This One Shot From The Space Jam 2 Trailer Is Kind of Brilliant

A begrudging recognition from a totally-unbiased Bulls fan.

I’ve never been prepared to hatewatch a movie more than Space Jam: A New Legacy, for reasons that have everything to do with a fanatical devotion to Michael Jordan and the 90s Chicago Bulls and literally nothing else. Seeing LeBron James in any position that implies an equivalence with Jordan (which is objectively a fair argument, and subjectively blasphemy) gets my blood boiling.*

But after catching the trailer after it dropped this morning, and for the most part the movie looks OK enough if a bit noisy, I found myself briefly and begrudgingly blown away by a shot towards the very end.

For one thing, Lola’s back! It’s great to see the Tune Squad’s small forward (and honestly their second-best player all along, even though they made Bugs the co-captain in the original movie) in her natural element, kvetching over her less overtly sexualized design and all. But for another, that shot is actually an homage to one of the most iconic images in basketball history, also featuring LeBron James about to abuse the rim.