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.

---

View Entire Post ›

Six-time wrestling World Champion, four-time galaxy guardian, and pantsless vodka advocate Dave Bautista hasn’t been subtle about his opinions of the 45th President of the United States, from his tentative plan to leave the country if Donald Trump is re-elected to comments on how much he’d like to Batista Bomb him.

in his latest video, the WWE Hall of Famer threw shade at the [checks notes] fellow WWE Hall of Famer, imitating his irregular speech pattern to “thank” the President for his response to COVID-19, ask about tiger purchasing protocol, and beg for a job in the Space Force. You can watch the clip and read the transcript below.

“Hello Mr. President, Super Duper Dave Bautista here. Sorry I’m all sweaty, I just finished my morning workout, because I was inspired by you because I see what amazing shape you are, it’s really beautiful. I just want to say, you’re doing, you’re doing a great job, you’re doing a great job Mr. President. I know there’s almost 90,000 people dead, if it wasn’t for you it could’ve been like, uh, 8 trillion, so thank you. You’re doing an amazing job. You can ask anyone, anyone will tell you. You’re doing an amazing job, it’s really beautiful. It’s tremendous. Also, I can’t wait to read your Twitter today and hear you blame Obama for more stuff because he’s bad. He’s bad, you’re good, he’s bad. You can ask anyone. It’s beautiful, it’s beautiful, it’s really tremendous. And also I heard Don Jr. say you could get a tiger for like $2,000, and I just wanna know is one, where do I pick up my tiger, and B, can I borrow $2,000? Or I thought maybe, maybe if you have a job for me in Space Corps, because I know anything, I know a lot about Space Corps, probably more than anybody, I probably know more than anybody, about Space Corps. So anyway, thank you Mr. President, you’re doing a great job. Heil Trump, heil Trump.”

My biggest wish is that since WrestleMania ran this year without any fans, WWE would overcompensate for next year’s show, bring in as many celebrity guests as humanly possible, and find a way to get Trump and Batista in the same room. I want to see how far The Donald could walk inside that pit of danger.

The Umbrella Academy fans can finally celebrate the impending return of Netflix’s delightfully weird take on superheroes because Season 2 isn’t too terribly far in the distance. The successful TV show adapts the graphic novels by Gabriel Ba and My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, and the series is just strange enough to appeal in a mainstream way. So, the gang’s coming back for a second run after attempts to halt the apocalypse didn’t go exactly as planned.

Where the season finale left the Hargreeves siblings (all gifted orphans adopted by a billionaire who meant to launch a superhero league) was ambiguous at best. Yet we sure as heck know what’s going on right now for the show’s stars. They’re all in quarantine, along with most of us, so Netflix decided to announce a Season 2 release date (July 31) while virtually reassembling the principal cast members — Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, Robert Sheehan, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Aidan Gallagher, and Justin Min — all dancing to “I Think We’re Alone Now” (Tiffany’s 1980s take on the 1960s Tommy James & the Shondells tune).

Viewers can only begin to guess to what extent reality is overlapping with the show’s characters in this video. One thing is certain: Robert Sheehan isn’t doing anything to discourage the theory that he’s Klaus-In-Real-Life. You gotta admire that commitment.

The Umbrella Academy returns on July 31.

If you saw ESPN’s entrancing docuseries, The Last Dance, you’re aware of the roadblocks that finally led to the breakup of the Bulls’ championship team prior to the lockout-shortened 1999 season; particularly if you saw the closing minutes of Sunday night’s finale. But we’ll recap quickly. Phil Jackson and GM Jerry Krause didn’t want to work together anymore. Scottie Pippen wanted out after years of feeling disrespected, and both Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan retired. Though Rodman eventually came back that year to sign with the Lakers in late February after wrapping an action movie with Dane Cook — that sure was a sentence — Jordan would, of course, stay retired for three seasons. However, even if he had wanted to come back in 1999 he still would have missed most of the 50-game season due to a severed tendon in his finger.

Episode 10 offers clearer insight into owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s attempt to bring Jackson back for one more final season in 1999 with a flawed plan around appealing to and rebuilding around Jordan, while eschewing many of his running mates due to a belief that they were past their peak and about to demand expensive contracts that they wouldn’t live up to. To be honest, that turned out to be largely true, but Jordan’s assertion that all sides would have come back on one-year deals to go for number seven makes you wonder.

