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After five weeks and ten episode — along with however many other countless hours went into putting it all together — The Last Dance reached its conclusion on Sunday evening. The final two editions of our look back on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls focused on both of their NBA Finals victories over the Utah Jazz, and in between, we got a whole lot of Reggie Miller, pizza, and Steve Kerr.

As we’ve done all series, we’re taking a page out of the playbook from our friends over at With Spandex and borrowing the Best and Worst format as we recap the episodes. For the final time, at least until we get a docuseries on another NBA dynasty, let us dive in.

Best: Reggie Miller

It has become very popular to hate Reggie Miller, the broadcaster, which is a bad take because Reggie Miller genuinely loves basketball and makes that clear during games, something that cannot be said about most color commentators on national broadcasts. Part of this is also because Reggie Miller made it very easy to hate him when he was a player, as he was the ultimate irritant. He flopped and talked and hit preposterous shots before preening and jumping around at the crowd. Reggie was a tremendous nuisance, but he also was an incredible player and is an excellent storyteller.

Having Reggie open this week’s episodes by talking about his battles with Michael Jordan — and having Jordan watch his 1993 fight with Reggie — was terrific. No one is more comfortable with admitting how annoying they were than Reggie, who happily smiles and notes he gave Jordan “a little shove” before his incredible game-winner in the ’98 conference finals. Reggie was a terrific sports villain but that only worked because he was so good as a player, all while being obnoxious, that you wanted to see him get his comeuppance. Unfortunately for Reggie, that happened often in the postseason, but to his credit he’ll always talk about those moments with a rather clear perspective that’s rarely given by those that have been in his position.

Best: Black Jesus

Imagine, for a moment, being so good at anything that you can call yourself Black Jesus and then Reggie Miller refers to you as such for the rest of your life. That’d be pretty cool, right?

Best: That one Pacers fan who is NOT related to Luke Kornet

Hey we got a meme out of all of this that did not involve Michael Jordan! This one Indiana Pacers fan, who is not Chicago Bulls center Luke Kornet’s mom, Tracy, despite a joke that she made on Twitter. Some examples:

Good meme!

Best: Destroying Larry Bird

I don’t really have anything else to say about this other than there’s nothing more pure than a friendship that involves two people that can say things like this two each other, mid-dap, and keep it moving.

Worst: Pizza

The “Flu Game” is, as Jordan, his trainer, and friend insist, really the “Bad Pizza Game.” I’m very skeptical of believing this is the truth, if for no other reason than some of the details of this whole thing seem fishy. For one, Jordan insists he ate the whole pizza and “no one else” did.

In a vacuum, this is understandable. Hell, it’s downright relatable right now in quarantine-land. However, Tim Grover says he thought it was fishy five guys delivered the pizza and even said so, so you’d think Mike would have one of his buddies take one for the team and see if the pizza was OK. Beyond that, why did they order a pizza and make it clear it was for Jordan while in Utah, knowing that would open them up to some potential foul play. Either they were all terrible decision-makers or something else was in play here. Who is to say?

Worst: Bryon Russell

He trash talked Michael Jordan while Jordan was still playing baseball.

[oh no baby what is you doing dot jpeg]

Best: Scott Burrell

You will never believe this, but there were multiple instances of Michael Jordan ripping on Bulls teammate Scott Burrell in this, including this:

God bless Scott Burrell for putting up with MJ for years and laughing the entire time. I am very glad that he is a normal, well-adjusted human after all of this.

Best: Steve Kerr

It can sometimes get lost in the fact that he’s the coach of the NBA’s current evil empire, but man, Steve Kerr rules. As a player, he was exactly what the Bulls needed for that second three-peat, a perfectly respectable role player who was always there for the team when called upon, no matter how rare that may be. He also got punched in the face by Jordan and seemed relatively cool with him, so god bless him.

Episode 9 dove a bit into Kerr’s backstory, which not enough people know, because it is tragic. Kerr’s father, Malcolm, was a fascinating man, as Dave Zirin of The Nation explained in a quick thread. The fact that Kerr’s family went through a tragedy the magnitude of his father’s murder (do a quick search for “Steve Kerr Arizona State,” it’s not great!) and did not become a total misanthrope, instead becoming one of the league’s more graceful and thoughtful people, really is stunning, and I’m glad he got some time to tell his story here. Also: dude’s got jokes.

