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There are vast reasons to watch every NBA team this season. Whether it’s the development of enticing youngsters, creative schemes, or befuddling on-court dominance from superstars, each of The Association’s 30 clubs provide ample motivation to tune in every night. Basketball garners fans through a melting pot of factors and the NBA’s 2022-23 landscape helps underscore that.

As NBA’s Opening Night stands mere hours away and the entire league debuts over the next three evenings, it’s time to highlight four teams I’m particularly psyched to follow over the next six-plus months. All 30 capture my attention, these four just rank higher on the priority list than most.

New Orleans Pelicans

After a 3-16 start, with new faces led by a first-time head coach in Willie Green, New Orleans closed the year 33-30 last season. After acquiring CJ McCollum shortly before the trade deadline in February, they went 9-6 in the 15 games he and Brandon Ingram played together. Then, they won a pair of Play-In contests and pushed the Phoenix Suns during a riveting six-game, first-round series.

All of this occurred without Zion Williamson, who resembled a top-20ish player the last time he suited up in 2020-21, averaging 27 points on 64.9 percent true shooting. While he didn’t quite nab an All-NBA spot, he certainly sported a credible case, doing so at age 20 in his second season. Whenever this dude plays, he’s utterly dominant, especially on offense, where he’s an elite initiator. His marriage of interior scoring, gravity and playmaking render him elite.

Joining Williamson in the starting five is a quartet of tremendous NBA players who could have this offense peaking near the top of the league. Ingram made strides as an off-ball defender, passer and all-around decision-maker throughout 2021-22. He’s a bona fide star. Headlined by malleable shooting, McCollum is a delightful third option, who leveled up his passing after joining the Pelicans. Jonas Valanciunas is a reliable post hub, both as a scorer and facilitator, who engulfs rebounds on both ends. He and Williamson are going to be the premier paint-scoring tandem in the NBA.

Lastly, second-year defensive star, Herbert Jones, is one of the 10 or so best defenders the league has to offer. He should’ve made an All-Defensive Team as a rookie, and his offensive progression over the past few years, particularly with his jumper, midrange touch and ball-handler bode well moving forward.

The depth is playoff-ready, too. Larry Nance Jr., Jose Alvarado, and Trey Murphy III is a versatile reserve group to round out a postseason eight-man rotation. During the regular season, rookie Dyson Daniels, whose defense shined in the preseason, Jaxson Hayes, Devonte’ Graham, Naji Marshall, and Willy Hernangomez provide viable reinforcements as well.

I expect New Orleans to challenge for homecourt or better — with a legitimate darkhorse title run possible — and be one of the NBA’s most prolific offensive attacks. Inverted pick-and-rolls with Williamson and McCollum. Jumbo pick-and-rolls with Williamson and Valanciunas. The McCollum-Ingram two-man game. Flex actions for Williamson, Ingram and Valanciunas. Green’s offensive creativity popped next season and seeing what he does with a player like Williamson, while surrounded by other high-level ancillary talent, should be a joy.

Williamson making the leap from top-20 player to top-10 is plausible. The defense will be tenable, even if not necessarily a top-10 unit. Fifty or more wins as the prologue of a deep playoff appearance is where I could see this season headed, and those 50 wins should be a dynamite 2,400-plus minutes of action.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Much like the Pelicans, the Cleveland Cavaliers were a darling of 2021-22, with a chance to significantly build upon that by adding an All-Star to the ensemble this fall. A litany of injuries — Collin Sexton, Ricky Rubio and Jarrett Allen, namely — left Cleveland short of a playoff berth after jockeying for the top seed out East midway through last year.

Darius Garland and Allen are 22 and 24, respectively, fresh off inaugural All-Star appearances. Further development can be anticipated, even if marginal at worst. Over the final few months of the season, when saddled with heightened scoring duties, Garland played like an All-NBA guard. His leap in scoring aggression was crucial. Over the final 24 games, he averaged 25-9-3 on a 45/41/88 shooting split. He’s a baller.

Now, his backcourt mate becomes Donovan Mitchell, who similarly performed at a near-All-NBA level last season. They’re a dynamic offensive punch who complement one another supremely well stylistically. Can head coach J.B. Bickerstaff toss more zest into his offensive playbook after doing so between 2020-21 and 2021-22 to maximize his personnel?

Evan Mobley was the lone defensive rookie better than Herbert Jones last season and also deserved an All-Defensive Team nod he did not receive. His sophomore campaign should see him mature from a quality starter to someone folks ponder for All-Star buzz. He and Allen are an absurdly imposing defensive pairing.

