I feel like this batter dispenser may even motivate me to bake, tbqh.

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The Last Dance has not just thrust Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls back into the forefront of sports fans’ minds, but it’s also brought back plenty of nostalgia and discussion of the 90s NBA as a whole.

With no actual basketball to create conversation and debate, many have begun relitigating arguments about what teams were the real biggest threats to the Bulls in the 90s, what players were the best of that era, and the ever-nauseating “how would current players fare in the 90s NBA’ discussion. The good news of that is it’s given a new generation a chance to appreciate players from that era and give some shine to some players that many know better now for their post-hoops career than their playing career.

On Sunday, prior to the final episodes of The Last Dance, Ahmad Rashad will be taking over the NBA’s social media accounts for an “Inside Stuff 90’s Reunion” that fans can watch at 7 p.m. ET on the NBA Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch accounts. Rashad will be joined by a who’s who of NBA stars from the 90s, as the league announced a long lineup of players that will be hopping on to talk with Rashad — and it’s important to note that the release notes “other surprise guests” are expected to appear as well.

Muggsy Bogues
Dell Curry
Clyde Drexler
Patrick Ewing
Tim Hardaway
Grant Hill
Robert Horry
Shawn Kemp
Karl Malone
Reggie Miller
Dikembe Mutombo
Gary Payton
Mitch Richmond
David Robinson
John Stockton
Dominique Wilkins

It’ll be cool to see all of these legends from the 90’s telling stories and looking back on that era, reminiscing on the battles with Jordan’s Bulls and others.

It must suck to be hated by the people who make your favorite things. On Sunday, Elon Musk — one of the richest people in America — semi-cryptically tweeted “Take the red pill” alongside a socialist red rose emoji. He was clearly invoking a key moment from the movie The Matrix, but more specifically he was referring to his increasingly public derision for nationwide quarantines, which have shut down the economy and caused people like him to lose a miniscule fraction of their unimaginable wealth. Musk’s tweet wasn’t all that well-received, but it did have a fan in Ivanka Trump. One person who disapproves of both of them: one of the creators of The Matrix itself.

That would be Lilly Wachowski who, alongside her sister Lana, wrote and directed the Matrix trilogy, as well as Bound, Jupiter Ascending, and Sense-8. (Lana is handling the forthcoming fourth Matrix solo.) When she saw that Trump had retweeted Musk, lending her support with an excited “Taken!”, she could not remain silent.

“Take the red pill” refers to a scene early in the first Matrix, in which Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus offers Keanu Reeves’ Neo two options: a blue pill, which will cause him to forget he ever learned about the truth behind his artificial world and go on living a lie, or a red pill, which will wake him up. According to Business Insider, the phrase has been co-opted by those on the far right, denoting those who’ve converted to the side of Donald J. Trump.

Wachowski’s curt response — a simple “F*ck both of you” — was well-received on Twitter.

Some also pointed out that The Matrix — made by trans women, whose rights and safety are routinely under assault by the current Republican administration — is not one that should be co-opted by wingers.

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It was a very long time ago — i.e., last November — but perhaps you remember the president of the United States sharing an image of his head badly superimposed upon Sylvester Stallone’s ripped bod circa Rocky. Sharing such content is something he likes to do, allowing him to cosplay as things he’s not, such as strong and ripped and not addicted to McDonald’s. On Saturday Donald Trump was at it again, this time sharing a video that awkwardly drops his head into a key scene from Independence Day. And the actor whose face he usurped was not exactly pleased.

The scene was, predictably, the one where the president, played by Bill Pullman, delivers a rousing speech before humanity strikes back against their alien attackers. As with the Rocky picture, it’s not clear who made it, as Trump — who’s been accused of stiffing contractors and who’s dubiously claimed credit for what was, until recently, a strong economy — credited no one. But it is obvious why he shared it: If he seems incapable of delivering a powerful speech that unites everyone against a common foe, and indeed tends to read pre-written speeches like a drugged-up somnambulist, he might as well pretend he can.