Best: Gus Lett

It was really cool to see Jordan make sure his lead security guard Gus Lett got some shine in this documentary. Jordan opened up about how Gus was like a father figure to him after his dad died and Gus’ wife explained how he would sometimes go see Jordan in the middle of the night when he was struggling. It was a rare glimpse at the human side of Mike, which was something the documentary offered a few times and it was those moments that were some of its strongest. Seeing Gus get the game ball after Game 7 of the conference finals and then them dedicate that episode to Gus and his other members of the security team — including John Michael Wozniak — that have died was a very nice touch.

Best: Rodzilla

The Dennis Rodman-NWO story during the 98 Finals isn’t new, but it’s always a delight to hear the people involved discussing that bizarre couple of days. The best part of how The Last Dance handled it was showing the practice footage from the next day, with Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan both joking about it. Jordan even broke the practice huddle with “1-2-3 Rodzilla,” referencing the name Hulk Hogan had given to him.

Best: God, this will never not be cool as hell

Best: Sing Us A Song, You’re The Piano Man

Michael Jordan getting drunk and smashing keys on a piano in his hotel room with no regard for the sounds actually being played was the most relatable he’s ever been. Never mind that this was in celebration of his sixth NBA championship, but who among us hasn’t gotten very drunk and tried their best to lead a sing-a-long.

Best: Young Leo

Michael Jordan was so excited to meet the Man with the iron face In The Iron Mask! Leo telling Jordan that his play was “poetic” was adorable as well.

Worst: Scottie Pippen’s Back

My back also hurts really bad as I write this sentence so solidarity with Scottie during Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals for his stupid idiot back acting up. Fun fact: I once played pickup with a bad back, then went home and laid down for 20 minutes and when I got up to go get a drink I quite literally collapsed. It hurts like hell, man! I have no idea how Scottie Pippen played a basketball game with a bad back, even if there was a championship on the line.

Best: Barack Obama on Michael Jordan and the Bulls

One aspect of this that I wished The Last Dance was afforded more room to dig into was the cultural impact of these Bulls. We get into this a lot with Jordan specifically, and I think Dennis Rodman gets some shine in this regard, but the Chicago Bulls were the biggest team in the world during these years, and I felt it would have been an interesting thing to explore a little more.

As it turns out, I’m just impatient, because while the late David Stern laid out how the league expanded worldwide during the Jordan era, one Former Chicago Resident summed it up quite well at the end of Episode 10.

“There are great players who don’t have an impact beyond their sport,” Obama said. “And then there are certain sports figures who become a larger cultural force. Michael Jordan helped to create a different way in which people thought about the African-American athlete, a different way in which people saw athletics as part of the entertainment business. He became an extraordinary ambassador, not just for basketball, but I think for the United States overseas, and part of American culture sweeping the globe. Michael Jordan and the Bulls changed the culture.”

Worst: Jerry Reinsdorf

Jerry Krause gets painted as the primary antagonist in all of this, but the end of Episode 10 gives a pretty good glimpse into how Reinsdorf thought it was “suicidal” to bring everyone back for a bevy of reasons. Jordan, in response, said he believes everyone would have come back if the opportunity presented itself, and he is still visibly upset at not getting a chance to go for title number seven. Hey on that note…

Best: Giving Michael Jordan an iPad

Some of the best moments of the entire documentary came from someone’s brilliant decision to return to Michael Jordan after interviewing everyone else, handing him an iPad, and letting him react on camera to what they said. Every single time they did it, it was gold. His facial expressions birthed new memes, as, if nothing else, Jordan asserted himself firmly as the meme GOAT with this documentary.

I want them to produce an entire documentary that’s just Jordan reacting to people talking about him. It’s television gold.

Worst: The Washington Wizards

Episodes 11 and 12 are gonna be LIT. [holds fingers to earpiece] ah, well, nevertheless.

Best: Michael Jordan and The Last Dance

This was fun! There were some elements of this doc I wasn’t particularly huge on, and it brought back a bunch of dialogue around Jordan that I find kinda insufferable (see: here), and while I did not particularly care about this, I can see why people had gripes with Jordan having editorial control here, although in fairness, director Jason Hehir went onto SportsCenter after the series ended and challenged folks to point out instances where this hurt the product he put out.

But listen, we’re all locked inside because of a pandemic and this doc, if anything, gave us something to look forward to for five weeks. That something was endless clips of Michael Jordan, a fascinating subject regardless of the lens through which his story is told, and the greatest dynasty in NBA history. I, for one, and very glad it existed and that we all got to experience it with one another.

Psychedelic Texas trio Khruangbin have just begun to gear up for the release of their third record. Announcing their upcoming album Mordechai, the group shared the lead single “Time (You And I)” last month. Continuing a reflection on the passage of time and memory, Khruangbin unveil the smooth track “So We Won’t Forget.”

