"Most kids want what they can't have, so it was great," White
said. "There were a lot of things that had to come together to
start off right."  By 1987, a successful product launch had
turned into a pop-culture phenomenon.  For Air Jordan III, Nike
hired filmmaker and basketball fanatic Spike Lee to make a
commercial with Jordan, marking the beginning of an unexpected
but undeniable bond linking Lee -- a devoted Knicks fan -- with
Jordan -- the Knicks' nemesis.  Shooting in black and white, Lee
reprised his alter ego Mars Blackmon from the film "She's Gotta
Have It." As he famously told Jordan, "It's gotta be the shoes."
Jim Riswold, the copywriter responsible for the "Bo Knows"
phrase, came up with the line that stuck in the heads of youths
all over America.  The revolutionary commercial was matched by
the shoe itself. The Air Jordan III was the first of its kind to
include an air window in the sole, a tab in the back and -- at
Jordan's request -- a mid-cut that split the difference between
a high- and low-t