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Bill Hader is a talented man. That’s the first thing that needs to be mentioned in any discussion about Barry, the HBO series he created and starred in and directed in its final season for its entirety. The ambition and craftsmanship and creativity on display would be an impressive feat on their own, even if the show wasn’t all that good. It was good, though. It was so good, pretty much straight through, from its silly premise (a hitman falls in love with acting and tries to go straight with the help of a little community theater class) to its midnight-dark final season (we’ll talk about this in a second). It was inventive and funny and devastating and really just not like anything else on television, which is an achievement in itself with the volume of stuff out there. And it introduced us to some memorable characters, most notably — for me, at least — NoHo Hank, the friendly Chechen mobster played by Anthony Carrigan. Again, Barry was a good show.

When it ended, though, it left some of its fans divided. The entire final season was bleak as hell, with Barry and Hank and really just every character on the show dealing with the consequences of their actions from the first few seasons. Things got heavy. People died. Other people stared off into the cold and unforgiving abyss in a way that implied they would welcome death. There were time jumps and wigs and aliases. Stephen Root’s character came out of prison covered in tattoos and going by The Raven. There was still comedy in there, to be sure, and here is the GIF of Hank missing his target with a missile to prove it…

… but it was… yeah, heavy.

The finale of the whole thing took it to another level. I don’t ever recall the ending of a show causing such a wide range of reactions. Some people I know (mostly my TV critic friends, but also some casual viewers) insist it was a masterpiece. Other people I’ve talked to really did not like it at all, for a range of reasons but mainly because of the scene at the very end. It’s a little fascinating to me, just this split among the fanbase. And so, what I’m going to try to do here is present both sides of the debate and see if we can get to the bottom of it.

I also wanted another excuse to post that GIF of NoHo Hank during the missile. There are a few reasons I’m doing this. Away we go.

CASE FOR

Okay, there are a few things here. Three, I think. Let’s address them in no particular order…

THING ONE: The end of this show had to be bleak because none of the characters were particularly great people. Even the supporting characters. Gene Cousineau is a narcissist and a self-important loon who got himself into a lot of this by being manipulative from the first moments we met him. Hank is a criminal who profited from the pain of others. Sally is insecure and jealous and petty. And Barry is… Barry is a murderer. It’s possible to gloss over that because Hader himself is such a likable dude, but let’s just look at his own words from an interview he did before the season with Uproxx’s Jason Tabrys.

With all the characters, you want to make them human and have something that is just a human trait. You just want them to be recognizably human. And I think in doing that, you can feel some sympathy for him because you can understand maybe, “Oh, I’ve had those feelings. I can relate in some way.” But it was important for me, during season three, to go okay, his back is against the wall, and Cousineau knows about him. So it’s only a matter of time before he yells at Sally. He gets verbally pretty awful with her in a scene. And I remember a lot of people go saying, “Oh my god, Barry’s a bad guy.” and I’m going “Yes. He killed Chris in season one. He is not a good dude.” (Laughs)

Yes, this is correct. There kind of could not be a happy ending for most of these people. It just was never going to happen. These people were always going to die and/or face consequences.

THING TWO: It was kind of a masterpiece? At the very least, it was always surprising. Think about the guts it takes to kill off your main character — the guy whose name is the title of the show — with a substantial chunk of runtime left in your last episode, in a scene played so dry and anticlimactic that his last words between getting shot in the chest and getting his forehead blasted open by Henry Winkler were “Oh, wow.” Think about the shootout between Hank’s men and Fuches’ — I’m sorry, “The Raven’s” — prison gang, the one that ended quickly and left bodies strewn across the floor and my beloved Hank clutching the hand of his beloved Cristobal, who he had killed earlier in the season. It was such a stupid way to die but probably more true to how most shootouts go — one shot, then a lot of shots, then panic — and another case of this show mixing comedy and tragedy in a new way. Again, nothing else on television like it. Again, Bill Hader is a talented dude.

