Category: Worldwide

Clint Dempsey is on the short list for the greatest players in USMNT history. He did this despite never being the fastest, or the strongest, or the quickest, or the most skilled person on the pitch. And yet, Dempsey is beloved among those who support the Yanks, thanks in large part to a famous quote given by one of his former managers.

Once asked about what made Dempsey so good, now-former USMNT gaffer Bruce Arena summed it up in three words: “He tries sh*t.”

No three words better explain the ethos of the Toronto Raptors, which are one of two undefeated teams in the NBA’s bubble in Orlando. Unlike the other undefeated side — the wonderful Phoenix Suns — it’s no surprise that Toronto has raced out to this sort of peerless record.

Ok, so that’s not quite right. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn’t think the Raptors would be a good team this year. They are, of course, the defending NBA champions, and while they lost two starters off of that squad, a number of pieces of that core remained. Having said that, the players they lost were really good — Danny Green was a very respectable 3-and-D wing who could get scorching hot from deep and always competed on the other end of the floor, while Kawhi Leonard tossed his hat into the “best player in the world” discussion during last year’s playoffs.

Yet Toronto sits at 49-18, the third-best record in the league and five games back of the Milwaukee Bucks for first place in the Eastern Conference. They’ve been the best team in the bubble thus far, picking up comfortable wins over the Lakers and Magic with a hard-fought win over the Heat squeezed in between. And in every game they’ve played this season, the Raptors have carried themselves like champions, even after losing the pair of aforementioned starters this past offseason.

That aforementioned quote is one that can apply to this Toronto squad just as easily as it applied to the guy who did this. Head coach Nick Nurse is willing to have his team try just about anything that might help them win a game — they busted out a box-and-one during the NBA Finals! — and more importantly, the entire roster is totally bought into the fact that they might need to sometimes do funky things to win.

Added to this is that the Raptors are an extremely smart, extremely versatile basketball team, something that is evident on both ends of the floor. On offense, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet are two of the savviest point guards in the league, while Marc Gasol’s passing is still top notch for a player of his size. Few, if any, teams are scarier in transition than Toronto, which get up and down the floor better than anyone else in the league. This is a luxury that’s afforded when Gasol can rip down a rebound and pick a pass, or Lowry can get the ball and somehow know exactly what to do, or guys like Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby take off and beat defenses down the floor. They’re fourth in the league in three-point shooting percentage, and while they’re 12th in the league in offensive efficiency, they have a whole bunch of smart passers and cutters who can free up space on the perimeter.

The thing that makes Toronto so good, though, is what it can do on defense. Playing basketball against them seems like an absolutely miserable experience. Everyone they throw out is either really, really good on that end of the floor, or competes like someone who wants to be really, really good on that end of the floor.

Anunoby and Siakam are two of the most versatile defensive wings in the league. Lowry and VanVleet are pitbulls who seem to take joy in annoying the hell out of opposing players (one of the funniest things that happens is when big men think they can back Lowry down and just … can’t). Gasol has lost a step, but might be the smartest defensive big in the sport and is a gigantic human who knows how to use his size to his advantage. Serge Ibaka isn’t the shot-erasing big he was at the start of his career, but he still can protect the rim admirably. Some of their ancillary guys — Chris Boucher, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Stanley Johnson, Terence Davis — will battle on that end of the floor in the minutes they get. Boucher is especially fun, because he is 6’9 with a 7’4 wingspan and really enjoys doing stuff like this.

It helps that Toronto doesn’t defend as a bunch of individuals as much as they defend as a five-person unit. The controlled urgency that everyone on the court has at a given time is something to behold, as is their willingness to try and make opposing teams completely confused — on a recent edition of “The Lowe Post,” ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz perfectly explained their approach as “guerrilla warfare.” As the Houston Rockets have shown, chaos can be a winning approach if you’re dictating what is happening. The difference between the Rockets and the Raptors is that the former’s brand of chaos is incumbent on hitting a whole lot of threes. The latter’s brand of chaos is incumbent on having players who can make it work. Threes don’t always fall, but Toronto always has the players it needs to tilt the odds in its favor by dictating how a game will play out, because they are extremely willing to try sh*t.

This makes for an interesting dynamic come the postseason. The Raptors are all but locked into the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference and should be able to handle one of Brooklyn or Orlando fairly easily in the first round before a second-round tilt against, as things stand now, Boston or Philadelphia, two teams they play in the bubble during the lead-up to the postseason. Toronto is better than all the teams it could face in the first two rounds, even if a fully-healthy and fully-function Sixers side (odds of this happening four times in seven games: no) can give them problems and the Celtics are a tremendous defensive team in their own right.

