Category: News

Assane Diop is back, and this time it looks like he’ll have to stage a heist of his own son. The trailer for Part 2 of Lupin is full of drama, and promises to revolve around the seaside cliffhanger where his son, Raoul, is the bait with which the bad guys hope to lure our favorite thief to his doom.

“If you touch my son, I’ll kill you,” Diop says to start the trailer, which features a long-distance showdown between himself and what turned out to be the big bad from first season’s final episode. The rest of the trailer makes it clear: Diop will need to rescue his son, and that’s exactly what the rest of the bad guys are hoping for.

“We’re gonna use his kid as bait,” says Hervé Pierre, the man who Diop spent the first Lupin episodes seeking revenge against. “He’ll come right to us.”

That’s exactly what appears to happen, though it’s not that simple when it comes to the French thriller. There’s an elevator fight, a quick change or two and some flashes of the characters who set the scene for a diamond heist decades in the making in the show’s first season.

The trailer includes a big moment with a gasping Diop, though we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out what got him so surprised. Fittingly, it ends with a very funny set piece about cleverly stealing a car, which should give fans plenty of optimism that Part 2 will be more of the same fun and flash so many fell in love with in 2020.

A very simple thing happened earlier this week. Dr. Seuss Enterprises—the company that runs the Dr. Seuss estate and holds the legal rights to his works—announced it will no longer publish six Dr. Seuss children’s books because they contain depictions of people that are “hurtful and wrong” (their words). The titles that will no longer be published are And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer.

This simple action prompted a great deal of debate, along with a great deal of disinformation, as people reacted to the story. (Or in many cases, just the headline. It’s a thing.)

My article about the announcement (which contains examples of the problematic content that prompted the annoucnement) led to nearly 3,000 comments on Upworthy’s Facebook page. Since many similar comments were made repeatedly, I wanted to address the most common sentiments and questions:

How do we learn from history if we keep erasing it?

A racist image in a children’s book is a historical artifact, but it isn’t “history.” History is the recording of and study of events in the past. Things themselves aren’t history. (If physcially holding onto things were necessary to remember history, we’d still have segregated water fountains to remind us that they existed.)

What’s happening with these books right now, though, is history. A famous author’s estate choosing to stop publishing a handful of his books because they contain racist imagery is literally history in the making. It’s not like the images have just disappeared altogether. Students can learn about this history with images in digital archives and museums where they can be learned from at an appropriate age with appropriate context.

Why don’t they keep the books in print and use them as an educational tool?

There are at least two reasons for that, as far as I can see:

1) As Dr. Seuss Enterprises said, these depictions are hurtful. It really doesn’t make sense to keep producing hurtful content in order to educate people who are not hurt by it. You don’t keep punching someone in order to teach observers who aren’t being punched that punching hurts. That’s cruel.

2) These books are made for small children. Kids who are 4 or 5 or 6-years-old don’t have enough background knowledge about the history of racism and racial stereotypes to make these books a useful tool for teaching them about racism. (That doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact on them—more on that in a sec.) While parents should be talking to their kids about race starting young, the imagery here is a more complex element of the topic that doesn’t fit the developmental stage of the kids the books are targeting.

Imagine what that lesson would look like in a class of kindergarteners. “See this picture, kids? That’s an exaggeration of racial features and cultural stereotypes that are hurtful to people of African/Asian descent. It’s just one example of how racism was long accepted in America because they believed people who looked different or came from different places were inferior.” That’s already too much for a kindergartener to process, and that’s just the basic overview. Developmentally, cognitively, educationally, they’re just not there yet.

At that age, kids are just subconsciously absorbing these stereotypes. And what’s worse is that they’re enjoying absorbing them because Dr. Seuss’s whimsical rhymes are fun and reading time is fun.

Seems wiser to just stop publishing them and use what we already have published to teach older kids, teens, and adults about the history of racism in literature.

So “WAP” song being Song of the Year is appropriate but Dr. Seuss isn’t?

I’m personally not a fan of sexually explicit lyrics, but this is an apples and oranges comparison. A highly sexualized song that isn’t made for kids is not comparable to problematic racial imagery in a book that is made explicitly for kids. I’m assuming (and hoping) parents aren’t singing WAP when they tuck their kids into bed at night. Dr. Seuss is deemed innocent and his books are beloved. Warm and cozy childhood memories are made with books. Having warm childhood memories intertwined with racist imagery is a problem.

