechanic on a trade federation starship. Meanwhile, a woman who looks exactly like her has started murdering Jedi Masters. Osha is arrested for the murders, but her former teacher, Jedi master Sol, quickly figures out that the murderer is in fact Osha's twin sister Mae, who has been presumed dead for the last sixteen years. Osha reluctantly tagged along with Sol to help track down Mae, which means she needs to delve into the dark secrets of her past and discover who trained Mae to be a Jedi killing assassin. The Jedi assume a renegade member of the Order must have trained Mae because the Sith had been extinct for a long, long time. Or have they? This show did have its strong points. The lightsaber fights looked good and were fun to watch. Lee Junge-jae as Sol, Manny Jacinto as Qimir, Charlie Bennett as Yord, and Dafne Keen as Jecki all gave good performances. In particular, they stole episode 5, which was overall the strongest episode of the series. The design of the Sith Lord's helmet (dubbed Darth Teeth or Smilo Ren by the Internet) was good. The nods to the old Expanded Universe, like cortosis ore, were nice. There was enough of a compelling mystery -who is the Sith Lord and what actually happened in the twin's past- that can hook the viewer through to the end of the series. The show also did a good job of showing how complacent and political the Jedi had become, to the point where 100 years later the Jedi High Council would meet with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine every day for thirteen years and completely failed to realize that he was in fact the Sith Master who had been pulling the strings all along. That said, I think the show did have four significant problems. 1: the whole good twin/evil twin thing was kind of lame. Playing identical twins is hard for any actor, and sometimes I had a hard time keeping track of whether Osha or Mae was in a particular scene. I kind of wish the characters had been brother and sister, or at least not identical twins so they had been easier to tell apart. 2: As much as I appreciated the nods to the Expanded Universe, I think it relied too heavily on them and assumed the audience had a high level of Star Wars knowledge, like the weird Force cult where Osha and Mae grew up. In the Expanded Universe, there are all kinds of weird half-baked cults with an incomplete knowledge of the Force that run into serious problems when they encounter an actual Jedi or an actual Sith. One advantage of visual media over novels is that it's much easier to show instead of tell, but I don't think Acolyte explained its premises well. The Mandalorian explained its premises better, gradually exposing the viewer to the Mandalorian's culture as he dealt with the Monster of the Week. Mando gradually learned about the Force and the Jedi, a race of enemy sorcerers, as he tried to save The Child from the Imperial Remnant. By contrast, The Acolyte kind of dropped viewers into the middle of things, didn't bother to explain any ambiguities, and simply assumed they would all understand the references. 3: The problem with the Jedi Order is that its philosophy is essentially stupid. The reason for that is that Jedi philosophy is basically a highly watered-down version of 1970s style Hollywood Buddhism, which is itself a tremendously watered down version of actual Buddhism. The Jedi are basically left with “don't feel fear or anger” and “don't get attached to people” but lack the religious and philosophical underpinnings which would allow those concepts to make sense in actual Buddhism. In real life, eventually we learn that both suppressing anger and fear or allowing it to dominate us is unhealthy. Both anger and fear serve useful functions. Fear warns of danger and anger is a good response when one is forced into circumstances where you have no choice but to fight. Anger and fear make for good servants, but awful masters, but Jedi philosophy completely misses that point. 4th and finally: the show was the wrong genre for the kind of moral relativism it had. Moral relativism worked well in Andor, which was a spy thriller about criminals gradually realizing that they had to fight the Empire and do terrible things while doing it. That worked because Andor was a spy thriller. By contrast, The Acolyte was about Kung Fu space wizards using space magic that literally comes in good and evil flavors. Moral relativism works less well in that kind of setting where there is literally good or evil space magic. So I would say Acolyte was a mixed bag. I admit, if there's a second season, I'll watch it just because I want to see what happens, but given Disney's significant financial woes, that seems unlikely. Overall grade: C- Next up is Unfrosted, which came out in 2024. It is an absurdist comedic retelling of the creation of the Pop Tart breakfast food, told as sort of a parody of corporate biopics like Ford versus Ferrari and Air (which we will talk about later this episode). This movie was silly and kind of dumb, but it knew it was silly and kind of dumb and so leaned into it and therefore worked. Jerry Seinfeld plays Bob Cabana, a high-ranking employee of the Kellogg cereal company, which is locked in a bitter rivalry with the Post cereal company for the breakfast market. One day Cabana uncovers everyone at Post is working on something that will upend the breakfast market, a fruit filled breakfast pastry that can be toasted. Alarmed with this information, the CEO of Kellogg, Edsel Kellogg