SPIKE LEE AND THE M.J. PROPHECY

Last night I was at the Spike Lee “I AM C.H.A.N.G.E!" Get Out The Vote Party in NYC. CoCo and her hubby Ice-T showed up, Rockets’ Dikembe Mutombo, Bow Wow, Tyson Beckford, Lil' Kim, Russell Simmons, LL Cool J and others were at the party but I really only cared about seeing Spike Lee. I interviewed him last year before a Lakers game when he was filming the day in the life of documentary on Kobe Bryant.

I never understood why Spike Lee would show up at Lakers games wearing a N.Y. cap. But none of the L.A. players seemed to be bothered by this. What I also didn’t understand was why Spike liked the Knicks in the first place. But since I am an official New Yorker now (I even registered to vote here!) and plan on going to many Knicks games and seeing my pal Spike, I figured I would get to the bottom of his Knicks passion.


So I bought his memoir. He wrote it back in 1997 and although it is a bit outdated, I figured it would be a good historical read if anything. It’s actually fantastic and incredibly insightful. He starts the book by describing a very candid car ride convo with Michael Jordan where he dissects the entire league. The most interesting part is where Mike talks about Shaq and the Lakers “eighteen-year-old rookie" Kobe Bryant.

“The young kid, Kobe. Don’t sleep on him, either. He’s got some skills. It’ll be a couple of years, but he’s got some skills. He’s got a lot to learn though.”



Basically every prediction and analysis Mike told Spike in that car ride in 1996 has come true. I’ve also learned (via the well-informed IMDB) that Spike is planning to do a documentary on Jordan coming up. It’s currently an “Untitled Michael Jordan Documentary” in pre-production.

Spike Lee skipped the red carpet at his party last night and if the music wasn’t blaring so loud in the club, I would have asked him about the documentary. However, it was hard to get any full sentences across, let alone attempt to scream in Spike Lee’s ear and ask him about his new Jordan project.

Not that he probably remembered me and not that he’ll probably remember me when I see him at a Knicks game this year, but I was able to have a short chat with Spike and tell him I was reading his memoir, to which he replied “cool.” To which I replied (or yelled), “Okay, well nice seeing you again.” Just another normal night.