Dr. Seuss?!? Is there anyone cancel culture won’t come for?

The term “cancel culture” is getting a bit overused, in my opinion. Criticism isn’t canceling. A company receiving critical feedback and making a decision based on that feedback isn’t canceling (unless you count self-canceling as canceling). I grew up loving Dr. Seuss books and read them to my kids when they were little, but I think the company made the right move.

Racism can’t be perpetuated just because we like someone. If we think of this as an attack on racism rather than an attack on a person, it might be easier for Seuss lovers to digest. Ted Geisel was a whole, imperfect human being who evolved over time and left a complicated legacy. His early racism should absolutely be discussed as part of that legacy. His racist works should absolutely be “canceled” by ceasing to be published. People can debate whether or not to read his other books, but the idea that his racially insensitive stuff should continue to be published for children is a pretty gross take.

Get over it. It’s a children’s book.

The same could be said to people throwing a fit about these books no longer being published. The difference is that the people who are hurt by the imagery have an entire history of racial oppression—and likely a good amount of personal racial discrimination—behind their feelings about the images. The people who are offended that a company isn’t making the books anymore have no actual harm to get over. Seems like the lesser offense, objectively and by far, is to stop publishing them.

Why do people even care about color of the characters? Why can’t you just enjoy the stories?

Adults think kids are colorblind. They’re not. Research shows that very young children—even infants and toddlers—notice racial differences. That doesn’t mean that they discriminate, but they do notice race. So presenting racial differences in the form of stereotypical caricatures is a problem. It may not matter to you if you don’t identify with the race being depicted, but it matters to many.

Who gets to decide what’s offensive and what’s not?

The people on the receiving end of racism get to decide what’s racist or not. That doesn’t mean there’s always a unanimous consensus, but it’s pretty clear when a large number of people point out that something is racially offensive. There’s also research behind this decision. A 2019 study of 50 Dr. Seuss books found that only 2% of his human characters were not white, and nearly all of them were depicted in problematic ways. Whether the imagery is truly racially insensitive isn’t really the question. The question is whether or not that imagery should continue to be published anew forever and ever.

Why is this just a problem now when these books have been around for decades?

It’s not just a problem now. This isn’t a new issue or a new complaint—the people who have been portrayed problematically just haven’t been listened to in a real enough way for changes to be made until now. This is what learning and progress and growth as a society looks like. When we know better, we do better.

Yes! What took so long?

Despite the uproar, many people praised the decision, citing years of complaints about the racial stereotypes and caricatures in those books. People also pointed to the blatantly racist political cartoons Geisel (Dr. Seuss’s real last name) drew early in his career as evidence that, yes, the imagery really was rooted in racism.

There’s no question that some of Geisel’s early work was racist. Some argue that he was a product of his time, but that doesn’t make the works any less problematic. His views did evolve over the course of his life, and he tried to make indirect amends with his later books that had anti-prejudice themes, but never formally apologized for his early work. (As writer Danielle Slaughter points out, the kinds of apology statements that are standard now weren’t expected in the time in which he lived, so a public apology would have been nice, but unusual.)

Some people have suggested that Geisel himself may have actually supported the Dr. Seuss Enterprises decision if he were alive today. If he was truly open to learning and broadening his understanding of race, the 30 years between his death and now may have prompted him to make that decision himself. Who knows. But undoubtedly Dr. Seuss Enterprises knows better than the average American what the author would have wanted, and they have the authority to make choices in his name.

So if people are still angry that Dr. Seuss canceled some Dr. Seuss books, they’ll have to take it up with Dr. Seuss.

The theme of a father being challenged to recognize his children’s unique desires and power is central to the story of Coming 2 America, the long-awaited sequel to the ‘80s classic of a similar name. But it’s also essential to what makes this sequel go.