Directed by Scott Dungate, the “So We Won’t Forget” video chronicles an unlikely friendship between a man and a giant stuffed animal. Riding around on a bike with his fluffy friend, the man brings the massive toy all around town. Only later the visual reveals that the man is holding on the animal as a way to memorialize his daughter, who is no longer with him.

The visual touches on the themes of time and memory, which were important influences on the single itself. “Memory is a powerful thing,” said Khruangbin in a statement about the song. “Now more than ever it’s important to tell the people you love that you love them, so that they don’t forget.”

The group’s Mordechai announcement follows their breakout sophomore effort Con Todo El Mundo. If the first two singles are any indication, Mordechai boasts similar groove, soft percussive elements, and world music influences. But the group has expanded on their lyricism, as their last record featured a handful of instrumental tracks.

Watch Khruangbin’s “So We Won’t Forget” video above.

Mordechai is out 6/26 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.

Heartbreaking news out of California this morning as former WWE star Shad Gaspard is missing after being pulled underwater as lifeguards attempted to help a group of Venice Beach swimmers caught in a rip tide. TMZ says that Shad and his son were part of the group, with Shad being lost after insisting rescuers help his son first.

Gaspard’s son was rescued — but the 39-year-old pro wrestler has not been located.

One official working with the L.A. Fire Dept. told media they believe the 39-year-old “did submerge.” Divers were sent to scour the area. Helicopters were searching from above. One witness at the scene tells us … when lifeguards raced into the ocean, Gaspard directed rescuers to help his son first, which they did.

During the rescue, we’re told another big wave crashed down on Gaspard — and that’s the last time he was seen.

A CBS report adds that rescuers looked for Gaspard until calling off the effort at 7:30 pm, and that they will, “continue searching the surrounding land areas throughout the night before also resuming underwater operations Monday morning.” Shad’s wife has made posts on social media asking anyone with any information on his whereabouts to contact 911 or the family (which you can contact here).

Shad joined WWE in 2002 after making it to the finals of Tough Enough 2, and performed there until 2007. He would return in 2008 and remain in the company for two more years. Shad’s best known as one half of the tag team Cryme Tyme alongside JTG, although his post-WWE career has seen him do everything from motion capture for Kratos in God of War for PS4 to playing Muhammad Ali in The Last Sharknado.

We’ll keep you updated on the story, and will hopefully follow up with a relieved post about how he’s been found, and everything’s okay. We’re sending our best thoughts and as much love as we can.

Ventura, California rapper Kyle is back with more soul-searching music after a long hiatus. “What It Is” is Kyle’s latest single after taking a break in the wake of his debut album Light Of Mine and his Super Duper Tour in 2018. Since then, he debuted his animated sketch comedy show Sugar And Toys, released two singles in preparation of his new album, “YES!” featuring Rich The Kid and K Camp and “F You I Love You” with Teyana Taylor, and hosted a virtual prom for the class of 2020.

The video for “What It Is,” directed by Jakob Owens, sees a forlorn Kyle recording his new song in a beach house as a love letter to an ex who departed in the opening scene. He wanders from empty room to empty room pondering the lyrics before setting up his recording software and cutting loose. The video ends with both Kyle and his ex, who has parked her car along the coast to watch the sunset, looking up at a skywriter’s message in the clouds: “See you when I’m famous.” Could this be the title of Kyle’s upcoming project? It looks like we’ll find out soon, according to a press release for the video in which the rapper details his new album:

So where do I start… I initially was going to wait until after the pandemic to release any of the songs I made for this album. I made this album to be enjoyed outside in the sun in the company of friends, but it seems we may not be outside for some time, and you (my fans) need this music now more than ever. I was so afraid of COVID-19 keeping me from having smash hit songs that I was gonna push it ‘till next year. I feel this enormous pressure to deliver chart-topping songs every time and somewhere down the line I’ve convinced myself it’s what you (my fans) want from me too, but that was never my mission in the first place. I came to Earth to make feel-good music to make you happy when times are tough. Well, times are pretty tough, and people need some sunshine. I’m putting the cape back on. I’ve shed the fear of not having commercial success and replaced it with the mission of not leaving m fans high and dry in their time of need. So, I’ve decided to continue with my album roll out and I’ll be dropping a new song next Monday (my birthday). Hopefully, it can help you build an endless world as big as the great outdoors in your mind. You’re not alone. I’m with you.

Watch Kyle’s “What It Is” video above.