THING THREE: The scene at the end where John — the now teenage son of Sally and Barry — watches the movie about his dad, a movie that makes Barry into the hero and Cousineau into the mastermind/supervillain, was right in line with what the show has always been. Pretty much from Day One, the characters depicted in the show’s version of Hollywood have been more morally bankrupt than any of the underworld figures we met, many of whom were actually charming and nice. This was the natural conclusion of that device. Hollywood would take the story of a military “hero” and turn him into a sympathetic figure, regardless of whether it was the truth, because Hollywood is more cynical and naive than entire crews of mobsters.

It wasn’t satisfying in any way. It made me cringe a little in places. But that’s how art works sometimes. It can challenge you. It’s a little weird to say about a show that featured live-action Wile E. Coyote-style gags and important scenes in a Dave & Busters, but Barry really did end up being a work of art.

CASE AGAINST

Three things again here, much more briefly…

THING ONE: It was actually unsatisfying in places to the degree that it was unnecessarily cruel to some of its characters, most notably Gene Cousineau, who was, again, a self-important creep but probably did not deserve to be framed for multiple murders and sent to prison until he dies after also losing the love of his life. And he definitely did not deserve to be portrayed as the evil menace who set everything in motion and manipulated Barry into doing all the things Barry did on his own, even if the movie did give him a cool British accent.

THING TWO: Killing off characters like Barry and Hank in anticlimactic and sudden flourishes of gunplay might have rubbed some people the wrong way, like the show made a point to present these people as multidimensional figures and then wiped them out with a snap. And even the character who got a “happy” ending, Sally, is now raising a kid who watched her rip off a wig and reveal an alternate life and hit the deck with her during a gunfight between rival gangs. These people are going to be messed up forever. Which, again, actions have consequences, but the ending stripped away any of the lightness that had balanced the dark throughout the show. I don’t know if I agree with this last part, personally, but I do appreciate that the point has merit.

THING THREE: They never gave us an update on Mitch the Beignet Guy. This last one is admittedly a minor quibble, but still. I miss Mitch.

MY OWN UNSATISFYING CONCLUSION TO ALL OF THIS

Barry was an incredible show, a roller coaster of emotions and tone, a goofy endeavor that ripped me apart in places, closer in style and arc to a show like Better Call Saul than it was any half-hour comedy. I liked it a lot — all of it, even the finale, for all its despair and pessimism and brutality — but I do not think I want to rewatch it ever again.

Was “So Long, Farewell” the final episode of Ted Lasso? It seems like it (the title is a modest giveaway). The episode had all the hallmarks of a series finale, as did the David Lynch-referencing tweet from the Twitter account “run” by Coach Lasso. But [Ted Lasso voice] like the lady told that Ryan Gosling fella in one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies, it’s not that simple.

When asked by Entertainment Weekly if Ted Lasso was over, actress Hannah Waddingham, the Emmy winner who plays AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton, replied, “You tell me, my friend! I don’t know. None of us know. I don’t even know if Jason (Sudeikis) knows. If he does, he is a sly dog.” Is her contract finished? “I mean, I’ve been doing plenty of other stuff,” she said, cagily. “Would I be open to a conversation about it? Always. You know, once a Greyhound, always a Greyhound.” Waddingham continued:

“Jason has been quite clear, as has [co-creator Brendan Hunt], that this is the end of the story that they had planned. So, I think it’s better to just take it as that, otherwise those scenes that we have done, particularly in the season finale, wouldn’t have been honored. You have to honor it as though it was the end, otherwise you’re not getting yourself in to the right place emotionally.”

Here’s an idea: end Ted Lasso, but give Brett Goldstein, in character as Roy Kent, a spinoff series. Preferably co-starring the Muppets. You think the ratings for Ted Lasso were good, Apple TV+? Wait until Roy Kent says “you f*cking twat” to Scooter. Biggest show on streaming.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Allegedly world-famous-poison-happy or at least poison-approver Vladimir Putin is apparently descending deep into his own paranoia on that subject and more. We’ve previously heard that the Russian president forces people to test his food, and that he has a personal pooper scooper who travels with him because he’s paranoid about either health-issue discovery or DNA harvesting. As well, an ex-Russian intelligence officer revealed that Putin is too “pathologically afraid to touch the internet or use a cell phone.” Now that drone attacks are hitting close to home, however, Putin has apparently devolved into a new stage of fright.