Starring Eddie Murphy as Akeem and other familiar faces from the original (Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, John Amos, James Earl Jones), the sequel walks a tightrope, paying service to the original and its fans while also ushering in a new generation of characters and evolving the story. But those new characters aren’t there merely as stand-ins who are tasked with helping Murphy rewalk the path of the original. They’re empowered to bring a new energy and make this feel like as much their movie as it is Murphy’s. Which is a shocking thing considering the death grip franchise stars usually want to keep no matter the advance of time. Call it the Die Hard principle.

Jermaine Fowler is the biggest beneficiary of this, playing Akeem’s bastard son. His character, Lavelle, has a few things in common with ‘80s Akeem and the fish out of water element of both films is certainly central. But there are layers to his character’s story that make things a lot more complicated than when a young Akeem was combing through Queens in search of love. Watching his character not just find himself but assert himself, impacting everyone around him, is the best part of the whole thing. It’s heart and soul and signifies a real breakout for Fowler, a comic who stood out in Sorry To Bother You, helped to make the TV adaptation of Superior Donuts interesting, and has generally been on the cusp for years. Whether it was director Craig Brewer or Murphy, good eye to whoever put Fowler in a position to do his thing and succeed.

Ditto on the casting of Wesley Snipes, who never really springs to mind as a perfect comedic foil. But he is here, proving that out with boundless swagger while chewing up scenes as a smiling yet dangerous general who challenges Akeem at every end. Remember, before Snipes was Blade and a ‘90s action hero (THE ‘90s action hero?), he demonstrated his flair for comedy in White Men Can’t Jump and Major League. Also, Demolition Man, even though it’s not technically a comedy. Really, this looks like the most fun Snipes has had on-screen since that movie when he was, again, chewing up scenery and strutting with verve and confidence as he wrecking balled everything in his path throughout.

Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan don’t get as much screen time and they don’t affect the story as deeply, but each delivers big laughs, especially Jones paying homage to the royal bath scene from the original. And her back and forth with Headley’s Lisa is surprising and fun. If there’s a sequel to this sequel (something I could not have imagined saying going into this), I definitely want more from that pairing.

As Meeka, Akeem’s oldest daughter, Kiki Layne continues her ascent following If Beale Street Could Talk. She is fierce as hell, pushing back on old school rules and, at times, clashing with her father. I could go on and on, Trevor Noah has a fun multi-scene cameo as a daft newscaster. Nomzamo Mbatha’s Mirembe is a key character who brings easy charm and balance as the royal barber.

Don’t get confused, there’s plenty from Akeem and Hall’s Semmi. Ditto pop-ins from the original’s hilarious array of side characters brought to life by Murphy, Hall, and a whole lot of makeup. But the version of this film that existed in my mind prior to actually watching it featured a whole lot more from them. It was all about those characters and Queens and references to the original. And that would have been fine. I would have gotten nostalgia drunk with old friends because I love the original. But this is better and bolder. A rare thing from way back that tries and succeeds in its effort to bring its original audience and a new audience together with something that can appeal to both.

You just have to give it up to Murphy [and Brewer, of course]. This could have been a vanity project and he could have been the only hero with everyone else happily taking a backseat because he’s Eddie Murphy and this is him back in one of his most defining roles from a film that still resonates with a lot of people. But Murphy saw the whole board and an opportunity to make something that would continue that legacy with another memorable chapter.

That this is surprising is, maybe on me more than Murphy. Yes. he traded in a lot of coolness equity with a plethora of lame family comedies and weirdly ambitious yet ill-advised swings that that were 100% STAR vehicles where it was all eyes on him as he mugged through lackluster scripts. The Haunted Mansion, Daddy Day Care, and Pluto Nash come to mind. There’s also a period where he moved from mismatched pairing to mismatched pairing, failing to generate much chemistry with co-stars like Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, and Robert DeNiro (I Spy, Tower Heist, Showtime). And then the do-it-all era with Norbit and The Nutty Professor films (with mixed results). But films like Dreamgirls and Dolemite Is My Name, ones where Murphy has gotten his best reviews since the ‘80s, are all about the ensemble. Just like this film.

How this all impacts what comes next is anyone’s guess, but I’d welcome a late phase comedy bridge-builder role for Murphy where he picks his spots and shares the workload with a crew of talented comics who elevate the material and, in turn, elevate his legacy. Icons don’t just stubbornly persist while trying to evade the realities of time, they adapt their game. Maybe that’s what we’re seeing with Coming 2 America and Eddie Murphy.

