Have you ever heard of actor Keith Gibbs?
Probably not, but he’s the white guy in the pic above, and he’s played with everybody from Michale Jordan to Shaq to a bunch of skinheads.
Gibbs is the go-to actor in Hollywood when it comes to basketball movies, and Grantland recently did a great interview with him about his resume which includes everything from BLUE CHIPS to AMERICAN HISTORY X to REBOUND to BASEKETBALL to SPACE JAM. But it’s his work with MJ in SPACE JAM that produced the greatest story.
Did Jordan trash-talk you?
Oh yeah, nonstop. [Laughs.]
He didn’t give a shit who you were. When I was doing Space Jam, we played three days. I thought it was over. I had to go out of town. I get a phone call, they’re like, “Why aren’t you here?” I was like, “Oh, they’re still playing?” I had no idea.
I walk in, and it’s Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley, Alonzo Mourning, Charles Oakley. Grant Hill shows up. Jerry Stackhouse shows up. Now, all of a sudden it’s an NBA All-Star pickup game. Every night. I did that for about a month and a half, two months. Then the UCLA kids came in, and they had just won a national title — Ed O’Bannon and those guys. Just phenomenal. Best pickup games I’ve ever been a part of. It was unreal.
Yeah, so Jordan … I had to guard Reggie Miller and Michael Jordan in back-to-back games. It was so bad. I was friends with Chris Mills and Tracy Murray — we had been to some camps together. One play, I got switched onto Jordan, because Chris was like, “Keith, you take him.” Jordan hit a 35-footer on me. I mean, it was ridiculous: leg out, tongue out, all that stuff … hit a 35-footer on me and goes, “GET THE FUCK OFF THE COURT.”
The story I really want to hear is the one from the winner of the MEET MIKE contest. The entries were found inside the SPACE JAM VHS clamshell cases.
Who had Space Jam on VHS?
One of the many inserts was a Rayovac “MEET MIKE” contest that included going to a game & eating dinner at MJ’s restaurant. pic.twitter.com/rQ7MIE0mvE
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) November 15, 2020
THE SUCCESS OF SPACE JAM
Although SPACE JAM is loved by many hoop fans and rumors of a sequel with LeBron keep popping up, did you know that Michael Jordan actually hated making the movie and turned down an offer to do a sequel in 1998? Thankfully, it only took up 8 weeks of his Summer and was a box office success.
- Budget: $80M
- Marketing: $20M+
- Box office: $250M
- Home Video: $209M
- Generated over a billion dollars with merchandise
Its $250 million gross is almost $100 million more than any other film starring a basketball player, and it made more on opening day than Kevin Durant’s THUNDERSTRUCK made ($587K) during its entire theatrical run.