Category: News

The Milwaukee Bucks are stuck. After two straight early postseason exits, they are at a point where everything they do is trimmed down and analyzed through the tiniest of lenses. It’s no one person’s fault — all their playoff losses are explainable, and the core is still in its prime. Yet the waiting game with the Bucks means success is only measured by whether they can at least make the Finals.

Milwaukee has accomplished all there is in the NBA without ever once appearing in the title series during this era. The awards this team has won are nothing to scoff at — they have a two-time MVP, a two-time Coach of the Year, and three All-Star caliber players, but they have yet to grab the metaphorical brass ring. Two years ago in Mike Budenholzer’s first season as coach, they set efficiency records that put them in a class only occupied otherwise by last decade’s Golden State Warriors. Especially now that Giannis has signed a super-max extension and committed to the franchise, any regular season success will, in the eyes of many, only matter if the Bucks can record 16 postseason wins.

While they’ll play 72 games this season, each one will be looked at mostly through the lens of whether enough has changed to overcome those shortcomings. The first is whether the addition of Jrue Holiday and the development of Donte DiVincenzo gives them enough play-making to be more unpredictable on offense. DiVincenzo has increased his assist rate while turning the ball over less, and in his third season, he finally looks more like the guy who played an important role in Villanova rolling to the 2018 national championship. He’s probably never going to be a primary option offensively, but he can handle the ball in transition, and on this team, his ability to get to the rim and make threes — he is connecting on a career-best 41.2 percent of his triples — is quite valuable.

Despite playing a five-out offense, the Bucks have long been short on truly good shooters. But they’re making more threes so far, helping them start the year as the NBA’s best offense. DiVincenzo, Pat Connaughton, and Bobby Portis are all shooting better than 40 percent from deep, and giving Budenholzer more comfort playing small, knowing he can really spread the floor.

At the same time, Holiday has been mostly his usual self even as he acclimates to a new team. Milwaukee’s halfcourt offense is 1.6 points better per 100 possessions with Holiday on the floor and 4.3 points worse with his backup, D.J. Augustin, out there. Holiday rarely turns the ball over and most importantly gives the Bucks a ball-handler who can run a pick and roll that gives Giannis a head of steam toward the basket. As ESPN’s Zach Lowe recently noted on his podcast, citing Second Spectrum data, the Bucks seem more comfortable with using Giannis as a screener this season compared with how they used him in 2019-20, especially when opponents try to guard him with a center, as we’ve seen everyone from Boston to Toronto do in recent playoffs.

Years ago when Budenholzer deployed a five-out scheme around Antetokounmpo on offense, it turned heads for its ingenuity. It’s fairly common stuff in 2021. But with more consistent shooting and ball-handling on the roster now (as opposed to Eric Bledsoe and Wes Matthews, good players who were more limited overall), the Bucks are going back to that well with some interesting looks. Against Toronto this week, Budenholzer put out a tiny lineup with Giannis at center surrounded by Augustin, DiVincenzo, Pat Connaughton, and Bryn Forbes. That group has played just 15 non-garbage time possessions together this season but out-scored teams by 20 points per 100 possessions, also per Cleaning the Glass.

The second important lesson to be learned from the Bucks this year is how effectively they can downsize and mix up styles. On the note of playing smaller, after Marvin Williams retired this offseason, Milwaukee signed Portis in an effort to create a more versatile frontcourt with Giannis when Brook Lopez sits. In theory, Portis is a fine option to play smaller and defend like a modern team with more athleticism and length, but it will be on Budenholzer to change.

Portis is by no means a perfect player, but so far, the coach is not taking advantage of what Milwaukee seemingly signed Portis to do. Budenholzer still mostly refuses to switch on defense no matter who is on the floor. That means Portis ends up dropping deep into the paint as a rim protector, hardly the best use of his skill set. Unsurprisingly, the Bucks are allowing 4.5 extra points per 100 possessions when Portis plays. While he does plenty of good things, Portis is not a rim protector.

To give Bud credit, though, Giannis is switching a bit more than I remember him doing in the past, even when he’s on the floor with Lopez. It’s obvious Giannis can defend just about anyone in the NBA, so when teams are foolish enough to involve him in a pick and roll, letting him switch and use his length, strength, and agility is smart. That’s something that’s easier to do with Portis out there, since his agility means he’s better equipped to execute it than Lopez.