With the deck cleared, Krause had the chance to build another championship team without having to watch Jordan and Jackson receive the lion’s share of credit. At last, Jerry Krause could dance without judgment and mockery, but he should have been careful what he wished for as the Bulls endured a disastrous run from 1999 to 2003 under his watch, damned by impatience, bad choices, and bad luck. Could things have gone differently had the Bulls divorce from Jordan been less final? The conclusion of The Last Dance inspires a want to peer at what came next and what could have happened.

1999 And The Hard Restart

It’s important to note that Krause didn’t want the Bulls to suck following the Jordan era. He had even tried to soften the inevitable fall by exploring a franchise-altering Pippen trade with the Celtics ahead of the 1997 draft, but it reportedly got shut down by Jordan. Looking at the forgettable return the Bulls got for Pippen in a sign-and-trade with the Rockets a year later makes you wonder if Krause should have fought harder to pull the trigger on a deal that would have netted the team draft picks that could have been used to pick Chauncey Billups and Tracy McGrady. Assessing the contributions that would have come from those rookies and how they would have influenced the pursuit for the Bulls’ sixth title is a hard task. Maybe Michael Jordan doesn’t even stick around in that scenario. But the team doubtlessly would have been better off long term than they were once the actual rebuild got rolling in 1999.

Former Blazers guard Damon Stoudamire summed up the indifference to the post-Jordan Bulls perfectly at the time. “It’s cold as hell there, and they’re rebuilding […] Without Jordan, without Pippen, they’re a lottery team. That doesn’t have much appeal to me.” Mighty Mouse didn’t want to try and put on Superman’s cape, and he wasn’t alone. The Bulls had had some interest in trying to appeal to explosive two-way forward Antonio McDyess to be their next foundational superstar, but he quickly decided to limit his suitors to teams he thought could actually win a few games.

Remember, the insane two-week free agency period in 1999 didn’t allow for lengthy courtships and watchful waiting to see where other players would land. Everything went quickly, and so the Bulls wound up settling for scoring guard Brent Barry as their main prize and signing him to a not-insignificant 6 year/$27 million deal. Together, Kukoc, Ron Harper, and Barry would lead a dreadful Bulls team that wound up “winning” the #1 overall pick in the 1999 Draft. Not quite the same level of prize that the team had been used to, but a key win for Krause and the organizational/player development mindset.

Across his career, Krause’s biggest wins had come through the draft, pulling Pippen and Horace Grant in 1987, BJ Armstrong in 1989, and Kukoc as a draft-and-stash in 1990. Krause had reason to believe in himself as a talent evaluator and the Bulls absolutely hit in the 1999 NBA Draft.

There’s a case to be made thanks to hindsight that Baron Davis would have been a better long term fit or that Steve Francis might have been a more exciting and explosive option, but #1 pick Elton Brand profiled as a sturdy presence who could go for 20 and 10 (which he did across the first 10 seasons of his career, on average). With the 16th pick, the Bulls took Ron Artest (aka Metta World Peace), giving them a stellar wing defender with some offensive potential.

A Flawed Sales Pitch And Reboot 2.0

As quickly as Krause fell in love with players he also seemed to sour on them. Barry was shipped out after one season and Kukoc lasted just a season and a half without his Last Dance running mates before being flipped for draft capital. The 1999-2000 team was a weird mix of young players and old friends like BJ Armstrong and Will Perdue on return engagements from the Bulls’ first three-peat. Knicks pest John Starks even had a four-game cameo, coming over in the Kukoc trade. The result was another lost season.

The Bulls went all-in on the 2000 draft, hoping to add to Brand and Artest. And they did, pulling Jamal Crawford via trade. But they missed on most of their six picks. Marcus Fizer, who they took fourth in a weak draft, would have a few decent if unspectacular seasons with the Bulls but played his last NBA game at 27. (He’d play internationally for almost a decade after.)

By this point, the Bulls weren’t vastly improved, but they clearly felt like they had a better sales pitch to take to free agents. It was still cold. There was still no Jordan or Pippen, but they had some interesting young prospects that they could theoretically build around. And it was almost enough, with All-Star guard Eddie Jones nearly accepting a deal to play for the Bulls and help supercharge the rebuild before instead going home to Florida to play for the Heat. Tracy McGrady was also someone that the Bulls unsuccessfully courted with the then 21-year-old choosing to instead sign with the Magic (where he became an elite scorer) due, in part, to what he perceived as people in his camp trying to steer him to Chicago for their own benefit.

