NBA and Hollywood Hoping Kids ‘Like Mike’ Enough to Become Fans

There is more riding on 20th Century Fox’s new movie “Like Mike” than a share of this summer’s fastbreak box office.

Behind the fanciful plot line about a boy who is carried to pro basketball fame by a pair of magic sneakers is a bottom-line strategy by the National Basketball Assn. to cast its brightest stars as salesmen for the league. Among them: Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets, Chris Webber of the Sacramento Kings and Vince Carter of the Toronto Raptors.

“There aren’t a lot of 7- to 12-year-olds that will watch a whole game, but we may be able to suck them in with a good story,” said Gregg Winik, executive vice president for NBA Entertainment. And the hope is that when the video comes out, Winik added, kids will watch it “over and over and over again.”

No longer able to rely on athletic feats alone to deliver new fans--and their money--the NBA and other professional sports leagues are aggressively cultivating Hollywood as never before.

As they grant film crews unparalleled access to games and stand-out athletes, they’re negotiating production deals, exerting more influence over scripts and taking greater care with how their images are portrayed. League officials, such as Winik, have even earned screen credits.

This summer, the National Football League will throw open the door to one of its secret bastions--preseason training camp--for an HBO reality show focusing on the Dallas Cowboys. The NFL is banking on the second-year series to satisfy die-hards but also attract women and casual fans with behind-the-scenes stories of players and their personal struggles.

Major League Baseball has a senior manager for “presence marketing” who lobbies studios and movie makers to weave the sport into their films. The National Hockey League recently prevailed on Nickelodeon to feature its “NHL Breakout” roller hockey tournament on the cartoon series “Rocket Power.”

And NASCAR, already one of television’s top sporting draws, announced a movie deal last month in which pop singer Britney Spears will play the daughter of a team owner in a film that will include real race footage, drivers and pit crew action. The sport hopes to get the attention of kids who may not even have their driver’s licenses.

“We’re not interested in making a movie just to make a movie,” said Paul Brooks, a NASCAR vice president in charge of the sport’s new Los Angeles office. “We’re interested in making a movie to grow a sport.”

That attitude has created a new dynamic in Hollywood, which has feasted on sports themes since movie cameras captured Bob Fitzsimmons’ stunning defeat of “Gentleman” Jim Corbett in the 1897 heavyweight title fight. Filmmakers realized big box-office returns when they began featuring sports newsreels and cast athletes in dramatizations or bit parts starting in the early 1900s.

The leagues have been slower to see the box-office marketing potential of their properties. But faced with aging fan bases and fierce competition, league officials have reversed field.

One of the earlier signposts came in 1992, when the NHL awarded Walt Disney Co. a franchise team that would be named after its hit movie “The Mighty Ducks.” Two years later, the NFL worked closely on the filming of “Little Giants” and won a rewrite of a scene to include top players and famed broadcaster John Madden.

Now, the leagues are taking it a step further, seeking a fusion with Hollywood that sells two products at once, filling theaters and arenas.

Pro leagues offer Hollywood a built-in fan base, considerable marketing prowess and the kind of authenticity that not even a studio can create.

Take Disney’s “The Rookie,” based on the real-life story of a 35-year-old science teacher who became a relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Major League Baseball broke with tradition when it allowed a camera crew 90 seconds to film actor Dennis Quaid trotting in from the bullpen while the crowd cheered during a Texas Rangers-Devil Rays game.

As part of the movie’s promotional blitz, Quaid hosted a segment of MLB’s “This Week in Baseball,” and the league ran trailers for the movie on ballpark Jumbotrons across the nation.

But the NBA is at the forefront of marrying its interests with Hollywood, insiders say. League officials said they were involved with the making of Warner Bros.’ 1996 movie “Space Jam” starring Michael Jordan. “Like Mike,” however, is in a league of its own, combining the talents of a young rap superstar with giants of the NBA.