III (played by Jim Gaffigan as a sort of parody of ‘60s era U.S. business executives), launches a crash effort to match Post's effort. Cabana must recruit a heist style team to build Kellogg's breakfast pastry, including numerous obscure figures from 1960s pop culture. The race is on to build the Pop Tart. Anyway, this was an entertaining movie, but it has no connection to factual accuracy. Also, Bill Burr was hilarious as President Kennedy. Overall grade: B- Next up is The Hit Man, which came out in 2023. It is an amusing cross between a dark comedy and a sort of Hitchcockian thriller. Glenn Powell plays Gary Johnson, a mild mannered and somewhat ineffective philosophy professor. Due to his skill with electronics and microphones, he frequently helps out the police with sting operations. One day, the officer who usually goes in for sting operations gets suspended for beating up some teenagers and having it go viral on viral on YouTube. Gary is drafted at the last minute to go undercover as a hit man and get a suspect to contract his services. Gary does it so well that the Police Department uses him more and more and Gary starts disappearing into his roles as various hit men in a sequence which is quite funny. This works well until Gary meets Madison, a woman who wants him to kill her abusive husband. Gary talks her out of it and starts seeing her, a situation which quickly escalates out of control. It was interesting that the movie went through a sudden genre shift about 1/3 of the way through, from dark comedy to love story, a bit darker than I usually prefer, to be honest, but enjoyable nonetheless if you don't mind the strong language. That said, I watched this right after Madam Webb and the contrast between Webb's clunky and wooden dialogue and the much better written Hitman was night and day. What was interesting was that the movie only cost $8.8 million to make. Given the economic climate, I expect we will see more of this: movies that have to be disciplined about keeping the cost down, as opposed to the enormous 295 million budgets of something like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Overall grade: B- Next up is Boss Level, which came out in 2021. This movie is best described as Groundhog's Day but as an action movie. Former Special Forces soldier Roy Pulver, played by Frank Grillo, is caught in a time loop that repeats the same day over and over again, which always ends with him getting killed by assassins that have been hired to hunt him down. This happened after he tried to reconnect with his former girlfriend, a scientist working on a secret project overseen by the sinister Colonel Ventor, played by Mel Gibson. For a variety of reasons, let's just say at this point in his career, Gibson is very believable in a villain role. At first, Roy succumbs to despair in the time loop, but then decides to spend the endless day trying to reconnect with his estranged son. Eventually, this causes him to rally and fight back against the loop and he realizes that his ex-girlfriend deliberately put him into the time loop because he was the only person she knew who could stop Colonel Ventor's evil plans for his project, which turns out to be a time machine. I'd say the biggest weakness of the movie is the opening, which is a sort of record scratch “you're probably wondering how I got here” opening I complained about in Episode 203 of this podcast. Also, I think it maybe should have been five to 10 minutes longer. The ending is sort of implied but it would have been far more satisfying to have actually been shown what would happen. But overall, I like this movie. Solid B-level thriller/science fiction stuff. It's interesting to compare this to Groundhog's Day because Groundhog Day had to spend so much time establishing the premise because the plot idea of a time loop wasn't as widely known back then as it is now, whereas nowadays you just say “Groundhog Day loop” and most people will immediately know what you're talking about. Overall Grade: B Next up is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which came out in 2024. This wasn't quite as good as Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but I still enjoyed it. In this one, Ian Spengler's daughter, her good-natured boyfriend, and her teenage children have returned to New York City to restart the Ghostbusters business. They were bankrolled by original Ghostbuster Winston Zeddmore, who is now a wealthy businessman funding a variety of ghostbusting projects. When one of Zeddmore's employees stumbles across a dangerous artifact holding a powerful ice ghost, both the new and original Ghostbusters must team up to save the day. I really like how the new Ghostbusters films handle the original characters. The original characters are no longer the main focus but they're now mentoring the new characters and providing advice and support. I like this a lot better than the Disney/Lucasfilm approach of the original character as being sad old losers that the new characters must rebel against and then surpass. It was also great that actor William Atherton returned as government apparatchik Walter Peck. Back in the first movie, Peck was an officious EPA inspector who accidentally released a ghost horde upon New York. In the grand American political tradition of tradition of failing upward, he is now the mayor of New York City and still hopes to disband the Ghostbusters. I think the movie's biggest weakness was that it was too complicated