But to win the East, all roads run through Milwaukee. Yes, the Bucks are the best team in basketball, and yes, they are 2-0 against the Raptors this season, although they play one another on Aug. 10. The thing with Milwaukee, though, is that it’s very much a squad that is dependent on being in a certain rhythm. The calculus is that their ability to efficiently hammer teams in the paint and the sheer number of shots they will take from downtown, in addition to having the league’s stingiest defense, makes them impossible to beat four times in seven games. If any team can find a way to gum up the works and make it extremely difficult to get into that rhythm, though, it just might be a confident Raptors team that kept them from getting coronated despite taking a 2-0 lead in the last Eastern Conference Finals. The big question, of course, is whether the combination of Anunoby/Siakam/whomever else can somewhat replicate the defense that Leonard played on Giannis Antetokounmpo last postseason, and if they can, the thought of Toronto winning the East for the second year in the row suddenly gets a whole lot less absurd.

For much of the season, the thought has been that the Bucks would win the East, even if some teams could give them headaches come postseason. That still may happen, but despite losing the reigning NBA Finals MVP, the Raptors have done an admirable job coming up with ways to position themselves as Milwaukee’s top challenger. With the swagger they boast, both due to their current run of form and the pride this group obviously takes in being champions, and their willingness to try whatever sh*t they need to in order to win, Toronto just might be able to make it to the Finals again.

The Bay Area may have another hot-shooting tandem to watch out for with the release of Rexx Life Raj‘s inspirational new single, “Bounce Back,” on which he receives the assist from another NorCal superstar, G-Eazy. The nostalgic and motivational song find both Bay Area rappers looking back on rough times in their life and their eventual “bounce back” to being the flourishing entertainers they are today.

On G-Eazy’s verse, he remembers his first meeting with E-40, his first failures at breaking into the rap game, and his eventual glow-up, in which he “Steph Curry’d the sport, taking shots from half court.” Meanwhile, Raj gets personal, recounting his parents’ struggles with cancer and his work on the football field, which built up his vital internal strength to handle the challenges life threw his way.

There’s a lot of basketball imagery on “Bounce Back” — even its YouTube visualizer features a closeup shot from under a basketball hoop as shots fall in and planes cruise by overhead — but there’s a good reason for that. The song has been licensed by ESPN for use in the network’s NBA programming this bubble-bound season appearing in commercials and on flagship shows Sportscenter and First Take.

As Raj explains in the press release, “What’s crazy is initially the record was for G featuring someone else. I wrote the hook as a reference for a bigger artist to sing. About a year went by and then I heard G’s team played it for ESPN and they loved it. The rest is history.”

Listen to Rexx Life Raj’s “Bounce Back” featuring G-Eazy above.

It has been over two months since the death of George Floyd, which sparked intense conversations about race and law enforcement in the US and worldwide. A lot of musicians made some art in response to everything going on, one of them being Anderson .Paak. He dropped a new song called “Lockdown,” and now he’s doing his best to keep the conversation going with a new remix of the song, which features JID, Noname, and Jay Rock.

JID comes in after .Paak’s intro, saying in his verse, “Have you had your coffee this evening, Karen? / ‘Cause you seem a little off / All the Black girls missin’ and endin’ up inside the coffins / But you mad when they ‘#BlackLivesMatter’ on front your sidewalks.”

Noname comes next, rapping, “Uh, maybe this round two / Government cinematic, American drive-through / Eat their apple pie in the mornin’ and bury the strange fruit / Then marry the strange fruit and call it the Black love.” She goes on to address the death of Trayvon Martin, saying, “We seen ’em murder the indigenous, the passage middle / The Constitution, a life for a bag of Skittles?”

Jay Rock arrives on the track third, and his verse features lyrics like, “Turn on your tube, dawg, look how they do us / Knee on our necks, bullets in backs / Stimulus checks strictly for blacks?”

Listen to the “Lockdown” remix above.

It’s been a rather eventful first week around the NBA bubble. Certain teams, like the Phoenix Suns, have shocked us with their unlikely success in Orlando, while others have unfortunately found themselves in free-fall after a string of bad luck that has threatened their prospects beyond the eight seeding games.

Regardless, the enterprise has mostly been a success, with the league reporting this week that none of the 343 players involved have tested positive for COVID-19 since their arrival at the Disney World campus, raising the specter of hope about potentially moving forward with a plan that could involve the remaining teams not currently participating in the restart.