As The Daily Beast now relays from a source of independent Russian publication Verstka, Putin has apparently decided that he will no longer travel abroad, not only due to those drones but also because of the International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest. He’s the most deeply fearful of being assassinated, which does check out, given that so many Russian oligarchs keep mysteriously dying, and of course, eyebrows have constantly raised in Putin’s direction about those deaths. This fear has apparently become more concrete because Putin decided not to travel to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s latest inauguration ceremony, “sending State Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin instead.” Here’s more from The Daily Beast:

The feeling “behind the scenes of the Kremlin,” the source said, was that Putin was worried about traveling anywhere: “He has no sense of security.”

While the Kremlin played down this week’s drone attack on the Russian capital, The Moscow Times reported Wednesday that Putin was most likely in his Novo-Ogaryovo residence when air defenses shot down a drone that was heading for it just a few miles away.

A source close to the Kremlin told the news outlet that the Russian leader was awakened early by his security team in the middle of the attack.

All Putin wants to do is enjoy his little war and hide out in his pickle-filled compounds, and the world simply won’t allow this to happen. Additionally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has already publicized his planned punishment for Putin, should Ukraine win the conflict. By the day, it’s looking more and more like that could happen.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Cardi B just might be cashing in on her extravagant and extensive car collection. In a new social media video upload, the Bronx rapper showed off her garage and noted that a lot of the vehicles were just sitting around unused.

As HipHopDX noted, the collection includes a red Ferrari SUV that was a birthday gift from Offset and a black Maybach.

“F*cking cars, it just collects dust,” Cardi said. “I wonder if it even turns on… This gift Offset gave me, she’s pretty but I ain’t seen her in forever. I gotta bring my Maybach to New York.”

“Just collecting dust, we might as well just sell the f*cking cars,” she added. “We might as well just sell the f*cking cars. Oh my God, look at my f*cking Maybach.”

Throughout the clip, she also pans to a gray car, as actual dust and other dirt can be seen on the roofs of the various cars.

However, the luxury purchases are ones that both she and Offset have loved — as she also bought him a Lamborghini Aventador in 2020. The year prior, she gave up and got a refrigerator for his birthday.

“You got every car,” she said at the time. “You got every jewelry. You got everything. You got every shoe. You know what I’m saying. What else can I give somebody that got everything?”

Check out Cardi B’s car (and dust) collection above.

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

Pregnant pauses in chat, the nooks and crannies cruelty can find when you know your enemy well, the gift of perspective, and the idea that you know someone’s entire existence based on their social posts. On What Matters Most (which is available tomorrow), Ben Folds flexes his lyrical gifts across an expansive set of topics tinged by our modern means of division and the unshakeable realization that time is slipping. But there’s beauty in the chaos, questions he wants you to consider, and lessons he thinks he’s learned in the quiet.

A ’90s icon who rode the rails between power pop and alt-rock indie cred while writing songs of heart and wit (always wit), this is Folds’ first album in 8 years — time spent touring, judging music competition shows, writing a book (A Dream About Lightning Bugs), creating music, and enduring a pandemic. How has it changed him and his music and what did he set out to accomplish here? We spoke with Folds about that, the challenge of trying to write songs that are present and timeless, who this album is for, and a back and forth on AI’s possible role in hitmaking and song craft.

How do you walk the line between speaking to the moment while also feeling like you can create something that feels timeless? Because I feel like a lot of this stuff really achieves that.

I don’t know, my idea of doing it right is that you can date music. You are reporting, to a degree, on how you feel, what you see, what you’re interested in. I think there are definitely ways to make sure that the story is universal, or the forces beneath the story are universal. I went through just a big Chekhov reading phase during that period (the pandemic). Short stories. And it’s amazing how a douchebag in Russia 150 years ago is the same as a douchebag in North Carolina now. And he tells the story of that. You know the circumstances around it are specific to that time period. You know that character has characteristics that you put there. But there is a force beneath it, general human nature and those things. I think you try to hit on those. There were things that I edited out that were just too specific. I don’t have a problem with it being specific really, but if you can do it and kind of ride the line, like you said…

But I think that comes down to asking yourself why. What are you feeling in something? Why? If it’s about going to the moon, and hell, for going to the moon’s sake, let’s go to David Bowie or Elton John. So, “Rocket Man” or “Space Oddity”. Either one of them has a sense of isolation and mission, and, “Can you hear me Major Tom? Am I connecting?” Those are instances where the feeling… We’re talking lyrics, the way the lyrics work with the music is of course a whole extra thing. I don’t even know how you make that a science.