and there were a lot of different characters and moving parts to keep track of. Overall grade: B Next up is Inside Out 2, which came out in 2024. It is a terrifying descent into the nightmarish hellscape that has the mind of the average teenage girl. I am, of course joking (though, if you have teenagers, you know that I'm only mostly joking) but Inside Out 2 is a strong follow up to the first movie. In the first movie, the anthropomorphized representations of emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust) tried to control themselves inside the mind of young girl Riley. At the start of the second movie, Riley is now 13 and doing pretty well, but then puberty kicks in. Suddenly new emotions arrive in her head: Ennui, Envy, Embarrassment, and Anxiety. Anxiety in particular runs amuck and seizes control of Riley's mind. As Anxiety starts to send Riley spiraling out of control, the other emotions have to rally behind Joy and find a way to save Riley's mind and sense of self. It is both quite funny and poignant. I can see why this movie cleared a billion dollars. As of early July 2024, is the biggest box office movie of the year so far. Overall grade: A Next up is Ford versus Ferrari, which came out in 2019. This is a biopic of the rivalry between Ford Motor Company and Ferrari in the 1960s, which is an interesting bit of history. In the ‘60s, Ford Motor Company, under the leadership of Henry Ford II (founder Henry Ford's grandson), decided it needed a cooler image, much like how Microsoft bought a bunch of indie gaming studios in the 2010s so Xbox would seem cooler. So Ford Motor Company spent years negotiating with Enzo Ferrari to buy Ferrari's company. At the last minute, negotiations collapsed and Ferrari famously went on a rant insulting Ford as an ugly company that made ugly cars and also called Ford II a lesser man compared to his famous grandfather. This was a major public failure and humiliation for Ford Motor Company, and needless to say Ford II took this very, very personally. He threw a ton of resources behind Ford's racing car project with one goal: beat Ferrari at the famous Le Mans 24 hour race. To pull this off, Ford recruited Carroll Shelby (played by Matt Damon), a former racing driver who turned to race car designing because a heart condition no longer let him race. Shelby needed a driver, so he recruited Ken Miles (played by Christian Bale), a talented driver and mechanic with a combative streak and knack for making enemies. Shelby, Miles, and their team set out to build the GT40, Ford's first proper racing car. Since this is all in the historical record, it's not a spoiler to say that they succeeded in the 1966 Le Mans race. Ford Cars finished in first, second, and third positions, locking out Ferrari entirely from the podium. This was a very enjoyable biopic. All the actors disappear into their roles and give strong performances. The racing scenes all look cool. It is also interesting from a historical perspective to see how the Ford executives had a very bad habit of acting like feudal lords who would dictate their will to the consumer rather than what they actually were, which is merchants who needed to give the customer what they wanted. This attitude was one of several reasons the US auto industry hit very hard times in the 1970s. I'd say the only thing wrong with the movie is that it feels too long, though for the life of me I'm not sure what they could have cut. Overall grade: A Next up is The Last Dance, which originally came out in 2020. I originally watched this back during peak COVID, but after watching Air (which I will discuss shortly), I decided to watch this again to refresh my memory. The Last Dance is a documentary about the Chicago Bulls NBA team and the renowned three-peat champion streak back in the 1990s. I have to admit it is an amusing feeling to have lived long enough that things I lived through are now considered history and have prestige Netflix documentaries made about them. The documentary mostly revolves around the career of Michael Jordan, though it includes interviews with many other people involved in the experience of the Bulls championship run, including brief interviews with two ex U.S. Presidents. The documentary got a lot of criticism for focusing too heavily on Jordan and portraying him in a positive light, especially from the other members of the 1990s Bulls team. Interestingly, I thought Jordan did not really come across all that great on the show. He seemed somewhat vindictive and petty and prone to holding on to grudges for decades. He was presented as the sort of man who is afflicted with an all-consuming competitive streak, who is irresistibly compelled to win at everything he does, even if it's a casual golf game between friendly acquaintances. For that matter, professional basketball players in general all tend to be highly competitive type A personalities who like to win and hate to lose. Getting them all to agree on an account of events beyond the objectively observable facts is probably impossible. Despite that, I suspect the simple fact is that the Bulls would not have won their championships without Jordan. There's no denying that Jordan was probably one of the most famous people on Earth in the 1990s. Honestly, no one can stand up to that kind of scrutiny well, especially after a personal tragedy like when Jordan's father was murdered in the mid-1990s. When Jordan talks about how winning requires complete focus and absolute