On Monday, news emerged that for those eight remaining teams — Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Charlotte, Detroit, Golden State, Minnesota, and New York — there was growing pessimism about the possibility of them heading to a second bubble location to train or participating in in-market minicamps before the start of the following season, which is tentatively slated to kick off sometime in December.

According to the latest report from Sam Amick of The Athletic, the NBA is apparently considering bringing those teams to the bubble in Orlando.

Sources say the NBA has been exploring that possibility for quite some time now, and that the idea was raised most recently on the aforementioned governors call. And in some ways, it makes perfect sense.

As NBPA executive director Michele Roberts has made clear all along, the union has been skeptical of any basketball setting that doesn’t match the Orlando approach in terms of precautions and protocol. But starting on Aug. 17, when six teams go home and the 16-team playoffs begin, space will be opening up inside this three-hotel, three-court, (seemingly) COVID-free community they have created.

With the current schedule, there would be a significantly abbreviated offseason between the current season and the 2021 season. The Finals are slated for early November, with the league shooting to begin the new season sometime in December. For those teams not currently in Orlando, that would make nearly nine months without basketball. Whether this comes to fruition or not remains to be seen, but it’s at least a way for those eight squads to get some of the rust off before next year tips off.

(Via The Athletic)

Hearing the energetic, cheerful laugh of Seth Rogen ring through the phone is as delightful of an experience as one would expect. Rogen hopped on the line with us this week to discuss how he’s currently starring in dual (and dueling) lead roles in HBO Max’s first original feature film, An American Pickle. You’ve probably heard that he portrays a 1920s Jewish immigrant (Herschel Greenbaum), who falls into a pickle vat and wakes up a century later (perfectly “brined” and preserved) to meet his great-grandson (Ben). The film’ is farcical and fantastical, and the seltzer scene probably isn’t the only thing that will remind you of a certain 1990s movie where the lead characters “wheezed the juice.”

An American Pickle is both a joyful and a soulful ride, and it’s also ultimately a meditation on what it means to be a Jew. While some of his promotion for the movie (a certain Marc Maron interview) raised eyebrows regarding Israel, Rogen has already set the record straight there, but beyond interviews, it’s clear that Rogen isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers with his work (remember The Interview?). Yet thoughtfully looking at his films in the rearview mirror is simply something that Rogen’s grown accustomed to doing. He realizes that The Interview could have used more oversight. He has also admitted to regretting one joke in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and in the years since Knocked Up, he’s addressed Katherine Heigl’s concerns that the film is a little bit sexist.

That’s the danger of comedy, you know. Sometimes jokes don’t age all that well, and times change, so one had best not fall into a pickle vat for a century, or there’s a rude awakening coming. Yet a certain Seth Rogen movie, Pineapple Express, still stands unvarnished. That little stoner flick that turned into a blockbuster can seemingly do no wrong, so I couldn’t resist asking about it a lot. And in the process, we (of course) talked about the making of An American Pickle and how (surprisingly enough) Rogen still feels “slightly traumatized” about film reviews after all these years.

I always like to start out a little bit awkward.

Perfect!

So I’m going to offer you congratulations on the twelfth anniversary of Pineapple Express.

Is today really the anniversary? I guess it is! Well, it came out on August 8, actually.

Close enough! Work with me, or this is gonna be all Pineapple Express questions.

[Laughs]

You know, that movie’s still perfectly preserved with no controversy or regrets surrounding it at all. Do you think maybe it’s a good thing that it hasn’t been “ruined” by a sequel?

Yeah, probably. But it is like an action movie. I would say that action movies have a good, well, let’s just say this: as bad of a track record as comedies have for making sequels, action comedies actually don’t have a terrible track record for making sequels. That is the one thing that makes me say that maybe there’s a possibility for getting a good sequel to that film. But it’s still not something that we’re actively working on or planning on actively working on anytime soon.

You do have a habit of tweeting movie trivia for your tenth anniversaries, like with that movie and Superbad. What trivia do you think you’ll be tweeting about ten years after An American Pickle?

Oh man, who knows! I’ll be like, “This is all before we all lived in underground bunkers, and we’re trying to send Bruce Willis back to crack the code of Twelve Monkeys.” That’s what I think I’ll be saying, ten years from now.

When you’re producing projects (and you produce a lot these days), what makes you decide that you want to take a lead role, let alone two of them?

