LeBron James is currently in the NBA bubble at Disney World trying to win an NBA championship for the Los Angeles Lakers but that hasn't stopped him from doing a little movie promotion as well. James is gearing up for an out of this world game that will allow him to follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan.
James unveiled the first look at the new Tune Squad jerseys, which will be featured in SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY, which serves as a sequel to 1996's SPACE JAM, starring Michael Jordan. You check out the new look for the jerseys below:
It has been over 25 years since Michael Jordan joined some of our favorite Looney Tunes' characters in an epic basketball game to defeat the Monstars. Stepping in for Jordan this time around in the Malcolm D. Lee-directed sequel is LeBron James, and apparently he'll be bringing a few players from the NBA with him including Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Kyle Kuzma, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, and many others. Rounding out the other performers appearing in the film are Don Cheadle, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Xosha Roquemore.
I'm a little indifferent about this sequel because it clearly won't capture the magic of the original film for me but since this will be for a new generation of kids, it's likely to get their attention, especially if they happen to be a fan of LeBron James. The director of the original film, Joe Pytka, told "Entertainment Weekly" back in 2016 that he thought it was a bit absurd that they were making a sequel saying “I think it’s ridiculous to try and make a different movie out of it. I can’t see it. I can’t imagine how it could be what that film was. Not that Space Jam is a great movie, but it had something that touched that period of time because of who those athletes were and it doesn’t exist anymore.” Pytka also admitted that representatives for James' now Los Angeles Laker teammate Dwight Howard had once approached him to helm a sequel, but he turned down that offer due to his belief that a new film wouldn’t work without the unprecedented global reach and appeal of the original production’s star.
"I’ve worked with LeBron and I’ve worked with Steph Curry, and as good a player as LeBron is and as good a player as Steph Curry is, they’re not Michael Jordan. We will never see another player like him. He was a transcendent figure, much like Muhammad Ali. He was beyond his sport. These guys aren’t."
I guess we'll have to wait and see if LeBron James can live up to the Michael Jordan hype when SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY opens on July 16, 2021.