dedication, I'm afraid that he's right. Winning in the competition at a level like the NBA does require 110% focus, even to the detriment of every other aspect of one's life. I've heard athletes say that champions have no balance and Jordan himself seems to be a living example of both the benefits and the extremely high personal costs of that. Amusing anecdote: when I originally watched this documentary in late 2020, I texted my brother that he should check it out because I thought he would enjoy it. His response was something along the line said he had seen when it first came out on ESPN and I really ought to engage with the culture more. Overall grade: A Now for the best movie I saw in the first half of summer 2024 and that would be Air, which came out in 2023 and is related to our sports documentary topics. This is a movie about Michael Jordan and his family negotiating deal with Nike about the Air Jordan shoe. I didn't expect to like this movie very much, but it turns out it is quite excellent. As I mentioned earlier, in full disclosure, I have minimal interest in the NBA and while I could tell you the NBA team of the US state in which I currently reside, I think if pressed, off the top of my head, I could probably tell you the name of maybe five other NBA teams. Additionally, I lived through the 1990s and had no money for all of it, and so at the time I really resented the peer pressure around Air Jordan shoes and other sports apparel, because that stuff was always so expensive. As I mentioned, I had no money. All that aside, that shows Air was a good movie because it made me care about a story involving a topic in which I have no interest and perhaps mildly dislike. Anyway, the movie's plot is set in 1984. Matt Damon (back again) plays Sonny Vaccaro, who was working with Nike's struggling basketball shoe division. At the time, Nike was the biggest maker of running shoes in the US that had only a minimal presence in the basketball shoe market. Vaccaro has the idea of building a shoe brand entirely around an upcoming young NBA rookie named Michael Jordan. At the time, this was an enormous gamble and had never been done before, but needless to say, it paid off for the company in a big, big way. All the actors gave good performances and the dialogue was sharply written, simultaneously conveying the character of the speaker and moving the plot forward. If you want to learn how to write good dialogue, you could do much worse than to watch Air. I recommend this movie, even if like me, you have zero interest in sports apparel. Perhaps that is one of the functions of art, to give you glimpses of worlds into which you would otherwise never visit. Overall grade: A+ So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you find the show enjoyable and useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.

In 1984, Nike signed rookie basketball player Michael Jordan and created a shoe in his name – the Air Jordan.The unprecedented deal would change sports marketing forever.Former executive Sonny Vaccaro was the man who persuaded his bosses to put all their marketing budget on one untried player.He became convinced of Michael's talent after seeing him make the winning shot in a college game.He tells Vicky Farncombe about the challenges of persuading Michael – an Adidas fan – to sign, and how the Air Jordan's controversial black and red colour scheme upset the National Basketball Association (NBA).(Photo: Air Jordans. Credit: Getty)

“You're remembered for the rules you break.” So says Ben Affleck in Air, the 2023 sports marketing drama that took its own advice. Written by our guest today, Alex Convery, Air shouldn't have been the captivating cinematic slam-dunk it turned out to be. At least, not on paper. A drama about the creation of the Nike Air Jordan trainer? That sounds like a film that's gonna play out largely in grey, air conditioned boardrooms. It sounds like a film that's gonna have limited suspense, because we all know that Air Jordan became this huge sports brand. It also sounds perhaps like it could be a nakedly capitalistic celebration of a product – Hollywood scraping the barrel in a time of endless IP and emphasis on “brand recognition."But Air turned out to be a film about Nike. At least, not entirely. It's a drama about our connection to “things” and the intelligent people that foster those connections – who recognise how, for better or worse, in a capitalist world, products like an Air Jordan trainer can become these symbols of the lives we want to lead and the people we aspire to be. Directed by Affleck from Alex's spec script, it starred Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan, mother to Michael Jordan – the greatest basketball player of all time. Alex had the idea for the movie after watching Netflix documentary series The Last Dance and – well, we'll leave the rest for him to explain. It was a total pleasure chatting with Alex about what Air says about 1980s America, and about stories that use an un-obvious perspective to frame their subject – Jordan through the eyes of a marketing exec, like Jesus through the eyes of the devil in Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. We also get into how Air fits into a new Hollywood trend of movies based on products: Barbie, Blackberry, Tetris and so on. Alex had great insights on it all.Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek.  Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Support the Show.

