Coach Marvin shows proof of his past success with newspaper clippings and takes Otie aside for long jump training, mentioning that Big Otis once ran an unrecorded 9.93-second hundred-meter dash. Otie’s initial jumps into the sand are poor. Coach Marvin explains that the goal is to jump outward, not upward, emphasizing that long jump requires attention to steps and technique rather than just speed, and runs Otie through exhausting drills: power skips and bunny hops around the track, then a two-box drill to teach timing and rhythm. He introduces the concept of the penultimate step—the second-to-last step before takeoff, used to drop the hips and load up for the jump. To demonstrate, Coach Marvin performs a full-speed long jump, landing on his backside, which he claims is part of the technique.

The demonstration draws Big Otis’s attention, and he notices Otie is wearing the Jordans. He approaches angrily and demands to know why Otie is wearing the expensive sneakers to practice. Coach Marvin responds by challenging Big Otis to a hundred-meter race for fifty dollars. Otie acts as the starter. Big Otis easily wins, but after crossing the finish line, he is completely exhausted and sits down before lying back on the track.

Coach Marvin drives the sore and barely mobile Big Otis home from practice. At home, Big Otis walks Otie through cleaning the Jordans. When Otie asks about the creases, Big Otis tells him some deeds cannot be undone. That night, Otie tries to “charge” the Jordans by squeaking them in the kitchen, but Sonya refuses to let him keep them on and sends him to bed.

On the next morning, Big Otis wakes Otie and takes him to the barbershop after mentioning that he appreciates Otie helping clean up the blood after Saturday’s fight. At the barbershop, Otie recognizes a photo of Rashida and Rashonda Boone and realizes their barber, Booney, is their father. Big Otis pays for his fade with the fifty dollars he won from Coach Marvin.

On the walk to school, Big Otis tells Otie that Mr. Anderson did not select him for the Junior Olympics, but encourages him, saying his legs are a time machine that will carry him to next year’s competition. Otie admits he wishes he could go back and run the race again, but Big Otis reassures him that he will have another chance. Torrie was selected.

At school, teachers react positively to Otie’s new look, and Mrs. Tannerbaum announces his time-machine drawing will be the yearbook cover. After school, Otie and Torrie pass the barbershop where the Clippers are gathered. Otie feels sick and nervous and pulls Torrie away. At Mr. Charles’s store, Otie announces to Torrie and Goose that Torrie made the Junior Olympics team. Torrie is thrilled and leaves to tell his grandmother.

Otie stays to help Mr. Charles move boxes. Mr. Charles shows Otie a framed five-dollar bill from Biscuit, explaining that he paid Biscuit to keep troublemakers away from the store, and asks Otie to tell Sonya he needs to speak with her.

On his way home, Otie walks slowly, hoping people will notice him, and encounters Ms. Larita, playing along with her imaginary basketball game. At home, he finishes his homework, eats the rest of his sandwich, and puts his sneakers on with his pajamas, theorizing that sleeping in them will charge them. He wakes in the night to find his father removing the sneakers from his feet.

The next morning, Otie discovers both his father and the sneakers are gone. He goes to school in his old Converse, feeling less “big” and unsettled, with a lump of worry about his father. Quentin taunts him about his shoes and makes a remark about Sonya, and Otie snaps and slams Quentin against the lockers until Torrie intervenes.

At track practice, Big Otis is still absent. Without his Jordans, Otie brings a bad attitude to long jump work. Coach Marvin confronts his shoe superstition directly, explaining that the athlete’s skill makes the shoes special, not the other way around—Michael Jordan was great before he had his signature shoes. As practice continues, Otie gradually refocuses on the drills and techniques. Coach explains meet rules: avoid takeoff-line faults, you get three measured attempts, and land butt-first without throwing hands back, since the nearest break in the sand counts as your distance. As he continues practicing, Otie focuses on timing and technique.

After practice, Coach Marvin confirms that Torrie and Dennis were selected for the Junior Olympics, noting that Mr. Anderson was impressed with the entire team. Otie is met outside by Mr. Crampton, the cabdriver, who hears that Big Otis removed Otie’s shoes during the night and has not returned home, and turns the ride into a search after realizing he may know where Big Otis is. They find Big Otis outside a gas station, looking disheveled and holding Otie’s sneakers. Mr. Crampton speaks with Big Otis, who admits whatever he had is gone. He gets into the back of the cab with Otie, gives him the shoes, and admits he is not okay.

A family meeting is held at the Brody apartment with Otie, Sonya, Big Otis, and Mr. Crampton. Big Otis confesses the truth about his past. While he and Marvin trained for the 1972 Olympics, their car was hit on Otis’s side, wrecking his back and ending his Olympic dream. A barber offered him a drug for the pain, and he became addicted. He sold things from the house to fund it, which is why Sonya installed the safe cabinet, and he has not worked in a long time, leaning on coaching for purpose and to fight the addiction. Mr. Crampton reveals that Big Otis’s work trips were stints in rehab and that he is Big Otis’s sponsor. Otie asks if his father was going to sell the sneakers. Big Otis admits he was, saying he almost did but did not, because the creases showed they belonged only to Otie.

The family and Mr. Crampton drive Big Otis to Tomorrow’s Brand-New Rehabilitation. Otie hugs his father goodbye, whispering to him about going back to the future.

On the way home, Otie cries for his father, continuing to cry as they pass familiar places in the neighborhood. He asks Sonya to put the Jordans in the safe and to shave his head bald again, this time leaving the eyebrows.

Big Otis misses the championship meet. At the meet, Otie wins first place in the hundred-meter dash. He also makes his first attempts at the long jump, finding them difficult but enjoyable, and tries jumping in different footwear, including his Jordans, spikes, and barefoot; his best attempt is barefoot but results in a fault, and his teammates and Coach still cheer him on. Torrie comes in second in the hundred-meter dash, and he and Otie hold up their hands with 9.93 written on their palms in tribute to Big Otis.

Big Otis also misses Otie’s thirteenth birthday, where Otie celebrates with Sonya, Torrie, and Goose at Golden Palace and shares a secret during their game, and misses Quentin being beaten by the Boone sisters after insulting Rashida. He also misses Torrie and Dennis returning from the Junior Olympics with gold medals. He returns home in time for the Summer Olympics, which the family watches together with Mr. Crampton. When Carl Lewis finishes the hundred-meter dash with a time of 9.92 seconds, Big Otis is upset that the time is faster than his own unofficial record and reacts strongly, saying he does not want to watch the Olympics unless Otie is competing. He briefly leaves the room and later returns while the long jump is being shown. Later, the family watches Carl Lewis win gold in the long jump.

Sonya tells Otie she believes he will make it to the Olympics, and that if not, he would be a great coach. She suggests he could also design a time machine to take his father back to before the accident. Otie decides he would design the time machine to look like a taxicab.