Click to download here.

“In this house, we believe Columbus was a hero!”

Put down your stinky cheeses and your cold wines, it’s time to talk about season 4 episode 3 of The Sopranos, “Christopher,” with guest Will Menaker from the Chapo Trap House podcast. Will joins Matt and Vince from Clinton Hill Brooklyn, home to Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace. But on this podcast, the only Christopher we acknowledge is Moltisanti.

Written by Michael Imperioli, the actor who plays Chrissy, the episode is divisive even among Sopranos super fans due to its focus on identity politics and a ripped-from-the-headlines plot. Originally written for Paulie, the story focuses on Sylvio’s desire to see that Columbus, and by extension all hard-working Italian-Americans hanging around pork stores, get the respect they deserve.

The woke mob came for Columbus, and all he did was cause enough pain and suffering to be disavowed by the psychos responsible for the Spanish Inquisition. The PC police are sure to come for Matt and Vince soon, so listen to this episode while you still can.

When you get back from the Columbus day protest counter-protest, give us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.

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(Description by @brentflyberg)

Ted Cruz hasn’t fallen into any new controversies in at least 24 hours, which means that there’s one coming soon because that’s how things go for him. It’s true: only two weeks ago, it turned out that he’d only stopped “sh*tposting” on Twitter because his phone was on airplane mode during his voyage to Cancun while his constituents in Texas literally froze during the state’s power catastrophe. That particular controversy only added existing fuel to Cruz’s encouragement of the failed MAGA coup, and now, there are billboards circulating in the maligned senator’s neighborhood to brand him a “traitor.”

Of course, it remains to be seen whether anything will truly hurt Ted Cruz’s career, since calls for him to resign have been ongoing. He did suffer a notable dip in his approval rating after the Cancun jaunt, but is it enough to matter? After two sizable, back-to-back controversies, he’s down to 49% with nationwide Republicans, but he’s only dropped to 71% with Texas Republicans, which are obviously the people who matter when it comes to reelection.

Nonetheless, he can’t be pleased with this billboard display. Newsweek reveals that multiple trucks have passed by his house, which is the same place where his sad dog looked out a window after Ted flew to Cancun. It’s not fantastic, but Ted Cruz is going nowhere anytime soon.

If you ever needed proof that Bernie Sanders was the voice of the next generation well … here it is.

The senator from Vermont gave an impassioned speech, focused on ending the current pandemic, in front of his colleagues on Capitol Hill today, and our man repped hard for the things that matter to today’s youths. Mainly, the freedom to get busy.

Okay, fine. Technically Sanders was arguing that the younger generations are suffering right now because Covid has basically killed any chance of a social life, but the politician did mention the inability to date as a reason why so many are struggling with their mental health. The speech came as Sanders continues to push for a higher minimum wage despite the Biden administration pulling back efforts on that front. Sanders tried to introduce legislation into Biden’s trillion-dollar Covid relief bill that would raise the minimum wage from $7.25/hr to $15/hr but it didn’t get enough votes to pass.

Still, Twitter seems pretty proud of the internet’s in-touch grandpa right now.

Honestly, it’s so sweet of Bernie to think any of us are actually ready to interact with humans again but if he really wants to help improve the mental health of young people, forgiving student loan debt would be a better place to start.

In the end, as it should be, it was all about the relationship between Wanda and Vision. And even though the last episodes of WandaVision probably had a bit too many energy bolt fights for my taste, the emotional payoff between those two characters is all that really mattered.

WandaVision was less a “mystery box” and more a “mystery table tray.” In that, yes, by the nature of its concept, it was mysterious. But the contents were never really hidden all that much. Over the last few weeks, the theories went hog wild about who or what might show up. Apparently, everyone from Hugh Jackman to Al Pacino were supposed to show up in this last episode. Or it was supposed to lead directly into the next Doctor Strange movie. In the end, none of that really happened and there are a lot of disappointed people, but thank goodness that didn’t happen. Energy bolt fights aside, the show kept its focus squarely on the two characters that mattered.

