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The Xbox has technically never beaten the PlayStation. While everyone looks at the 360 era of the Xbox as a major win for Microsoft the console giant still technically lost in total sale numbers. The PlayStation 3 and its $600 pricetag may have gotten off to a rough start, but by 2013 the PS3 managed to help Sony regain enough footing to enter the next console generation with confidence. The results were an extremely down generation for Xbox and a major boom for PlayStation.

The issues for Xbox in the last generation of consoles were pretty simple. Nobody really knew what they offered. Their exclusives were uninteresting, major titles like Halo and Gears of War failed to excite anyone new, and the XBOX One never felt like a superior option to the PlayStation 4 even with incredible additions like Gamepass being Xbox exclusive. The generation was such a disaster that, outside of overpricing fans again, it seemed like everyone was just going to buy a PlayStation 5 over the Xbox: Series X despite Xbox’s attempt to change the landscape through games a service.

When you look this down how do you possibly get back up? By being drastic and taking risks.

And there might be no greater risk than the Xbox Series S being sold at $300. The price is ludicous. As a console, it is just as powerful as a next gen console should be but unsurprisingly not as powerful as the PS5 or Series X. It’s a digital only console which is a plus for some and a negative for others. So what is the appeal of this console beyond price? Accessiblity.

There is no video game console that will be more accessible to the common person than the Xbox Series S. Not only because of price point, but because of the library it is willing to offer and the audience it is trying to target. The Xbox Series S does not care if it is sitting next to a PS5, a Nintendo Switch, or a super PC that can play every game in 20K vision at 600 frames per second. The Xbox Series S just wants to get you into the ecosystem. Once Xbox has you in the ecosystem, that’s when you are stuck there.

Xbox As A Service

How many people do you know don’t really watch TV but have a Netflix subscription? Now imagine that for video games, and you have Gamepass. There isn’t a better deal in all of video games than Gamepass. It’s an endless library of games for only $10 a month. This includes older games, newer games, and even a few brand new titles. Xbox has been building Gamepass as the driving force for their system for years now and this is where they are putting all their eggs into in the next generation.

The Xbox is not just a game console. It’s a service and to be a successful service you need to remove barriers to entry without pushing people away. While PlayStation is announcing that some next-gen games will cost $70, Xbox is announcing a console that is so cheap in comparison that it is an absolute steal of a deal. For some gamers this won’t change their opinion of the two consoles. They will continue to feel that the PlayStation has a stronger library of exclusives and first party titles which will push them towards a PS5. Xbox doesn’t mind though, because the Series S isn’t for those gamers; it’s for the ones that play five games a year.

We all know the “Madden” gamer. Some say it as a joke, but that person is real. They buy three games a year, if that, and inevitably two of them are Madden and/or Call of Duty. That’s all they play and they’re perfectly content with that. These people also traditionally wait for a price drop before jumping into the next generation of consoles. $400+ dollars can be pricey for the average person, but what if you drop that an extra $100 and tell them that through Gamepass they can play the next Madden? Well they did just that. “Casual gamer” is such a sin to some people, but there are far more casual video game players than hardcore ones and the Xbox is creating an incredible sell to this audience.

The parents who love video games but just don’t have the time or money to play anymore. The person who plays five games a year. The person who only buys one franchise and nothing else. The Xbox Series S was made for these people and they’re the exact ones that are going to buying one. People that might have waited to jump into the next generation of consoles will be there day one and they’re all entering the Microsoft ecosystem, paying for Gamepass, and giving Xbox money. They are banking on the losses of the console being made up from those service prices.

What about the hardcore?

This does not mean that the Xbox is abandoning the traditional “hardcore” gamer. If anything they’re trying to make their lives easier. Xbox wants to make video games for everyone, and this means they want everyone to have access to games no matter the console. They largely led the “crossplay” revolution that became a major talking point the last generation of consoles and have put a lot of pressure on Sony to release more games to the PC. They are a business and we know that they are in this for the money first, but if them making money means we all get great games then that’s a business that’s beneficial to gaming as a whole.

And for those who still use exclusivity as their main console driving point, Microsoft has been busy. While their first-party support has been poor, they’ve been extremely busy in making their second party lineup legendary. They’ve been buying up game studios left and right to turn them into Xbox exclusives and in September they made their biggest one yet. They purchased Bethesda. The company that makes/owns Fallout, DOOM, and Elder Scrolls. Some of the biggest franchises in games are now Xbox exclusives. Not only that, they’re likely coming to Gamepass. $10 for all of that.