Rubio, who tore his ACL in late December, should be back at some point early in the year. He’ll bring welcomed facilitating and caretaking off the bench to spearhead lineups alongside Mitchell or Garland, both of whom he has prior success and experience playing alongside.

Cleveland will miss Lauri Markkanen’s services on the wing, but I expect this team to once again rank in or close to the top five defensively, while riding a substantial jump from their 20th-ranked offense now that two harmonic All-Star initiators are in the fold and the ball-handling depth isn’t entirely depleted behind Garland.

Most teams don’t have two All-Defensive-caliber bigs and two All-Star guards, especially ones either south of or just entering their primes. The Cavaliers do, and it’s a leading component of their allure, merging tall-ball with a pair of diminutive, explosive creators.

Denver Nuggets

On Wednesday, for the first time in more than 18 months, the Denver Nuggets’ Big Three of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. will share the floor in a regular-season outing. The return of Murray and Porter are not the lone ways this roster will look different either.

Denver swapped ball-handling depth in Will Barton and Monte Morris for defensive acumen in the 3-and-D wing, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. It also signed the league’s tallest 6’4 guard, Bruce Brown, a tremendous defender, both on the ball and at the nail, who thrives as a cutter and short-roll release valve. Both should prop up what was among the worst perimeter defense in the league last season, while also fitting seamlessly alongside Jokic offensively.

The starting quintet of Murray-Caldwell-Pope-Aaron Gordon-Porter-Jokic is full of fireworks. They’re going to rampage teams. Three shooters and three cutters around Jokic. Four excellent shooters, including the MVP. Five tremendous off-ball scorers. The league’s effervescent offensive talent and distributor. A legit secondary handler in Murray. There are a handful of contenders for the top offensive in the league and Denver sits squarely in that tier, possibly as my frontrunner.

Behind the presumably elite starting lineup, Bones Hyland approaches his second season following an All-Rookie appearance and some encouraging, illuminating playoff reps. He’s likely the lead ball-handler off the bench, and Denver is thin in that department outside of him, so extrapolating his second-half strides into further steps is imperative. He’s a gifted shooter and handler whose preseason indicated he might find more success getting downhill and drawing fouls than he did a year ago. His chemistry with Jokic is reminiscent of the early Jokic-Murray pairing, too.

Without Murray or Porter, Denver won 48 games a season ago and challenged the Golden State Warriors as effectively as their Western Conference Finals foe, the Dallas Mavericks, did by way of a five-game series. It should not be overstated how impressive the Nuggets’ 2021-22 was, despite the notable absences.

Jokic, the back-to-back MVP, has a glowing claim for the best player in the NBA. The roster is improved and healthier, better catered to reduce his defensive burden and amplify his offensive ethos. Few squads will outclass these Nuggets, both with regard to quality of play and aesthetic excitement.

Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic are embarking on their second full year of a rebuild, led by a groovy, atypical roster construction. We’ve seen the tall-ball approach, evidenced currently by teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks, as well as the 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers and 2018-19 Toronto Raptors, both of whom often trotted out jumbo-sized frontcourts.

Yet it feels distinct for a club’s three best players to all be 6’10” dribble-pass-shoot dudes. With Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter Jr., and Paolo Banchero, that is the case for Orlando, who will seemingly flow the majority of the offense through them. The prior four teams listed generally anchored their tall-ball success via defense.

Carter looked stellar in preseason and his offensive aggression is a complete turn from his Chicago Bulls tenure. He also continues to sharpen his defensive technique and impact. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s once again the Magic’s top player and helps them exceed projections en route to a Most Improved Player honor or consideration.

I expect Orlando’s defense to be pretty sound (eighth-ranked defense over the final 29 games last year), but the fun for this tall-ball philosophy stems from the offensive appeal. Throughout the preseason, Wagner, Carter and Banchero were all granted considerable creation reps. They routinely connected in pick-and-rolls, cuts, and dribble handoffs. They can all shoot off the bounce, set the table for others and attack closeouts.

Whenever Markelle Fultz, who’s on the mend with a fractured toe, rejoins the lineup, his staccato slashing game will only augment Orlando’s funk. Jalen Suggs’ offensive role should be simplified this year to aid him, and his defensive repertoire is vast for a second-year player. Bol Bol might even crack the rotation. The funk is felt and seen across the roster.

