Like Mike

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Like Mike
Promotional poster for Like Mike
Directed by	John Schultz
Produced by	NBA Productions
Starring	Lil Bow Wow Brenda Song Morris Chestnut Jonathan Lipnicki
Release date(s)	July 3, 2002
Language	English
Followed by	Like Mike 2: Streetball
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Like Mike is a 2002 movie, directed by John Schultz and starring Bow Wow and Jonathan Lipnicki. The movie was produced by NBA Productions, and features many cameo appearances by NBA stars.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Sequels
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Like Mike is about a trio of kids who live in an orphanage. They are best friends and they enjoy playing basketball and watching NBA games on television. They are taken by a greedy orphanage director to sell chocolates after each of a fictional Los Angeles Knights NBA franchise's home games.

One night, Calvin, played by Bow Wow, gets to meet the team's coach, who agrees to let him and his two best friends have tickets for the next game. Calvin obtains a pair of old shoes (from a Salvation Army Thrift Store) that had been used by a great basketball player of the past. The shoes have the initials MJ written, so naturally, Calvin thinks they used to belong to Michael Jordan, although Jordan's name isn't used in the movie because he refused to have anything to do with the movie itself.

Calvin's shoes are stolen and thrown into some dangerous electricity cables. When he goes up and tries to get them back, he gets electrocuted, but the electrocution doesn't bring him harm, giving him the talent of the player who had used the shoes instead.

Calvin and his friends then attend the basketball game they had tickets for, and Calvin's ticket number is chosen at a half time contest where the winner would face the team's star, Tracy Reynolds, played by Chestnut, one on one. When he dunks the ball from half-court and then goes on to beat the team's star, Calvin is signed to a contract by the NBA team.

Calvin's life then follows a path of experiencing luxury for the first time while on the road and going back to his orphanage home when the team isn't travelling. He gets to see hotels and places he never imagined could exist, and he is assigned to the team's star as roommates while on the road. Calvin then starts taking all the headlines and becoming the talk all around the sports media and the NBA.

While this is all happening, Calvin begins to figure out that all he wants is a father, and he starts looking at Chesnut's character in a fatherly way. They slowly begin to develop a father and son relationship, although their relationship is sometimes challenged by the daily situations that a thirteen year-old boy without a father and a single man with no kids might have to face and Reynolds attitude towards the young player.

Meanwhile, back home, Calvin's greedy orphanage director signs a contract with the team that says that all of Calvin's money will go to him instead until he's eighteen, or adopted.

Calvin eventually helps the team make the playoffs, but upon finding out about the contract, he decides to retire and announces that the last game on the regular season will be his last game. After winning their last season game, Calvin then retires.

However, after going back to his orphanage, he finds out that he was adopted by Chestnut's character, and he also helped his two best friends get adopted, Murph (Lipnicki) to Tracy Reynolds (Chestnut) and Calvin, and Reg (Song) to a Chinese family.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Like Mike was originally going to be released in June 2002.

The "magical" sneakers were called the Nike Blazers, and was the very first basketball shoe manufactured in Nike's company, beginning production in 1973. Although Michael Jordan never liked Nike prior to signing to them in 1984, Jordan actually wore this shoe model in the late '70s when playing ball at his Laney high school.

Prior to the film's release, there were public concern over kids imitating the power line scene, where Calvin retrieves the shoes from the power line during a thunderstorm. The makers of this film, at one point, considered putting up a warning at the beginning of the movie, telling kids not to imitate the power line scene. However, they never did it.

The exterior view of the stadium they were playing in was Staples Center; but they actually filmed the basketball games at The Great Western Forum in Inglewood, CA

When there's a highlight reel playing showing the Knights' loss vs. the Toronto Raptors, there is a shot of Vince Carter. The shot was actually filmed from the 2000 Slam Dunk Competition.