Month: June 2023

Vintage bourbon — or “dusties” — are a huge part of the whiskey culture. Bottles from bygone eras offer a glimpse into the days of yore in American whiskey, often with incredible whiskey hiding in cobwebbed cellars. Part of the attraction to vintage bourbons is for investment, of course. As long as people are opening old bottles, the sealed ones will go up in value (in general).

Another part of it — and the part I care about most — is actually drinking the stuff when the moment is right. Opening up a bottle from the 1980s has something to teach us about that era, while also adding context to the bourbons being distilled today.

See where we’re headed here? It’s time for a big, blind vintage bourbon tasting. The sort that I never could have pulled off, had I not been invited to Justins’ House of Bourbon in Louisville, Kentucky, for a 10-pour, double-blind sampling of whiskeys bottled mostly in the 1980s and 1990s. That’s a prime era for one huge reason. Back then, the American whiskey industry was truly on the ropes. Vodka’s boom in the 1970s meant that by the mid-1980s and well into the 1990s, bourbon producers were basically forced to put very old whiskey into average-ish bottles because they literally couldn’t give the stuff away. That means that a lot of very standard stuff from that era was, well, pretty amazing.

At the same time, because the warehouses were brimming with long-aged bourbons, you also saw a lot of high-age statement labeled bourbons that you don’t really see anymore. Sometimes seemingly random labels of bourbon would be “Aged 15 Years” and that would be the minimum age of the barrels used in the batch. Wild times, right?

Luckily, we’re in an era where a fair few of these vintage bourbon bottles are still kicking around. And places like Justins’ — in both Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky — are still pouring them. It’s not just in KY, either. There are whiskey bars across the country that also specialize in dusty pours. Jack Rose Dining Saloon in DC or The Ballard Cut in Seattle both come to mind. And then there are online retailers like The Whisky Exchange in the U.K. that specialize in dusties from all over the world.

All told, anyone really looking to get into these bygone bourbons will find them fairly accessible in 2023. For a price.

WHY ARE DUSTIES SO INTERESTING?

So what makes a “dusty” or vintage bourbon special? Justin Thompson (one of the famed Justins and my tasting buddy on this double-blind journey) looks at it like, “getting a two-for-one bourbon experience.” I agree. First, you’re getting this sense of what bourbon was like 30, 40, or even 50 years ago. The oldest bottle in our tasting was a 43-year-old bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle 11-Year-Old Kentucky Bourbon — meaning we were sampling something that was distilled and barrelled in 1969 (likely with much older barrels in the blend). Some of those grains were probably grown in 1968, or throughout the 1960s. The trees that the barrels were made out of were likely alive in the 1800s. That’s an education for your palate that you cannot currently replicate. The second part is the fact that you’re getting to experience a good pour of whiskey in general. It’s a fun combo.

It also dispels the myth that bourbon is “supposed” to taste a certain way and always has. The 10 bourbons we blindly tasted had massive variations in taste. It’s good to remember that bourbon (rye, scotch, Irish whiskey, etc. too) had just as much range across flavor profiles 30, 50, or 100 years ago as they do today (some would argue there was far more variation in flavor the further you go back but that’s a chat for another day).

WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY?

Okay, let’s address the elephant in the vintage liquor store room before we kick off. This is not a cheap hobby. I’m not listing bottle prices in my ranking below because finding sealed bottles like these have such a malleable value that a price tag would be almost a complete shot in the dark. Just know this — they’re not cheap.

I did, however, list the pour prices for these whiskeys at Justins’ House of Bourbon in Louisville. They’re pretty standard prices and very similar to ones I’ve seen for very similar bottles at vintage whiskey bars around the country/world. That price point at the very least will give you an idea of how much capital you’ll need to get into this type of whiskey drinking (collecting these bottles is a whole different matter).

Okay, let’s just dive in to get a sense of what’s going with these bourbons (and one sneaky rye). I had no idea what was being poured and hadn’t seen any bottles beforehand. Still, I knew by the first pour it was going to be fun. Read my tasting notes and then browse the ranking to see which whiskeys ruled the day.

• The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys From Kentucky, Ranked
• The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
• The Absolute Best Bottle Of Whiskey From Each Of The 50 States
• Our Head Drinks Critic Reveals The Expensive Bourbons He *Won’t* Pay Above Retail For
• The Absolute Best Bourbons Between $50-$60, Ranked

VINTAGE BOURBONS, TASTED DOUBLE BLIND

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This has a classic nose with a hint of dried red chili and a literal sense of dustiness next to soft dark pitted fruits, old leather, and a hint of caramel that gives way to a fruity dark pudding creaminess.

Palate: The body is soft and smooth with a sense of old piles of cedar kindling next to sour red berries with a hint of cellar oak, dried red spices, and soft vanilla caramel cream.