Welcome back Draft Housers! It's March 2024 and we're in the thick of tournament time which also means "March Madness" which also means basketball month on the podcast! This week we reviewed the 2023 sleeper film "Air" directed by and starring Ben Affleck, also starring Matt Damon, Jason Bateman and Chris Tucker! Tune in to find out if this film hit the monthly theme, what's Jeff's favorite basketball memory, why Ray Allen isn't in this movie and more! IMDB synopsis, "Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan." Music this month is brought to you by the New York based alt-instrumentalist group "Noshows" with their song "Getaway"! Get their music anywhere you get yours! Web⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠ Follow the podcast across all social media! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Producers Jason Michael Berman and Jordan Moldo talk about the kismet involved in assembling the perfect team to tell Sonny Vaccaro's story in AIR. From the marriage of sports, movies, and aritst equity in the production comapnies, to Ben Affleck boarding as director, to securing the dream cast and the blessings of Sonny, Michael Jordan, and Nike, the producers describe a production that felt like walking on air. Ben Affleck was a true leader, taking it upon himself to meet Michael Jordan, and then bowing out of the lead role of Sonny and switching with Matt Damon in service of the film. Sonny wanted his truth be told, and the film succeeds in capturing the essence of these characters, that time in sports history, and empire that is Nike.

The ABCD Camp was the brainchild of Sonny Vaccaro, the same guy who helped create the Air Jordan basketball shoe. This camp brought together the 100 top high school basketball players in the country to play against each other every year to see who really were the greatest.CREDITSRick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voiceJacob Loayza: Editor, producer, and publisher MUSIC"Rock You" by RockSounds"Horizons" by Roa SPORTS HISTORY NETWORKsportshistorynetwork.comsportshistorynetwork.com/podcasts/basketball-history-101/ FACEBOOKm.facebook.com/Basketball-History-101-103801581493027/ BUSINESS CONTACTbballhistory101@gmail.com

Fans of your brand are one step away from becoming advocates for your company. Help them cross that line by sweetening the deal.Because if you can get fans to talk about why they love doing business with you, it's the most effective way to do marketing; word of mouth is an extremely powerful tool proven to make sales. According to a Nielsen report, “92% of consumers around the world say they trust word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.” And when you can offer a referral program for customers, it incentivizes their brand advocacy. Our guest today, VP of Marketing at Gigster, Martha Aviles, says that word of mouth marketing paired with a referral program leads to an almost 100% close rate. So in this episode, we're talking with Martha about what leveraging referral programs looks like, how to break rules to create exclusive and unique content, and why there is always inherent risk in creating something truly remarkable.About our guest, Martha AvilesMartha Aviles is VP of Marketing at Austin-based Gigster, a firm that accelerates the delivery of digital transformation applications giving companies the agility to thrive in a software-defined world. With 20+ years of high-tech marketing experience in SaaS, semiconductor, networking, and network security at start-ups, private, and public companies, she is a fierce marketing leader. Martha has a gift for building and growing high-performance marketing teams, corporate brands, and inspiring thought leadership. Her extensive experience includes lead generation, integrated marketing, product marketing, digital marketing, public relations, brand management, analyst relations, and crisis communications. In addition, she has successfully led through 20+ mergers and acquisitions, including managing several integration and acquisition exits. Prior to joining Gigster, she was VP of Marketing at Austin-based Talroo, and also held senior leadership roles in marketing at RigUp (now Workrise) and Enverus - both of which have reached Unicorn status in Austin. Martha is an MBA graduate from the University of Texas and holds a BBA from Texas A&M University. Connect with her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maviles/About GigsterGigster is a smart software development service that combines top developers, designers and product managers with artificial intelligence to build your project. Have your software reliably delivered at twice the speed, with end-to-end management and visibility.About AirAir is a sports drama based on the true story about Nike's deal with Michael Jordan to create Air Jordans, the line of sneakers that is super popular today. In 1984, Nike was about to shut down its failing basketball shoe division. So in a last ditch effort, Nike's basketball talent scout, Sonny Vaccaro, was sent to find a new spokesperson for Nike basketball sneakers. He advocated for the unlikely pick, rookie Michael Jordan, even though Jordan's preferred brands were Adidas and Converse, and he would have n been too expensive for their budget. Nevertheless, the deal came through with the stipulation that Jordan would get a cut of every Air Jordan sold, and the Air Jordan was born. In its first year, the sneakers far