The spacing is cramped — they’ll miss Gary Harris for however long he’s out recovering from surgery on his torn meniscus — and giveaways plague them (24th in turnover rate last year). The offense will be prone to ineffectual stretches. But head coach Jahmal Mosley’s Xs and Os are ingenuitive and the manner in which they’ll aim to burn defenses should be fascinating.

Vying for a Play-In spot is entirely possible. If that manifests, a distinct approach will be a prominent factor fueling this surprise result. That’s worth tuning in for all year.

The nature versus nurture question has intrigued humans for as long as we’ve been philosophizing about our existence. What makes us who we are? How much of our personality and tendencies are a product of our genetics and how much of it is due to our upbringing?

Anyone who has raised more than one child can attest to the fact that children are not simply blank slates—each has their own innate personality. And anyone who has seen siblings from the same parents and the same household knows that kids can come from the same environment and turn out totally differently.

Some may look at how differently siblings turn out and assume that those difference are all due to nature, but as child development expert Dr. Gabor Maté points out, it’s not just personality that makes a difference.

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“No two kids are raised in the same family,” he told Canadian talk show host Dahlia Kurtz. “No two children have the same parents.”

Maté asked Kurtz if she had siblings, and she told him she had younger and older siblings. “You weren’t raised in the same family,” he told her, pointing out that she’d never had the experience of being the oldest child. She was the middle child, which he said could be quite difficult as middle children don’t have the respect and authority of an oldest child or the cuteness and lovability of the youngest.

“Not only that, but when your parents had you and when they had your younger siblings, perhaps, they might have been at a different stage in their own personal development, or in a different stage of their relationship, or a different economic position,” he said.

“Even more importantly, temperamentally every child is different and that means they evoke a different part of the parent,” he added. “So even if a parent loves their kids equally—which I’m not questioning—they will not respond to the child in the same way. The child will not evoke the same responses from the parent, one child or the other. So no children have the same two parents.”

Watch:

@dahliakurtz

How could your sibling be raised the same but turn out so differently? Maybe even a narcissist? Dr. Gabor Mate has the facsinating answer. You’ll never see yor sibling the same…For the full conversation, check out rhe link in bio. #mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #depressed #happy #gabormate #drgabormate #siblings #narcissism #parents #recoverty #trauma #help #healing #dahlia #bpd #anxiety #family #familygoals #siblingcheck #siblinggoals

He’s right, of course. Not only are children unique, ever-changing individuals, but parents are too. The dynamics and circumstances of family life is always shifting, even in the most stable of families. One child might come along during a job layoff or a major, cross-country move. One child’s formative years might hit just when their parents are hitting a rough patch in their marriage and another’s might hit right when they’re benefiting from counseling.

Speaking from experience, you couldn’t parent each child exactly the same way even if you wanted to. First of all, different children respond differently to different things. One child might crumble under a stern look while another lets a parent’s anger roll right off their back. One child might be a verbal processor who needs to talk through their feelings while another might need to express themselves physically or creatively in order to work out what’s bothering them. Parenting children means parenting according to who each child is and what their unique needs and tendencies are. Trying to make it a uniform, perfectly “equal” endeavor is simply an exercise in frustration.

Maté is also right that different kids bring out different parts of us. Human relationships are complex, and trying to nail down parenting to one particular set of rules or one specific approach simply isn’t realistic. You have to parent the child in front of you as whoever you are at the time, and both of those things is going to shift and change over time as you both learn and grow. It’s what humans do.

And let’s be real. Parenting can be exhausting, so those youngest kids really do get parents who are more relaxed and maybe a bit more lenient than the older ones, simply due to the amount of energy it takes to parent. We learn over the years what battles are worth fighting, what standards are worth upholding and which things can be tossed to the wayside without really doing any damage. Parenting is an ongoing learning process, so of course children who are years apart in age will have different parents in many ways, even if their parents are the same two people.

Dr. Maté just boils it down so beautifully and succinctly. “No two children are raised in the same family,” and “No two children have the same parents.” Wise words to take to heart whether you’re a parent of more than one child or you have siblings yourself.

UPROXX Sessions is back with another new performance from Birmingham’s YBN Nahmir. At just 22 years old, the YBN collective rapper has already collaborated with industry titans like Gucci Mane and was a member of XXL’s “2018 Freshman Class.” The southern rapper’s 2017 viral hit, “Rubbin off the Paint” quickly gained millions of streams on SoundCloud, and the track’s music video has since amassed over two hundred million views on Youtube. Since he’s dropped several mixtapes, an EP, and his debut album Visionland back in 2021.