The Xbox is here to make video games available for everyone. They may be targeting the “casual” but do not let that fool you. They want an Xbox in every home. Whether it’s a Series X, an S, or someone using Gamepass on their PC. It’s a risk that just might help Xbox change the landscape of gaming as a whole.

Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.

Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of October below.

Tom Petty — Wildflowers & All The Rest

This reissue of Tom Petty’s 1994 solo album has been about as successful as rereleases get. His Twitter account summed it up best a few days ago: “Wildflowers & All The Rest debuts at #5 on the @billboard 200 in its first week! The release surpasses the original Wildflowers which peaked on the Billboard 200 at #8 in 1994. Thank you for all bringing Tom’s long-awaited album to life.”

Get it here.

Beastie Boys — Beastie Boys Music

The surviving Beastie Boys have been doing a lot of looking back lately, and part of that process has included the release of a new compilation, Beastie Boys Music. The collection, a companion to their documentary of the same name and the book Beastie Boys Book, features 20 classic tracks, including favorites like “Sabotage,” “Paul Revere,” “Fight For Your Right,” and others.

Get it here.

U2 — All That You Can’t Leave Behind (20th Anniversary Reissue)

With singles like “Beautiful Day” and “Elevation,” All That You Can’t Leave Behind was a huge album for the band following Pop. This 20th anniversary reissue of the album has a new remaster of the record, and the Super Deluxe Box Set has a hardcover book, 39 bonus tracks, and other goodies.

Get it here.

Erykah Badu — Mama’s Gun (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)

Vinyl Me, Please are regular purveyors of quality releases (like underappreciated Julien Baker albums), and one of their records of the month is an Erykah Badu classic, Mama’s Gun. This exclusive rerelease of the 2000 album has been totally remastered and is pressed on 2-LP scarlet and gold vinyl.

Get it here.

John Lennon — Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes

October 9th would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday, and his estate celebrated in a big way. Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes features 36 of his most beloved solo songs remixed completely from scratch, while there’s also an exclusive 124-page book. If you’re set up for a premium audio experience, there’s also a blu-ray audio disc edition available featuring “high-definition 24-96 stereo, immersive 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos mixes.”

Get it here.

Linkin Park — Hybrid Theory (20th Anniversary Reissue)

Hybrid Theory is a defining nu-metal album, and now it’s 20 years old. To mark the occasion, the band has re-released the album in a number of editions, which include rarities like unreleased art, videos, and even a song, “She Couldn’t.”

Get it here.

Sade — This Far

Sade’s career has been legendary, and now she is offering a box set that serves as a comprehensive look back at it. This Far features all six of her studio albums, which have been remastered, pressed on 180-gram black vinyl. That makes this the first complete collection of her studio work… so far.

Get it here.

Oasis — (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (25th Anniversary Reissue)

“Wonderwall” is the most popular song of the ’90s, at least when it comes to streaming: It recently became the first song from the decade to eclipse a billion Spotify streams. This happened in the same month Oasis released a 25th anniversary edition of its parent album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, which has been freshly re-mastered.

Get it here.

Okkervil River — A Dream In The Dark: Two Decades Of Okkervil River

In 2019, storied indie group Okkervil River launched a digital subscription series of twelve live albums spanning the band’s career, and it was called A Dream In The Dark: Two Decades Of Okkervil River. Now some of the best tracks from the series have been compiled into a 24-track, 4-LP compilation of the same name that includes performances from “sweaty dive bars, lavish concert halls, and festival stages across the world.”

Get it here.

The Rural Alberta Advantage — Hometowns (10th Anniversary Reissue)

Fans of Canadian indie music know The Rural Alberta Advantage well, and now their beloved breakthrough EP, Hometowns, is getting a 10th-anniversary reissue. The album went on to earn critical acclaim and get the band signed to Saddle Creek Records, and now’s a great chance to own a limited edition release of it on vinyl.

Get it here.

Chavez — Gone Glimmering (25th Anniversary Reissue)

Matador has been celebrating some of their most legendary releases all year with fresh vinyl releases, and now it’s Chavez’s turn. The band’s debut album, Gone Glimmering, has been newly remastered and includes four extra tracks taken from the Pentagram Ring EP, which have never been available on vinyl before.