exceeded expected sales of $3 million, and brought in $162 million. The movie was directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery, and stars Damion Young as Michael Jordan, Viola Davis as his mother, Matt Damon as talent scout Sonny Vaccaro, and Ben Affleck as Nike co-founder and chief executive Phil Knight. It also stars Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, and Marlon Wayans, among others. It's the first movie from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's new venture, a production company called Artist's Equity. It's an artist-led studio that will give creators a cut of the profit from projects. So Air was a conscious choice as their first film, as it reflected the ideal of giving a cut to the talent. What B2B Companies Can Learn From Air:It pays to do partner marketing. Leveraging partner marketing and offering incentives to your partners or brand advocates increases sales. Martha says, “There are some customers who will be advocates for you, and they're really, really happy with your services, and typically, birds of a feather flock together. If they recommend you, you give them a piece of the action. Things like that work. And those deals are typically almost a 100 percent close rate. It always pays exponentially.” Find customers who are willing to advocate for your brand and offer them a partner deal.Don't rest on your laurels. Keep giving it your all no matter how long you've been in the business. Nike failed to do this when pitching an endorsement deal to Steph Curry in 2013, mispronouncing Steph's name and leaving another athlete's name on the PowerPoint deck when presenting. Needless to say they lost the deal because of their sloppiness in what ESPN has called “the worst endorsement pitch ever.” So tune in to what's going on in your industry, experiment with new marketing techniques, and always always pay attention to the details.Break the rules. Don't follow trends or do what all the other B2B brands are doing because you think you'll be taken “seriously.” Instead, tune in to your brand values and create evergreen content. Martha says, “At the time, the NBA had a stipulation that the shoes had to be [mostly] white…Nike paid all of the fines for Michael Jordan to wear these red and black Jordans, which is how they launched. Before, Converse and Adidas were the shoe to wear and Nike's were like your dad's shoe, nobody wanted to wear those. But they brought in that cool factor…And then everybody wanted the shoe and they built the demand.” Be bold enough to break the rules and create demand for your unique content.Quotes*”There's so many times where we have to innovate or we have to figure something out when your back's up against the wall, but [Nike] knew they didn't really have anything to lose. That's how they were approaching it, because they were shutting down this division. It was either like, ‘We're not going to have basketball shoes,' or ‘We're going to get Michael Jordan,' you know? And they made the right bet, but it was a big bet.” - Martha Aviles“If you're telling any type of marketing story, being able to start at the beginning with that uncertainty, with painting the picture in the audience's mind that this might not work, that this crazy thing might not happen…getting into the person's headspace of where they were in that moment, how they felt in that moment, is so important to the story.” - Ian FaisonTime Stamps[0:55] Introducing VP of Marketing at Gigster, Martha Aviles[1:45] Why are we talking about Air?[2:49] Learn about Martha's role at Gigster[3:58] Tell me more about the movie Air[16:20] What marketing takeaways can we glean from Air?[23:34] Learn about running customer referral programs[31:31] What was Martha's content strategy at Talroo?[32:15] How does Martha view the ROI of content?[33:57] What are exciting projects Martha is working on at Gigster?[41:22] Exploring Lionel Messi's deal with the MLS and Apple+ as a modern day example of athlete dealsLinksWatch AirConnect with Martha on LinkedInLearn more about GigsterAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

On this episode Monica shares with you her takeaway not from a podcast episode, but from the movie Air...the story of Sonny Vaccaro, Nike and the beginning of the revolutionary partnership with basketball rookie Michael Jordan. Such an inspiring movie. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/becomeyourownboss/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/becomeyourownboss/support

Shaan's Free Workshop --> http://bit.ly/3INb6EV Episode 461: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) engage in a business breakdown duel where they dive deep into some interesting businesses. Vote for the winner of the duel in the comments. Plus, the story of Nike's Sonny Vaccaro. Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here. Check Out Shaan's Stuff: * Power Writing Course * Daily Newsletter Check Out Sam's Stuff: * Hampton * Ideation Bootcamp * Copy That ----- Show Notes: (00:32) - Biz Breakdown Duel (01:30) - Petex (19:05) - T-shirt company (21:40) - Hims (41:15) - Zuck does The Murph (52:20) - Sonny Vaccaro story ------ Links: * Petex * Andrew Lynch - Net Income * Sacra * Hims * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. ------ Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Are third movies ever good? We're an anti coffee podcast. Kingpin. What's the best Farrelly brothers movie? Basketball marketing legend Sonny Vaccaro talks about the real-life story behind the movie, Air. Chris is coming over Adnan's house for dinner? Does Dari Nowkhah have a top-5 broadcaster voice? Adnan's brother updates Adnan's Wikipedia page. Chris is excited about his Florida Panthers. Richard Dreyfuss' controversial comments on the Oscar's new diversity requirements.