Pullman himself didn’t appear to be pleased. The video retains his voice, simply superimposing Trump’s head upon his shoulders. The Hollywood Reporter reached out to him to see what he thought, and he chose his words carefully. “My voice belongs to no one but me, and I’m not running for president — this year,” the actor told them.

Pullman returned to the role of President Thomas J. Whitmore in the 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence, which arrived mere months before Trump was elected actual president. The video, meanwhile, doesn’t stop by inserting Trump into a beloved scene; it also works in such supporters as Sean Hannity, Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, Matt Gaetz, even James Woods, who played a rightwing villain in Independence Day director Roland Emmerich’s 2013 thriller White House Down — his last major role before retiring.

(Via THR)

Nearly three months ago, Pop Smoke was shot and killed in a home invasion. He was only 20 year old. Just like that, a career with a great deal of promise was snatched away from the hip-hop community at its peak. Last week, his manager, Steven Victor, announced that the rapper’s debut album would arrive next month, but the question of who killed him still remains a mystery. It may stay that way for a while: According to TMZ, the LAPD has reportedly hit a few roadblocks in solving the case.

One hurdle: The LAPD has naturally been using most of its resources to fight against the virus. A source tells TMZ that battling the pandemic has been their top priority for the last two months, leaving few resources to crack the case. The source also said that when they have time they do go out and safely conduct face-to-face interviews. Days after the rapper’s death, it was reported that the break-in and the eventually shooting of Pop Smoke was not a robbery gone wrong but rather a targeted hit.

Meanwhile, Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign released a new video for their song “Zoo York,” which featured an appearance from Pop Smoke.

Read our tribute to the late rapper and his legacy here.

Video game football is not like the real deal played in the NFL in fall. In Madden, for example, you’ll see players go for two much more often than you would in the NFL, and games are often see more points than you would in a typical NFL matchup. Saturday’s Madden Bowl, however, saw one of the most fascinating departures from real football we’ve ever had.

Namely, that the best Madden player in the world didn’t throw a single pass in route to winning the tournament. Saturday saw Raidel “Joke” Brito win $65,000 and a Madden belt for his efforts in the annual tournament where he executed a run-only strategy and had Washington punter Tress Way serve as his quarterback, handing the ball off every offensive play en route to a 17-0 win in the final.

As ESPN’s Arda Ocal layed out in detail, the Madden Bowl has a different setup than most of the games you might play against friends. Teams are assembled fantasy football-style, with a salary cap limiting players from getting too stacked a team. But if you don’t value the pass and don’t pick a top quarterback, you can use those assets to build a solid team everywhere else.

Joke did not throw a single pass in the entire tournament, taking advantage of the run-focused meta of the game and his skill to create a championship-winning formula. In the tournament, players crafted their rosters in a salary-cap system, with current and former NFL players available. Joke used this to his advantage, opting not to field a true quarterback in his lineup; Washington Redskins punter Tress Way was under center.

This freed up funds for Joke to go after strong offensive and defensive players with special abilities, such as Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark, a power specialist, and former NFL safety Taylor Mays, a secure tackler. Joke chose the run-dominant Raiders offensive playbook and the widely popular Miami Dolphins defensive playbook to put it all together.

It’s an extremely risky strategy, of course, but Brito is a talented Madden player who clearly made it work. He’d finished at the top of various tournaments all season, and put it all together this weekend to take belt. It was a particularly emotional tournament for Brito, who dedicated the win to Taylor “SpotMe” Robertson, a Madden player and friend who was killed in a tragic shooting at a Madden event in Florida. This year, due to COVID-19, the tournament took place entirely online.

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Ten days removed from his third studio album, Nav has another accolade to add to his list. Landing another No. 1 album, Good Intentions finds itself atop the Billboard album charts. The achievement comes nearly a week after Nav shared the deluxe version of the album, titled Brown Boy 2.

In its opening week, Good Intentions tallied a first-week total of 135,000 equivalent album units. Of that number, 73,000 units were pure album sales, which can be credited to the merchandise and album bundles sold on his website, while 62,000 units came from streaming numbers. The album also serves as XO Records’ second No. 1 album following The Weeknd’s After Hours.