Finish: The end is on the lighter end, likely due to lower ABVs, but delivers a hint of cedar and creamy dark orchard fruit with a hint of old vanilla husks.

Initial Thoughts:

This was old and felt it at first. Then as we went back to the pours after 5 and 10 minutes, it really turned into a soft and creamy lush pour of whiskey. It was a hell of a transformation.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a rich and bright purple berry nose that really pops before hitting on dark yet soft winter spices and a hint of salted caramel that gives way to really fresh cedar bark braided with pipe tobacco.

Palate: There’s a sense of an old whiskey barrel on the palate with a twinge of tannic oak next to dark and rich caramel drizzled over a wild berry cobbler.

Finish: That berry vibe drives the finish back toward the fresh and vibrant cedar with a good hint of clove and anise-spiked tobacco vanilla cakes.

Initial Thoughts:

This had a little age to it but that dissipated as it opened up with a little air. The overall vibe was berry-forward with a good underbelly of classic bourbon sweetness just kissed with salt and wood.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This is a classic nose — dark cherry cola, salted caramel, vanilla pie, old oakiness, and a light sense of sharp dark winter spice.

Palate: The caramel and vanilla smooth out the opening of the palate toward a sharp and almost cutting clove, allspice, and cinnamon spice matrix that dries out toward barks and dried buds with a counterbalance of burnt orange zest and dried orchard fruits.

Finish: The end stays pretty sharp with a sense of old oak cellars and dry apple cider spiked with winter spice and dark and leathery figs, prunes, and dates.

Initial Thoughts:

This was a classic bourbon through and through. Dark fruit, sweet and creamy, and plenty of woody spice.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with a face full of old cellar floor dirt and a hint of fir bark next to soft white grits cut with buttercream vanilla sauce and brown sugar that’s just kissed with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Palate: The taste is a big bowl of those grits with a sharper sense of spice and a smooth sense of toffee and vanilla cake that’s almost like a modern-day craft bourbon.

Finish: A rush of dried orchard fruits — apricot, apple, pear, orange — come into play late and adhere to the earthiness of the old corn silos of soft grain and sweet brown sugar syrups.

Initial Thoughts:

This one threw me since it tasted so crafty thanks to that sweet graininess/porridge vibe. It was really tasty, don’t get me wrong.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with an old sense of oak next to dried black cherry and apple chips soaked in cinnamon tea with a hint of creamy eggnog custard cut with plenty of vanilla and maybe even some salted dark chocolate.

Palate: The palate leans into spiced black cherry pipe tobacco with a hint of clove and allspice over gingerbread cookies, worn boot leather, and an old family room decked out for Christmas with fresh fir, plenty of decorations, and a hint of winter spice bundles hanging out in the corners.

Finish: The end leans into the dark cherry and spice with a light sense of spice barks and almost cherry cream cut with dark chocolate and vanilla sauces that are just touched by rose water and marzipan.

Initial Thoughts:

Well, this is great. It tastes pretty amazing. It’s also super nostalgic and pulls off that magic trick where you’re transported to your grandparent’s place on Christmas Day.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Big bags of buttery and salted popcorn lead on the nose with a hint of Milk Duds underneath that move toward cherry-soaked oak staves.

Palate: Cherry Coke and corn husks drive the palate as soft caramel and old dried apricot with a hint of leathery Fruit Roll-Ups mingle with a sense of powdered winter spices.

Finish: The end really leans into that dry corn with a whisper of the salty popcorn speaking back in against the caramel and milk chocolate with a hint of cherry spice on the very end.

Initial Thoughts:

This was such a radical departure from the rest that I’m not really sure what to make of it. Going back after 5 and 10 minutes, the corn remains but more tart fruitiness arrives, only confounding me further.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Dark cherry and deep winter spice mingle with super lush and creamy vanilla and date with a hint of leathery saddle soap, a twist of orange, and a flutter of smudging sage.

Palate: The palate leans into a super silky version of classic spiced cherry Kentucky bourbon vibes with a deep sense of vanilla malts and cherry pipe tobacco next to sharp and woody winter spices that run deep toward almost leathery tobacco leaves.

Finish: The end holds onto the spiced cherry vibe while layering in spiced apple cider and maybe even a hint of red mulled wine with a dash of spiced walnut bread on the side.

Initial Thoughts:

This is a great pour of whiskey.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Tart berries and dry sweetgrass and smudging sage drive the nose toward a light sense of old oak staves and herb gardens.

Palate: Those tart berries get a tad creamy with the vanilla on the front end of the palate before giving way to a light backyard in the summer vibe with a sense of old wicker.

Finish: The end holds onto the now creamy tart berries before veering into dry sage and tobacco territory with a hint of cedar and a faint whisper of dry malts that almost starts to feel like an old dry scotch.

Initial Thoughts:

This is so completely different. It’s grassy and dry and really tasty.