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

Player empowerment has been a defining characteristic of the NBA over the last decade or so. In a league where individuals can sometimes transcend the game itself, basketball players possess power that does not necessarily exist in other sports. As a collective, basketball players are capable of sparking gigantic, sweeping change, something that was prominently put on display when Donald Sterling was banned from the league in April of 2014.

The saga is highlighted in Blackballed, a 12-part docuseries on Quibi directed by Mike Jacobs. Plenty of focus is given to the contents of the damning tapes in which Sterling repeatedly made racist remarks and the fallout, but the series also focuses on wider trends in basketball like player empowerment, along with a collection of major moments that occurred in the years leading up to the saga — like the election of Barack Obama and the death of Trayvon Martin — that highlighted the role race plays in America. The series includes features with a number of individuals that were directly impacted by the scandal, including a collection of former Los Angeles Clippers players, head coach Doc Rivers, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

The first three episodes of Blackballed debuted on Sunday evening. Prior to its release, Dime spoke with Jacobs to discuss the documentary, where power lies in basketball, and Blackballed‘s importance in pushing back against the desire for athletes to stick to sports.

How did this documentary come about?

So my longtime producing partner, Chris Gary, and his producing associates, District 33, they had a tape with Doc Rivers on it where they had sat down with him, just informally at his house, and they had shot this pre-interview with him where he kind of walked us through what he had to go through during this time period. And I had never heard that side of the story before. And I said to the guys, “I can’t believe you have access to Doc and he’s willing to share this side of the story. I’d love to be a part of this,” and they felt like I would be a great director for it.

And so very, very quickly after seeing that tape, Quibi was green-lighting the project and they needed a director and they put me up for it. It all happened extremely fast because we also had to make sure that if we were going to get the players, that we got them during the offseason, and so we really had July and August of last year to make a big push for getting as many of the players as we could. So it all moved extremely fast.

Heading into this project, how much of all of this did you remember? Because so much has happened in the year since, but it was pretty unique in just how massive of a moment it was, kind of at that intersection of sports and culture.

Exactly, and that’s how I remembered it. I’m an avid NBA fan. I was certainly watching the NBA playoffs in 2014. And I remember clicking on that link and hearing Donald Sterling’s words and just being as shocked and disgusted as everyone else, and then remembering like, “Oh God, that’s right. They banned him.” But I didn’t really know more than that. And then all of a sudden, five-plus years later, you kind of forget the times in which we were living in, who was the top of the NBA, all of those different bits and pieces come back to you. So I was aware of the sensational nature of the story, but I was not aware at all of what the players really had to deal with. I don’t think anybody was, and that was why this was such a rare opportunity as a filmmaker was because I was granted access to these players and their desire and willingness to share their side of the story, in most cases, for the first time ever.

There were some press conference moments where they spoke a little bit about it, but they’re in the middle of the playoffs. So this was an opportunity to say, in hindsight, I just could ask questions and be a good listener and say, “What did this mean to you guys?” And there was, “Okay, what happened on which day?” And then there was the sort of emotional truth around how this made them feel and how this made them feel as basketball players and as people.

One thing kind of off of that, that was really interesting to me, and I had no idea about this — Clippers players when Doc first warned that something was happening, they didn’t learn the specifics of it, it seemed like they basically just went, “This is going to be a storm that we can weather” before they worried about the tape and its contents. Did you get that sense as you were talking to guys?

Exactly. First of all, things were happening so fast for them. They’re literally in between playoff games in a really contested series and this tape comes out and they need to react. And how they react, all of a sudden, becomes as important, if not more important, than the action itself, than the tape itself.

And so now all of a sudden, the pressure has shifted completely from Donald Sterling, who, of course, plenty of people were saying awful things rightfully about him, but now all of a sudden, there’s this whole other pressure placed on these players, who already have enough pressure at their feet because of the playoffs, to respond and respond correctly and in a unified voice and with nuance and all of those extra elements are placed on top of them, as far as how they were going to react to this, alongside with how Doc was going to react to this. So it very quickly became an extremely complicated set of circumstances in which these players had to deal with.

The first episode, it highlights some of the cultural factors leading up to this, whether it’s something like Obama’s election, Trayvon Martin, or whether it’s something like how athletes were getting away from the Michael Jordan approach to being a brand that shies away from all this stuff. With how you got into this and you got to learn about all of this, could you speak to how you think all of that played a role in the way that things eventually unfolded?