Get it here.

Beach Fossils — Beach Fossils (10th Anniversary Reissue)

Beach Fossils’ Dustin Payseur reflected on the band’s debut album for its anniversary reissue (which comes with a limited edition “Vacation” 7-inch with previously unreleased song “Time”), saying, “For me, this record was about escapism. In my mind I was escaping New York, I was escaping loneliness, I was escaping hunger. I was burned out and needed to write songs that made me feel better. I felt like the world was a cold, hard place and I knew a lot of other people felt that way too. I was meditating a lot and learned that meditation could teach you to be at peace with these feelings, so with this album I wanted to create an environment where people could disappear and get lost for a little bit.”

Get it here.

Motörhead — Ace Of Spades (40th Anniversary Box Set)

No conversation about hard rock is complete without at least one mention of Motörhead and/of their album Ace Of Spades. It’s been four decades since that iconic record was released, and now there’s a big anniversary box set to celebrate, which features the remastered album, previously unheard concerts, an EP of unreleased instrumental tracks from 1980, and a lot more.

Get it here.

Rilo Kiley — Rilo Kiley (Reissue)

Rilo Kiley’s self-titled debut album can be hard to come by, especially since it was originally only released on CD at the band’s early shows and has been out of print since its initial run 21 years ago. Now, though, the band has reissued the album, both digitally and in a colored vinyl edition.

Get it here.

Herb Alpert — Herb Alpert Is…

Herb Alpert Is…, a documentary about iconic trumpeter Herb Alpert, premiered earlier in October, and not long after it came a career-spanning box set. The collection includes five LPs, three CDs, a coffee table book with vintage photos, liner notes, and other goodies that makes this one of the most appealing Alpert releases ever.

Get it here.

Flogging Molly — Swagger (20th Anniversary Reissue)

Flogging Molly is one of the most recognizable Celtic punk groups, and their debut album, Swagger, is a quintessential release. The expansive 20th anniversary 2-LP edition of the album has a lot of goodies too, which press materials exhaustively list: “a bonus version of ‘Sentimental Johnny’ en Español as ‘Juan El Sentimental,’ a bonus LP featuring three live songs recorded in 2001 at Denver’s famed Bluebird Theatre plus a Traditional Irish Set (recorded with Steve Albini in ‘one take with no overdubs’), a never-before-seen DVD documentary from 2000 including a full live performance, an expanded Lyric Booklet featuring photos from the band’s personal collection, Flogging Molly logo vinyl slip mat, embroidered patch, and four badge Swagger button pack.”

Get it here.

Joni Mitchell — Early Joni — 1963 and Live At Canterbury House 1967

A new Joni Mitchell Archives collection has launched, and there are a pair of winners available now. Live At Canterbury House 1967 documents an early-career performance at University Of Michigan and is limited to just 1,500 copies. Then there’s Early Joni — 1963, which goes back even further in the archives to unearth a previously unreleased recording of a 19-year-old Mitchell at CFQC AM in Saskatoon. Both are released in multiple versions, including pressings on black, white, and clear vinyl.

Get them here.

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

Fast-rising Chicago star King Von links up with fellow Windy City greenhorn Polo G in the ominous video for “The Code” from his newly released album, Welcome To O-Block. The sci-fi-horror oriented video sees Von and Polo using a computer program to entrap their enemies, whom they spend the rest of the video torturing with the help of a scantily clad assistant. The beat is a typically sinister piano loop, while the titular “Code” refers to the code of the streets — no snitching allowed.

King Von, who signed with Lil Durk’s Only The Family sometime before his 2018 breakout single “Crazy Story,” has broken out in a huge way this year, beginning with his second album Levon James. That project launched him into another stratum of stardom thanks to cross exposure to fans of other breakout street artists like G Herbo, NLE Choppa, Tee Grizzley, and YNW Melly. Following up with Welcome To O-Block, Von capitalized on the booming buzz, roping in co-conspirators like Dreezy, Fivio Foreign, Moneybagg Yo, and of course, Lil Durk for a project that has already become something of a fan favorite.

Meanwhile, Polo G has enjoyed a stellar follow-up to his breakout 2019, appearing on the 2020 XXL Freshman cover, rapping in the 2020 BET Hip-Hop Awards cypher, and dropping the well-received album, The GOAT.

Watch the video for “The Code” above.