Taste 9

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose is pure buttercream vanilla that leads to a rich layering of spiced holiday cakes, rum raisin, black-tea-soaked dates, black walnuts, and dried cherries dipped in salted toffee and rolled in dark cacao powder.

Palate: The mouthfeel is silky and lush with a sense of that rich buttercream leading toward more of the dark cherry that attaches to winter-spiced tobacco packed into an old cedar humidor and then wrapped in old motorcycle jacket leather.

Finish: The finish takes that old leather-wrapped humidor and places it in a bed of sweetgrass braided with cedar bark and smudging sage before the luscious creaminess returns with a sense of old vanilla husks and cherry pits.

Initial Thoughts:

This is just delicious and so deep.

Taste 10

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with a deep sense of vanilla and cherry before veering into a dank earthiness that’s part white moss and part old fir bark with a hint of black soil and dusty old cellars.

Palate: The palate dances between dark dried red berries and stewed apples and pears toward creamy and salted toffees with a hint of almond and chocolate that then mingles with spicy woody barks and tobacco.

Finish: The balance of fruit, spice, and buttery sweetness comes into crystal clear focus at the end as all of those notes are baked into a holiday cake with a sense of deeply salted caramel swirled through the richest vanilla ice cream and topped with the spiciest stewed cherry really brings this sip home.

Initial Thoughts:

If someone asked me for a quintessential Kentucky bourbon, this is the direction I’d point them.

Part 2 — The Vintage Bourbon Ranking

10. Willett Vintage Bourbon Handmade in Kentucky Aged 17 Years (2009) — Taste 6

ABV: 49.5%

Average Price: $200, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

This whiskey comes from the minds at Willett Distillery. That means that it’s going to be some extremely rare juice from the Bardstown area that the team at Willett took custody of and acted as steward over as it aged. Beyond that, Willett doesn’t say much besides buzzy marketing words like “Handmade” and such.

Bottom Line:

This is the only one I really didn’t care for. It was super earthy and grainy and the sweet and spiced fruit kind of got lost.

I know people lose their shit over these bottles because they’re kinda/sorta secret Willett releases. But I’d probably skip this one unless you’re a Willett acolyte.

9. Old Rip Handmade Kentucky Straight Bourbon 4 Years Old (1988) — Taste 1

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $100, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

This is Pappy (a wheated bourbon) when it was in a transition period between the Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville (Shively), the Hoffman Distillery in Lawrenceburg which was renamed Old Commonwealth, and the eventual move to the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort. In the 1980s, Julian Van Winkle III was bottling at Hoffman from the Stitzel-Weller-made whiskey and released it as a sort of entry-point age statement to the heritage brand. In essence, that makes this the true poor man’s Pappy from the 1980s.

Bottom Line:

This was good stuff. It felt like classic and grassy Kentucky bourbon with some real depth. That deepness didn’t run too deep as the proofing was pretty high but still delivered a solid overall profile/experience.

8. Old Bardstown Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 12 Years Old (2002) — Taste 2

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $20, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

Today, Old Bardstown 90-Proof is Willett’s bottom shelf standard bearer that’s actually pretty good. 20 years ago, that was also very true of this brand from the famed Bardstown distillery/bottler. Except back then, there were much older barrels going into this mix before blending, proofing, and bottling, hence they had a big age statement with a budget price point.

Bottom Line:

First, Willett needs to bring back that black label ASAP. It’s much better than this beige wall nonsense they have now.

Overall, this is a damn fine whiskey with a nice balance. It’s a good and easy pour (that most of us can afford) that’ll give you a glimpse into really good cheap whiskey from 20 years ago. That said, this is pretty damn good whiskey for what was once a bottom-shelf pour.

7. Austin Nichols Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey (2011) — Taste 8

ABV: 50.5%

Average Price: $40, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

This is the previous iteration of Wild Turkey branding back when “Austin Nichols” was still front and center at the brand. The whiskey in the bottle is the Russell family recipe that was made by Eddie and Jimmie Russell just over 10 years ago.

Bottom Line:

This is really good and it still is. Compared to a 2023 pour of the same bottle (essentially), it really does come across as more refined but only barely so.

6. Old Rip Van Winkle Very Special Stock Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 11 Years (1980) — Taste 4

ABV: 45.2%

Average Price: $140, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

This private bottle of Pappy is from the Old Commonwealth era when Julian Van Winkle III was still using Stitzel-Weller whiskey barrels to fill batches. These bottlings were for special clients, accounts, and friends of the brand and were distributed as yearly thank yous mostly, hence the name on the label. Still, there’s an 11-year-old Pappy wheated bourbon from the old distillery in this bottle, making it highly sought-after.

Bottom Line:

Yeah, this is a good bourbon. It lives up to the hype. In fact, this is better than some of the modern Pappy on the shelf right now (looking at you, 23).