Krause dismissed the Jones and McGrady rejections as having to do with geography in 2001, but he also clearly felt like the Bulls needed a rebrand to enhance their appeal, departing from the slow and steady track to something a little more flashy. Ahead of the 2001 draft, Krause sent Brand to the Clippers for the draft rights to high school big man Tyson Chandler so he could team with big-bodied high school post player Eddy Curry, the Bulls’ fourth pick. Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t quite work out. For the Bulls, at least. To be fair, while both players never lived up to the hype (early comps were insane, with some hurling out names like Kevin Garnett and Shaq), both had long careers and Chandler, in particular, stood out for a time as a dominant defender.

Krause’s final lottery pick could have redeemed his post-Jordan years battle plan. Jay Williams, selected with the second pick out of Duke in the 2002 draft had a solid enough rookie season, showing some promise after running through the NCAA. Who knows how far he could have gone if not for a tragic motorcycle accident that scuttled his NBA career in June of 2003, two months after Krause had stepped away from his position atop the Bulls’ organizational hierarchy citing health concerns.

Former Bulls guard and original three-peat stand-out John Paxson replaced Krause, inheriting a team that seemed as though it was stocked with interesting young talents and led by a late-prime Jalen Rose (who Krause had acquired by trading away Artest and promising young big Brad Miller — who would both blossom outside of Chicago). But the Bulls didn’t really show signs of life until the 2004-2005 season thanks, in large part, to players Paxson had drafted and developed like Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, and Luol Deng. 15 years later and its Paxson who is stepping away to let Arturas Karnisovas takeover the Bulls following a mixed run with some good but not great teams and an incomplete (and sputtering) rebuild.

What If?

There was some chatter when Jordan retired the second time following the Bulls’ sixth title about why he hadn’t been given some kind of stake in the team that he had turned into a global brand. At the January 2000 press conference announcing his role as part-owner and executive for the Washington Wizards (despite a previously rocky relationship with owner Abe Pollin), Jordan kept it somewhat diplomatic, saying he wasn’t looking for that kind of role at the time but that he hadn’t exactly been quiet about his more recent pursuits while hearing nothing from Reinsdorf.

We can speculate all day on why an offer never came. Maybe Reinsdorf thought Krause and Jordan could never coexist and favored Krause’s track record in that role over Jordan’s raw acumen. Or maybe he didn’t want to invite someone into the tent who would be too hard to control, override, and get rid of if he failed due to his overwhelming popularity as a God in Chicago.

Let’s imagine that an offer did come, reuniting Jordan and the Bulls and let’s even suggest that Krause, like Wes Unseld in Washington, would have found a way to work with and under Jordan. In this scenario, Michael rejoins the Bulls in January of 2000 and resumes his career as a player in September of 2001 with rumors about a return starting up in May of that year — as they did with his Wizards career.

Think about the impact Jordan the executive’s presence could have had on that year 2000 free agency shutout that the Bulls endured. Is Tracy McGrady choosing the Magic over the Bulls if Michael Jordan is across from him at the negotiating table telling him he can be his heir apparent? What about Eddie Jones, who Krause said called him in tears over his last-minute switch to the Heat? Remember, Jones was one of the first Jordan brand ambassadors in 1997. No way that wouldn’t have been a factor. With Jones and maybe McGrady, the Bulls are an entirely different team in 2000 and beyond. There’s no need to trade Brand when he’s a part of a core on a likely playoff team. And perhaps conflicts that led to Artest’s exit don’t arise under a Jordan regime, allowing him to bloom with the Bulls.

There are countless other questions: does Toni Kukoc get traded if Jordan is in place? Does Eddy Curry get drafted if Elton Brand is still on the roster? Would Jordan quickly dispatch of Phil Jackson’s replacement, Tim Floyd, to install Doug Collins, Jackson’s predecessor with the Bulls and the man he handpicked to lead the Wizards bench for his actual 2001 comeback? Would twilight veterans like Patrick Ewing or Mitch Richmond have taken the minimum to ring chase with the Bulls rather than close their careers with the Magic and Lakers respectively? You can thought experiment the 2001 Bulls to some pretty high heights by adding Jordan into the mix. Especially on the floor.