On the offensive side, one thing Portis can do that Lopez can’t is drive to the hoop. Using Portis as a screener is a little more unpredictable than when Lopez simply pops or posts, but too often Portis is simply a pick and pop player for the Bucks. They signed a backup very different than their starting center but are playing as if he’s a Lopez clone.

It’s a shame we’ve gotten this far without mentioning that Khris Middleton just keeps getting better. The two-time All-Star is averaging a career high in points per game at 21.6 and his assist rate has exploded to nearly 26 percent, up from just 22 last season. As we saw when the Bucks took on the Nets on MLK Day, Budenholzer is increasingly comfortable letting Middleton be the primary initiator in crunch time because of these improvements. Though Middleton missed the game-winner in that matchup, that trust from Budenholzer and his continued improvement gives hope that the Bucks can be better in close playoff games than in the past (of course, many of these same things apply to Holiday).

Perhaps the most positive sign for Milwaukee: Budenholzer, a longtime advocate of going deep into his bench and having a steadfast rotation, is at long last playing his best guys heavy minutes. Each of Giannis, Holiday, and Middleton are getting more than 33 minutes per night, after nobody in Milwaukee got more than 30 last season. Now, it is important to mention that the Bucks were blowing teams out last year and they were able to rest their primary guys in fourth quarters. Regardless, the team could have waited until the 2021 playoffs to ramp up playing time, but doing so now allows Budenholzer to get comfortable with his rotation and for the players to get used to it.

There’s a reasonable case to make that in the end, the Bucks will go as far as Giannis takes them. But he has his own problems right now (namely shooting and turnovers), and even if that’s true, Milwaukee needed to do more to maximize what he’s great at. This year’s team may not be as deep or dominant as past iterations, but they are changing in ways that should make them better when it matters.

Judging from the scrutiny Milwaukee is given after underperforming in the playoffs, it may seem like the Bucks were a long way away from a title. That’s not true. Role players are stepping up, the stars are just as good or better, and by being slightly more flexible this season and more reliant on his best players, Budenholzer should be able to put it all together and do his part to get Milwaukee closer to the finish line.

Of the many names that broke into mainstream hip-hop last year, Flo Milli was undoubtedly one of them. The Alabama native’s career reached a new level with her project Ho, Why Is You Here? More than six months later, Flo Milli has earned herself a new fan in Juicy J, who recently spoke highly of her music during a sit-down with Genius.

The Memphis native was chatting with Genius as a part of their Co-Sign series, which finds guests of the show commenting on some of today’s artists. Flo Milli’s name came up during the conversation. “I love this female wave that’s going on right now,” he said. “She sounded good. I f*ck with her lyrics. I need to produce a record for her. Tell her to reach out.” With another project from Flo Milli hopefully set to arrive at some point in 2021, it would be good to hear the two Southern acts collaborate.

Juicy J also shouted out CJ, Blxst, Mario Judah, and more on his Co-Sign appearance. The news comes after Flo Milli shared her money-driven anthem, “Roaring 20s,” earlier this month before kicking it with Rich The Kid, Mulatto, and Rubi Rose on “Nasty.”

You can watch the Genius Co-Sign episode with Juicy J above.

It is strange, even now, even having a fairly good idea how making a television show works, to see a behind the scenes outtake of Oscar the Grouch complaining about the lack of sex on Sesame Street. It’s one of those shocking moments in which the human body makes a sort of guffaw noise. It’s human instinct to want to say out loud, “Oscar?!?!” At least, it’s human instinct to feel that way if that human grew up with Sesame Street, which is probably most of us now, because there’s something just so pure about it. In that it’s remarkable how this show is, deep down, in most of our cores as humans. To the point it’s pretty obvious, today, who was paying attention to the show as children and who weren’t.

Even before watching Marilyn Agrelo’s Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street (which just had its Sundance Film Festival premiere and will air on HBO later this year), I’ve been thinking about Sesame Street a bit over the last few months. (To be fair, with plenty of free time because of everything, there are a lot of topics that take of my brain space that didn’t really used to.) In that Sesame Street could be pretty weird. (My case in point is this four and a half minute short about how milk is made that involves someone just singing the word “milk” over and over.)