In the end, this is an essential pour to understand where the brand came from and why people love it so damn much.

5. Anderson Club Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 15 Years (1996) –Taste 3

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $20, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

So there’s a lot going on with this bottle. One, it’s pre-fire Heaven Hill (short story, Heaven Hill had a huge fire in 1996 that destroyed a lot of stock and facilities and created a bifurcation point in the desirability of the whiskey from there). Two, this was a Japan-only release. Three, it’s an old whiskey from a long time ago that actually tastes like a time that is truly lost thanks to that aforementioned fire.

That’s the pitch anyway.

Bottom Line:

Yeah, this is a good goddamn whiskey. It does taste like something that’s really well-aged while also feeling like a classic profile that so many other distillers/producers are constantly chasing right now in 2023.

4. Joshua Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged Over 15 Years (1990) — Taste 10

ABV: 57.5%

Average Price: $200, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

This is a pre-fire Heaven Hill whiskey. The whiskey was distilled and aged in Bardstown and then sent to a bottler out in California to be bottled and distributed (yes, this is a sourced bourbon). The brand petered out and now these bottles are all that’s left.

Bottom Line:

Essentially, you’re getting whiskey made at Heaven Hill in the early 1970s with this one. That’s dope. Moreover, this is another example of that pre-fire Heaven Hill whiskey being pretty spectacular stuff. It feels like it should be a myth that it’d make that much difference but this whisky is a lot of proof that the whiskey was just better from back then.

3. Yellowstone Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 7 Years (1994) — Taste 5

ABV: 45.5%

Average Price: $25, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is from the old J.B. Dant Distillery which was shuttered during the last bourbon downturn in the 1990s after operating for over 150 years in Gethsemane, Kentucky (though the Dant family has since reopened it). The whiskey in this bottle is from that old distillery and a direct line to an almost lost heritage of bourbon making from one of the biggest names in all of Kentucky bourbon.

Bottom Line:

Yellowstone is part of Limestone Distilling now and is largely sourced via Lux Row (though it’s still made by a Dant descendant). This version is so drastically different in that it reaches into the brand’s origins and has a depth that’s incredible. This is a great pour of whiskey that’ll educate you on a whiskey that was kind of lost to time thanks to vodka taking over in the 1970s.

2. Austin Nichols Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 12 Years (1991) — Taste 7

ABV: 50.5%

Average Price: $100, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is a throwback to the late 1980s/early 1990s of Wild Turkey’s history. The release was lovingly nicknamed “Cheesy Gold Foil” by the brand (at least they have a sense of humor about themselves). The whiskey in the bottle is classic Turkey 101 that was left to age for 12 years (at least) before batching, proofing, and bottling.

Bottom Line:

This is basically one of Wild Turkey’s first forays into higher age statements during a time when they had a ton of old barrels and couldn’t sell them. It was a true crisis meets opportunity moment. In the end, we got a fantastic version of Wild Turkey that reaches back into the 1970s. It also foreshadowed the massive success of Russell’s Reserve 13-Year which has been a whiskey nerd favorite for the last two years.

On and this is f*cking delicious. Buy a bottle if you can.

1. Old Grand Dad 114 Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (1989) — Taste 9

ABV: 57%

Average Price: $100, 1-ounce pour

The Whiskey:

National Distillers was one of the first behemoths of Kentucky bourbon thanks to being allowed to stay open during Prohibition (wherein it started buying a lot of distilleries all over Kentucky, including the original Old Grand-dad Distillery at Hobbs Station). Eventually, National Distillers (which made Old Grand Dad at The Old Taylor Distillery, which is now Castle & Key) was bought by Beam in 1987. That means that this whiskey is pre-Beam Old Grand Dad from Old Taylor Distillery but bottled by Beam.

Today, the whiskey is made at Beam’s facility fully and these barrels are exhausted (much to the chagrin of the brand’s old fans).

Bottom Line:

This was the deepest and most interesting pour by far. This tasted like great whiskey in general, without the patina of it being a “dusty” bourbon. It’s also easy to see why Old Grand Dad fans were pissed when the Beam version hit shelves. This is a million times better in every way.

Overall, this is the one pour that I’d fully endorse you trying. It’s amazingly lush and just keeps going with a great flavor profile that truly stood out. I want this whiskey back.

Part 3 — Final Thoughts on the Vintage Bourbon

Yeah, a cheap old whiskey from the 1980s that your granddad probably kept hidden in the garage was actually freakin’ delicious.

In the end, it’s wild to look back at how diverse and varied (and longer-aged) so much of the bourbon was just a few decades ago. It’s also really easy to get caught up in all that and want to only drink bourbons from these eras. A lot of the regular stuff was just so much better. I’m sorry, but Old Grand-Dad is pretty mid to shit these days, and that’s without comparing it to what it was. That’s just a fact.