Welcome To O-Block is out now via Only The Family Entertainment / EMPIRE. Get it here.

This past week, I hopped into a virtual cooking demonstration with the most-recent Top Chef winner, Melissa King –– who is set to guest judge both the next season of Top Chef and Bravo’s new Top Chef Amateurs show. Normally, a brand-sponsored cooking demo would probably warrant a “pass” — but this one featured a Top Chef and covered a subject I actually cared about: how to turn your instant ramen into something worthy of a family dinner.

King used leeks, bacon, miso paste, carrots, parmesan rinds, and some store-bought chicken broth to build a gorgeous “bacon parmesan broth” in which to bathe our brick of ramen noodles (scroll all the way down for the recipe). The whole thing took just under 30 minutes to make and really did taste like something that had been simmering for hours. That and some carefully placed garnishes turned a bag of instant ramen noodles into something that looked more like restaurant food than something used as currency in prison (which, incidentally, is a testament to the viability of any product).

As it turns out, Melissa King might be the ideal broth guru. As she first told us in her Top Chef post-victory interview back in June, even before she became a chef, she’d been helping make the family broth almost every night since she was five or six. That’s a lot of broth experience! If you want to know about soup, you could probably do a lot worse than listening to someone who has a “family broth.”

In any case, I recently got to pick King’s brain about her hottest ramen tricks (#ramenhacks) and the “Chief Noodle Officer” promotion she’s judging.

—

I did your recipe on the group call. I really enjoyed it. Do you have any general tips for spicing up your home ramen game?

I always try to think about, “How can I switch up the broth?” — if I do want to do a broth. And then I also think, “Well, sometimes you don’t need a broth.” You can cook the noodles and kind of do a dry, almost like a stir fry with it. So I think just trying to manipulate the ways that are often different than how you normally see it prepared is always a fun start. Then working within your pantry for other influences, whether you want to go more Italian with it, which is kind of what I did with the Parmesan broth, or if you want to take influence from maybe Latin culture and — I’ve actually seen a really creative… Let me think what that’s called, Birria, I think is what it’s called–

Yeah, Birria.

Taking that broth and using that and that stewed meat with the ramen noodles. So I think ramen is such a versatile platform where you can really just use that as a start, and then get really creative from that point on.

You used miso paste for that broth we made. Do you do that a lot? What do you think that adds?

I mean, I work with miso quite often in different applications, but I think specifically for this broth, it adds a lot of umami, a lot of depth of flavor. It gives it a saltiness, but not too overpowering. Yeah, I think that umami is what I was trying to get in this specific broth, with the Parmesan broth, the bonito flakes, the miso, the kombu. Those are all jam-packed umami bombs.

Do you always cook those noodles with just plain water?

I do if I’m creating a separate broth. I often do, yeah.

So you used to make broth every night, growing up, didn’t you?

Yes, bone broth was one of the first things I learned how to make, and specifically Chinese bone broth, and that was something that I would start when I came from home school. And then by the evening, after we finished dinner, we would finish our meal with a warm bone broth. I love making broth. It’s ne of my favorite things to eat, and to make, because you can layer so many flavors. At the end of the day, it’s water, but it’s really how you manipulate it and layer those flavors in.

How old were you when you started that?

I mean, I’ve been hanging out in the kitchen since I was like five or six, just with my mom, but I would say maybe like eight was when I started putting bones into a pot and filling it up with water and putting it onto the stove.

What was going in your bone broth usually?

You want bones that have a lot of, what’s it called — bone marrow and collagen. And so, I’d take those bones and blanch them with water, and it was just water. And depending on what type, I mean, I made so many different kinds, but sometimes there would be chicken bones with goji berries, dried jujubes, ginger. Sometimes we’d put carrots. Then there’s other kinds, where it’s more pork bone-based, and it would have watercress, dried figs, ginger. What am I forgetting in here? Oh, they’re like these little Chinese apricot seeds. What are they called in English? I actually don’t know what they’re called in English, because they’re not really the seed. Within the pit, there’s a little seed inside of the seed. But basically like Chinese herbs.

Were you roasting bones before you put the water in, or-

No, just blanching. Yeah, because Chinese style bone broths, you don’t roast the bones. French style bone broths, you do, depending. You can do blonde broths, or you can do roasted broths. Yeah, but it was just straight water, bones, letting it simmer for at least six hours, sometimes 10. The longer, the better. And oftentimes, the next day, it would be even better, because there would be a lot more collagen built up and flavor overnight.