It’s like our viewing habits have turned into less about character development and more into QAnon-type conspiracy theories. It seems like people just want to “figure it out,” as opposed to enjoying the arcs of the characters that are actually leading the show. Look, sometimes that can be fun. But some of the theories I’d see bouncing around that people were excited about, I remember reading them and immediately thinking, “that sounds terrible.” It reminds me of old The Phantom Menace message boards after that movie came out. People were convinced Anakin’s little buddy Kitster was actually Boba Fett. People thought Naboo became Dagobah. None of this made sense but people wanted to “crack the code,” even though there wasn’t any code. It turns out, in the end, the Star Wars Prequels were just about the relationship between three people, just kind of awkwardly executed. (Too bad, Kitster.)

We are coming up on two years since the last MCU movie in theaters, which if you forgot was Spider-Man: Far From Home back in 2019. WandaVision was never meant to be this kind of singular event that it wound up being. It was supposed to be just this weird thing to enjoy at home and maybe sell some more Disney+ subscriptions. It was never meant as anything to guide the entire MCU over the last two years, but it kind of became that because of our real-world circumstances. Oh, and Marvel has the rights to make X-Men and Fantastic Four movies now? Well, WandaVision must show us how! People have had almost two years to speculate about the whole Fox merger into the MCU, so now they wanted answers and WandaVision. Especially after the introduction of Even Peters’s version of Pietro. What was supposed to be a fun little thing became the hypothetical entryway for a thousand more characters to show up and say, “Hey, it’s me!”

(Side note: my biggest complaint about the finale specifically would be when Monica Rambeau told Wanda that the townspeople will never understand what she sacrificed. What? If I were a townsperson and was told what Wanda sacrificed there’s no way I’d be like, “Oh, she had to give up her robot boyfriend who was already dead? Well, that changes everything. Sure, I guess that was worth becoming a zombie for who knows how long.” Does Monica Rambeau even have the authority to just say, “We’re all good here”? Yes, Wanda should be in prison.)

So, yes, I enjoyed WandaVision for what it was: an homage to the history of the situation comedy and the story about the love between Wanda and Vision. Honestly, if anything, I wish it had fewer nods to the rest of the MCU than it even did, which, compared to most every other entry, wasn’t much. It’s not like Thor showed up at the end to help or anything. Or, even worse, the Fantastic Four showing up or something. But there are people deeply disappointed something like this didn’t happen. Again, thank goodness it didn’t.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

The Blake Griffin era in Detroit has come to an end. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Griffin and the Pistons have come to terms on a buyout on the remainder of his contract, and as a result, the former All-Star forward will immediately hit the pool of unrestricted free agents.

The good news for Griffin is that despite the fact that he has looked like a shell of his former self this season, Wojnarowski reports that a number of teams with title aspirations have their eyes on him as a potential addition in the free agent market. Griffin, however, is expected to take some time to figure things out before joining a new team.

Marc Stein of the New York Times added some of the teams expected to have some interest, which includes Griffin’s old franchise in the City of Angels.

Injuries have caught up with Griffin in a big way, as he’s lacked the bounciness that was such a hallmark of his game during his prime. The soon-to-be 32-year-old power forward has averaged 12.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists a night this season while shooting 36.5 percent from the field and 31.5 percent from three. He last took the floor on Feb. 12 as his representatives and the Pistons tried to figure out a way to send him elsewhere amid the squad’s youth movement. A major issue was the amount of money he was owed — per Wojnarowski, Griffin was owed a remaining $36.6 million this season and $39 million in 2021-2022.

It is a bit tough to imagine a scenario where Griffin is able to go back to being the player that captivated fans in Los Angeles and during his early days in Detroit, but perhaps there’s a little something left in the tank and he can give a contender some help as the second half of the regular season and the postseason roll around.

When an earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused a nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 most people who lived in the area fled. Some left without their pets, who then had to fend for themselves in a radioactive nuclear zone.

Sakae Kato stayed behind to rescue the cats abandoned by his neighbors and has spent the last decade taking care of them. He has converted his home, which is in a contaminated quarantine area, to a shelter for 41 cats, whom he refers to as “kids.” He has buried 23 other cats in his garden over the past 10 years.