That’s the other really important part of this story is that, and it’s all embedded, is that this story took place in America in 2014. And what was going on in America in 2014, you cannot separate that from Donald’s words and how they were perceived and how these athletes responded. And so just specifically, I think people forget that the Donald Sterling scandal happened right in between the shooting of Trayvon Martin and then Ferguson later that summer, and also the killing of Eric Garner. So you have this really heightened awareness around these issues that are happening in the African-American community. You also have the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and an African-American president.

So all of that, all of those layers are baked into this Donald Sterling scandal. And that’s what made it, I think, such a richer, deeper exploration that we really had to be earnest in our exploration in the film about getting right. The tone of that, the contextualization, just a historical contextualization was important to get right along with the right kind of tone in how we talk about these issues around race in America. Especially when it relates to the power dynamics in professional sports and basketball and white ownership and a predominantly African-American workforce. All of that stuff is just layered in.

You have Chris Paul as the head of the Player’s Association. Players all across the league are in lockstep. LeBron gets a shout for how powerful his voice was in all of this. And Jamele Hill used the word “checkmated” in saying that they checkmated the league. In talking to guys on the Clippers, did you get a feeling that players believed they had power they needed to use to spark change here?

Wow, that’s a really good question. I’m not sure that they were… Part of the case that we make in the film was that this experience ushered in and kind of cemented the influence and the power that these players were starting to realize they had. And so, as you mentioned, when we open the film in the first episode, we talk about how NBA players were affected by the killing of Trayvon Martin. And they started to tweet about it and they started to write notes on their shoes and commemorate his legacy, and there’s cover of magazines with hoodies on with Dwayne Wade and his sons. So this generation of NBA players from the, let’s say, 2010 to today, this was the beginning of that new generation of talent becoming more politically aware.

And by 2014, when this happened, I think it kind of was a flash point in taking the mantle and saying, “We are powerful, we do have a voice here, and we’re going to speak out against injustice.” And they really never looked back. Now, in the moment, did they realize the power they have? I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone could really answer that. I think that they knew that if they were united and they were strong — and also let’s not forget that the words that Donald [said], this was not a difficult case to adjudicate. The words that he said, and it was all there on tape, there was no way to spin it. There was no multiple sides of it. Maybe in today’s media, they would figure out a way to spin it. I don’t know.

But back then, in that moment in time, there was really only one way you could perceive what he said and it was ugly. And it laid bare some deeper truths that had been apparent about Donald Sterling for a long time that were finally on tape and that were exposed to the world. And so it was to a certain extent, I guess, you could argue that it was a little easier for the players to rally around. On the other hand, when it comes to power and speaking out, there’s still a risk. So I’m grateful that the league responded to these players in the way that they did. And the league also was disgusted by the tape, so of course they should be commended for also realizing the right thing to do and doing it.

I think after our scandal ended is really where we are today, which is that these players have … they’re even more emboldened to speak out and their platforms are now filled with issues around social justice that both affect them directly and/or just affects communities and issues that they care about. And they don’t have to speak up, but when they do, they know now that they feel comfortable doing so because, in our case, the league had their back — and rightfully so the league had their back — but that hadn’t always been the case in professional sports. In fact, it’s really rare. So it’s a tough one to answer directly.

It actually leads into a question about another quote that really stuck out, which is that someone said that Donald Sterling is a creature of the David Stern era. It really stuck with me, especially considering how everyone expected the NBA to react in a certain way, and then it does the complete opposite thing. After being around this, how much did it drive home that this was a moment that the NBA kind of entered a new era?

Yeah. That’s such an important part of this is the fact that Adam Silver had really only been commissioner for a very short period of time, and here he is faced with this really difficult situation. There were a lot of ways for him to get this wrong and he got it right, to a certain extent, maybe in the face of other commissioners and other leagues, or even as far as the commissioner he replaced — David Stern had a different way that he ran the NBA. Now, it was also because it was different time. So, again, that context of time, we talk about The Last Dance, right? And Michael Jordan’s relationship with Stern, I imagine was really good, they were both getting a lot out of their relationship and it was good for both of them.

That was a different era of the type of voice that an athlete and a superstar is going to have, and it was a transcendent one. He completely created the blueprint for the NBA athletes of today. Now the NBA athletes of today have taken that superstar blueprint, but they’ve also added their personal political feelings or their thoughts on social injustice, and there’s also social media. So there’s just this access and this platform and this expectation that they’re going to share. In some cases, they’re just going to share the benign stuff about their everyday life, like what they’re having for dinner, or how much they’re lifting during a workout. And in other cases they’re going to talk about, as most recently, the killing of the jogger, Ahmaud Arbery.

