Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever. But he’s also the star of Warner Bros. infamous movie, “Space Jam.”
Providing a mix between NBA stars, looney tunes, and an intergalactic amusement park, the movie was a box-office hit, reportedly earning over $230 million worldwide.
But perhaps even more interesting than the movie itself is what happened behind the scenes.
During the summer of 1995, Jordan used an inflatable dome in Warner Bros. studios as a pickup court. And, as you probably guessed, it was the scene of some awesome action. Here’s the story, by Slam online:
When it came to the Dome, Mike designated me as the guy to work along with Tim Grover. Tim had a key, security had a key and then I had a key. We were the only people who had keys to the actual Dome. When lunchtime came, we’d go up to the Dome and Mike would get his workout in—really, kind of foregoing lunch. He and Tim would hit heavy weights and they had various stations they would go through. After the weights, they’d do some stretching, loosen up, and then Mike would do his shooting drills. Every day would be a different kind of shooting drill.
As he was working towards his return to basketball, he made it a regular routine to workout at the “dome. And, according to Slam, other NBA players affiliated with Space Jam, additional clients of Jordan’s agent, David Falk, and the reigning NCAA champion UCLA Bruins were invited to join.
Nate and I would put the teams together a lot of times. Nate was more involved with that than I was because I was actually MJ’s stand-in, so sometimes I would go directly with him to the Jordan Dome while Nate went earlier to set stuff up. MJ would tell us that he wanted the teams set up a certain way because he wanted to work on certain things that day or whatever. He was very strategic. He’d say, I’m trying to work on going to my move this way, I’m trying to work on passing, I want to post-up. Those types of things. And he never stacked his team.
I remember going into the athletic department one day. Somebody was like, Michael Jordan called, he’s filming a movie on the set of Warner Bros. and he wants you guys to go play pickup. Now mind you, we had just won the national championship, so we were off the chain. We had been to the White House. We were on cloud nine. Now all of a sudden, Mike calls? Are you fucking kidding me? It was this really special call to get. He invited the whole team.
Before word fully spread about the games, the college kids got their chance to run with Mike. Even Bellamy and Miguel played early on. MJ would get to the Dome around 7 pm and pickup would start immediately. It went on for at least two hours each evening.
The structure of the games: 5-on-5 full-court. First to 7 points, straight up, all 1s. Call your own fouls. According to Bellamy, that last guideline was, for the most part, “respected without any major flare ups.”
Of course, Jordan’s work ethic was on full display, even as he was in the middle of filming.
What stood out the most to me was how Jordan could film all day and some evenings and still come out and play two to three hours of games. Most of our pickup games began around 7 pm and lasted until 10. His call time on set the next mornings would be around 5-6 am.
Eventually, NBA stars started coming out and the games turned into something resembling All-Star weekend.
You were getting almost an NBA All-Star Game every day. The games were to 7 so you didn’t have much time to get going. You had to hit the floor and really go right away or else it was a long wait. You had at least 100 players on the sidelines on days where everybody was in town. You’d look up and you’d have one team with Rod Strickland, Michael Jordan, Glen Rice, Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning. And then on the other team you’d have Tim Hardaway, Reggie Miller, Grant Hill, Charles Oakley and Pat Ewing. That one court was packed every day. You were getting everybody’s best shot because if you sat down, you might as well go lift weights because you’re going to be sitting down for a while.
Even celebrities made appearances.
The who’s-who of Hollywood and the entertainment world that would drop by the Jordan Dome, just to stick their head in or to say that they were there or part of it, was amazing. All of the top brass from Warner Bros. came. You could actually get a deal done at the Jordan Dome if you were a big time celebrity. Halle Berry came by, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah.
The weights that Mike used to work out with, after he finished using them, Clint Eastwood bought them. They ended up being a part of his regiment. He used them because they said he was pretty serious about his workouts prior to that, but the novelty of that being Michael Jordan’s gear kind of added something to it. He definitely used them.
All of this had an impact on what happened on the pro-basketball scene. MJ was able to study his opponents and even build some chemistry with one of his future teammates.
The Dome was really instrumental in convincing Mike that he could play with Dennis Rodman, too. I think if the Dome didn’t happen, I don’t know if that deal would’ve went through the same way it went through. Mike had an opportunity to see how Dennis was every day coming up in the Dome and playing. And what he realized was, and what most people realize when you’re around Dennis, he’s a quiet type of guy. Even though he kind of re-invented himself with all the hair color and all that, but basically, he’s a quiet guy. He comes and he plays hard. He doesn’t cause any controversy. Mike realized he could play with him.
Needless to say, Michael Jordan generated loads of hype. What started out as his workout dome ended do becoming the place to be for pro-basketball players and Hollywood stars alike.
It was truly unprecedented and just goes to show how much of a pull a guy like Jordan was.