But, yes, Sesame Street is a television show and there’s plenty of behind the scenes shenanigans and drama, just like any show. Created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Jon Stone, Sesame Street‘s intention was to fill a void on television for children to learn while they weren’t at school. Specifically, minority children were the target, as a way to help some of the kids in these demographics who were falling behind in school. It’s interesting, because when you’re a child, even a child growing up in the suburbs in the Midwest like I did, you’re not looking at stuff like that, this was just Sesame Street. In the film, right after hearing this context, we see the original opening credits, and it shows a group of Black children on the playgrounds of what is obviously New York City. As a child, I just saw kids on a playground that looked like the same playgrounds that I played on. Certainly not in a city I had never been to and wouldn’t move to for another 25 years. At no point, back then, did I think, “Oh, this doesn’t look like where I live.” Instead, it looked like a place I wanted to live. (I would later find out that the real New York City has less talking green monster misanthropes living in trash cans than I was promised.) Though, as the film acknowledges, there were PBS stations in the deep south who refused to play Sesame Street when it first aired for reasons I probably don’t need to spell out.

The behind-the-scenes footage, interlaced with current interviews with the cast and creators, are a gift. It’s crazy to think when I was four-years-old, watching Bert and Ernie, in reality I was watching the comedy duo of Jim Henson and Frank Oz. And, here, we get to see them in action – which, honestly, is pretty amazing and jarring at the same time.

Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street also addresses some of the touchier subjects in Sesame Street history. There’s the behind the scenes envy between Jon Stone and Joan Ganz Cooney, to which Cooney, who is interviewed in this film, admits she got most of the media attention for the creation of the show and Stone resented this. Also addressed is the character of Gordon (played by three different actors; Roscoe Orman for, by far, has the longest duration), who was originally played by Matt Robinson, but left the show after a Muppet he created, Roosevelt Franklin, was phased out after viewer complaints. (Robinson left the show before I was born, but when repeats of this era were aired it was awfully confusing.)

And then there’s Mr. Hooper, played by Will Lee, who died in 1982. For people of a specific age, this might have been our first experience with death. Or, at least, having it explained so bluntly. I remember when this happened, watching it as it aired. I also remember my mom talking to me before it aired, so I assume there were a lot of warnings for parents before this episode aired. I have not watched it since and, my goodness, it’s devastating. It’s truly remarkable Sesame Street aired this. The cast were still coping with Lee’s death themselves and admit today that all the emotions we are seeing on screen are real. What a powerful moment of television.

I walked away from Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street with the notion that Sesame Street is a miracle. Well, I kind of always assumed that, but now it’s confirmed. At one point it’s mentioned that the magic that was created on Sesame Street could never be reproduced. It would be impossible. This seems true. Just the pairing of a guy who knows TV like Jon Stone with someone like Henson is a miracle in itself. It’s astounding that Jim Henson was a part of this show for as long as he was. Here’s an actual genius making content for children. There’s a clip of an old interview with Henson and Joan Ganz Cooney from the ’80s and Cooney said her biggest surprise with Sesame Street is that Henson was even still there, assuming he’d have “flown the coop” years ago. (In a modern interview Cooney says during contract negotiations she once told her lawyer to give Henson, “anything he wants.”)

Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street is just a terrific film. At the end, it’s dedicated to the people who made the show, but also anyone who ever watched. For so many of us, Sesame Street is part of our DNA. While watching this film, it doesn’t just feel like we are learning about how Sesame Street is made, it also feels like we are learning how we were made.

‘Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street’ premiered this week via the Sundance Film Festival and will air via HBO later in 2021. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Twitter is a very silly website. Soccer can be a very silly sport. Put those things together and magic can sometimes happen, which was the case on Saturday. A match in the Dutch Eerste Divisie — the second-highest level of football in The Netherlands — caught the attention of people all over the web due to the performance by one curiously-named athlete.

FC Den Bosch found itself in an 0-3 hole against Excelsior following a goal by Joël Zwarts in the 47th minute. And then, something magical happened: Someone on FC Den Bosch scored four goals in 34 minutes of work. That someone? Well, that would be none other than 22-year-old forward Jizz Hornkamp.

So all jokes aside, this is a legitimately outstanding performance by Hornkamp. He accrued a perfect hat trick — a goal with his head, a goal with his right foot, a goal with his left foot — and then added in one more with his right for good measure. The header was excellent, the penalty was confident, the left-footed goal was magnificent, and the fourth goal included a really clever touch to beat the keeper and give him an easy tap-in.