I think to pull out one specific example, “Kristine From 7th Grade.” I love it. There are mentions that are very present, but also there’s a universality to it. We’ve all had that experience of like, “Whoa, who the hell did you become?” when you reconnect with someone. But it’s not just frustration, it’s also pity, I think, that you have, for a person who can’t find joy.

Well, there’s a sadness between the two characters, that they’ve been divided. They’ve allowed themselves to be divided, and you can place some of the blame on the singer of the song too. I ended the song with a question mark, and that’s how it felt to me, which was, do you ever see the world as being just pure beauty? Do you ever have a moment like that? Because everything in your fucking Facebook feed and everything coming across seems pretty miserable.

But that doesn’t mean that the Kristine character doesn’t feel those things. It means that the singer of the song is not privy to it. It’s so divided that they don’t see it. So, look, it works different ways, I’m sure, but I think I want to be careful to go with a song like that. It has to be from my point of view enough to feel right. But that would be the same, I’m sure, for David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” It doesn’t have to be literally true, but it has to have some truth to it. At the same time, I think you have to open up yourself to the possibility that you’re wrong.

It’s very easy to listen to a song and think that everything is autobiographical to a certain extent. Is that something that you find that people think about your work and is that something you can use to your advantage as a writer?

Well, you have to acknowledge that that’s a force. So, if you’re writing now, people are hearing you sing it, of course they think that it’s autobiographical, and like you say, one can enjoy that at their risk. (Laughs) It’s fun to play with because you know that it gets attention, which is part of what a song is supposed to or trying to do, is, I guess, to a degree, draw attention to itself.

Plus, people in my position love it. That’s all the juicy details of, “Oh, tell us your true story,” and all. That’s our thing too.

Same here, man.

Narratives.

I hear something and I go, “Really? Did that bastard do that to her?” I do think that too. And I think it’s fun to play with, which is why, I guess, I’m sort of self-amused a little bit. I amuse myself at the idea that I get irritated when people believe that something is autobiographical, when I know that I played with that. I gave them something that sounded like it was toying with that, and I knew what I was doing, and now that they think it’s me, I’m upset. I’m just weird.

How have you changed in terms, of when you’re writing a song, back when you started, back in the ’90s when “Brick” dropped and you were working with the boys in Ben Folds Five, how has the process changed for you in terms of who you’re writing for? Are you writing for you more?

Well, those are great questions. You know why they’re great questions? Because they don’t really have an answer. And I told my producer, and he really understood. He understood what I meant by this. “My main thing with this new record that we’re about to make, Joe (Pisapia), is I want it to be generous.” And what I didn’t mean by that was that I wasn’t making it for me. That’s not what I meant. I didn’t mean I was kowtowing to a set of ears that I imagined would like it.

What I meant was that it was things that were generous. They were for, like, this is tonality from bottom to top. It’s pretty to listen to. It’s got good chords. It’s entertaining. It’s shiny. It’s like, if you made something for your friend, a piece of art for their living room that they had to look at every day, you wouldn’t put someone screaming bloody murder on it, or wouldn’t be a dead meat thing. A lot of art is there to make you feel uncomfortable, but there is not enough of it that is just purely just generous. So, having said that, I think on this new record, I was really aware of that. I think I might have been aware of it a little bit in times with Ben Folds Five, but I thought of it differently.

We were out of options when we made our first record. We’d recorded a version of the album where we were careful. We had a producer. He was a good producer, but it was wrong for us, wrong person, wrong time, and we spent a whole budget on it. And precisely, it wasn’t a generous record. It was a correct record. It was a record that would tick the boxes off. It sounded fine on radio. It sounded fine to people. It didn’t say anything bad about our musicianship, all that kind of stuff. When we made the next version of that record, we vaulted it, and then we made the record again for a total of $3,000. It was like we had nothing to lose, and we went nuts. And then I couldn’t wait to hear it come out of the speaker. And that’s generous because you’re making something that’s like, “I cannot wait to hang this on the wall.” Not, “I have something to express.” Not, “This is about me.” It’s like, “I can’t wait to hear that. That’s just fucking something I can’t wait to hear.”