I think if it just seems like I would be additive to the process and people want me to be part of the process and it’s something that people would respond to, those types of things. I have no agenda there, and if anything, I like producing things that I’m not in because it’s good for our production company to be able to maintain the precedent that we can do that. But yeah, mostly it’s the same way I make every other decision, where if it’s a movie that if I saw in theaters, I’d be like, “Fuck, why wasn’t I in that movie?” Then I wanna be in that movie.

Have you ever doubled back after the fact with some regret? Like, “Man, I should have played Homelander in The Boys!”

Ummmmmm, no. I’m trying to think… no, nothing specifically. There are things that we’ve made that are great, and the very petty part of me wishes that I was in them to share that glory, but I’m ultimately okay with how it all turned out.

In American Pickle, did you film all of one part and then the rest?

Yeah. I didn’t want to wear the fake beard too long, that was the major thing. That one simple decision dictated it. I just think they look bad, and it’s restrictive for the actor, and there’s so much suspension of disbelief required to watch this movie anyway that I thought, like, visually, whatever we could do to make the audience just not even think about the fact that I was playing both roles and playing two different characters, well, we should do that. And I just know that a fake beard, subconsciously, makes people, well, you can just tell it’s there.

With the movie gestating so long (because you and Simon Rich started thinking about it back in 2007), when it came time to make the movie, were you overly concerned about updating things?

To some degree, but I think with this movie more than our other movies, we wanted it to feel kind of timeless. With Long Shot, it was political, so we felt like it really exist in a world that acknowledged today’s political climate, like, heavily. But with this, it’s a little bit more of a fairy tale, and while we wanted nods to certain elements of today, we also didn’t want to anchor it too firmly in any time other than modern time.

Well, you lucked out with that super-timely Kanye reference.

Yeah, luckily, I think that will be a long-lasting reference! [Laughs]

In any given year, you could probably throw that into a movie, and it would work.

We made that joke two years ago, and I think that’s honestly when that came up.

So, if Herschel had arrived right now in the middle of what we’re going through, with all the knowledge that he gains, what do you think he would say?

What’s funny is that the flu pandemic was in 1919, which is when the movie started, so he actually might be comforted by how little has changed over the years!

Now, I refreshed myself on your Marc Maron podcast interview. Oh god, I always mispronounce his name, and I just did it again.

Mar-oan. [Laughs] You Steven Sea-gal-ed him!

Look at me, sounding like John Travolta. This is marvelous.

Steven Sea-gal, Marc Mar-oan!

Everyone’s talking about that podcast, and you know why. Otherwise, here’s the line that stuck out for me: “I worry about people writing mean things about me.” Does that ever get easier to deal with over time?

Not really. Reviews are always stressful, mostly because I want our movies to be viewed as good! And that is the thing that worries me almost more than anything: “Will this movie be viewed as a good movie or a bad movie?” And that doesn’t always mean that it has to have 100% great reviews. Like Pineapple Express I think is in the mid-60s, and I think it’s one of the best movies we’ve made, so I don’t look at that and think, “Well, that movie is like 30% worse than The Disaster Artist!”

For sure, but Pineapple Express is still clearly beloved for many reasons.

So, I don’t have like a 1-to-1 relationship with it like that. And often what’s interesting is that you can’t even tell for five years if a movie actually is good and has stood the test of time. That’s really when you know is if people are still watching it and talking about it and enjoying it, but in general, no, honestly, I am still slightly traumatized by some experiences that I’ve had with my movies just being trashed. And that has nothing to do with the Marc Maron stuff. Like that, I’m okay with. If I say something, and everyone loses their minds because of it, then that’s par for the course for me and something that I never complain about. Not that I’m complaining about this, but that doesn’t weigh on me as much as my work being viewed as good or bad.

Does it freak you out a little bit to upset certain heads of state like with North Korea, or to ruffle feathers in Israel?

Again, to me, I understand what true controversy is, and this is not true controversy.

Your words got sliced-and-diced and moved around and cut-and-pasted.

Yeah, and after the interview, as long as the U.N. isn’t getting involved, and like, the president isn’t dedicating entire press conferences to it, I don’t consider it to be that huge of a controversy.

An American Pickle itself isn’t controversial. It’s wrapped up as a comedy but also with a lot of deep themes like grief and trauma. That’s a lot to balance.

I mean, I hope it went well. It was a modulation and a topic of constant conversation, and you just have to be very aware of the experience that you hope the viewer is having, and put yourself in the shoes of the audience member and just try to be highly aware of what they would be experiencing. But in general, I find that people — I’m amazed at how quickly people, if it’s done well, people can change gears very quickly. They can be in the middle of a very sad scene and laugh at a joke, or they can be in the middle of a funny scene and quickly shift to being sad if something happens. And again, there’s a skill required in making those sharp turns, but audiences will go along with them if you do them right.