The government has asked the 57-year-old to evacuate the area many times, but he says he figured he was going to die anyway. “And if I had to die, I decided that I would like to die with these guys,” he said.

Kato’s dedication to animal welfare extends beyond the cats he’s rescued. He also rescued a dog named Pochi, and he has gotten in trouble with the Japanese government for releasing wild boars from traps they set. He feeds the boars as well

Kato estimates that he spends around $7,000 a month on food, fuel, supplies, and veterinary care, which he funds from his own savings and profits from his construction company.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to take care of the animals, though, and he anticipates it getting harder. One issue is that his home is falling apart, with rotting floorboards and damage to the roof and walls from another recent earthquake.

“It might last another two or three years. The walls have started to lean,” Kato told Reuters.

He doesn’t have running water, so he collects water in bottles for himself and the cats from a nearby stream. He uses a paraffin stove to heat the shed where he feeds the cats, and he drives to nearby public toilets.

Technically, he’s not allowed to sleep in his home, though he is legally allowed to visit. He hasn’t let that stop him from staying and caring for his cats, though.

The pet whisperer of Fukushima

www.youtube.com

Though Kato’s family is disapproving of his chosen path, he has every intention of staying and fulfilling what he sees as his life’s purpose.

“I want to be around when the last cat dies,” he says, “then I want to die after that, no matter if it takes a day or an hour. I want to take care of the last cat here before I die.”

Few people would make the sacrifices Kato has made to save animals, especially in a nuclear zone. As the area continues to be decontaminated, more of the 160,000 residents that fled the meltdown may eventually return. But for now, Kato appears to be content in the company of his cat kids and boar babies.

Here’s to those special souls who have a heart for animal welfare, and here’s to Kato for his perseverance and dedication in caring for these abandoned pets and giving them a loving home.

Lexie Brown is getting ready to enter her fourth season in the WNBA and her third with the Minnesota Lynx, as she keeps professional basketball as being the Brown family business. Her father, Dee, played 13 seasons in the NBA, and has his name forever etched in NBA lore for his no-look dunk in the 1991 Dunk Contest.

During that contest, he wore the iconic Reebok Pumps, and for the 30th anniversary of the event, Reebok is bringing back a mid-cut retro release of the Pump Omni Zone II on March 5. The face of the release is Lexie, who spoke with Dime this week about the full circle moment of getting to launch the same sneaker her father made famous, carrying on the family legacy while carving her own path on the court, the Wubble experience last year, and the Minnesota Lynx’s busy offseason coming off of a run to the semis last season.

When they came to you about this, and you first started discussing this with Reebok and your father, what were the conversations like and how exciting was it for you to be part of this release?

Yeah, it’s been super exciting. Unfortunately, me and my dad have not been in the same place for a few weeks now. So we haven’t really been able to share this exciting time together. But, I mean, we got so many pairs of Pumps at the house already — not in my size, obviously, but he had a bunch. So for them to rerelease it and just the way the sneaker game is, and just how excited everybody gets about a new pair of sneakers or bringing back old pair of sneakers, for him to be involved in that I’m just really happy for him. And I’m really blessed to be able to be a part of it.

Whenever you bring a retro sneaker back, it’s also about how you spin it forward. What do you think of the job Reebok’s done with with this sneaker and particularly making it something that is in line with the performance shoes today, but still paying homage to that that iconic look that your dad made so famous with that Dunk Contest?

Yeah, I think Reebok has done a really good job of making a basketball shoe, but also a lifestyle shoe. Me personally, I’ve played low top shoes, so I don’t know how many games I will be playing in the Pumps. Obviously, I will try and play in a few just because I think that would just be a really cool thing to do. But I know I will definitely be wearing them with sweats, some shorts, just being able to wear them out and about. And I think that Reebok has really altered the marketing a little bit that way as well. My dad doesn’t really wear them, you know, out about he wears them on the court sometimes. But obviously now he’s gonna think he’s, like, the coolest person on earth and wear them all the time, I already know. So it’s gonna be really cool. And I know the first time I wear them this season, I think that’s going to be like a really big deal. So I’m really excited about that moment.

I know you weren’t born yet, but I’m sure you’ve watched that ’91 Dunk Contest. How cool is it to look back and see that moment that your dad had and what was such a big moment in his career and what really became an iconic NBA moment?