Today he graces the bathroom set with “Spend It,” from his 2022 EP, Faster Car Music. The track and Nahmir’s performance are high-energy efforts. His Sessions set showcases his irregular cadence and flow, similar to E-40 and other Bay Area rappers, his self-proclaimed influences. Lyrically, the rapper flexes his new-found wealth and status symbols — the Mercedes-Benz CLS, GLE SUV, and of course, racks on racks on racks.

Watch YBN Nahmir perform “Spend It” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

As Black Adam prepares to drop later this week, Warner Bros. Discovery seems to be leaning very heavily on CEO David Zaslav’s desire to get Superman back on the big screen, preferably in the form of Henry Cavill. The Rock has all but confirmed that Cavill will be back in the tights sooner than later, and a new report is now claiming that Man of Steel 2 is in early development.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Under Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Warner Bros. Pictures heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, Warners has an intense desire to reprise the Cavill iteration of the hero. The project that would essentially be Man of Steel 2 is being produced by Charles Roven and is currently in a search for writers. (There is a wishlist, of course. And Christopher McQuarrie, the hand that guides the Mission: Impossible movies was on it.)

It should be noted that dreams of Man of Steel 2 happening seem to pop up every six to twelve months, so don’t get too excited about Cavill officially returning yet. That said, The Rock has reportedly been maneuvering behind the scenes to make it happen, so the sparkle of hope is a little bit brighter this time around.

While Warner Bros. might be keen on getting Cavill to come back, they seem to be less interested in any Batman that isn’t connected to Robert Pattinson. THR also reports that The Batman director Matt Reeves has been meeting with writers and directors to make films based on Batman villains. These spinoffs would be connected to the cinematic universe he kicked off with Pattinson’s character. Sort of a mini-Batman MCU if you will.

Of course, all of this hinges on Warner Bros. Discovery not imploding in the next two years and getting bought by Comcast. Just something to keep in mind before you get too excited about a Clayface movie.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Plenty of writers hate to read their old work, or think they could make it better in hindsight. Some creatives will never be satisfied by their output, let alone the way it is received by others. And then there’s Alan Moore, who created the critically-acclaimed Watchmen comic series and absolutely hates the Damon Lindelof adaptation that aired on HBO and was met with near-universal praise.

Moore has not been shy about anything, especially in his disappointment with the 2019 HBO limited series which, unlike the uneven and lengthy 2009 movie of the same name was a significant departure from the original source material. There were changes that delved into systemic racism, and the role of law enforcement, and also added a surprising amount of levity to the proceedings. And all of it worked to the tune of 11 Emmy Awards, including a win for Outstanding Limited Series and acting nods for Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

It also featured scenes like this:

It kicked all kinds of ass is what we’re saying here. Except in the mind of Moore, who this week continued to criticize the work and expressed frustration that he was even bothered for his input on the show. In an interview with GQ, Moore didn’t hold back in calling it “embarrassing” that he was asked for feedback on the most recent adaptation. Moore explained that Lindelof sent him a package and a letter while production started and, well, he wasn’t happy with even being contacted in the first place. He didn’t like Lindelof’s opening line (“Dear Mr. Moore, I am one of the bastards currently destroying Watchmen”) and he especially didn’t like that Lindelof asked him how to pronounce “Ozymandias,” one of the vigilantes on the show

The anecdote about Ozymandias could have been a joke, of course, as that name was a key part of one of the biggest television shows of the last two decades. But still, it was enough to turn Moore further against the project he didn’t even know was happening at the time.

I got back with a very abrupt and probably hostile reply telling him that I’d thought that Warner Brothers were aware that they, nor any of their employees, shouldn’t contact me again for any reason. I explained that I had disowned the work in question, and partly that was because the film industry and the comics industry seemed to have created things that had nothing to do with my work, but which would be associated with it in the public mind. I said, “Look, this is embarrassing to me. I don’t want anything to do with you or your show. Please don’t bother me again.”

Moore is clearly frustrated with what the comic and movie industries have done to his works since they were published, and so no version of Watchmen would make him particularly happy. And he admitted that he hasn’t even watched it. But what seems to bother him most of all is that people keep getting the wrong things out of his work, which has actually tainted the whole of it in his eyes.

When I saw the television industry awards that the Watchmen television show had apparently won, I thought, “Oh, god, perhaps a large part of the public, this is what they think Watchmen was?” They think that it was a dark, gritty, dystopian superhero franchise that was something to do with white supremacism. Did they not understand Watchmen? Watchmen was nearly 40 years ago and was relatively simple in comparison with a lot of my later work. What are the chances that they broadly understood anything since? This tends to make me feel less than fond of those works. They mean a bit less in my heart.

