While Air is one of the year's best films, it's not above some embellishing of its story. Every historical film is guilty of it, but the real-life Sonny Vaccaro is here to clarify what aspects of the film were modified from what went down.

Speaking with The Athletic, Vaccaro, 83, admits that the film “embellished some things,” but he also can “say there were no lies.” He continued, “All I did was have faith in [Jordan] when no one else did.”

Vaccaro's belief in Jordan, that's certainly in Air. In the film, however, Vaccaro valiantly advocates for his colleagues to pursue Michael Jordan and prioritize him over any other prospects. This isn't exactly how it went down. In fact, what really happened was quite different.

“I happened to be the last person they asked,” Vaccaro admit. “It was just my subconscious that led me to say those words. I didn't know I was going to say Michael Jordan until they asked.”

Matt Damon, Air
A still from Air courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Granted, it makes sense why Air's writer, a debuting screenwriter named Alex Convery, would want to punch that up a bit. In the film, Vaccaro is seen traveling to high school basketball tournaments to attempt to court (pun intended) prospects for the Nike brand. In reality, Vaccaro's job was to sign college basketball coaches who would in turn have their players wear Nike, as The Athletic said.

Even if slight details were changed, that's not to suggest that Vaccaro wasn't involved in the film. While he didn't have authority over the film's contents, he was allowed on the set and shared time with Matt Damon, who plays him in the film.

As you've likely put together by now, Air follows the story of Sonny Vaccaro (Damon) attempting to bring Jordan to Nike during a time when they weren't the coolest shoe in town (at least not in the basketball game). Vaccaro has to navigate courting Jordan, who's adamant about not joining the brand while dealing with constant obstacles including agents, parents, and Nike's co-founder/CEO, Phil Knight (Ben Affleck). It's one of the best films of the year — seeing it is a small gamble in comparison to what Vaccaro does in the film — and is playing exclusively in theaters now.

Air is in theaters now.