Michael’s demands made the SPACE JAM shoot easier than most. The normal day is ten hours. That, and lunch, makes it a half a day. If there’s overtime, that makes a day ‘a day,’ In commercials, a long day is no big deal because you have time to recuperate. On a film there is no time to recuperate. By the end, you feel like death. Harrison Ford once said that halfway through the picture, you don’t have enough energy to tie your shoes.
Michael’s conditions were ideal and the experience of SPACE JAM might have contributed to the Bulls championship.
How so?
He had an eight hour day, but a late call, I think nine ayem, and a long lunch where he worked out, so he was out by six. Then to THE DOME.
THE DOME was a basketball court under an inflatable dome, with all the accoutrements that an athlete would/ could want, weights, music, teevee, but mostly a full wood court floor courtesy of Warner Brothers.
The pickup games there became legendary with a lot of local college players showing up, together with visiting pros. I ran a few times. Michael was upset with me because I never ran with his five.
‘Why?’
‘I’d like to see the ball every once in a while.’
Credit for THE DOME seems to go to Tim Grover who initially told the studio that MJ wasn’t going to play on asphalt. Bob Daly, the Co -CEO of Warner Brothers, certainly wouldn’t object to anything Michael needed.
Grover said that Michael put on a lot of muscle to make up for being beaten in the playoffs the previous year., so SPACE JAM made him some money and THE DOME helped with a championship (or two, or three).
Don’t I deserve a ring?