So it’s a different era and the tools of communication are different. And so yes, you can look back and say we don’t know how David Stern would have handled this situation, but we’re grateful that Adam Silver handled it the way he did. And what he showed with the decisions and the choices that he made was that I’m going to support a new generation of NBA athletes who are very motivated to use their voice, to speak against injustice. Even when the case against injustice is really obvious like this one, it still was, I’m sure, an extremely difficult position that the league office and Silver was in.

I have two final questions here. One is that I couldn’t help but think throughout the entire doc, how it shows that the whole “stick to sports” phrase is both not tenable and it can legitimately be a hindrance to making positive change. Just in your own words, how important is athletes holding and using the power that comes from the platform that they’re given? Kenny Smith had that great quote about how only 5,000 people have ever stepped on the NBA court.

Yeah. The stick to sports crowd, first of all, it’s just kind of a lazy argument intellectually. So I just barely even can pay credence because it just is not doing any work towards understanding and appreciating the fact that sports has always been political, in small acts and big acts. Now, in our case, in our film series, it’s a big political act. They make a big political statement and they have every right to do so. But smaller political statements throughout the eras have always been a part of sports. By the very nature of inviting athletes to the White House is a political statement. The national anthem is a political statement, the different types of advertising, the whole thing is laden with politics. And so you cannot separate sports from politics.

And then you take that to predominantly communities of color where a lot of our professional athletes are from. It has to be political because these communities face these issues on a regular basis. It’s real for them. It’s real and every day for them and they don’t have the privilege of getting to say, “Let’s just stick to sports.” That’s just not a part of who they are as people. And so for me, it just was always connected. And I think that this modern era of professional athletes speaking out, and specifically more so in the NBA than in other leagues, is for the betterment of society in order to have these conversations, to speak truth to power, to shed light on injustice, and also to just have a conversation.

The conversation can get nasty out there. It could be uncomfortable, it can be difficult. Having it on social media allows people to say things that maybe they wouldn’t say in person, but the conversation still has to happen. And ultimately, that’s what my hope that a film series like this can do is just continue that conversation, show that we have a lot of work to do, show that there were people who worked really hard to get this right, to fix a wrong, to fix an injustice and do it the right way, and show leadership and show people that you cannot separate politics from professional sports. And it’s a place that oddly becomes a zone, a platform where these conversations can happen on a larger scale than where they can happen in other places in everyday life.

Professional sports gives us sort of a safer excuse to have these conversations in a lot of ways than people can have in their personal lives. And I think that it’s a healthy part of sports and it’s inseparable from popular culture. Black culture is popular culture. And so it’s inseparable to have these conversations where you try to put politics in one bucket and sports in the other.

My last question, you mentioned you’re a big basketball fan. Basketball is a pretty, I don’t want to say pretty unique sport, but it always seems to be involved in these big cultural moments in one way or another and sometimes forms these big cultural moments. Are there any other of these moments at the intersection of sports and culture that you’d be interested in exploring in this type of medium again someday?

For sure. That’s what I’m loving so much about The Last Dance and about our film series Blackballed, is it’s just such a reminder about how big a part the NBA plays in pop culture and in our entertainment and in some of our best athletics as a country and really globally. And so I love that about basketball and I love that about the NBA. And yeah, this was obviously such a big story. So as a filmmaker, a big story with a really great built-in narrative structure to it because all of these things happened in such a condensed period of time in this pressure cooker environment. So it had all those dramatic hooks. But I’m always on the lookout for these types of stories from sports and what sports can provide a window into a larger discussion.

But specifically, I’m a Colorado native and when I was in high school, Chris Jackson, who then converted to Islam and changes his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, he refused to stand for the national anthem, and it created this huge controversy at the time, very similar to the [Colin] Kaepernick controversy of today. But it’s often forgotten, it’s been covered a little bit in some of these more recent basketball documentaries, but I think a standalone film about him and his life and career, he’s a fascinating subject. And living in Denver at that time, it was ripe. There were radio personalities that brought a megaphone to a mosque. There’s all these bits and pieces to that story that I don’t think people have told. And even him, he’s almost maybe even still playing today or something, I know he’s played recently in Japan, but he also suffers from Tourette syndrome. He’s just a fascinating guy and I don’t know if anyone’s told that story before. So I always have my eye out for opportunities like that in sports.

Comedian John Oliver has talked about wrestling more than once on his weekly HBO show, Last Week Tonight. The first time it was to criticize their ongoing deal to run shows in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Saudi government’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and then he criticized WWE’s treatment of their wrestlers a few months later, which warranted a statement from WWE claiming he’d “ignored facts,” even though they didn’t really have any alternate facts to present.