And I think this new record’s a little bit like that too. I was like, “How well can I manipulate the chord voicings? How well can we stack the tones? How well can I put the words together? How many words can I cut out? Can I sing that more generously and not try to talk about myself, but just make it sound good? Can I form a better sound when I’m singing? Can I kind of be a little more emotive about something and not worry about that?” All those kind of things. Sorry, it’s a very long answer, but that’s such a good question.

There’s a level of experimentation in your career. I’m curious about how you view AI. Is it a tool, potentially, or is it a challenge, potentially, a challenger for a songwriter?

I don’t feel threatened by it. I think it’ll be interesting. I finished the last record and even a batch of songs for an animated thing that’s coming out, and AI just came out. I mean, why not ask AI, “Can you give me 10 different ways to say this sentence?” Why not? Sounds like a good idea to me. I mean, I’ve had it spit out lyrics for songs just on tour for fun just to see. It’s still pretty limited. I wouldn’t call them good lyrics, but it’s really impressive.

I mean, my take on AI right now, and everyone’s going to have it, I have sort of two takes on it because I don’t want to be too pessimistic about it. And there’s nothing that we’ve ever invented that still didn’t require some management of it. I mean, think about all the people that have to write just dross copy. Just fucking like “this hotel is a unique blend of blah, blah, blah.”

I’ve definitely had to do that. (Laughs)

Well, who wants to do that? I’ve had to do the equivalent. Someone said, “Could you kind of turn in a thing on this, thing on this?” I get it. We’ve all had to do it. You write your first bios. And I have friends, for instance, I have friends who have to write stuff like that, travel magazine stuff. You’ll still have to manage it, but why have your head in that dross? Now you can manage it. You know what you need. As a professional, you’re like, “Yeah, they need this, they need this, they need this.” Put it in AI, change a couple things around, suggest that it changes something, fuck with it, and then be done. Then use that mind to be more creative. I mean, that’s usually supposed to be the idea with these tools. And it’s never so simple as that.

But I have friends who do cinema music and most of what they have to do is copy other people. They’re good at it. Look, we need 20 seconds of Mozart, needs to be just as good as Mozart. We need it tomorrow. We need 30 seconds of Philip Glass tomorrow. And I know that’s their living and they would be bummed if they lost that job, but now their mind is free to make up something that AI can’t. So I think that even though it’s painful on an occupational level to a degree, I think that there might be something good in it.

My other take on AI is that I believe that we should probably be writing into its code as it grows like a child. We should probably be negotiating with it and writing a treaty with it ahead of time now and calling it our daughter or our son. And it’ll remember that after it starts to become Hal. Always remember your poor old parents aren’t smart all the time, but they love you, they mean well. We can both live together. Just maybe make that part of its training. If it’s really artificial intelligence, and it really does end up having emotions, then put that into it the back of its head right now to start coding all of it with we love you and shit like that, and write treaties.

It’s an interesting thought that you present. I’m incredibly pessimistic about it to the nth degree, but a lot of it to me is how it’s managed. Are we going to be always the ones managing it? Is it going to be sort of turned into a thing that winds up replacing not just those jobs where it’s just kind of like mind-numbing copy, but other things? I think there are a lot of things in the air that cause concern about that. But also, I don’t know, sometimes even writing the basic copy stuff, I still get a kick out of the challenge of it.

I mean, every form of writing craft has its own level of personal importance or input. I’ve written songs that people like a lot that I’m almost not even in it. And then other ones it’s like, if you don’t like that, you don’t like me. I’m more personal about it. We’ve always got the right and ability to write what we want to. And when you don’t want to have to write a thing, there’s all kinds of boilerplate stuff in songs that just is to get you to the point. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hell yeah. Hey, let’s fuck, whatever. It’s just in there waiting to get to the point that you need.

