Like Mike

Biography

Like Mike is a 2002 American sports comedy film directed by John Schultz and written by Michael Elliot and Jordan Moffet. Starring Lil' Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, Jonathan Lipnicki, Brenda Song, Robert Forster, Crispin Glover, and Eugene Levy, the film follows an orphan who gets basketball talents after finding an old pair of sneakers that once belonged to Michael Jordan.
It was produced by NBA Productions, and features cameo appearances by NBA players. The film was released on July 3, 2002, by 20th Century Fox, three years after Jordan left the Chicago Bulls, one year before Jordan retired for the third (and last) time from the NBA, and during his playing career with the Washington Wizards (Jordan's first retirement was 1993).
Like Mike received mixed reviews from critics. In later years, the film became a fan favorite among basketball fans.

Plot

13-year-old Calvin Cambridge and his two best friends, Murph and Reg Stevens, live in an orphanage in Los Angeles. At night, they all have to sell chocolate for the troublesome orphanage director, Stan Bittleman, at the STAPLES Center, after each home game of the NBA team, the Los Angeles Knights (a parody of the Los Angeles Clippers). Calvin meets the team's coach, who is impressed by Calvin's knowledge of basketball and honesty about the chocolates, and offers Calvin tickets for the next game. Inside a thrift store donation box, Calvin finds a pair of old sneakers with the initials "MJ" written on them; once worn by Michael Jordan. A jealous bully named Ox steals the sneakers and throws them onto an overhead power line. When Calvin tries to retrieve them that night during a rainstorm, he is shocked by a lightning bolt.
The next day, Calvin and his friends attend the game between the Knights and the Minnesota Timberwolves. During a halftime contest, Calvin's ticket number is called and he goes one-on-one with the Knights' star player, Tracy Reynolds. He ends the contest with a slam dunk after bouncing the ball off the backboard. After a long moment of stunned silence, Calvin receives a standing ovation from his friends and the crowd, gets signed to a one-day contract by the Knights, and prepares for his first game with them, but discovers that he is not there to play. When the Knights play the San Antonio Spurs they start losing badly and Coach Wagner decides to let Calvin play in the fourth quarter. Calvin leads a comeback against the Spurs and they win, leading to Calvin getting a season contract. Calvin brings teamwork to the Knights and makes them one of the best teams in the league.
Because Calvin is still a minor, Coach Wagner appoints Tracy to be his roommate and mentor, much to Tracy's displeasure. Late one night, Tracy falls asleep behind the wheel after mistakenly taking sleeping medication, so Calvin is forced to drive the car back to the hotel to keep Tracy from being suspended for violating curfew. While Calvin gets benched for the incident as punishment for "joyriding", Tracy starts warming up to him and the two begin to form a bond.
Bittleman eventually signs a contract with the Knights stating that all of Calvin's money will go to him until Calvin comes of age, or is adopted. When the second option is about to become true, a desperate Bittleman steals Calvin's sneakers and bets $100,000 on the Toronto Raptors to beat the Knights. After the kids convince Ox and his cohorts that Bittleman is selfish, Ox takes the shoes out of Bittleman's safe. The kids head to the arena with Calvin's sneakers. Bittleman escapes and sends goons after Calvin in a failed attempt to retrieve the shoes.
After the third quarter ends with Vince Carter and the Raptors routing the Knights, 80–59, Calvin makes it back to the arena with the shoes. Calvin nearly gets benched for arriving late, but Tracy and the rest of the team convince Coach Wagner to let Calvin play, and the Knights start to make a comeback. After a pile-on towards the end of the game, Calvin's shoes are ruined with the Knights trailing the Raptors, 103–102. Without the shoes, and wanting to go back to being a normal kid again, Calvin tells the team that, regardless of whether or not the Knights make the playoffs, this will be his last game. In the final play, Calvin manages to pump fake to get Carter to jump and pass the ball to Tracy. Tracy makes the game-winning shot at the final buzzer, and the Knights defeat the Raptors, 104–103, clinching the Knights' first playoff appearance.
After going back to the orphanage, Calvin and Murph are adopted by Tracy, and Reg by a different family, though they stay in touch. Bittleman, not having the money to pay the bet he made, goes missing (likely to avoid getting killed by the loan sharks for failing to pay, or to avoid imprisonment for his treatment towards Calvin and the other orphans), and the orphanage is now sponsored by the Knights.

Box office

Like Mike grossed $51.4 million in North America and $10.8 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of $62.3 million, against its budget of $30 million. The film opened fifth at the box office with a three-day gross of $12.2 million from 2,410 theaters, and $19 million over its five-day opening. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2002, and opened on #4 with £246,169.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Like Mike has an approval rating of 57% based on 97 reviews, and an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A pleasant and innocuous diversion for kids, but adults may have trouble sitting through its predictable plotlines and schmaltz." On Metacritic, it has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that the film depicted "frightening myths about adoption" that ultimately soured the comedy and acting chemistry between Bow Wow and Morris Chestnut.

Standalone sequel

A direct to video stand-alone sequel titled Like Mike 2: Streetball was released on June 6, 2006.

Direct sequel

In September 2021, Bow Wow confirmed that a direct sequel to Like Mike was in the works with the film's original writer, Michael Elliot.