Things ultimately went well for Herschel. If you could move him into another movie, what would it be?

Whoa, one movie for Herschel. That’s a good… I mean, he would probably do well and fit seamlessly fit into Fiddler on the Roof. Or Yentl. We watched Yentl at the end of the movie, so I would like to see Herschel in that. Is Mandy Patinkin in Yentl?

Yep, he sure is.

Yes, and I do feel like I’m going to age into a very Mandy Patinkin-esque figure, so that also works well.

HBO Max’s ‘An American Pickle’ is streaming now.

The internet is still buzzing in the wake of the high-profile collaboration between Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion but their’s isn’t the only big-name collaboration released Friday. Kali Uchis tapped Rico Nasty for an unexpected project which resulted in the sultry and smooth number “Aquí Yo Mando.”

Uchis is known for her subdued and swooning vocals but the singer takes the front seat on the new single. Teetering between Spanish and English lyrics, the singer delivers her confident verses: “Yo tomo las decisiones, yo escojo las posiciones / Puedes tener los cojones, pero yo los pantalones.” A rhythmic beat provided by Latin producer Tainy swells under Nasty’s feature, who delivers tongue-in-cheek musings about knowing what she wants. “I had no business, I’m bossy, yo quiero diamonds, I’m facíl / They wanna know what it cost me, de esas perras, me cansé,” she raps.

The collaboration arrives after both artists have had a fairly prolific year. Uchis unveiled the four-track EP To Feel Alive in order to hold fans over until she’s ready for a bigger release and Nasty has been steadily debuting singles, the gritty track “Dirty” being her latest.

Listen to “Aquí Yo Mando” above.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Coming off her well-received debut EP Industry Games earlier this year, Alabama MC Chika returns with her first new single, the lushly-produced “U Should.” Building on the flirtatious energy of her early 2020 single “Can’t Explain It,” “U Should” finds Chika preparing to shoot her shot, singing and rapping over a string-filled beat that opens with a smooth acoustic guitar and builds to sweeping orchestral flourishes, mirroring the emotional roller coaster of a new crush.

“U Should” is featured in Netflix’s upcoming superhero noir, Project Power. The film stars Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and premieres next Friday, August 14. The film follows an unlikely pairing of protagonists in pursuit of the same goal; the supplier of a drug that gives users superpowers for five minutes, but may result in dangerous overdoses that cause those powers to fatally backfire.

Chika’s profile has risen considerably during the last few months, both as a result of her excellent EP and due to her social activism during uprisings against police brutality over the summer. She documented being detained at a protest in Los Angeles after slipping her restraints to retrieve her cell phone. She also called out other artists for exploiting the protests for personal profit. But now, the focus is back on her music — right where it should be, as she lives up to the potential that Cardi B declared in her with a confident co-sign.

Press play on Chika’s “U Should” above.

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

The NBA restart is now officially one week old, with most every team having played four games and halfway through their seeding round schedule. After night one, we somewhat jokingly took stock of the All-Bubble teams, but with a week of action under our belts, it’s actually a good time to take a step back and highlight the individual players that have been thriving in Orlando.

Putting together these squads is actually really difficult given the incredible caliber of play we’ve seen out of the Disney campus. On top of that, there are some truly eye-popping numbers being produced, and balancing some of those numbers with team performance makes for some very tricky decisions. As noted last time, it’s my list so my rules, and as such I go with two guard spots and three frontcourt spots, instead of having one place reserved for true centers.

There were, certainly, some tough choices to be made and some players off to tremendous starts — like De’Aaron Fox, Paul George, Jaylen Brown, and more — just fall shy of making the cut. The depth of the league has been on full display in Orlando and there have been some pleasant surprise performances, stars that have asserted their dominance, and just generally great basketball being played. Without further ado, the Week 1 NBA All-Bubble squads.

First Team All-Bubble

G: Devin Booker (28 ppg, 6.5 apg, 3.8 rpg; 47.4/40/90.3 shooting)

The Suns are 4-0 and are in the hunt for the Western Conference playoffs in large part due to the play of Devin Booker. He’s looked spectacular in the bubble, scoring with great efficiency, being a facilitator when needed, and hitting clutch buckets. His numbers aren’t as gaudy as some, but given Phoenix’s play, I can’t justify leaving him off the first team right now.