Are you skimming anything off the top–

Oh, yeah. There’s always a lot of impurities from the bones, a lot of blood, and yeah, just all the nasties. You got to skim that off periodically throughout the simmer. And even just layers of oil and fat kind of build up, so that always my job when I was a kid, to sit there with the skimmer and skim the bone broth every 30 minutes or so.

Trying to get the fat off the top of broth seems such a pain in the ass.

Yeah, but the trick is to let it cool down, and then when it refrigerates and hardens, you can scoop it off, and then you reheat the broth.

Did you guys usually do that, or did you just leave the fat in?

Usually, I would just skim it off, because we would drink the broth later in the evening. But surely, the next day, once we cooled it down, if we had extra, and we were drinking it the next day, then yeah, absolutely, I would pull off the fat the next morning before we reheated it for breakfast or something like that.

What are the good things to have on hand for all the little ramen garnishes? It’s kind of the garnish that makes the dish, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, I think that’s another thing to think about when you want to elevate your ramen, is to think about all the fun little garnishes you can put on there, and I often try to think of textural components. Everyone loves the soy ramen egg. That’s, I think, a must. But so many other things you can do. Like for this particular recipe, you can put little pieces of crumbled bacon bits on top, if you really wanted to, or fresh grated Parmesan cheese, sauteing some mushrooms. You can do nori sheets. You can even take little pieces of tempura batter and fry that, drip it into the fryer, almost like you’re making funnel cake, and scoop off the little bits, and put those crunchies right on top. Those are pretty traditional garnishes. But yeah, there’s so many ways you can go with it.

It’s really whatever, I think, whatever you have on hand and whatever your mind can imagine.

I remember on Top Chef, I won $10,000 making a ramen dish, like elevating ramen on my first season of Top Chef: Boston. The care package that I had, had corn chips on top. And so, I made a cacio e pepe ramen, and then I took the corn chips and just crumbled it on top, to give it texture. And I thought it was great, “This is really tasty.”

So now you’re judging a noodle contest?

Yeah, we’re holding a little contest, to try to find the chief noodle officer for Top Ramen. We’re looking for someone really creative that’s going to take ramen and just bring it to the next level. They’re going to post it on Instagram and tag @originalTopRamen, as well as Chef Melissa King and follow us, in order to enter. And from there, I’m going judge and choose the winner, and they’re going to win $10,000. I think it’s a fun contest.

—

TOP RAMEN WITH BACON PARMESAN BROTH

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 thinly sliced yellow onion
• 1 thinly sliced whole leek, remove roots
• 1 thinly sliced carrot, peeled
• 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves
• 3×3” slab of bacon or 5 slices of thick smoked bacon, diced
• 1 Parmigiano Reggiano rind, about 2-3 ounces
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 2 teaspoon white miso paste
• Ounce of bonito akes, optional
• 1 strip kombu, optional
• 2 Top Ramen package(s) (remove powder packet inside) •Dash of ground white pepper

Optional garnishes:

• Soft-boiled egg or Soy-marinated egg (recipe below) •Thinly sliced scallions or japanese negi
• Thinly sliced basil leaves
• Mizuna leaves
• Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• Sauteed King trumpet, wood ear, or enoki mushrooms •Chili oil
• Toasted sesame seeds
• Nori sheets

Directions:

In a large pot, over medium-high heat, add oil until hot. Add the onion, leeks, carrot, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until completely soft, 8-10 minutes. Add a pinch of salt to help release the moisture of the vegetables and reduce the heat to a medium-low. Do not caramelize, the vegetables should be soft and translucent.

Add the bacon and cook over low heat to render the fat, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Add the parmesan rind, chicken broth, miso paste, and optional kombu and bonito akes. Bring to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 30-45 minutes. For a stronger flavor, simmer for an additional 30 minutes to an hour. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard solids.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add ramen noodles (remove packet) and cook stirring occasionally, until the noodles are just tender, 2 minutes. Drain the noodles and divide them into two separate bowls. Ladle the hot broth on top. Top each bowl with garnishes.

FOR THE SOFT-BOILED EGGS

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs

Method:

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add eggs in gently. Bring back to a boil and cook for 5 1/2 to 6 minutes.
Remove eggs and place them immediately into an ice-cold water bath. Let the eggs chill for 10 minutes before peeling.