This week Oliver’s topic was sports during the COVID-19 pandemic, and pro wrestling was only a small part of the discussion, but he did bring up Florida’s designation of wrestling as an essential business:

The state of Florida early on designated professional sports and media production with a national audience as an essential service, so long as it’s closed to the general public. So the WWE has continued staging shows in Florida, holding matches in front of empty chairs, but that requires a lot more people than just those two wrestlers. You need production crews working together in close proximity. And while the WWE maintains its safety measures are as comprehensive as they can possibly be, one employee wrote an anonymous letter to a Florida county commissioner asking them to shut the tapings down because “despite sanitary precautions, we cannot maintain social distancing and have to touch other people.” But it’s easy to see why CEO Vince McMahon doesn’t mind them taking that risk, as he told investors on a recent earnings call, viewers want to see new matches.

The quote from McMahon that follows is so comical that I thought it was a bit when I read it, but when you watch the segment it turns out to be an actual audio clip in Vince’s distinctive voice:

I think new content is always a driver in terms of stimulating interest and what have you, and obviously everyone is pretty much starved for new content. It could very well be that you’re tired of watching Netflix and you want to see, you know, strong men running around in their underwear.

From there Oliver veers into a continuation of his running joke about wanting to homoerotically fight Adam Driver:

Okay! Um, well first, I would argue that the risks of creating content like you are seem to outweigh the benefits right now. And second, no one on that call registered your point there because you just said ‘stimulating’, ‘strong men’, ‘underwear’ and crucially, ‘driver’, all in the same sentence, at which point everyone’s minds turned immediately to getting absolutely bone-crushed by Adam Driver. Chokeslam me to hell you nasty shed. Jam your mandible claw down my throat you irredeemable steer.

And after a bit more of that, he briefly brings up AEW before pivoting to a discussion of UFC.

And it’s not just the WWE. Their competitor AEW is also taping shows in Florida, and the UFC just last week started hosting matches in Jacksonville.

I would like to have seen him bring up the fact that WWE is apparently not even testing people for the virus, which AEW and UFC, but as usual he makes solid points and weaves them into a larger narrative over the course of the episode. You can watch the whole thing below.

Harry Styles’ sophomore effort Fine Line arrived as the first No. 1 album of 2020. Following an intriguing album rollout, where Styles’ team created travel advertisements for a completely fictional island, Styles has shared cinematic visuals accompanying several tracks. Now, Styles returns with a sunny video set to his certified Platinum single “Watermelon Sugar.”

Directed by Bradley & Pablo and filmed ahead of the pandemic in Malibu, Styles aptly wrote in the description that the video is “dedicated to touching.” A celebration of summer, the visual opens with Styles enjoying a slice of watermelon on a scenic beach. Styles is then suddenly surrounded by a group of models feeding him various fruits. Afterward, Styles and his entourage enjoy a raucous picnic before basking in the sun’s rays in the sand.

Ahead of the video’s release and before the pandemic diffused his touring plans, Styles was gearing up to embark on a massive North American tour with support from Jenny Lewis. The support act was an unlikely choice by Styles, even to Lewis herself. Lewis admitted she was surprised by his choice because the two had never spoken before. “We don’t know each other — I’ve never met him,” Lewis said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I think he really likes On The Line.”

Watch Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” video above.

Fine Line is out now via Columbia. Get it here.

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

Stargirl originally received the greenlight for DC Universe, but never fear if you don’t subscribe because, like other shows birthed for that screening service, this series is also landing in second location: The CW Network. Likewise, Doom Patrol will soon continue with a second season on HBO Max, Harley Quinn is now pushing through its sophomore turn on Syfy, and Swamp Thing looks to be moving to The CW in the near future. Yes, it’s confusing, but I have a hunch that the DC Universe shows could all end up being absorbed into HBO Max at some point (with DC Universe ceasing to exist as a standalone service). Putting that speculation aside, what’s important, in this moment, is that Stargirl exists, and it’s a surprisingly sweet and enjoyable, live-action treat.

A little history here might be helpful. Much of the initial talk about this show revolved around Joel McHale’s announced casting as Starman, and let’s just say that Joel’s take on the character has been retooled a bit from the comics. Without getting too nerd-detailed here, it’s enough to say that this Starman could be described as DC’s version of Captain America, and in the TV show, he’s a springboard for the rightful focuses of this series: Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) and her stepdad, Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson). He’s a grown-up, former sidekick (S.T.R.I.P.E.) of Starman, who has apparently long since given up the life. She’s a slightly resentful, pain-in-the-butt teenager at first, but she’s ultimately a good egg. And for whatever reason, she’s able to pick up Starman’s cosmic staff and assume the mantle of Stargirl, much to the concern of Pat, who knows what this thing can do.