G: Damian Lillard (31.3 ppg, 11.3 apg, 5 rpg; 45.1/43.8/85.7 shooting)

Honestly a toss up between Lillard and Harden right now for this spot, but I give the slight edge to Dame because of the stakes for Portland (similar to what Booker’s doing for Phoenix) and because he has the head-to-head win between the two. This is a Blazers team that needs every bit of Lillard’s scoring to get to the playoffs and he’s delivered, most recently with an 11-three outing to topple the Nuggets and pull within a half-game of Memphis for the 8-seed.

F: T.J. Warren (33.8 ppg, 7 rpg, 2.8 apg; 58.7/53.6/85.7 shooting)

With Sabonis out and Victor Oladipo still trying to work his way back into All-Star form, the Pacers have followed the lead of T.J. Warren, the bubble’s leading score in a tie with Harden, to a 3-1 start. His 53 points in the opener was eye-popping, but he’s been the driving force for the Indiana offense in all four games. What will be interesting is how he performs going forward after the Suns showed Thursday how teams will attack him now to try and force others on Indiana to beat them, as his old squad held him to 16 points.

F: Giannis Antetokounmpo (30.3 ppg, 12.8 rpg, 5.8 apg; 68.6/33.3/60.6 shooting)

After losing to the Nets and falling behind by 23 in the first half of Thursday’s tilt with a Butler-less Heat team, there were a lot of people wondering what was wrong with the Bucks. The answer, as we learned in the second half, was maybe as simple as a team needing to flip the switch as they dominated Miami. Giannis got to the rim at will, as he was 12-for-12 at the rim (and 13-for-13 from two-point range overall in the game) and the Bucks defense suddenly tightened up after looking rough for the first 3.5 games of the bubble. Maybe that first half finally woke up a sleeping giant, but Giannis has been performing at his usual MVP caliber throughout.

F: Joel Embiid (32.7 ppg, 13.7 rpg, 4 apg; 58.3/11.1/81.8 shooting)

The Sixers are officially the Joel Embiid show now that Ben Simmons is out indefinitely with a knee injury, and to this point he’s carried that load impressively through three games, pushing Philly to back-to-back wins. He’s leading the bubble in rebounding and you can add 1.7 steals and 1.7 blocks per game to that stat line as he does a little of everything to keep the Sixers hopes of vaulting out of the 6-seed alive.

Second Team All-Bubble

G: James Harden (33.8 ppg, 9 apg, 7.5 rpg; 52.9/35.9/88.7 shooting)

Look, he’s a first teamer and the moment the Suns lose if he’s still doing this it’s he and Dame at the top, but for now he finds himself here simply because of the spectacular play of Booker and Lillard. Harden is doing exactly what he’s done for years now in Houston, and on Thursday he was unleashed further against the Lakers as Houston sat Russell Westbrook. He had 39 and 12 to lead the way, and his three steals per game is tops in the bubble, too, as he is thoroughly enjoying himself in the Rockets small-ball havoc defense.

G: Fred VanVleet (23.3 ppg, 8.3 apg, 4.7 rpg; 52.5/50/94.1 shooting)

Is 50/50/90 good? Yes, yes it is. FVV is going to get paid very handsomely soon and he’s proving he only further proving he can be an offensive leader for one of the league’s best teams. He leads the Raptors in scoring and assists, taking on a leading role as teams try to send attention to Siakam and Lowry, with his most impressive effort coming against the Heat on Monday. Fun fact, Toronto’s defensive rating in the bubble is 96.1 and the average in the bubble is over 112. They’re absurd on that end and VanVleet is a part of their terrifying defensive attack too.

F: Luka Doncic (32.8 ppg, 11 rpg, 9.8 apg; 47.8/29/75.6 shooting)

I’m not even going to pretend to know how to appropriately judge scoring for Mavs players given their games are effectively All-Star games every night, but, I mean, what Doncic is doing is an absolute joke. That man is currently Sisyphus pushing a boulder up the hill while the Mavs attempt to win games solely on the offensive end because they have apparently taken an oath from even considering partaking in a defense. So far that’s not resulted in wins (1-3 to open the bubble) but it’s sure been entertaining.