FOR THE SOY-MARINATED EGG

Ingredients:

• 4 soft-boiled eggs
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Method:

In a small bowl, add the soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, water, and mix to combine. Add the peeled eggs to the soy marinade, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

In something that has been said a million times when discussing the Philadelphia 76ers, there are three ways to acquire talent in the NBA. The first is for a team to absolutely nail the Draft and stockpile the kinds of young players who are capable of being franchise cornerstones for more than a decade. The second is for a team to use cap space to reel in big-money free agents and accelerate their timetable for success. The third is to have a treasure trove of assets to turn into superstars in trades, giving an organization a way to blast through whatever ceiling they might have at a given time.

This gets talked about with regards to the Sixers because they had all three of these things, and the discourse around them oftentimes centers around how it was all bungled. At one point, ahead of the 2017 NBA Draft, Philadelphia had picks, cap space, and two young pillars in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. It would have taken breathtaking mismanagement for things to have gone off the rails, and wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what happened.

In the blink of an eye, the Sixers went from a team with a seemingly endless amount of tradable assets and gobs of cap space to the cautionary tale of what happens when you cannot get out of your own way. Even if things made sense in a vacuum — trading up to take Markelle Fultz made sense at the time, getting a promising player in Zhaire Smith and a future unprotected first for Mikal Bridges did too (albeit not quite as much), going all-in for Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris in a year when the Eastern Conference was there to be won would have looked awfully different if not for a Kawhi Leonard miracle shot, etc. — they ended up being good short-term decisions that, in the aggregate, put a hard ceiling on them in the long-term.

Now, Philadelphia is in the midst of a gigantic overhaul as they look to lift that ceiling in whatever way they can. Embiid and Simmons are still there, but the team around them meant that the squad failed to live up to expectations this season. Even before Simmons got injured and missed effectively all of the NBA’s Orlando Bubble, the Sixers felt like a team that was its own worst enemy. The flashes of brilliance were often followed up by injuries and issues related to poor fits — it seemed like a fun experiment at the time, but in retrospect, handing a gigantic contract to a really good player in Al Horford when they had Embiid is kind of baffling. Same with Harris, who is another really good player but didn’t consistently play up to the standard of which he’s capable and is a clunky fit at the four when the team already has Simmons.

Ultimately, the Sixers opted to fix the things they could fix right away. They fired Brett Brown and replaced him with the experience of Doc Rivers. Then, reports from earlier this week indicated that they will bring in Daryl Morey, immediately giving their front office a boost in the form of a respected executive who is willing to do whatever it takes to win, even if it means getting creative. If there is anyone who can figure out a way to get the team out of the mess in which it finds itself, it is Morey, and while Rivers has shown flaws as a coach, he is building out a staff that can compensate for those as he focuses on managing a locker room that never seemed cohesive in 2020.

Whether or not this all works out remains to be seen. Philly’s cap sheet mess is well known, but they still have some assets to work with should Morey want to explore big shakeups immediately — interesting young players like Matisse Thybulle and Shake Milton, plenty of second-round picks and the Nets’ first-round selection this year — but the team still has an uphill battle ahead of it. At the very least, Morey and Rivers give them two things they did not previously have: Experienced NBA decision-makers who know what to do with talent and how to make it all fit.

Explaining how Rivers and his staff — which will include respected names like Sam Cassell, David Joerger, and longtime Pacers assistant Dan Burke — fits into this equation is easy enough. While Brown did a good job at the helm, Philly needed a new set of eyes to look at things. Rivers and Joerger both have gobs of head coaching experience, Cassell could be a head coach in the league right now, and Burke is one of the best assistants in the NBA, particularly when it comes to coaching up a defense. Rivers may not be a perfect coach, but he’s assembling one of the best and deepest staffs in the league. On top of all of that, if Harris is going to be a core piece of what they do moving forward (and that’s up to Morey), they brought in the coach under whom he had the best season of his career.

Morey is the much bigger piece to this puzzle. A coach can do fantastic things, but they also need to have pieces that can work together — handing Gordon Ramsay a funky Chopped basket could work, but it would not be anywhere near as good as handing him ingredients that make sense with one another. Morey, for everything that can be said about his unshakable belief in numbers that never manifested themselves in a championship in Houston, is perhaps the single most willing executive in basketball to leave absolutely zero stone unturned.