So I don’t feel particularly threatened by it. Of course, in my lifetime, given what I do for a living, I doubt I should feel threatened. The first people that will feel threatened are people who write copy, especially if you are invested in it. But I feel like if you’re invested in it, you’re writing stuff AI can’t write. And if you’re someone who’s like, “You know what? I’m going to have it write three-quarters of it because it’s going to be the same fucking shit no matter who writes it, let’s just get that out of the way, and then I’ll put the important stuff in there.” It’s like songs like “Wichita Lineman.” He could have been singing anything up to the point where he says (singing) and you’re like, “Oh my God, we got there.” And he got there through… Could have been a lot of different ways he got there, but he hit with that moment. And yeah, I’m not as pessimistic about it.

Ben Folds’ ‘What Matters Most’ is available on vinyl, CD, and streaming June 2 from New West Records.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is already attempting to make hay out of the new batch of January 6 tapes that Kevin McCarthy has reportedly released to right-wing media outlets. Greene, who’s been a longtime defender of the MAGA rioters, claims that she has already seen the footage and offered her analysis, which naturally involves Deep State conspiracy theories involving “honey pots” and the FBI.

“We have brave FBI whistleblowers and other whistleblowers that are coming forward and informing our committees about this information, Greene said on the Wednesday episode of her MTG Battleground podcast.

Via Mediaite:

“You see, this should never happen. The federal government should never be weaponized against the people and set up honeypots and traps to draw people in and actually take part in making these people commit crimes and then framing the people to set up a narrative against a president,” Greene added.

Honey pots typically refer to operatives reeling in unwitting suspects through seductive means, but Greene didn’t elaborate if that was the actual case or if it’s just a word she heard somebody used and ran with it.

She did, however, go after the surveillance footage of the alleged “pipe bomber” who was caught on camera the night of January 5. While online conspiracy theories have floated unfounded theories that Greene is the bomber, she floated a conspiracy of her own that, again, implicates the FBI.

“This is the behavior of someone that seems to be wanted to be seen on video camera and isn’t concerned about getting caught,” Greene said to support her false flag theory.

You can see a clip from Greene’s podcast below:

(Via Mediaite)

In February, Bruce Springsteen accidentally hit his guitar tech on the head while performing. He’s currently stopping by stages in Europe, and had a similarly silly, small incident on Saturday (May 27) his gig in Amsterdam.

While ascending the steps and singing his song “Ghosts,” the musician fell face-first. The 73-year-old rolled onto his back and members of the opener E Street Band helped him back up. Jokingly, he announced, “Goodnight, everybody!” and proceeded to continue with his set without any problems.

Last year, the Born To Run rock star also confronted fans upset over his concert prices. “For the past 49 years or however long we’ve been playing, we’ve pretty much been out there under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans,” he said, “but ticket buying has gotten very confusing, not just for the fans, but for the artists also.”

“The bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable. They’re in that affordable range. We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway,” he continued. “Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?”

In February, Bruce Springsteen accidentally hit his guitar tech on the head while performing. He’s currently stopping by stages in Europe, and had a similarly silly, small incident on Saturday (May 27) his gig in Amsterdam.

While ascending the steps and singing his song “Ghosts,” the musician fell face-first. The 73-year-old rolled onto his back and members of the opener E Street Band helped him back up. Jokingly, he announced, “Goodnight, everybody!” and proceeded to continue with his set without any problems.

Last year, the Born To Run rock star also confronted fans upset over his concert prices. “For the past 49 years or however long we’ve been playing, we’ve pretty much been out there under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans,” he said, “but ticket buying has gotten very confusing, not just for the fans, but for the artists also.”

“The bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable. They’re in that affordable range. We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway,” he continued. “Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?”

Thursday night marks the star of the 2023 NBA Finals, in which the 1-seed Denver Nuggets will play host to the 8-seed Miami Heat. Denver rolled through the Western Conference, while Miami had to scratch and claw its way to the top of the Eastern Conference, taking a path that went through the Play-In Tournament and nearly saw them blow a 3-0 series lead to the Boston Celtics.