F: Michael Porter Jr. (26.3 ppg, 10 rpg, 1.5 apg; 57.8/50/94.1 shooting)

The rookie forward for the Nuggets has nearly put together three straight 30 point outings, with 27 against Portland on Thursday, and he has given life to a Denver team that has yet to play its starting backcourt together in the bubble. As Jamal Murray continues to sit, Porter has taken on a major scoring load and is doing so with tremendous efficiency. This was always the ceiling for MPJ as an elite scorer, should his health and shot selection both come around, and if this continues once the Nuggets get to full strength they will pose some serious problems in the playoffs. Now, we just need to get the young man to log off a bit more. Good at basketball, bad at science.

F: Jusuf Nurkic (22 ppg, 11 rpg, 4.3 apg; 48.5/16.7/95.8 shooting)

It is genuinely great to see Nurk back on the floor and not just looking healthy but looking dominant. The Blazers have desperately needed his presence inside, and with him back in there Portland is firing on all cylinders. Nurkic isn’t a great defender in space, but he’s a serious presence at the rim, averaging 3.0 blocks per game in the bubble, and he adds such a different dynamic to this Blazers team that, along with the play of Lillard and C.J. McCollum, is why Portland is suddenly right in the mix for the 8-seed.

Third Team All-Bubble

G: Chris Paul (20.7 ppg, 7 apg, 5.7 rpg; 57.5/40/92.3 shooting)

The Point God is up to his old tricks in the bubble, as he has the Thunder clipping along at a great pace with two wins in three games as they continue to be one of the league’s most pleasant surprises this season. Everyone on OKC is chipping in on both ends, like a slightly lesser version of the Raptors two-way, egalitarian play, but Paul is the one leading the way and giving this team its edge and identity.

G: Kyle Lowry (18.3 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 7 apg; 36.4/44.4/85.2 shooting)

Speaking of giving a team its edge and identity, it’s Kyle Lowry! He’s not finishing as well as he’d like in the bubble, but he is doing everything else for this Raptors team. He’s the leader of the bubble’s best team, is somehow seventh in rebounding in the bubble with the next shortest guy in the top-10 being Doncic, and sets the tone at the point of attack for the NBA’s best defense. His numbers aren’t as wild as some, but his impact is as big as anyone in the bubble.

F: Kawhi Leonard (27.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 4.3 apg; 43.4/50/86.1 shooting)

Kawhi and Paul George have almost identical numbers, with Kawhi just edging his teammate in every category. As such, he lands here, but you can basically combine them for this spot. The two stars for the Clippers have had to really carry the load as their bench unit tries to find its rhythm without some key pieces and with guys like Lou Williams just getting back on the floor. The results have been mixed for the team, but Leonard and George’s play has to produce some optimism going into the playoffs provided they get the usual production from the rest of the supporting cast.

F: Kristaps Porzingis (30.3 ppg, 10 rpg, 2.5 apg; 45.8/29.6/88.1 shooting)

Again, the Mavs historic offense and their horrific defense have kind of broken my brain. These are absurd numbers, even accounting for a 4-game sample, but the team is 1-3 and Porzingis (like Doncic) have plenty to do with Dallas’ defensive woes. Still, they’re the only reason they are in games, although both have had serious struggles late in games hitting shots as evidenced by their three-point percentage. I wouldn’t argue with anyone that wants to vote someone else in in this spot like PG, AD, Ayton, or someone else, but 30 and 10 are some wild numbers.

F: Nikola Jokic (20.5 ppg, 10 apg, 7 rpg; 48.4/23.5/85.7 shooting)

It really is kind of wild that the Nuggets are 2-2 given their backcourt rotation thus far, and point Jokic is a big reason for their success. His 10 assists per game leads the team, as he’s served as the table-setter for the Denver offense in an even greater way than usual. He’s not hitting threes yet, but everything else has been vintage Joker.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

It took Aminé over two years to complete his sophomore album. You wouldn’t think it to look at the tracklist, a trim 14 tracks, including one interlude. It’s an anomaly in today’s rap release climate, where seemingly every major star drops off 20-plus tracks per project, then follows up a month later with 10 more “deluxe” edition throwaways. In contrast, Limbo — the title of Aminé’s second official studio album — is a refreshing throwback to the days when artists still cared about a vision more than streams and Billboard.

However, were it not for Aminé’s 2018 EP/Mixtape OnePointFive, he wouldn’t have been able to create Limbo. Today’s constant content churn would never have allowed him to insist on recording all the album’s features in person with his various collaborators. On a Zoom call to discuss the creation of the project, Aminé related holding onto the beat for “Roots,” against JID’s insistence that he text it for over six months. This is the kind of patience that yields tremendous results and Limbo’s finished product is all the evidence you’d need to prove it’s an objectively better way to record than just emailing files back and forth.