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Are third movies ever good? We're an anti coffee podcast. Kingpin. What's the best Farrelly brothers movie? Basketball marketing legend Sonny Vaccaro talks about the real-life story behind the movie, Air. Chris is coming over Adnan's house for dinner? Does Dari Nowkhah have a top-5 broadcaster voice? Adnan's brother updates Adnan's Wikipedia page. Chris is excited about his Florida Panthers. Richard Dreyfuss' controversial comments on the Oscar's new diversity requirements.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one knows the story of Michael Jordan like Chicago Bulls fans and this story is no different. The movie "Air" is in theaters and it covers basketball marketing legend, Sonny Vaccaro played by Matt Damon and Nike's crazy attempt to sign Michael Jordan through his mother Delores Jordan played by Viola Davis. The movie is directed by Ben Affleck but written by Chicagoland born and raised Alex Convery. Convery joins Tony Gill to discuss writing the movie, working with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, getting permission to film form Michael Jordan, and much more! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chris and Rob discuss the rise of the Jordan Brand Empire and whether it still would have existed if Michael Jordan signed with any other shoe company than Nike, and explain why this could be a Summer of Change for both the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls. Plus, legendary sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro swings by to discuss how closely the movie ‘AIR' resembles what actually happened during Nike's recruitment of Jordan, why MJ ultimately chose Nike over Adidas and Converse, the rumor that he tried to get Magic Johnson to Nike and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris and Rob tell us why the NBA felt compelled to come down on the Dallas Mavericks so hard for their blatant tanking at the end of the regular season and take the analytics crowd to task after an NBA awards voter revealed that he picked Walker Kessler over Paolo Banchero for NBA Rookie of the Year because Kessler had better advanced statistics. Plus, legendary sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro swings by to discuss how closely the movie ‘AIR' resembles what actually happened during Nike's recruitment of Jordan, why MJ ultimately chose Nike over Adidas and Converse, the rumor that he tried to get Magic Johnson to Nike and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The new movie ‘Air' from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon recalls how Sonny Vaccaro helped sign Michael Jordan to Nike in a deal that birthed the Air Jordan sneaker line. In this episode, the co-hosts discuss its merits, historical accuracy, and the portrayal of real-life footwear industry legends like Phil Knight and Rob Strasser. They also breakdown the possible decline of the Air Jordan 1, the best and worst Jordan hybrids, Bode's Nike collaboration, and the coming Terror Squad Air Force 1s by Fat Joe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Montgomery & Co., Renee breaks down the 2023 WNBA draft and the Atlanta Dream welcome 3 new draft picks including Stanford star, Haley Jones. Plus, we have legendary sports marketing exec, Sonny Vaccaro, played by actor Matt Damon in the new movie “Air” out in theaters now. He shares never-before-told stories of how he helped MJ and Kobe get signed to Nike and more!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Montgomery & Co., Renee breaks down the 2023 WNBA draft and the Atlanta Dream welcome 3 new draft picks including Stanford star, Haley Jones. Plus, we have legendary sports marketing exec, Sonny Vaccaro, played by actor Matt Damon in the new movie “Air” out in theaters now. He shares never-before-told stories of how he helped MJ and Kobe get signed to Nike and more!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

# pm call of the day, we do it now since we missed it at 2pm! The guys want to have Sonny Vaccaro on the show to talk about AIR, will get him on? Also, YouTube is charging $500 bucks for Sunday ticket if you don't already have YouTube TV. Would you pay it? A lucky caller has a chance to WIN LAKERS TICKETS for TONIGHT if they can identify Mason's LIE OF THE DAY! and another edition of GAME OF GAMES as Pepe Mantilla and Jacob Emrani join us to play. Super Crosstalk with Sedano and KAP! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The best movie of 2023 is AIR which marks the first produced screenplay for Alex Convery. He joins Mase & Sue on the CULTURE POP PODCAST to talk about watching THE LAST DANCE and coming up with the idea for the film, writing it as a spec script and meeting Sonny Vaccaro about whom the movie is based. Then, how the script wound up in the hands of Oscar winners Ben Affleck and Matt Damon with an all-star cast including Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina and EGOT winner Viola Davis. Plus, how the success of the film has affected his career and his life. 