Unfortunately, Excelsior added a penalty in-between his second and third goals, so this ended in a 4-4 draw. But here’s the thing: The man’s name is Jizz, and as a result, he got a moment in the sun on Twitter that extended beyond just footy fans.

It is up to you and you alone to determine whether this is funnier than some other extremely funny names from soccer, such as “Kevin Lasagna” or “Fabián Assman,” both of which I swear are real.

Over its six seasons and two movies, Sex and the City offered a fairy tale New York City — a playground for the rich that largely avoided class disparities as well as any boroughs that aren’t Manhattan. But when its revival, called And Just Like That…, finally drops sometime in the future, it won’t offer mere moneyed escapism. And it won’t pretend like the pandemic that’s still out of control never happened.

Sarah Jessica Parker, the once and future Carrie Bradshaw, told Vanity Fair that the battle against COVID-19 will “obviously be part of the storyline, because that’s the city [these characters] live in. And how has that changed relationships once friends disappear? I have great faith that the writers are going to examine it all.”

In fact, it sounds like they’re at least trying to make it a deep look at how Carrie and Miranda and Charlotte (but not, alas, Samantha) would fit into an NYC that has changed so much since their last outing, namely 2010’s movie sequel:

“I think that Cynthia [Nixon], Kristin [Davis], and I are all excited about the time that has passed,” said Parker. “You know, who are they in this world now? Have they adapted? What part have they played? Where have they fallen short as women, as friends, and how are they finding their way? Did they move with momentum? Are they like some people who are confused, threatened, nervous [by what’s happening in the world]? I’m so curious and excited to see how the writers imagine these women today.”

Speaking of which, the writing staff isn’t what it once was. “It’s incredibly diverse in a really exciting way,” Parker said, claiming each one will infuse with it with their own “life experience, political world views, and social world views.”

So there you go: We might get a more woke Sex and the City, featuring someone who came a little close to becoming the state’s governor. Still, Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones will be missed.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Things are not going particularly well for the Dallas Mavericks right now. The team lost to the Utah Jazz on Friday night, which marked the their fourth loss in a row and seventh loss in their last nine games to drop them to 8-11 on the year. Amid this rough stretch, the team’s superstar decided it was time to speak out.

Luka Doncic, who entered this season with MVP aspirations but hasn’t been able to translate his impressive statistics into wins, called out the Mavericks for their approach this year. Doncic made clear that he’s never been in the situation that Dallas finds itself in right now, and went as far as to say that the team is dealing with a major case of apathy.

“Terrible,” Doncic said when asked about the team’s effort against Utah. “There’s really not much to say. I never felt like this, and we’ve got to do something, because this is not looking good, and we’ve got to step up and talk to each other and play way better than this. It’s mostly effort.”

Doncic was then asked about what he believes needs to change and brought the hammer down, saying, “Right now, it’s looking like we don’t care, honestly, if we win games or not.”

The good news for the Mavericks is that Doncic is optimistic that things will improve, and while they do face a bit of an uphill battle going forward, the team has been hit hard by injuries and COVID-19 absences this season, which has led to issues getting consistent players on the floor. Dallas can also take solace in knowing their star player is feeling the pressure to win games, something that has been reflected in his numbers so far this season — while Doncic has faded in MVP chatter a quarter of a way through the year, he’s averaging 27.3 points, 9.6 assists, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 34.6 minutes per game.

Arlo Parks recently dropped her debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams, and to commemorate its arrival, the British singer brought her talents to Jimmy Kimmel Live! It was her first appearance on a television platform in the United States, and she and her band did a soothing rendition of “Hurt.”

When Parks released the song as a single last summer, she spoke about the song’s meaning, saying it “surrounds the possibility of healing from pain and the temporary nature of suffering.” She added, “It is supposed to uplift and comfort those going through hard times.” Now the track lives on her Collapsed In Sunbeams album, which arrived on Friday. The 12-track release arrived without guest features, and a majority most of the songs were written by Parks and Los Angeles-based songwriter Gianluca “Luca” Buccellati, who also produced the album with her.