That’s a little muddled if we’re talking about the tweaking of DC Comics canon, but as far as comic book TV/movie origin stories go, it’s pretty straightforward. There’s, of course, some mystery to be settled about why the cosmic staff chooses Courtney, which doesn’t entirely become clear in the three episodes screened for critics, but it’s nice to have a little ambiguity even though we can probably guess what happened. Yet the process of putting this character on TV follows a real-life origin story, for Courtney was born from a bittersweet inspiration. Let’s talk about that a little bit.

This show comes from creator Geoff Johns, who also created the Stargirl comic book series in 1999 as a tribute to his late sister, who perished in an airplane accident. Two decades later, the character’s on the small screen as Courtney, who unwillingly transplants to Nebraska after her mother (Amy Smart) marries Pat. Pat’s previous adventures are a secret to mom, but he’s in possession of Starman’s staff. And it’s a surprise to both Pat and Courtney when she can pick up the energy-shooting weapon, which McHale previously told us is kind-of like Thor’s hammer because only certain folks are worthy to hold it. Again, McHale actually doesn’t have a huge role in this series, but he makes the most of his screentime with his patented brand of sarcasm that rivals the likes of Deadpool.

The heart of this series, at least at the beginning, revolves around how “family” bonds don’t need to be tied to blood, as we see through Courtney’s blossoming relationship with Pat. He’s protective even as she bristles against him, although Courtney doesn’t have a tragic childhood history like other teens-turned-superheroes (Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Billy Batson/Shazam!). She’s simply a relatable teen who faces common fish-out-of-water obstacles. Wilson and his jawline, which are past the days of playing a frat boy or heartthrob, form a solid paternal presence, and Brec Bassinger (once Courtney gets past being angry about Nebraska) exudes a take-no-BS attitude. Courtney’s also inherently good, not only against supervillains but against all the a-holes that one runs into in high-school hallways. So, she’s able to accrue some karma-points for when Stargirl needs to do some recruiting to assemble a New Justice Society.

I don’t want to spoil the hows-and-whys of why Stargirl must form a fresh organization, but it’s enough to say that, as far as the CW’s Arrowverse connections go, Stargirl stands separate from that crowd, at least for now. This show’s special effects are also more sophisticated than what you’d see on The Flash and so on. And in Courtney’s new hometown, Blue Valley, there’s been the infiltration of city officials who have ties to a rogues gallery calling themselves the Injustice League. Courtney’s got a solid right-or-wrong barometer, so she’s not about to let this stand. It’s actually a very simple story that’s unmotivated by anything other than a good person who simply enjoys kicking evil people’s asses, and she’s thrilled that she can do it. That’s pretty refreshing in an era full of superhero nuance and overdone context, along with arguably sympathetic villains and antheroes. Sometimes you just wanna watch the bad guys — who are clearly bad guys — go down, right? Stargirl is here for you in that way.

Once one gets past all the history and adjustments that brought Stargirl to TV, this series is simply enjoyable (and un-stressful) to watch. The first few episodes put Courtney (and Pat, who rolls around town in a massive robot suit, and that’s not as corny as it sounds) up against their first adversary, Icicle (Jordan Mahkent), who’s created quite a cover story for himself in Nebraska. We get to see Courtney’s first f*ck-ups with the staff, and her gymnastics moves, and her slight imperfections that make her a believable, but not grating, teen presence. All of this points toward promise for this series, especially in a time when we could all use some unadulterated joy in our own lives.

Ultimately, Stargirl carries much of the same aura as Shazam!, only more wholesome and kid-viewer-friendly. She’s not nauseatingly bubbly, but her intentions are pure, and she doesn’t let injustice (especially after a frozen supervillain wants to kill people on a highway) happen unchecked. The show isn’t high art, of course, but it’s funny and optimistic and gadget-filled and a breeze to watch. As the season proceeds, we’ll see Courtney bring other young heroes into the fold, including the new Hourman (Lou Ferrigno Jr., who grew up with The Incredible Hulk at home, so it really is a new generation here) and new Wildcat (Yvette Monreal), to fully face off with the Injustice Society. The introductory episodes show a lot of promise, so, hopefully, it will continue to be a pleasure to watch this series unfold.

‘Stargirl’ will debut on the DC Universe streaming service on Monday, May 18, and then on Tuesday, May 19 on The CW.

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