The full GQ interview is worth reading — Moore comes off less angry than merely grappling with how the world views his work. There’s a point in the interview where he laments that right-wing Nazis, for example, take a fascist piece he wrote in V For Vendetta as fact and not satire. It’s tough knowing that not everyone is going to Get It when you make something, but it’s also kind of a bummer that Moore is unable to enjoy a very good show because of all the baggage tied to one of his most notable works.

[via IndieWire]

As K-Pop comebacks and concerts continue to happen simultaneously this year, ITZY is bringing an extra kick before they embark on the US leg of their world tour next week.

In celebration of spooky season, ITZY is treating MIDZY (their fans) with their first English single “Boys Like Us” out this Friday, October 21. Initially announced on Sunday (October 16) EST, the news comes to a surprise for the K-pop community as the release is scheduled just days before their US tour. But once the first teaser dropped on Monday (October 17), fans were treated to a Halloween-themed video clip featuring the quintet — consisting of members Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Chaeryeong, and Yuna — exchanging side eyes and glares at each other while all coincidentally dressed up as angels at a house party to meet a supposed love interest.

The music video to ITZY’s “Boys Like Us” will release on Friday midnight EST at the same time the single will hit music streaming platforms. Fans are now hoping to see the live performance of the song during the US leg of their tour next week.

ITZY’s The First World Tour: Checkmate will kick off on Wednesday, October 26 at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles, California and will follow up with six more stops across the country before concluding in New York’s Hulu Theater on November 13. Just recently, the group announced additional stops in Asia for cities like Manila, Singapore, Jakarta and Bangkok.

Taylor Swift has called upon boyfriend Joe Alwyn for some songwriting help on her two most recent non-remake albums. On Folklore, Alwyn is credited, under the pen name William Bowery, as a co-writer on “Exile” and “Betty.” On Evermore, he’s credited on “Champagne Problems,” “Coney Island,” and “Evermore.” Now, he’s back for the upcoming Midnights, too: The list of songwriters on the album was shared today (October 18) and Alwyn (as Bowery) is credited alongside Swift on “Sweet Nothing.”

In an interview from earlier this year, Alwyn spoke about writing “Exile” with Swift, noting the process began when he was “messing around” on the piano and singing what would end up being the first verse of the Bon Iver duet, which Swift overheard. He continued, “It was completely off the cuff, an accident. She said, ‘Can we try and sit down and get to the end together?’ And so we did. It was as basic as some people made sourdough.”

He also co-wrote “Betty” and noted of working on that one, “I’d probably had a drink and was just stumbling around the house. We couldn’t decide on a film to watch that night, and she was like, ‘Do you want to try and finish writing that song you were singing earlier?’ And so we got a guitar and did that.”

Midnights is out 10/21 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

Arctic Monkeys have been methodically putting The Car puzzle together since confirming their seventh studio album in August. Today (October 18), a new piece has emerged. Alex Turner and the band officially released the slow-burning single “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” with a video that was shot during their September show at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.

The riff-heavy tune was surprisingly debuted one day before Arctic Monkeys’ The Car unveiling. They played it during their set at the Zurich Openair festival in Switzerland. In the song, Turner is a bit on edge but never loses his cool (typical rockstar, right?) while contemplating his place in life, physically and otherwise.

“It’s the intermission / Let’s shake a few hands,” he sings softly in the second verse. “Blank expressions invite me to suspect / I ain’t quite where I think I am.” Turner viscerally describes disco strobes, the Riviera, his view of “both islands,” and even gets risque in the bridge: “From my vantage point / The spare set of tingles will race up your spine, if I get it my way.”

“I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” joins similarly tantalizing singles “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball” and “Body Paint” in The Car rollout. The impending album is Arctic Monkeys’ first since 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. They will embark on a supporting 22-date North American tour beginning August 25, 2023.

Watch the Ben Chappell- and Zackery Michael-directed video above.

The Car is out 10/21 via Domino. Pre-order it here.

The last time we talked to Ralph Macchio, Cobra Kai was making the move to Netflix, where The Karate Kid sequel series’ audience reached stratospheric heights. Most recently, the fifth season proved that the show still has the “Eye of the Tiger” and boasts an ensemble cast with endless appeal and a carefully parceled-out sense of nostalgia. Watching Daniel LaRusso clash and come together with William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence is a sight that never grows old, decades after the first film motivated audiences to do that crane kick. Creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg sense precisely how to interweave the younger players into a revolving cast of O.G. characters with a final product that I’ve called infuriatingly good because it’s like karate-crack candy.