But still, there are plenty of similarities between the two teams. For example: There are only two players in the NBA are from Serbia, have the first name “Nikola,” and have a last name that starts with “Jo” and ends with “ic.” Funny enough, both of them happen to be playing in this series. Ahead of Game 1 on Thursday night in Denver, we decided to rank those guys in an effort to see who is the best player of the bunch.

2. Nikola Jovic, PF, Miami Heat

The No. 27 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Jovic has taken quite the path to the NBA. Originally born in England, Jovic became one of the top prospects in all of Europe during his time with the Serbian side Mega Basket and as a member of the national team. In fact, back in 2022, Jovic was named the top prospect in the Adriatic League, an honor that previously was given to someone else who will appear on this list, but we won’t spoil who it is.

Like many rookies who end up with the Heat, Jovic spent some time this season as a member of the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League. During the regular season, all of his playing time in Miami came before the start of the new year, and he ended up flashing some promise when he got onto the floor — in 15 games (eight starts) with the team, Jovic averaged 5.5 points and 2.1 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game. His best game came against the Washington Wizards on Nov. 18, when he had 18 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes of work.

1. Nikola Jokic, C, Denver Nuggets

While Jovic is level with him on number of times making the NBA Finals, Jokic has a leg up in, well, everything else. The two-time NBA MVP has taken his play to another level during the 2023 postseason, as Jokic is making as emphatic of a case for being the best player in the world as he has at any point in his career.

It’s a high bar, but the case can be made that Jokic is one of the best runs of postseason dominance on the offensive end of the floor that we have ever seen. His numbers are out of a video game: 29.9 points, 13.3 rebounds, 10.3 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.9 blocks in 38.9 minutes per game while connecting on 53.8 percent of his shots from the field and 47.4 percent of his attempts from behind the three-point line. There is no really good way to stop him — and, by extension, Denver’s offense — which is why the Nuggets have lost three times in three rounds, picked up a sweep in the Western Conference Finals, and are undefeated at home in the playoffs.

Thursday night marks the star of the 2023 NBA Finals, in which the 1-seed Denver Nuggets will play host to the 8-seed Miami Heat. Denver rolled through the Western Conference, while Miami had to scratch and claw its way to the top of the Eastern Conference, taking a path that went through the Play-In Tournament and nearly saw them blow a 3-0 series lead to the Boston Celtics.

But still, there are plenty of similarities between the two teams. For example: There are only two players in the NBA are from Serbia, have the first name “Nikola,” and have a last name that starts with “Jo” and ends with “ic.” Funny enough, both of them happen to be playing in this series. Ahead of Game 1 on Thursday night in Denver, we decided to rank those guys in an effort to see who is the best player of the bunch.

2. Nikola Jovic, PF, Miami Heat

The No. 27 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Jovic has taken quite the path to the NBA. Originally born in England, Jovic became one of the top prospects in all of Europe during his time with the Serbian side Mega Basket and as a member of the national team. In fact, back in 2022, Jovic was named the top prospect in the Adriatic League, an honor that previously was given to someone else who will appear on this list, but we won’t spoil who it is.

Like many rookies who end up with the Heat, Jovic spent some time this season as a member of the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League. During the regular season, all of his playing time in Miami came before the start of the new year, and he ended up flashing some promise when he got onto the floor — in 15 games (eight starts) with the team, Jovic averaged 5.5 points and 2.1 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game. His best game came against the Washington Wizards on Nov. 18, when he had 18 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes of work.

1. Nikola Jokic, C, Denver Nuggets

While Jovic is level with him on number of times making the NBA Finals, Jokic has a leg up in, well, everything else. The two-time NBA MVP has taken his play to another level during the 2023 postseason, as Jokic is making as emphatic of a case for being the best player in the world as he has at any point in his career.

It’s a high bar, but the case can be made that Jokic is one of the best runs of postseason dominance on the offensive end of the floor that we have ever seen. His numbers are out of a video game: 29.9 points, 13.3 rebounds, 10.3 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.9 blocks in 38.9 minutes per game while connecting on 53.8 percent of his shots from the field and 47.4 percent of his attempts from behind the three-point line. There is no really good way to stop him — and, by extension, Denver’s offense — which is why the Nuggets have lost three times in three rounds, picked up a sweep in the Western Conference Finals, and are undefeated at home in the playoffs.