We know, of course, that Jordan wasn’t the same when he made his second comeback. Some of the quickness had left him and his shooting percentage was among the worst of his career while his field goals per game were way up (4th most in his career). Again, three seasons had passed, but Wizard fans still got a show, with a 38-year-old who averaged 5 boards, 5 assists, and almost 23 points a night, going off for 40-or-more points five times and 30-or-more points 16 times in 60 games. If not for a torn meniscus that slowed and then stopped him, Jordan might have willed a mostly barren Wizards team to the playoffs. Then he came back the next year, played all 82 games, and averaged a hair over 20 points a night while tightening up his shooting percentage. With a more talented roster, it’s likely the shape of those final two Jordan seasons may have changed some, but he clearly still had the ability to contribute every night and turn it on when he had to — something to consider with a team that would have had a better chance at making some noise in the playoffs.

Let’s take Jordan’s knee busting collision with Wizards rookie Etan Thomas out of the equation and assume the 2001-2002 Bulls would have had a fully healthy Jordan all season. Now ask yourself: would that Bulls team with a rotation of Jordan, Tracy McGrady, Eddie Jones, Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, Toni Kukoc, and Marcus Fizer (who was 2nd team All-Rookie the year before, let us not forget) not be the deepest, most athletic roster in Bulls’ history? You can swap Curry for Jason Richardson, Shane Battier, or anyone else taken in the 2001 lottery. Take Artest out and put Jalen Rose in. Regardless, with that much talent, would the Bulls have not overtaken the Nets and Celtics of that time to challenge the Phil Jackson coached Kobe/Shaq Lakers in what would have been an epic and ultra compelling NBA Finals slugfest?

The last dance might not have been the last dance after all under that scenario, giving Jordan a potential seventh (and eighth?) ring and further influencing the GOAT conversation (imagine MJ taking a ring off Kobe). In a cruel twist, that triumph would have also reinforced Jerry Krause’s legacy as a championship team builder (remember, he either drafted, signed, or courted all of the above-referenced talent) while tying him, forevermore, to Michael Jordan. It’s the kind of story that would have been worth its own stunning docuseries on how it shook up and impacted the NBA, but unfortunately, the reality is a lot less fantastic. Especially for Bulls fans who are still waiting for the next Michael Jordan… or, at least, the next Jerry Krause.

If you were wondering where Gucci Mane has been all this year you wouldn’t be alone or remiss. The prolific Atlanta trap pioneer was the original rapper from the Big Peach to put out way too much music to keep track of, with successors like Futue, Migos, and Young Thug picking up that torch in recent years, despite Gucci himself never really putting it down himself. Yet, in 2020, he’s been relatively quiet; the last mixtape he dropped was the Christmas project East Atlanta Santa 3 and he hasn’t dropped a single or even a feature verse yet this year.

That may change soon, if his recent social media posts are any indication. He recently posted a behind-the-scenes teaser of what looks like a video shoot with none other than 21 Savage, another Atlanta trap star who has been MIA for much of 2020. The two stand in front of a camouflage-painted truck with a squad of supporters and pretty women bopping along in the truck’s bed while a classic-sounding Gucci verse blares over a sound system. There’s no telling what the song might be or where it might end up — Savage has been working on a follow up to his Savage Mode mixtape series, while Gucci himself is past due for a new release, given his self-enforced semi-annual release schedule — but it’s equally likely to end up on a project from either. No matter when or where it comes out, it will likely receive a warm welcome, if for no other reason than it means two of Atlanta’s favorite stars are back in the game after extended absences.

Watch Gucci Mane’s preview of his new video with 21 Savage above.

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

The ‘Billions’ Stock Watch is a weekly accounting of the action on the Showtime drama. Decisions will be made based on speculation and occasional misinformation and mysterious whims that are never fully explained to the general public. Kind of like the real stock market.

STOCK DOWN — Fathering, generally

Just a rough week for the general concept of fatherhood. Lots of decent intentions. I’m sure everyone involved would push back on my characterization of their methods. But still. Not great. We can start right at the top with Axe, who dropped everything to hop on his plane and fly to Gordon’s school after Gordon got in trouble for nuking an entire town’s power doing crypto things (good), but then proceeded to go all Axe and extort the headmaster in front of Gordon to keep his little hellchild enrolled at the school (bad), and then pushed even harder to demand an assembly be called where he could swear at the children and tell them all to be ruthless capitalists like him (worse). You can tell Gordon is going to grow up to be a monster because he was proud of his dad during the speech, instead of feeling how you’re supposed to feel as a teenager when one of your parents speaks in front of your whole school, which is deeply, hopelessly embarrassed. Kid is learning all the wrong lessons, fast. I hope some bully shoves him in a locker and the bully’s dad shoves Axe in a metaphorical locker. Lara is the only good Axelrod. I miss her.