Prior to the album’s release, Parks shared a delicate cover of Clairo’s Immunity standout, “Bags,” on SiriusXMU. The cover came after Clairo helped write Park’s “Green Eyes” track, which can also be found on Collapsed In Sunbeams. In addition to the new album, Parks also premiered her TV special Tonight With Arlo Parks on Twitch, descirbing it as a “‘Variety Hour Special’ emulating the spirit of classic, artist-fronted TV formats from the 60s and 70s, yet revamped and reimagined for the 20s.” The film will be available on Prime Video on February 1.

You can watch Parks’ performance in the video above.

Collapsed In Sunbeams is out now via Transgressive. Get it here.

Scottish producer Sophie has tragically died at the age of 34 after an accidental fall, and their outsized impact on the pop world is being mourned after the news broke. Sophie’s label, Transgressive, and management company Future Classic confirmed the news and many of their peers and fellow musicians are sharing an outpouring of support and grief at the tragic loss.

The avant-garde pop producer and performer was in Athens, Greece at the time of their death. “True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell. She will always be here with us,” the label wrote in their confirmation of the devastating news. “The family thank everyone for their love and support and request privacy at this devastating time.”

Sophie’s last album, 2019’s Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides was the first record to prominently feature the producer’s vocals, releasing after Sophie came out as transgender and shared their identity with the world. The album was widely regarded as one of the best electronic records of the year, and was nominated for a 2019 Grammy at in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category. It is a tragedy for the music world to lose such a force at such a young age, and fans and critics are joining artists in mourning.

Alex Jones is something like the original contemporary conspiracy theorist — the wacko who launched a thousand deranged ships. So it was not surprising to see him in D.C. on January 6, involved in the violent mob that, whipped up by the president and fueled by baseless claims of voter fraud, stormed the Capitol, leading to five deaths. Jones even boasted about doing some of that whipping up. But a new report says he was an even bigger player than previously thought.

This comes from The Wall Street Journal, who pieced together the top players that funded the aborted attempt to overturn election results and keep now-former president Donald Trump in power. For one thing, Jones pledged a good sum of money — $50,000 — in exchange for, as WSJ reports, a “top speaking slot of his choice.” More importantly, he played Cupid between a top Trump donor and other organizers:

Mr. Jones also helped arrange for Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a prominent donor to the Trump campaign and heiress to the Publix Super Markets Inc. chain, to commit about $300,000 through a top fundraising official for former President Trump’s 2020 campaign, according to organizers. Her money paid for the lion’s share of the roughly $500,000 rally at the Ellipse where Mr. Trump spoke.

And then there were said other organizers:

Another far-right activist and leader of the “Stop the Steal” movement, Ali Alexander, helped coordinate planning with Caroline Wren, a fundraising official who was paid by the Trump campaign for much of 2020 and who was tapped by Ms. Fancelli to organize and fund an event on her behalf, organizers said. On social media, Mr. Alexander had targeted Jan. 6 as a key date for supporters to gather in Washington to contest the 2020-election certification results. The week of the rally, he tweeted a flyer for the event saying: “DC becomes FORT TRUMP starting tomorrow on my orders!”

And so, a small group of Trumpists, Jones among them, inspired one of the most disturbing days in America history. But at least they failed at their loftier goals.

(Via WSJ)

British producer Sophie, who was critically acclaimed for her contributions to the electronic music world, has died at the age of 34, following a tragic fall in Athens, Greece early Saturday morning. A representative confirmed the news to Pitchfork and a statement from Sophie’s label, Transgressive and Future Classic, also confirmed it. “True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell. She will always be here with us,” they said. “The family thank everyone for their love and support and request privacy at this devastating time.”

Born Sophie Xeon, they stepped into the European music scene back in the early 2010s thanks to a number of house-adjacent records, including 2013’s “Nothing More To Say.” Their first project arrived with 2015’s Product compilation and three years later, Sophie’s official debut album, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, was released. It was also during the press run for the album that Sophie, whose identity was unknown at the time, came out as transgender. (They preferred to use gender non-binary pronouns.)

Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides earned a nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 2019 Grammys and the following year, it would land appearances on several decade-end lists. After hearing about Sophie’s death, Sam Smith, Rina Sawayama, Christin And The Queens, and more took to Twitter to share their reactions and honor them.

You can read some of the tweets from Sophie’s peers below.

(via Pitchfork)