Come on and slam, and welcome to the the existential horror that Space Jam came out 21 years ago this month!
Honestly, I can’t believe I’m writing this article after the Lovecraftian horror that was this presidential election, but life goes on, and so does this show, so here we are. Anyway, gazing into the abyss aside, it’s well and truly bonkers to think that for two decades basketball cinema has struggled to emerge from the towering shadow cast by the Michael Jordan-starring camp classic. Who would have thought that a movie based on a Nike commercial starring His Airness playing basketball with the Looney Tunes against an alien goon squad would make hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide?That’s to say nothing of the fact that the soundtrack went sextuple platinum, and the franchise sold more than $1 billion in merchandise. But Space Jam’s profitability and core concept are hardly the weirdest aspects of the film and it’s oddball history. So today on The Dan Cave, we’re looking back at the weird, wonderful dunk-a-palooza that was Space Jam and dropping some slamtacular facts about the greatest basketball movie ever made that you might not already know.
Where were you when Space Jam came out? Who should star in the sequel alongside LeBron James? Let me know in the comments below.
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter and ask him about all things anime (@Osteoferocious).