At the center of it all, Ralph Macchio knows that he held out for the right pitch. He covers that subject and much more in his new memoir, duly titled Waxing On, in which he divulges a wide range of revelations about his beloved franchise. This includes his response to how the crane kick has been endlessly obsessed over and even reframed as a villain origin story by some mischievous parties on the Internet. Macchio also not only pays much tribute to Mr. Miyagi himself, Pat Morita, but discusses how reteaming with cast members has left him with gratitude. And Macchio “waxes on” about how he’s played plenty of characters, but LaRusso will live on forever (he’s “Still the Best”).

Ralph was gracious enough to sit down with us to hash out his book and reflect upon the finer flourishes of Cobra Kai‘s latest season.

The last episodes of this Cobra Kai season were a fan’s dream. One particular quote that I love is this: “The roots are strong, so the tree will survive.”

Yeah, those are the themes. The one thing that I will say about the guys who created Cobra Kai: they care so much about the original Karate Kid films and the whole Miyagi element, and from day one, I said, “I need to have that woven throughout this show if I’m going to jump in and give this a whirl.” This is before I knew that it would be #1 in 83 countries. It’s 100% on Rotten Tomatoes still; it’s really incredible, but they care and love the source material and the origin of those films and carrying that legacy forward. That is what makes Cobra Kai so delicious in a way, even though it’s got its own tone and almost being superhero-like at times. It’s still grounded in those ways, that’s a nice moment for Daniel LaRusso in Season 5 to sort-of be that underdog protagonist that we’re all rooting for like we did in 1984.

Let’s talk about the “Eye of the Tiger” scene. It was almost the song at the end of the first movie, correct?

“Eye of the Tiger,” I think was intended for Rocky. “You’re The Best Around,” which is the Karate Kid montage song that is part of pop culture and initially a throwaway for Rocky III, but it didn’t make it into the movie, and “Eye of the Tiger” was Rocky IV, I think. I knew that this season they were paying homage to Rocky IV with some of the stuff for William Zabka’s character… so it was all leading up to “Eye of the Tiger,” was it III or IV? I get blurry. Maybe “Eye of the Tiger” was Rocky III.

Wellllll, I think about that song a lot lately, and Spotify says it’s Rocky IV.

Right, so it’s one of those sequels, so the parallels of Rocky and the later sequels were part of Season 5, and the guys who write this show have a very keen eye on all that stuff, so we had such a great scene in Season 1 with William and myself singing REO Speedwagon in the car together. It just shows that these guys could listen to the same song even though they didn’t get along. It was a really special moment, so this was the drunken callback of singing a song from an era and bringing Johnny Lawrence and Chozen Toguchi, and then there was Mike Barnes. All three of those Daniel LaRusso nemeses are together and fighting for the same cause.

And then Chozen whipped out some daggers out of nowhere!

It’s become this heightened piece of entertainment. I call it comfort food. Cobra Kai is like the best burger you had as a kid, and you can taste it again.

Speaking of Stallone-related material: in your book, you talk about some of the pitches that people have tossed out over the years, and there was one about Rocky Balboa and Daniel LaRusso getting together as a crossover.

Right, they both have kids who are screwed up, and they meet somewhere between Philly and Newark.

Was that the worst pitch you heard, or are there more ridiculous ones?

The reason I mentioned that one is because it came from legitimate writers, and it was also someone from the studio at the table, so everyone was willing it to make sense, but then everyone realized, “That’s kind-of crazy.” The reason I love that example is that today, you have Batman and Superman dancing the tango. You can do anything with multiverses and Spider-verses, so it was almost ahead of its time, even though it didn’t make sense at the moment. You know, I heard a lot of “Miyagi comes back as a ghost and guides me,” most of the pitches were about, “Hey, you have a kid in trouble and you get to be the Miyagi to your own kid.” I heard that pitch about 30 times. That’s not really a movie, and it’s basic. You need a little bit more than that, so in the book, I write about it being more about the fans wanting to see these characters and less about trying to come up with the next big idea. Now and decades later, they are seeing more of these characters, and it’s quite extraordinary.

If you did wanna do a crossover, you’ve got history in Tulsa for The Outsiders, and Stallone’s been in Tulsa lately for Tulsa King….

[Laughs] Right, yeah, okay. I’ll think about that!

