Larry Bird And Michael Jordan Had Everlasting Impact In Iconic Spike Lee Film

Lee’s passion for sports, including his lifelong obsession with the New York Knicks, led him to develop a scene in ‘Do The Right Thing’ that magnified the impact Bird and Jordan had on American culture. 

The culture had a significant racial divide. Most of Bird’s fans were white. Jordan’s followers were mostly African-American. Lee skillfully incorporated this dynamic into ‘Do The Right Thing.’

‘Clifton’, played by actor John Savage, is walking down a New York City sidewalk with his bicycle and accidentally bumps into a young African-American man, rolling over the man’s gym shoes in the process. The African-American man is ‘Buggin Out’, played by Giancarlo Espositio.

Clifton, who is white, happens to be wearing a green Boston Celtics jersey displaying Bird’s name and his No. 33. Buggin Out is wearing his new pair of white Air Jordans, which he says he bought for $108. Buggin Out looks down and sees dirt on his shoes from the tire marks left by Clifton’s bicycle.

The sight of dirt on his new Air Jordans enrages Buggin Out and makes him follow Clifton home, leading to a tense, profanity-filled argument between the two. Clifton is more calm in the dispute, but several African-Americans, including a young supporter played by Martin Lawrence, gather around Buggin Out urging him to go after Clifton and ‘beat his a–!’

“Man, you might as well throw them kicks out,” Lawrence’s character says in the scene. “Those kicks are broke.”

Despite the instigators in the crowd, Buggin Out resists going after Clifton.

“You lucky a black man has a loving heart,” Buggin Out screams at Clifton. “You’re lucky I’m a righteous black man.”

Lee, who played ‘Mookie’ in the film, was not in this scene but his vision was all over it. He managed to start an argument between a Bird fan and Jordan fans over a pair of gym shoes - a black man fussing about his Air Jordans with a white man wearing a Larry Bird jersey.

Clifton eventually got the last word when Buggin Out asked him, “Why are you even living in this black neighborhood?”

“I was born in Brooklyn,” Clifton said.

Lee’s Do The Right Thing grossed $26 million worldwide, almost five times his original budget of $6 million.

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