Aminé first displayed his tendency toward artistic perfectionism with his 2017 debut album Good For You. Aside from diligently detailing the aesthetics he wanted for the rollout, he also resisted the urge to chase the success of his breakout single “Caroline” with a dozen or so clones. Every song on Good For You has its own concept or story, and all the songs together create a multifaceted reflection of the artist himself. He even accompanied the project’s unveiling with a clever complement: At various release parties throughout the country, he gave away copies of a complete newspaper filled with articles written by his friends, family, and Aminé himself.

And while the overall tone of the project was breezy, sunny, and upbeat, Aminé wasn’t afraid to tackle heavier subject matter from oblique angles, like “Turf” and its empathetic view of the ongoing gentrification of Aminé’s hometown, Portland. On Limbo, he repeats the feat with “Becky,” a glittering, soulful meditation on race relations that remains timely despite being the first song recorded for the project two years ago. Switching from his mischievous rap flow to a ‘70s soul-influenced croon, Aminé frames his racial rumination around a piece of near-universal advice for Black kids everywhere: “Mama said, ‘Don’t ever bring a white girl home to me.’”

On our call, he told me that it wasn’t only about the inherent complexities of interracial dating so much as it was a reminisce on growing up Black in Portland — a nearly objectively dangerous proposition in any decade (seriously, look up the history of the city as a bastion of white supremacy). But that’s the way Aminé approaches the writing throughout the album. On the perky single “Riri,” what sounds like an ode to a pretty, potential lady friend is really an indictment of said would-be paramour, who’s broken Aminé’s heart not just once, but three times.

Likewise, “Fetus” featuring Injury Reserve and the last verse from late member Stepa J. Groggs finds Aminé struggling with the prospect of fatherhood — not because of his own personal readiness, but because of the state of a world where “They givin’ guns with every muthaf*ckin’ Happy Meal.” The content throughout the album is mature and thoughtful, but never heavy-handed or preachy, lending itself to multiple play-throughs to appreciate the sparkling production, then the ear-gripping choruses, and finally, Aminé’s improved pen game throughout.

Aminé said he was most proud of that latter aspect, often re-writing verses over and over to ensure there were no weaknesses in his bar work. Again, that perfectionism is on display most with his battle-rapping Ol’ Dirty Bastard homage “Shimmy,” on which he shouts out actor Dennis Haysbert with one of the funniest lines of the year, reminds his competition to pay their taxes, and flips a reference to classic Black cinema into an urge to check out one of the most pioneering musicians in African music. No weak links or smudges on this pristine chain.

From paying homage to Kobe Bryant on the swaggering “Woodlawn” to loving on his matriarch alongside soul legend Charlie Wilson on “Mama,” Aminé proves his gifts over and over on Limbo. Although he describes the album as a “mid-life crisis,” it’s much more akin to a coming-of-age for the 26-year-old star — and he is a star, because Limbo is going to make him one. The Portland performer is the definition of an artist who genuinely cares about his craft, putting in the time, the work, and the patience to deliver a concise statement that goes against the grain. The title of Limbo may not be a reference to the party game, but the album sets the bar for an album that will have an impact long after those first-week streams are tallied up.

Limbo is out now via Republic Records. Get it here.

Taylor Swift has been known to hide easter eggs in her music, and she has done so on her new album, Folklore. The album features a song called “Betty,” and in the lyrics, Swift sings about multiple characters. Now, Swift has confirmed who these fictional people are named after.

Swift was introducing the song on Country Radio and explained the meaning behind it, saying:

“He lost the love of his love, basically, and doesn’t understand how to get it back. I think we all have these situations in our lives where we learn to really, really give a heartfelt apology for the first time. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody really misses up sometimes. This is a song that I wrote from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy. I’ve always loved that in music you can kind of slip into different identities, and you can sing from other people’s perspectives. So that’s what I did on this one. And I named all the characters in this story after my friends’ kids, and I hope you like it.”

Two of the names that Swift mentions in the song are those of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ daughters, Inez and James, the latter of whom previously featured on Swift’s “Gorgeous.” These name-drops had fans convinced that “Betty” revealed the name of Lively and Reynolds’ third child, which neither the couple nor Swift have confirmed. Lively did share a congratulatory message upon the release of Folklore, though, writing, “Can we all please crawl inside that piano with you and live in this album… Like you, Folklore is full of heart, soul, humour, passion, intelligence, wit, whimsy, reality, imagination, strength, vulnerability, and above all things: Love.”

Read our review of Folklore here.