Yeah I mean, for sure, that was a career-defining moment for him and for him to do it so early in his career is really amazing. I think really what that Dunk Contest, all of the guys who were participating, that kind of set the tone for the showmanship part of a Dunk Contest. You think more about entertaining everybody rather than just making, you know, difficult dunks. So I think he got the credit, obviously, when it happened. I think there was like a long period of time where it was kind of like it and then like, “ehhh.” But I think like maybe the last like five years, I think that every time All Star Weekend comes around, the Dunk Contest comes around, like people always bring up my dad’s dunk. And I think he’s finally getting his flowers for it, and I love that.

He’s judging the Dunk Contest this year as well, even though it’s a kind of a weird Dunk Contest, but he’s in there with some of the greats. So I’m really happy for him. Yeah, this whole moment, me being a part of Reebok, me being able to, you know, do a photoshoot with the Pumps on, like, this is literally a dream come true. And I know that he’s really proud that I’ve been able to work hard to get to this moment.

It is kind of a full circle thing. For you, coming up and getting to this point in your career, what have been the things that you’ve been able to talk to your dad about going through your professional career and making a name for yourself, but also, knowing that’s always going to be a part of what people think of when they when they see your name?

He’s always taught me just to embrace it. I’ve always embraced it, I remember when I was little, I would bring his trading cards to school and be like, “Oh, this my dad, this is my dad,” so I’ve always been super proud of him. And our careers are very different as far as attention, accolades. I mean, obviously, we both got to the highest level, which at the end of the day, that’s the goal. But he tells me all the time, like, you accomplished way more than I did in high school. You accomplished way more than I did in college, you know? You got a lot more attention than I ever had being a young basketball player, but I think that he always had a chip on his shoulder through his whole career and always being the underdog counted out. And I think he instilled that in me. You know, no matter what’s going on, you always got to work harder than the person next to you. Work harder than the person in front of you, especially the people behind you, because they’re working hard as well. He just taught me just to always be the hardest worker on the team, in the room, and in a situation, take advantage of opportunities. And just remember that every day is a blessing.

Speaking of opportunities, last season in the Wubble was your first opportunity to really start in the WNBA. What did you take from that experience and then as a team as a whole being able to kind of surprise some folks with with a run to the semis as a young team that I don’t think people necessarily expected that from coming in?

It was amazing, when coach Cheryl [Reeve] was like, you’re gonna start this season, I mean, I was super excited to go from my rookie season not even being able to find time to becoming a starter on, I would say, one of the better teams in the league. It was just kind of a seize the moment type situation, because the league is so competitive. From top to bottom, every team has talent. So, you really got to stay on top of your stuff, when you get into a position like that. Unfortunately, when I was in the bubble, I got a concussion, so that kind of derailed my season a little bit. I thought that we were playing really, really well as a team. And I was just kind of struggling with that the whole season. I tried to fight through it as much as I could until, you know, it just became too much.

But I think our team, you know, we battled through some adversity, I think the whole league was battling adversity being the Wubble itself. And then we just were hit with injuries throughout the entire season. But for us to be able to make it to the semis, that just shows our resiliency, our toughness, and, yeah, we’re a very young team. So we have a lot of energy, you know, things don’t get us down for very long — short attention spans [laughs]. But we made a lot of offseason moves, so I think we’ve gotten a little bit older, a little bit smarter, a little bit more entertaining. So I’m really excited for us to get together next month.

Yeah, I was going to ask, the last couple free agencies since this new CBA have been pretty wild with the player movement. As you were watching this offseason unfold with Aerial [Powers] coming in and what what you guys were able to do, what was your reaction as you saw the team being built in Minnesota?

I was kind of expecting some major moves, because last year, we didn’t really make any. I think she did that on purpose because there were a lot of players that were not free agents last year that became free agents this year. There were some surprising moves, you know, like Odyssey [Sims] being traded that was a little bit of surprise, Kiki [Herbert Harrigan] getting traded. But I trust Cheryl, I think that she’s trying to adapt to the way basketball is being played now. Spread the floor a little bit more, get a little bit more threes up. So I’m really excited. I think I’ll probably transition back to play my natural position at the one. I mean, that’s what I hope, because I think I’m a really good point guard when I have the minutes and the opportunity. And we’re gonna have a regular training camp, we have a somewhat regular season. I think everybody’s just really excited to get back to Minneapolis.