Elsewhere, Wags is trying to connect with the many children he has scattered across America (good), but only because he wants to be like Axe (bad). And Chuck wants his kids to meet their new kind-of aunt (good), but only to grease the wheels for Senior’s donation to Yale and therefore his fancy teaching gig (bad). An argument could be made that the best display of fathering all episode was Senior holding his new baby. When Senior is the best dad in an episode, things have gone very sideways.

STOCK UP — Gordie’s accomplice

Smart kid with a smart mouth. Already offered a tentative job at Axe Cap. We like her.

STOCK DOWN — MaseCap

Really not a great start to this season for whatever remains of Taylor’s firm. Taylor is making moves but half-assing them in ways that Taylor usually does not, and is still neck-deep in Chuck stuff that will come home to roost sooner or later. Probably sooner. Hammon got fed up with it all and with her uncertain/dwindling role and she marched out to go find a new job doing whatever exactly it is that Hammon does. Lauren got yoinked into Axe’s world by Wendy and now has one foot in each camp, which, as we’ve learned over the run of this show, means Axe will end up employing her himself or ruining her completely, because Axe does not share.

STOCK UP — Having a worthy adversary

Mike Prince was on-screen for all of about 90 seconds and in that time he:

• Swooped into a gallery to buy three paintings Axe liked before Axe even had a chance to look at them
• Sent Axe into a hilarious competitive tailspin that resulted in him buying a studio for the artist and commissioning his next eight paintings, which I suddenly very much hope are just like stick figures drawings of a socialist utopia
• Continued to be the only person who has Axe’s number

I know this will end poorly for him. It has to. The arc of the show demands it: Axe tries something, someone gets in Axe’s way, Axe crushes them. But… I don’t want it to happen. I want Mike Prince to stick around forever and outfox Axe and make him go absolutely insane. I want to see Axe in a dark room just mumbling to himself for hours as his empire crumbles. I don’t know exactly when I started despising Axe to this degree, but we’re here. I’m going to be so sad when Axe’s guys find out Prince, like, fuels a factory with puppy blood or something. But I’ll take the wins where I can get them.

STOCK UP — Kate Sacker

Increasingly the most competent character on the show, in addition to being the only one worth rooting for. I could watch her slice powerful dudes in half with her eyes all day long. All I ask for out of this show is that the series finale close with her in the White House and every other character on the show in prison. Except for Ben Kim. Ben Kim is cool, too. Let’s say he makes some killer trades and cashes out and buys the Mets. Whatever makes him happiest is fine with me.

STOCK DOWN — Chuck, as it relates to this exchange, specifically

Sheeeeeesh.

This is the second time in as many episodes that Wendy has cut Chuck down mid-thigh with a sickle when he was trying to be semi-civil. I love it. I hope she gets progressively meaner each episode. I hope Chuck brings her a birthday cake and she spits on it and throws it in a toilet. He’d probably get all turned on by it. Maybe that’s how they get back together.

STOCK UP — Hard Bob

Big, big fan of Hard Bob. Also a big fan of Danny Strong returning as smarmy weasel Treasury Secretary Todd Krakow, who always looks like he’s about to suggest leveling an orphanage to build a warehouse that stores only his collection of scarves and overcoats, but mostly a fan of Hard Bob. Add him to the list of characters I would happily watch an entire episode about. A mini-prequel about how a young boy named Bobby became a weathered old man named Hard Bob, raising his hand in class and asking if he can speak freely and then making a series of demands and threats to his teachers.

Hard Bob rules.

STOCK UP — Pizza, always

Axe sealed the deal with the artist over a dinner of fancy pizza. Fancy pizza is great. So is regular pizza. All pizza is usually at least good. Even bad pizza is fine. Pizza is truly one of the best foods we have, top three easily. Who doesn’t like pizza? Even people who are allergic to important ingredients in pizza — gluten, cheese, etc. — will do the math in their head and determine the consequences are worth it sometimes. That’s the sign of a really good food, when someone is willing to accept extended periods of misery for the brief moments of joy they get while eating it. I’m going to stop typing here only because I’ve gone on my pizza rant many times and if I don’t stop soon I’ll just keep going until I order some for dinner. Dinner is so many hours away. It’s not a sustainable situation.