“The NBA has taken a much more aggressive role in the production and cooperation in getting this movie to market than we’ve seen in the past,” said Dean Bonham, chief executive of a Denver-based sports marketing group. “It takes cooperation to a new level.”

“Like Mike,” a $20-million film rated PG, opens today against the highly anticipated “Men in Black II.”

The movie features hip-hop singer Lil’ Bow Wow as a Los Angeles orphan who romps through the NBA in a pair of hand-me-down sneakers initialed M.J.--presumably for Michael Jordan. Bow, as he likes to be called, plays for the fictitious L.A. Knights, but his opponents, the arenas, announcers and even one referee are real.

“It would have been impossible to do this kind of movie without the NBA,” said Tom Rothman, co-chairman of 20th Century Fox, which brought the movie to the league’s attention.

NBA officials saw the movie as a perfect tool to recruit a demographic bulge that marketers commonly refer to as “tweens.” Insatiable entertainment consumers, these prepubescent kids influence an estimated $220 billion in annual spending, said James U. McNeill, a retired Texas A&M; University professor who advises businesses on how to market to sharp-eyed youngsters.

“Being authentic and being real is very important indeed,” he said.

NBA officials thought realism was crucial to the success of “Like Mike.” After scouring the script, they urged that one scene be rewritten because it showed a coach shoving a player--a no-no in the NBA.

League officials were allowed to review the “dailies”--unedited tapes of what is filmed each day. Former NBA all-star guard Reggie Theus, the league’s consultant on the film, said he asked for one scene to be reshot because of a mock media camera on a tripod in the background. The league wouldn’t allow such cameras for safety reasons, he said.

Movie co-producer Peter Heller and others said the NBA suggested hiring a well-known referee for game shots and also was “adamant” that players tuck in their jerseys, a rule that carries a fine if violated in the pros. One extra had to remove his earring because such jewelry is forbidden on the court.

Heller said he welcomed every suggestion: “I think the more you can anchor a fantasy movie in reality, the better the fantasy plays.”

To heighten that illusion, the league helped assemble a veritable NBA who’s who for the film. Other players who appear in mock games include David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs, Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers and Tracy McGrady of the Orlando Magic. Filming for one scene was delayed to accommodate Carter as his team made a playoff run.

Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning said he was “very cool” with appearing in a film that not only inspires kids but seeks to cultivate new basketball fans as well.

“It’s about what sells tickets.... Times have changed, man. We’re living in a very marketable and promotional world now,” he said.

Despite efforts by the NBA and Fox, there are no L.A. Lakers in the film. They were said to be too busy winning their third championship.

As a courtesy, Fox asked Jordan, who does not appear in the film, for his blessing to use the phrase “Like Mike.”

Players were paid Screen Actors Guild wages, which many donated to charity. The NBA and Fox declined to discuss the financial agreements behind their partnership, except to say the league received a fee.

Studio officials said the league provided something as valuable as money--exposure--when it threw its weight behind promoting the movie.

Fox paid to air “Like Mike” commercials during each playoff game and the NBA finals; the league hosted screenings in all its franchise cities. The movie has been the subject of three segments on the league’s television magazine “NBA Inside Stuff.”

Jeffrey Godsick, Fox executive vice president for publicity and promotion, said that during Game 6 of the series between the Lakers and the Kings, the NBA also arranged for NBC to include Lil’ Bow Wow among the celebrities it panned to at Staples Center.

It conveniently followed a “Like Mike” commercial.

During the filming, NBA stars were shuttled for their cameos from the First Union Center in Philadelphia where the All-Star festivities were held in February to a movie set next door.

An extra touch of reality was achieved by filming during the popular dunk contest. Lil’ Bow Wow ran onto the floor in his L.A. Knights uniform, “waved at the crowd and took off toward the basket,” said Winik, an NBA official who is an executive producer on the film.

Movie magic would later convert the moment into a jaw-dropping dunk shot.

That was never explained to the somewhat bewildered 20,000 fans providing the real-life backdrop.

“I don’t think they fully understood what was happening,” Winik said. “But they’ll see it in the movie.”