What have been the things that you’ve been able to learn from Cheryl, because she is such a legend in the coaching game, and the things that she’s been able to impart on you in your couple seasons you’ve spent with her?

For me, the thing that I always struggled with is the mental side of the sport. Just not getting too down on myself. I’m a perfectionist to a fault. I’ve been like that my whole life, and it’s been something that I’ve been working on since I’ve been young. I’ve improved so much. I still got a little bit of ways to go, but she’s really been the first coach that has, I wouldn’t say punished, but I’ve had like consequences for getting down. You know, sometimes turning into a little bit of an energy vampire, things like that. I’ve never really had anybody call me out on it the way she has. And at the beginning, I didn’t really like it, didn’t really understand, like, what the point of it was when I was doing what I was supposed to do on the court. But now I’ve gotten a little bit older. This year, I didn’t go overseas, so I’ve had a lot of time at home for self reflection, things like that, and I just finally realized that, I mean, she was right all along. I think I’m learning to appreciate that type of criticism because I know it’s because she knows what I’m capable of as a player. And if I get this mental block out of the way, then I think my game is just gonna take off.

You mentioned the difficulty of being in the bubble. What were the mental hurdles you had to you have to clear of being there, being in IMG, and that’s the only place that you’re going, to be playing games back to back in a super condensed season, and all of that? What was the experience like and how did you guys find ways to come together and just push through all that?

I mean, I think the WNBA did a great job of getting a bubble together. It was really nice, comfortable, they kept it really safe for us. But I think the hardest part was just like you didn’t really have an escape from your teammates, your coaches, other teams, other players, refs. Like, everything was in one place, and I think that part of it was amazing, but terrible at the same time. Because all we want to do is play basketball all the time and play games and be together and hang out and whatever, that’s great. But you know, there’s some days, where it’s just like, I need to go hang out with my family. I need to see people, and you didn’t have that opportunity in there. So I think after a few weeks pass, some teams are playing well, some teams are not playing so well. You know, that’s when true colors came out. True personalities came out. You got to learn things about your teammates that you probably would have never learned otherwise.

But I think our team, you know, we have a really great locker room energy. We got to go on like outings, we went to the beach, we went on, like a sunset boat ride. Cheryl and everybody in the organization, they made sure that when they felt like we were kind of breaking a little bit, they would plan something like we would go somewhere, we would have team dinner, things like that. So I can only speak for our team, I think we handled the bubble like, really well. You know, no relationships were destroyed being there.

Hey, that’s a win.

Right?! Exactly. So, I think we’re just going to be really happy to not be in the bubble, and that’s gonna make this season even more fun and special.

Finally, with the shoe coming and you getting a chance to do this. What does this mean, for you as part of your career trajectory to have this partnership, and to be able to be the face of a launch of a shoe when you look back on the work that you’ve put into to get to this point?

I mean, it’s an amazing feeling. I know growing up, like, I’ve just always been a Nike girl. Like, being a part of a Reebok launch and the face of Reebok just was something that never crossed my mind. But now that the opportunity has presented itself, I’m so blessed and happy. I can’t imagine being a part of any other company. Like you said, it’s a completely full circle moment. My dad probably didn’t think that he would have a daughter carrying out this next thing. My little brother, he’s a little bit younger, so that would have taken a little bit longer. Just everything that me and my dad represent about relationships with daughters and their dads, who also are their coaches and their trainers. Like, it’s just an amazing relationship that we have, it’s a beautiful relationship, and I’m really happy that we can use Reebok and use basketball as vehicles to show our family dynamic and the love that we have for each other and the hard work that we’ve done to get to this point. And the support system, you know, we were his support system for his whole career still are and now the tables have turned. Now they’re my support system through my career.

So I think sometimes we just look at each other, and we’re just like, “Can you believe, like, we did this? Like, you did it and then I did it, and you were doin’ it, and now I’m doin’ it.” So it’s just like a really cool moment for the entire family.