It kind of makes me sad.

But fear not. Not everything was better in the past. Both of the Pappy bottles on this panel didn’t even come close to a 2022 Pappy 15-Year that I can easily get right now. It’s all grey area and pour-by-pour dependent. Still, there’s some really good old whiskey out there that used to cost pennies on the dollar and we all kind of slept on it until it was too late. Now, we have some dusties to remind us but they’ll be gone one day soon too. Try them while you still can.

Baseball fans in Chicago were treated to a Saturday matinee between a pair of AL Central squads, as the Detroit Tigers visited the Windy City to take on the White Sox. The two pitching staffs did their jobs over the course of nine innings, and by the time the final out was recorded in the bottom of the night, the teams were level at one run each.

The Tigers went up first and didn’t do anything, and at the start of the bottom of the 10th, Romy Gonzalez was able to get Yoan Moncada over to third base. After a groundout, an intentional walk, and a hit by pitch, the bases were loaded against Tigers pitcher Jose Cisernos with Tim Anderson stepping up to the plate.

After the first pitch of the ensuing at-bat, Moncada was able to run home for the winning run. The catch: This did not happen because Anderson put the ball in play. Instead, Cisernos threw the pitch right off of the umpire’s mask, which made him go down in a heap while the Tigers struggled to find the ball.

It seemed like Tigers catcher Eric Haase was (understandably, to be clear) more concerned with the umpire than finding the ball once he realized he lost track of it, while Anderson didn’t even celebrate because he was busy helping the ump get up. Funny enough, the White Sox exclusively won this game via runs scored on wild pitches, as that was how they scored their lone run before extras.

Last week saw a fun little Ferris Bueller’s Day Off reunion happen: Matthew Broderick joined his old colleague Alan Ruck at the Succession finale party. Yes, the erstwhile Cameron Frye grew up to play one of the happier people on the HBO juggernaut. As it happens, it wasn’t the only Bueller news that happened last week: While many people loved his turn as the crafty school-skipper,Broderick revealed one person who didn’t was its director.

“I remember we did a costume test early on,” Broderick recalled on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast It Happened in Hollywood. “We walked around the streets of Chicago in our costumes and they filmed us — me, Alan [Ruck], Jennifer Grey, and Mia [Sara].”

Alas, Hughes wasn’t happy with the results. “When the footage came back, he said none of us were ‘fun to watch.’ We were ‘boring’ in our tests,” Broderick said. “Actually, some of us he did like, but some he did not, and I was one he did not.”

Broderick was taken aback. In addition to the films WarGames and Ladyhawke, he had also done Broadway, including Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and its sequel Biloxi Blues. (He later starred in the film version of the latter.)

“I was not a total newcomer,” he said. “So to have him say, ‘I’m not used to having somebody be so dead,’ or whatever he said to me. I wasn’t really ‘in it’ or something.

“That happened and I said, ‘So get somebody you like,’” he added.

Obviously Hughes did not get somebody else, though the two clashed at other points during the shoot. “He was somebody who could get angry at you,” he recalled. “Not outwardly angry, but you could tell. He would turn dead. Dead-faced. I would say, ‘What did you think of that?’ And he’d say, ‘I don’t know.’ Just nothing. ‘OK. John doesn’t like that.’”

Broderick did come to respect him, though. “He took the work very seriously, is what I mean,” he said. “[John] wasn’t a loosey-goosey person. But he also didn’t hold a grudge and knew how to get himself out of it.”

It all worked out in the end, though: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was the 10th highest grossing movie of 1986, and it’s endured as a classic with plenty of quotables and, pace Hughes, a fine lead performance — one of the very few break-the-fourth-wall turns that really works.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off streams on Paramount+.

(Via THR)

The Los Angeles Sparks have been a bright spot early on in the 2023 WNBA season. While improvement wasn’t unexpected given their offseason changes, it’s notable that the Sparks are 2-2 and extremely competitive, especially considering that two starters haven’t played yet (Azura Stevens and Jasmine Thomas) and the team is wrestling with a non-COVID illness outbreak.

Sixth-year guard Lexie Brown was a reliable rotation player with the Sparks last season. This year, she’s breaking out as a plus starter and is a very early name to watch in the league’s Most Improved Player race. After an opening night victory over the Phoenix Mercury in which Brown was pivotal as the Sparks mounted a comeback, franchise star Nneka Ogwumike weighed in on her growth postgame, highlighting what we’ve seen play out in the week since.

“Lexie, I think, is at an inflection point of her career,” Ogwumike said. “She’s always known that she’s good, and she is good, but this is where you turn from good to great. She’s stepping into what I think requires to be great: a vulnerability. You have to be vulnerable to take a hard shot, you have to be vulnerable to keep shooting when it’s not going in, knowing that you are the right person to take the shot. I see that slowly happening with her.”