One thing that seemed to weigh heavily on you in the book is the way The Karate Kid Part II wrote out Elisabeth Shue’s character, and Cobra Kai did well by her. Do you feel better about the situation now?

Yeah, 100%. And you know, I didn’t realize it (as I wrote in the book) at the time. It was not on my radar as much as I think it would be today. I think I was swept up in it all, and everything was going on with working, and when I saw the scene, it seemed thrown away, but the whole story in the second movie was going to Okinawa, and there was a sweet love story overseas with Kumiko, so I never saw it from the perspective that I would have later as you get a little wiser and conscientious about others. So it’s really a nice story that the Cobra Kai guys were able to write. They found a connection to bring that together and credit Elisabeth Shue for coming onto the show and allowing us to sew up what that was. And I think a lot of fans loved it, it was like a gift to the fanbase.

She’s been doing great, though, with an Oscar nomination, and she’s been very well-received on The Boys, too.

Yes, yes. For sure.

You address another controversy: the Will Smith-produced Jaden Smith reboot. You talked about the paparazzi twisting your words and about Will’s phone call to you. That reboot’s not part of the Miyagiverse, so does that help, looking back?

I thought that movie was an interesting example of how you can tell the same story but make a totally different movie. I think it was a well-crafted 2010 version, and it’s always odd to hear that they’re remaking your stuff. One, it makes you feel like you’re not as young as you thought you were because they’re remaking your stuff already. Two, it was at a point (when I heard about the remake) I felt like everything was being remade. I was starved for original content, and they wrote, “Macchio Slams Remake,” and I got the phone call the next day and talked to Jaden on the phone.

That was a bittersweet moment for you.

It was also, “Do you want to be involved? Do you want any part in this?” And I did not because I didn’t know what the script was and what they were doing. It was a “thank you, no thank you, and I hope it’s awesome.” It ended up only enhancing the original, sending people back. Movies are defined over time, and the original Karate Kid, those lines are part of the American lexicon these days. I don’t know if that’s the case with the remake, but I always knew it was a separate entity. Nowadays, they can make everybody know everybody, but so far, it’s Cobra Kai, and we stayed true to Miyagi, and that’s the world of canon for the Cobra Kai series going forward.

Now, I have to bring up the crane kick, which you have talked about more than you probably wanna talk about anything in life.

[Laughs]

But Daniel uses the kick in the Season 5 finale, and that’s a full-circle moment. We have not heard about Season 6 yet, and no one wants it to end, but it could logically end there, right? Any more threads you want resolved in the future?

Well, I think that even though we don’t have Season 6 yet, we’re feeling pretty confident. There’s talk, but there’s no official word, so we keep on hoping that people are watching the show. They’ve set up the international element of it, they’ve set up the master Kim in Korea. They set up Kreese, and they also set up that everything’s going back to normal and they’ve finally succeeded. But in a soap opera, as Cobra Kai is a karate soap opera, when one door closes, there’s always more that will open. There’s certainly room for that, and bringing it in for a proper landing whenever that is, whether it’s Season 6 or 7, we don’t wanna overstay our welcome, but we want it to feel right, so hopefully, we have that opportunity.

Netflix has pulled back on announcing things right away lately.

Yeah…

Hopefully, that will change.

Hopefully soon.

What was it like to film Daniel against Terry Silver again, especially when Daniel’s style is very different than Terry’s way of fighting?

They didn’t tell me at the beginning of Season 5 that we’re pulling out the crane kick. I just read it in the script, and at this point, I trust (for the most part) all of their choices about what times to bring out certain things out. I think Cobra Kai has lasted to this point and beyond because these guys don’t front-load everything. They really carefully roadmap the storyline and all the different relationships. So, it felt like time because of the biggest villain. Kreese is always the original villain, but Terry Silver is a true Bond villain, if you will.

Cackling and dumping toxic waste and such.

And he’s 6’5″ and I wish I had a shorter villain! At my age, it’s a little tougher to get that kick all the way up there. It was fun to call back, and what I like about that scene is this: there’s two scenes when LaRusso gets his tail whipped in Episode 5 in a really big fight, and when he’s aggressive and unhinged, and in this fight, he’s very grounded and has the spirit of Miyagi in his body and his mind and his heart. And that’s what brings it to the conclusion that we get to. It’s a nice cherry on top, albeit tougher on the hamstrings and the lower back, I promise you.

The crane kick is one of those things that shouldn’t work but it does. With Miyagi-do, karate is for defense only, but with the crane kick, it’s more cinematic and not defensive, but somehow it prevails.