Looking at the rest of the chart, Kehlani earned her highest-charting ever with It Was Good Until It Wasn’t coming in at No. 2 with 83,000 equivalent album units. Her previous high came with her 2017 album, SweetSexySavage which debuted at No. 3 at the time of its release. Slipping down a spot, Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes can be found at No. 3 after a second-week total of 79,000 units. Receiving a boost from his recently released deluxe version for the album, Lil Baby also spends another week in the top-five with My Turn coming in at No. 4 with 72,000 units. Lastly, Lil Durk earns his second top-five album with Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 coming in at No. 5 with 57,000 units.

Other notable albums in the top ten include Bad Bunny’s surprise album Las Que No Iban a Salir at No. 7, Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake at No. 8, and The Weeknd’s After Hours at No. 9.

[via Billboard]

The Last Dance comes to a close on Sunday night with the ninth and tenth episodes of ESPN’s 10-hour documentary on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls. It has been a highly entertaining watch and a welcome escape for sports fans each week, even with the warranted questions about Jordan’s involvement in the production and the impact that’s had on what has (and has not) been presented in the documentary.

As we come to the end of The Last Dance, we wanted to explore some followups we’d want to see from all the footage that didn’t make it into this cut of the doc, as we know there are hundreds more hours of footage and interviews that got left on the cutting room floor. Given that they went with the route of not just looking at the 97-98 season and instead dove into the history of Jordan and the Bulls, there’s a ton that didn’t make it in. Here are five followups we want to see to The Last Dance, starting with one I think everyone hoped would be more prevalent in the documentary.

1. “The Practice Tapes”

I would love for them to cut together hours of Bulls practice footage, because the few snippets they’ve given us have been some of the most interesting — and really the only new information — parts of the whole documentary. I want more Jordan trash talking Scott Burrell and other teammates. I want more Phil Jackson leading yoga and teaching the triangle. Just generally, I want to see more of these practices that have so long been discussed as legendary, when we only got a few minutes of that footage in the documentary.

2. “Jordan’s Wide World Of Golf”

I want all the Michael Jordan golf footage. They teased us with that round in Florida (that was for some reason cut after a practice in Indiana, but whatever). Whether it’s just playing that whole round in its entirety or if they have more Jordan golfing footage we can watch, I’d very much appreciate that. Jordan is a good golfer but not a great one, and there’s something comforting about seeing one of the greatest athletes ever dealing with the same frustrations the rest of us do in trying to master a different sport. Also, I really would like to see more Jordan betting on the golf course, because I’d wager that can escalate things quickly.

3. “Jordan Watches Interviews”

Maybe the most entertaining part of the entire series has been every time they hand Michael Jordan a tablet and have him watch someone else they’ve interviewed talking about him. It’s given us a look at the pure disdain and hate he still has for Isiah Thomas, an extremely condescending “The Glove!” after Gary Payton insists he gave Mike trouble in the 96 Finals, and a rather adorable moment as he watched his mom read a letter he wrote her in college. It’s all been gold and I demand they give us more. They did 106 interviews for this documentary and there’s no reason they can’t just film Jordan working a cigar and glass of tequila, reacting to whatever they have to say about him.

4. “Storytime With Ahmad Rashad”

First, I want a separate documentary about Ahmad Rashad, because his life is absolutely fascinating. Second, I would really just enjoy watching Ahmad Rashad tell stories about Michael Jordan, as there’s probably not many people that know Jordan better or were around him more often than Rashad — I mean, he’s literally riding in Jordan’s car to a playoff game at one point. I highly doubt Rashad would be willing to dive too deep into untold stories, but a fella can dream and if he wanted, Ahmad could definitely give the world some gold.

5. “The World Series Of Poker: Bulls Plane Edition”

Show us the card games, cowards. I know you have the goods, and I want it. Really, I’ll take all the ridiculous Jordan gambling footage you’ve got — plane card games, pitching quarters, and whatever else he would put $1-$100,000 on.