Rich reacts to the Baltimore Ravens pre-draft press conference that got a bit heated when all the reporters wanted to ask about was Lamar Jackson. Shoe/Marketing legend Sonny Vaccaro joins Rich in-studio where he says what it's like being portrayed by Matt Damon in the new film ‘Air,' how bringing Michael Jordan into the Nike fold changed sports marketing forever, how he knew Kobe Bryant was a special competitor even when he was just a junior in high school, and discusses Jerry Tarkanian's UNLV Runnin' Rebels and Michigan's Fab 5's impact on sports culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

4/3 Hour 4   4:00 McDonald's laying off employees 21:00 Tracking everyone's parlay picks 30:00 Sonny Vaccaro interview

Dan reminds us that drafting a QB can alienate whoever is the current starter, regardless of how accomplished that starter may be. And he talks to Hollywood icon and well known Boston sports fan Matt Damon about playing Sonny Vaccaro on the big screen in his new movie about Michael Jordan and Nike.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special in-studio guest legendary sports marketing agent Sonny Vaccaro joins the show to share stories about his career with the Jordan Brand and advocating for college players rights regarding Name, Image and LikenessSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Colin dives in on the NBA MVP race explaining the award should go to Nikola Jokic over Joel Embiid after the 76ers All Star sat out of last night's head-to-head matchup. He points out how delusional 4-time MVP Aaron Rodgers has become after Packers GM Brian Gutekunst shared some insight on how things unfolded regarding the trade discussions with the Jets. Special in-studio guest legendary sports marketing agent Sonny Vaccaro joins the show to share stories about his career with the Jordan Brand and advocating for college players rights regarding Name, Image and Likeness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's Dan Patrick Show, DP recaps the World Baseball Classic final. Who was the big winner of this tournament? Sonny Vaccaro, the marketing agent that signed Michael Jordan to his Nike deal joins us to discuss how he went about landing the biggest sneaker deal in history. And Senator Bill Bradley remembers the life of his late teammate, Willis Reed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former Marketing Agent, Sonny Vaccaro, joins Dan Patrick to discuss his career with the company and what led to signing NBA legend Michael Jordan to Nike. Dan and the Danettes recap more from the World Baseball Classic, recap Dan's interview with Sonny Vaccaro and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan Wetzel and SI's Pat Forde & SI's Ross Dellenger break down all of the biggest games that took place during the first weekend of March Madness.The rounds of 64 and 32 have been completed and the cream is rising to the top in this year's college basketball March Madness tournament. We saw a lot of pivotal games including some major upsets in the first two rounds.The #1 seed Purdue Boilermakers fell to the #16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson Knights causing more heartbreak for the Purdue fans. Another early exit with a talented team has baffled the pod as Purdue coach Matt Painter can't seem to get it right.This year's tournament has not been friendly to the blue bloods either as Kansas, Duke & Kentucky have all been bounced in the round of 32 making the fellas question as which team can get back on track the quickest.The Texas Longhorns have been battling hard for interim head coach Rodney Terry and, to everyone's surprise, the Ivy League's very own Princeton Tigers are making noise as a #15 seed, beating not only #7 ranked Mizzou but also #2 ranked Arizona in the first round.The Arkansas Razorbacks head basketball coach Eric Musselman was very happy to make the sweet sixteen, shown by his disregard for upper body clothing when the Razorbacks advanced.Lastly, in news of the weird, a Texas A&M player has an interesting NIL deal & a very old clam has been discovered.1:00 The Sweet Sixteen is set4:50 Purdue's collapse against #16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson12:33 The Blue Bloods are out of the tournament17:53 18:10 Why are more upsets taking place in the tournament than before?22:37 Eric Musselman goes shirtless after beating #1 ranked Kansas25:20 Who can take down the Alabama Crimson Tide?29:30 Has Rodney Terry secured his future with Texas?33:45 #15 Princeton is making noise this tournament38:30 Ross may have struck gold with his Tennessee pick42:10 Purdue didn't like Fairleigh Dickinson's Tobin Anderson's comments before their game45:15 Matt Damon is playing Sonny Vaccaro in a new movie54:07 Texas A&M's Jalen Preston signs a bail bonds NIL deal55:30 A man in Florida found a special quahog clamStay up to date with the latest college football news and coverage from Yahoo Sports on Twitter @YahooSportsCFB.Follow Dan @DanWetzelFollow Pat @ByPatFordeFollow Ross @RossDellengerCheck out all the episodes of the College Football Enquirer and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at Yahoo Sports PodcastsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.