The numbers were, generally, the things that defined Morey with the Rockets. Whether it was building a team that eschewed midrange jumpers altogether, or jettisoned all their big men, or let James Harden and Chris Paul iso guys to death, if you ask 100 NBA fans about what they’ll recall about those Houston teams, it will probably be that they were at the forefront of Mathball. In addition to that, though, was the fact that Morey believed, at the end of the day, in the importance of stars. Even if they did not always land them, the Rockets at the very least seemed to do their due diligence whenever someone would hit the market — it’s how they got Harden, it’s how they got Paul, and while ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported this was not his preferred course of action, it is how they got Russell Westbrook.

Philadelphia has stars. For all the concerns about their fit with one another, Embiid and Simmons are stars. It seems safe to assume that every decision Morey will make will be done through the lens of maximizing what they can and cannot do — and if he decides to break up that pairing somewhere down the line, Morey isn’t someone who will sell for pennies on the dollar just to get a deal done. This does not mean that either will be asked to chuck threes, but it would be sensible that skills like shooting and playmaking would be paramount in all the roster decisions they make. Same with, say, the ability to defend guards and fly around on the perimeter with the knowledge that Embiid is patrolling the paint.

Morey’s also willing to give up whatever it takes outside of his pillars to maximize their success. This has its obvious flaws — the Rockets’ future in the Draft is, for lack of a better word, bleak, and they have a whole lot of money tied up in four guys going forward, the youngest of whom is soon-to-be 30-year-old Robert Covington. The bad news for the Sixers is their cap situation is the toughest in the league, but the window will theoretically be open a little longer with a 26-year-old and a 24-year-old as its main players. In the meantime, he will work the phones along with general manager Elton Brand to figure something out around them. Having Morey and Rivers means you believe your window is right now, and both will presumably operate with the requisite urgency that comes from this declaration.

The Sixers’ wager for years has been that having talent is the single-most important think they could do in pursuit of a title. That was a correct assessment, but it missed an important element: Talent does not work harmoniously solely because it exists. It needs to operate within the right infrastructure, one that makes all the pieces fit with one another to make the sum of the parts exceed even the most impressive bunch of individuals. There is no guarantee this version of the Philadelphia 76ers’ works, but in Rivers, his staff, and Morey, they finally have people who understand how to make that happen.

(SPOILERS from The Mandalorian‘s Season 2 premiere will be found below.)

Timothy Olyphant made his The Mandalorian introduction right away in the Season 2 premiere thanks to his character Cobb Vanth being a central part of the aptly titled debut episode called, “The Marshal.” And, yes, that is Boba Fett’s armor he’s wearing when he first confronts Mando on Tattooine. Although, neither his character nor Mando know that, which could lead to trouble down the road.

Of course, Star Wars fans know this isn’t Cobb Vanth’s first rodeo in a galaxy far, far away. The character first appeared in the Star Wars novel “Aftermath” by Chuck Wendig. Just like his The Mandalorian debut, Vanth had acquired Boba Fett’s armor from Jawas, who had salvaged it after the classic bounty hunter was knocked into the Sarlacc Pit during Luke Skyalker’s rescue of Han Solo in Return of the Jedi. While the armored Vanth does become a sheriff and eventually mayor of a small Tatooine village in the books, that location is known as Freetown instead of Mos Pelgo, but that’s just one of the changes to Vanth’s story.

After perusing the Wookieepedia, it appears that The Mandalorian writers have altered Vanth’s tale, and the official Lucasfilm stance has always been that what happens in the films and TV shows supersede the novels. If the story from the book held, Vanth would have already worked with Tusken Raiders several times and brought down a Krayt dragon long before Mando arrived. However, in the Season 2 episode, it’s clear this is Vanth’s first time doing both, and the events in The Mandalorian are now canon.

In another significant change, Vanth’s time with Boba Fett’s armor is cut short as he hands it over to Mando, and judging by the final minutes of the “The Marshal,” it’s original owner might have plans to take it back. Whether that involves Olyphant popping up again in Season 2 remains to be seen, but we’re definitely not opposed to more Space Raylan.

Throw away your couch and buy that $300 racecar seat on wheels because UPROXX Recon is finally out of beta. It’s a brand new show that is here to break down all the latest video game news and culture so you can stop begging your friends to tell you what’s cool.