After setting a career-high with 26 points against the Mercury, a game which she sent the game to overtime with a clutch layup, it’s safe to say that vulnerability has fully set in.

Brown is averaging 14.5 points and 2.8 assists per game and is seventh in the league in true-shooting among players who have played at least 50 minutes this season. It’s made all the more impressive considering Brown, who stands 5’9, is the only player in the top-15 who is shorter than 5’11.

The change in Brown’s usage is notable and a credit to her skill development. Per Synergy Sports, her pick-and-roll volume is way up, from 39.3 percent of her possessions last season to 60.5 percent in 2023. It’s also a credit to a restructured offense in Los Angeles. Much of last season featured stagnancy and poor spacing. New pieces on the roster have helped, but so has intentionality in the half court to play with more pace.

Brown has long been a capable shooter, but cemented herself as one of the best in the league last season. She was adept from the slots and gunning off of flare screens. What stood out immediately with her this year was how willingly Sparks coach Curt Miller opened the playbook to emphasize her shooting ability and play out of it. We saw motion in relocation and some off-ball screening actions last year, but that doesn’t compare to this.

Shooting 42.9 percent from three is very good no matter how you slice it. When factoring in volume (5.3 attempts per game) and movement, her ability to knock down shots from behind the arc hits defenses that much harder.

Defenders can’t duck under ball screens against her. They can’t fall asleep when guarding her in the weak corner. Overplay a denial and she’ll hard cut to get the ball and an easy look at the rim. Brown is demanding help at high level, and making the most of it with crisp pocket passing when she draws two.

All of this is gigantic for a team that needed to juice its offense. With consistent pick-and-roll reads and playing with an efficacy that defenses have to honor and guard accordingly, Brown has been L.A.’s engine throughout the first few weeks of the season.

The Sparks didn’t have enough consistent, three-level scoring threats last season. A season-ending injury to new signee Stephanie Talbot over the offseason and Katie Lou Samuelson’s maternity leave brought back some of those same concerns prior to camp starting this time around. While Brown was expected to be a significant contributor, the way she’s risen her play has been pivotal in opening up L.A.’s offense. She’s created windows for Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike that weren’t often there last season, and she’s started to form quality synergy with Dearica Hamby. Her performance is a major reason the team is tied for third in the league in offensive rating at this early point in the season.

Will Brown shoot right around 43 percent from deep for the entire season? That’s a lofty goal, but she looks every bit one of the handful of shooters in the league that can comfortably take and make enough shots off the dribble, off screening actions, and off awkward movements. Regardless of any efficiency dip, defenses are going to treat her as a consistent threat.

The Sparks will get healthy and add one of the most versatile frontcourt players in the league back into the fold in Stevens. That, mixed with their core continuing to gel, is going to make the team dangerous all year long. And a major reason why will be Lexie Brown, who will continue to assert herself as a crucial piece in Los Angeles’ puzzle.

It’s a pretty good time to be Nikola Jokic. The two-time league MVP has led the Denver Nuggets to the first NBA Finals in franchise history, and while there’s still a long way to go, the team finds itself with an edge on the Miami Heat after an impressive win in Game 1. Unsurprisingly, Jokic was outstanding in the game, as he put forth a triple-double and did all the stuff that has turned him into perhaps the best basketball player on the planet.

Game 2 is on Sunday evening in Denver, but before then, Jokic had to clear a pretty big hurdle: He had to meet with the media on Saturday and answer a bunch of questions about stuff. There was, however, a curveball thrown into all of this, as Jokic was going through the motions before he was asked a question by a reporter from Kessler Sports Fan Page. This, of course, is not a real thing, as it was instead a website that Walker Kessler of the Utah Jazz made up so he could ask Jokic how he’s doing.

“Ooh! I like it!” Jokic said in response to the question. He then talked about the weather for a few seconds.

“Listen, my day got brighter when I saw you,” Kessler said.

“Oh, I like it, my friend!” Jokic said. “Appreciate it.”

Barbie doesn’t hit theaters for another month-and-a-half and many things about it still remain a mystery. But one thing’s for sure: It is going to be one seriously pink movie. Margot Robbie’s living Mattel doll lives in a world where just about everything is pink. And it’s not CGI: They really built a giant set on the Warner Bros. lot in London, with pink props and pink clothes and pink everything. Indeed, there was so much pink that it caused a paint shortage.

In a profile of the forthcoming film by Architectural Digest, director/co-writer Greta Gerwig told her team to go over-the-top, saying, “Maintaining the ‘kid-ness’ was paramount.” She added, “I wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be almost too much.”

So production designer Sarah Greenwood did just that, to the point that the fluorescent shade they got from the company Rosco ran dry. “The world, Greenwood said with a laugh, “ran out of pink.”

