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20 years ago today, May 1, 1998 to be exact, Spike Lee’s He Got Game released to the masses.
More dramatic than White Men Can’t Jump and less rural than Hoosiers, Spike’s cinematic take on the game we love and how it touches lives touched all who watched it in a way that still registers as real today.
Casting a young Ray Allen as the son of Denzel Washington in the NBA star’s acting debut, the player prodigy and accomplished actor told the tale of a high school hooper on the rise and a fallen father looking for redemption.
While the storyline and acting was the selling point for thespians, sneakerheads will forever remember the footwear. A highlight reel of Nike models from the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Ray’s wears of the Nike Air Foamposite Pro, Nike Air Hawk Flight, Nike Air Max Uptempo III and Nike Air Total Max Uptempo as Jesus Shuttlesworth catapulted the kicks into pop culture fame. While Ray’s Nike rotation impressed, ultimately it would be his pops paying for and playing in the Air Jordan 13 that took on the title associated with the flick.
20 years later, the Spike Lee joint still registers as relevant and as a must watch. With a score composed by Public Enemy and wardrobe done by Nike, the sonics and aesthetics paint NYC’s basketball scene in the late ’90s but the story itself hasn’t aged a bit.
From Nice Kicks to Spike, Ray, Denzel and Rosario, thank you.