Exactly! It works because of the themes of pop culture. It’s cinematic, and it’s kind-of beautiful and balletic, and you want it to work. And I think that wish fulfillment gives it a little air and lift, if you will.

Now, I revisited that David Letterman interview that you discuss in your book, and you let us know about a moment that we didn’t see when the camera panned away after he pelted you with age jokes, and you said you were “due back at the museum.”

Yeah, I mean, it was Letterman. You hear all these things about Letterman. He’s the master, but it’s damn cold in that studio. Sometimes he can be cutting and sarcastic and chop your legs off, so you have all these things going in, and then when he started in on how young I look for my age, you know, I didn’t know quite how to handle it except to be a little sarcastic myself. And it got a bigger reaction that I expected. I just reached for something in my pocket and threw it out there, and he just sort-of pushed back from his chair and put his hands up in surrender, and then, the rest of the interview was all relaxed and easy. It’s ironic because just because I just did Jimmy Kimmel two weeks ago, and the first question: “Do you mind if I ask how old you are? And why you don’t look like you should.” It was almost 30 years ago to the month, I have Letterman on one end and Kimmel on the other. I guess when you’re 30 or 60, the fact that you’re still telling the same story and looking a little too young is maybe not the worst thing in the world? As weird as it is.

It’s a good problem to have.

I guess so!

You’ve praised many young Cobra Kai actors like Jacob Bertrand who does a fine job as Hawk, but if you could see any of them in a spinoff, who would you think is qualified to carry one?

Oh my god, that’s tough. I gotta back myself of the corner of the room with that question. You know what, they’re all great kids, I know that’s a lame answer. It also matters what tone you’re looking for. If it’s a great comedic tone, there’s Dimetri and Hawk and their relationship, and Mary had really strong dramatic moments. Some of my favorite moments are their grounded relationship scene. So are you gonna be making a Parenthood version or a single-camera, 30-minute version? With Robby, one of my favorite moments, was Episode 6 when Daniel talked about failing all the kids, and Robby says, “You didn’t fail me.” I get a lump in my throat. When Johnny Lawrence’s kid is telling Daniel LaRusso that I was a good mentor to him during that time, that’s what’s great about this show. So I’m deflecting, all these kids can do it, I just hope they give me a cameo now and again.

If you could take Daniel and give him a break from karate and put him in a show that’s running right now, where would you want him to go?

Oh god, I would have normally say Ozark because I miss it already, but I don’t know what he would do in Ozark, I just love that show. Yeah, that’s a great question. I would put love to put him in something behavioral where he doesn’t have to fight, but the stakes are always high, but it’s grounded and not such a heightened reality, which I love with Cobra Kai, but it would be refreshing to see him in a gritty, day-to-day drama with a little peppered humor.

Ozark would work. Daniel letting Marty know that he’s screwing up.

You know what, I’ll say Curb Your Enthusiasm. They take a trip to New York, and we do it there. Or New Jersey.

With Rocky Balboa.

Netflix’s ‘Cobra Kai’ is currently streaming Seasons 1-5.

Kanye West can’t seem to escape controversy. The Chicago rapper has been in hot water over his anti-Semitic comments, where he threatened to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

In response, social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter have restricted the rapper’s accounts, and JP Morgan closed West’s accounts. Most recently, West appeared on Chris Cuomo’s show, where the NewsNation host pressed him about his about his recent statements.

Despite West’s efforts to help clarify his statements, the rapper seemed to have dug himself into a giant hole. West claimed his actions had nothing to do with his mental health but, instead, the lack of ownership among Black artists and entertainers.

“And it’s unfair to make it be about, ‘Oh, are you taking care of yourself?’” West said. “The reason why I repeated it a bunch of times and for all of my friends that are in the entertainment energy industry that are Black actors, Black athletes, and Black musicians […] there’s so many Black musicians signed to Jewish record labels, and those Jewish record labels take ownership, not only of the publishing […] but also ownership of the culture itself. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s mine.’ This guy signed to me. It’s like modern-day slavery. And I’m calling it out. That’s what DEFCON three meant. I’m gonna call it out. It didn’t mean to wish any harm on [anyone].”

The “Power” rapper also told Cuomo that “Black people are all also Jews” and that he would not be backing down from his statements, noting he had a responsibility to change conventional thinking.

“I don’t have to understand or accept because they’re not willing to understand or accept,” West said. “That’s the reason why I’m not backing down. People have had their careers destroyed. That’s why they keep on saying Ye’s dangerous: because he will keep talking.”