Or did it? Los Angeles Times pressed Greenwood on the matter, and she admitted it wasn’t as simple as she’d claimed. When Barbie was in principal photography last summer, Rosco was still dealing with the global supply chain being mucked up by the pandemic. On top of that the freak winter storm that hit Texas in 2021 damaged some of the materials the company used to make paint.

“There was this shortage,” Proud explained, “and then we gave them everything we could — I don’t know they can claim credit.”

Still, it sounded like it was worth it. From the sight of it Barbie creates one of the cinema’s great ludicrious houses, with Gerwig citing as an influence the house from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Gene Kelly’s cramped apartment in An American in Paris.

“I wanted to capture what was so ridiculously fun about the Dreamhouses,” Gerwig told AD. “Why walk down stairs when you can slide into your pool? Why trudge up stairs when you take an elevator that matches your dress?”

Barbie hits theaters on July 21.

(Via Architectural Digest and Los Angeles Times)

Despite what the title might suggest, Kelly Clarkson‘s new song “I Hate Love” features a surprisingly pleasant guest. None other than actor Steve Martin appears as a feature on the track, with him lending it his banjo.

Clarkson had previously seen videos of Martin playing on social media and really wanted to work with him on a song. “I was like, ‘I know that sounds crazy,’” Clarkson told Billboard. “[My producer] Jesse Shatkin was like, ‘I think it sounds rad.’

“I generally don’t ask because I get very nervous about bothering people,” she added. “But literally, within hours, [we] got an answer: ‘Oh my God, he’d love to, when are you recording it?’”

While Martin and Clarkson deliver a very fun and unique collaboration, the two multitalented stars have yet to actually meet in person, even with the American Idol alum‘s decades of working in the business.

“My ideal moment is him coming on my show and then us performing it — but I’ll take just him coming on my show so we can talk and hang out so I can, like, meet him,” she said.

The track also follows Clarkson’s handful of previous releases ahead of her upcoming album, Chemistry, which drops later this month.

Check out Kelly Clarkson’s “I Hate Love” feat. Steve Martin above.

Kelly Clarkson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

RXK Nephew dropped his song “I Love My Girlfriend” as an official single, just weeks after it got a shoutout from Rihanna. In a recent TikTok, the pop star uploaded a video of herself decked out in diamonds and walking, with the track on the soundtrack.

“quiet luxury,” RiRi captioned.

Just as the title describes, the rapper’s song is an ode to the affection he has for his girl.

“That’s my b*tch she just like me / She not gon’ snitch she gon’ take a plea / My seat back I let her drive / Baby shoot the Glock with one eye / Told lil mama f*ck Bonnie and Clyde / Baby me and you are sum’ different,” he raps.

“Walk in that b*tch, me and my b*tch / I’m sippin on henny she fine’ then a lick / It turn me on when my bitch rob / That sh*t sexy when she hold the Glock,” RXK Nephew adds.

As the lyrics suggest, his squeeze is just as into robbing others as he is. This makes him fall for her more and the two embrace the chaos. The song, according to Genius, first appeared on his 2020 mixtape, Crack Therapy 3.

Check out RXK Nephew’s “I Love My Girlfriend” and Rihanna’s TikTok using it above.

As a heatwave settled thickly on Toronto, community leaders, members of the Raptors front office, and the Prime Minister of Canada filed enthusiastically into the vaulting cool of the Raptors practice facility. There, on the hardwood most familiar with reps, where the team spends their time doing the same move over and over until they get it right, a brand new action was taken. Alongside Raptors Vice Chairman and Team President Masai Ujiri, Justin Trudeau announced the first National Day Against Gun Violence, to be held as a day of remembrance and awareness going forward every year on June 1.

The announcement, and the day, came as a culmination of a meeting and subsequent petition the Raptors put forward a year ago to bring awareness to the growing threat of gun violence in Canada. That petition gandered over 30,000 signatures and sought to gain the federal government’s ear in inciting policy to address the 80 percent rise in violent crimes involving guns in Canada since 2009, where one in three homicides is related to firearms.

Ujiri was candid when he spoke about his experience with gun violence. First, with the shootings in La Loche in January 2016, a small community in northern Saskatchewan that Ujiri visited with the Raptors, and then with the two Somali-Canadian mothers who started the group Mending a Crack in the Sky after losing their sons to gun violence. Ujiri said both things showed him “how close gun violence is in our communities.”

“I’m happy everyone is here in this sports environment because I think sports is a protector,” Ujiri said. “Sports brings people together, sports bring peace in an incredible way, and sports is a connector.”

John Wiggins, the Raptors Vice President of Organizational Culture and Inclusion, echoed the stance in noting how important it was — and has been — to use the platform the Raptors have to affect significant change within the communities that support the team.