The show is hosted by prominent Twitch streamer and TikTok heavyweight, SushiBAE. His sidekick? UPROXX Edge Gaming writer and Season 14 Rocket League Grand Champion AJ Lodge… aka me. Our hope is that the show allows you to find a real love for video game culture, hands-on insight, and perhaps the joys of watching a real friendship blossom. Everyone say “aw.” But for real, there’s so much fun to be had that it’s worth a borderless full-screen.

In this first episode, we talk everything: from the smash-hit indie Among Us, the latest developments from the front-lines of the console wars, and what we’re excited to see from upcoming AAA titles. And because we’re both super smart and read the newspaper, we make sure you get all the big details so you can stay in the know without having to comb through a dozen different listicles just to find out that you can pet the dog. That and, you know, our opinions: which are always serious but don’t always need to be taken seriously.

Basically, we’re here to talk about what makes games fun for everyone, whether that’s skill-based matchmaking or determined by your ability to play as Travis Scott. UPROXX Recon is about whatever gets you excited about video games, memes and all. And it’s in the video above. So watch it.

Since the Orlando Bubble came to a close, all of the league’s attention has shifted toward the complicated question of when — not to mention how — the next season might start. With the league, the owners, and the players’ union all seemingly on a different wavelength, the timeline remains murkier than ever.

After a recent board of governors’ meeting, news emerged that the league wants to start the 2020-2021 season as early as Dec. 22 to preserve the Christmas Day slate, which is a major revenue stream, and avoid any conflicts on the other end of the schedule regarding the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Unsurprisingly, the players’ union initially balked at that idea, with NBPA director Michele Roberts saying that it “defies common sense” that the NBA would be able to get up and running again on such an accelerated time line, given the many logistical and safety issues involved.

Now, the league is pushing back, according the New York Times‘ Marc Stein, saying that a late January start date could likely mean only a 50-game regular season.

Stein goes on to clarify that the 50-game season would have significant financial implications for the players. The 72-game schedule beginning in Dec. would mean would play roughly every other day and would put the NBA Finals somewhere in mid-July, thus avoiding any potential conflicts with the Olympics.

The league and the union are facing a deadline on Friday for those talks, although they are expected to once again be extended into next week.

Rexx Life Raj has been cooking up the follow-up to his fan-favorite EP California Poppy for some time and today, he shared the release date for California Poppy 2, November 20, along with the video for the sunny single, “State Of Mind.” The Berkeley rapper takes a break in the mellow video, occupying a cabin in the woods to burn incense, sage, and other herbs as he rhymes about his lifestyle changes over the past few years. He advocates pursuing inner peace over money, telling listeners “being broke is just a state of mind.”

2020’s been a productive year for the Bay Area indie, as he released a string of singles to carry his fans through the gap between his full-length projects. Early this year, he shared the motivational “Stimulus Check” video, following that with the celebratory “Tesla In A Pandemic.” In between, he crafted a pair of collabs that contributed to his quarantine fund and gave back: “Bounce Back” with G-Eazy brought in the ESPN bag, while “Optimistic” with D Smoke contributed to Empire’s Voices For Change Vol. 1 compilation. With California Poppy 2 on the way, Rexx and his fans have plenty to be optimistic about.

Watch the “State Of Mind” video above.

California Poppy 2 is out 11/20 via Empire. Order it here.

McDonald’s is pulling out all the stops this year. Hot off the launch of the Travis Scott and J Balvin burgers, the ‘ol Golden Arches is giving us an early Christmas present to cap off what has been, by all accounts, an awful year. They’re bringing back the McRib nationwide!

Does this fast-food launch solve all — or any — of our problems? No. Absolutely not. But it’s the McRib, baby! The Simpsons made a whole episode about it. Just accept it for the simple pleasure that it is.

A holiday season staple from McDonald’s, the McRib pork sandwich hasn’t been available nationwide since 2012. Last year’s drop came close — when it was brought to 10,000 of McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants. But that still left a lot of the market craving their fix and scrambling to find a restaurant that did have the menu item. To help people locate the cult hit, McDonald’s had to launch a McRib locator app.

If you’re having a hard time believing that the love for this ribless, artificially rib-shaped sandwich goes that deep, just check out some of the Twitter reactions at the news below. The McRib will return to menus nationwide on December 2nd.