After the petition, the Raptors hosted talks with leaders from communities affected by gun violence, and with municipal and provincial politicians, asking what needed to be done and how the organization could help. Wiggins, the only Canadian on the Raptors leadership team, takes his civic responsibility and the platform he has with the team seriously.

“We can’t do it without them, I’m guided by the information they’ve given me. Everything we’re doing is in support of work that they were doing,” Wiggins told Dime, noting that the community leaders integral to the day’s announcement and its subsequent policy impacts approached Ujiri, asking for help in amplifying the cause. “If we can catch the federal government’s ear and say this is an issue we need everyone to pay attention to, then we’re doing our job as leaders in the community. None of this gets done without community.”

“Our ownership takes pride in this, our players take pride in this. For us, we have to be voices,” Ujiri told the room. “You can say why does sports participate in these things? This is our community.”

Some of the community that Ujiri referred to and Wiggins has used his position to support were late — their bus got stuck in traffic. Shortly after the announcement by Trudeau and Ujiri was over, a group of young women and men in gym shorts and shirts filed quietly but excitedly into the gym. They were participants of Midnight Basketball, a program initially launched by Toronto Community Housing in 2013 and that the Raptors helped reinstate last spring.

“Every Friday what we do is we shuttle in kids from different communities downtown to University of Toronto’s gym — just giving them a different option on a Friday night,” Wiggins smiled, glancing around at the kids, now mid-scrimmage. “We feed them dinner, go through some life lessons with them, and then we play basketball until about midnight and we make sure they all get home safe.”

Wiggins took part in the program when it first started and says it was the only place he wanted to be on a Friday night growing up. It was also something his family valued because they knew where he was, and that he was safe.

“It’s something that we wanted to revive and it’s something we want to expand across the whole city,” Wiggins said. “It’s just another way of what we see as a prevention measure. To keep [kids] away from any of the negativity that might be happening out there, to allow them to thrive and come together so that they can have a positive experience. It goes back to what the PM said, we want to show them that they matter.”

While the announcement for a National Day Against Gun Violence and the further policy Trudeau and his party have promised are distinctly Canadian mandates, the actions taken by the Raptors have broader impacts on the NBA writ large. James Cadogan, the Executive Director of the NBA’s Social Justice Coalition, was in attendance. The representative of a league that is primarily situated in the United States, Cadogan spoke to Dime about the energy he felt on display.

“The first step to be able to solve a problem is acknowledging that you have a problem, and this is as big of an acknowledgment as you can get,” Cadogan stressed. “What the Raptors have done — with the federal government, civil society leaders, and folks impacted by gun violence — to dedicate a day against gun violence is a huge step forward.”

Asked if there are applications stateside for the blueprints being drawn in Toronto for Canada, despite the U.S.’s failed efforts to pass the sorts of sensible gun reform that polls remarkably well among its population, and Cadogan thinks there can be takeaways. He stresses that any lasting advocacy comes from building the right kinds of partnerships.

“It looks different place to place, market to market, even challenges like community safety and violence manifest differently, but ultimately it’s about taking a day like today and saying how do we put together all these groups of people, and say that we can do something different,” Cadogan says. “We can replicate that in other markets on our issues. That’s a powerful way to approach the challenges.”

Ujiri went up and down the line of the Midnight Basketball group as they got to, belatedly, meet the Prime Minister. The Raptors President was warm and completely relaxed. He stopped to chat with each young athlete, cracking jokes and asking questions that made it clear he’d met some of them before. The franchise has some of its largest basketball decisions on the horizon, but there was, just then, nothing bigger than this. Nothing was more important than the community which will benefit from actionable steps toward facing gun violence, and watching them relax, palm a basketball, and start to play.

When he first became president, Donald Trump vowed to take on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. He even made fat jokes about him. Eventually they became besties. Indeed, when the feds raided Mar-a-Lago, among the documents they left with were a series of “love letters” between the two. On Saturday he continued their bromance, to the disgust of even fellow Republicans.

As per The Independent, North Korea was recently admitted to the World Health Organization’s executive board. To many, news that the dictatorship was given a big role in the WHO was strange and disgusting. But not so with their fearless leader’s good buddy.

“Congratulations to Kim Jung Un!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social.

Trump’s love for Kim has never been met well with the party he took over, and his congrats riled even former cronies of his.

“Donald Trump is running to the left of Ron DeSantis, RFK, and now Joe Biden?” wrote his former lawyer Jenna Ellis. “We don’t have a pro-Kim Jung Un lane in the GOP. What has happened to Trump?”

Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador and current 2024 rival, wrote, “Kim Jong Un starves his own people. It’s a total farce that North Korea has a leading role at the World Health Organization.”

Georgia governor Brian Kemp tweeted, “Taking our country back from Joe Biden does not start with congratulating North Korea’s murderous dictator.”

To everyone else, the news was not surprising.

(Via The Independent)