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I miss people. Nothing in particular about them, only the charm of passing interactions and the innate quirks we all exhibit when we’re moving through the world occupied by our own thrilling narratives. You can still get your fix in a socially distanced way now, but it isn’t as much fun with worry and caution hanging over so many people’s heads. One day, things will be normal again. I believe that. I have to. But for now, I’m glad How To With John Wilson exists.

Premiering Friday on HBO (at 11PM ET) and produced by Nathan For You‘s Nathan Fielder, the six-part series from John Wilson showcases a documentary filmmaker who went from staring at hours of uneventful footage while working for a PI to someone who has established a hybridized style and a specific tone, which allows his work to feel, at once, intimate and absurd. As an extension of some of his past short-form docs (that you can find on his Vimeo), How To takes on a new level of relevance now while providing a snapshot of the recent past as well as a minefield of awkwardness that more fully occupies our existence in more normal times.

We spoke with Wilson about shooting until you find an unmissable moment, New York at the start of COVID (and showcasing a place within this moment that is grossly misunderstood), and the oft-missed impact of human interaction.

How would you define your style?

You can approach it as a tutorial. That’s the way it’s designed and presented. But to me, it’s just a playground for me to experiment with as many different documentary styles as I can. I like to have man-on-the-street interviews and stuff like that. I’m inspired by that kind of stuff. But I also like the Cinema Verite people that try to make themselves seem invisible, and you’re a fly on the wall. I like doing that kind of stuff. But then I also like directly engaging with the people on camera, and there are certain filmmakers who do that really well that I’m inspired by. I just want to do as much as I possibly can. I like all these different directors and all the work they do, but no one was doing everything at once, and that’s what I wanted to do.

There’s a moment in the finale with a skunk in an ATM vestibule, and I started thinking to myself, “Either this man is incredibly lucky, or he has reams of footage.” How much is there?

Yeah. We have a psychotic amount of footage.

How do you define “psychotic amount?” What’s a ballpark?

I can’t even give you a ballpark of how much material we shoot compared to how much of it makes it into the show. It is luck and it is a coincidence, and it’s just a numbers game. The more you shoot, the more once-in-a-lifetime stuff you’re going to capture. I’ve been just shooting every single day for the past couple of years for the show. I haven’t even stopped since we were technically wrapped. It’s just a rolling thing that happens, and I also have a team of second unit people that are just roving the city in multiple boroughs every single day during the production, just capturing as much as they possibly can. They may be out for a whole day and end up with one usable shot. But that is enough for the show. Or they could capture something else incredible. But I mean, I shoot about three-quarters of the show, and then the other quarter is more B-roll stuff.

The season finale takes place right at the start of COVID, and it’s an amazing snapshot of that time, which already feels like years ago, honestly.

Yeah. I know, right?

That was March. Into April, into May, into the full height of the COVID crisis in New York, were you guys out shooting during that as well?

I mean, once COVID happened, I was shooting by myself. I had nothing else to do. So, I never stopped shooting. That would have been the worst time to stop shooting for me. When the city was going through the most… I mean, it was a real before-and-after moment. The beauty of the show too is that when you have to shut down, the visual quality of the show and production value doesn’t change whatsoever. When you strip away all of the production that was there to prop you up, there’s no decrease in production value because it always looked like sh*t.

I think we have a bunch of priceless footage of a city during a major transitional period that I’d really like to put into something that everyone can see. Someone asked me if they think that New York is less interesting for the show now and I feel the opposite way. New York is more interesting now than it’s been in the past 10 years. I walk outside and… It’s really sad that we all have to figure it out together… it’s sad that we have to figure it out on our own but it also creates this landscape that is born out of necessity, and it’s all patchwork, and it’s really visually exciting in a way even though it’s every man for himself.

So, you shoot a ton and I think I assumed that you stumbled upon storylines, but is that not the case? Is there some pre-planning that goes into it?

The pre-planning is mostly just in the research. I did an episode about scaffolding. We researched what laws made it so there’s scaffolding everywhere these days, and what improvements are they trying to make on scaffolding, and what are the statistics on scaffolding failures? Stuff like that is something that we research and try to squeeze into the edit. But a lot of it is just like… I’m like a Mr. Magoo type character where I just walk through a door and just start talking to someone and they may just open their world to me. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, and they really clam up. But again, it’s just the numbers game and the more things I try, the more organic the story feels. So the arc is basically, I wanted the story to be able to find me. So much of it is just a coincidence. The more pieces you have, the more of a story you can build and if you’re lucky (and I think we were lucky enough), you get something that leads to an emotional crescendo and it feels satisfying by the end. But there are jokes in the show and some of the jokes are pre-planned.

Have you gotten better or more lucky at getting people to open their world to you?

I think I’ve gotten better at it. People usually don’t mind if you’re respectful and you approach them with a camera. Some people don’t like it, and they usually make that clear immediately and you just don’t film them. But a lot of the time I find that people are just literally waiting for this opportunity. There’s something disarming about me being the host who’s also filming the show. Because a lot of the time people don’t realize that I’m the host when I’m filming. They just think that I’m a really talkative cameraman. So they feel, I think, a bit more comfortable talking to me because they don’t feel like it’s actually usable footage. Because in what world is the footage of the cameraman talking to the talent making the cut?

What is it about people that fascinates you and that keeps you coming back to that in your work?

I’m a big non-fiction person. I love Studs Terkel. He had this book called Working, it was just hundreds of interviews with different people who had different jobs. And they just talked about their jobs. Just hearing someone being able to speak in their own words and give them time to… you give the microphone to people who usually don’t get it. I want to see what makes these people happy or sad or what they think about all of these complicated issues. We pretend to be all black and white about stuff, but we all live in this gray area, and a lot of times people don’t know why they feel a certain type of way about something. I feel like I can relate to that a lot and that’s why I just like having discussions with people and showing them… I don’t know, I also feel like it’s anthropology in a way and just documenting a specific time and place. A lot of my favorite documentaries are people just talking about their love lives or their obsessions or stuff like that.

When you have that interaction and you get to know somebody within a brief moment and then you never see them again, does it change you? Do you still have a relationship with the guy on the beach from the first episode? Or is it just a moment in time that happened, that was powerful, and then you move on?

We hung out that night on my last night there and yeah, I mean, we’ve been DM-ing with each other on Instagram since we filmed. But you can’t keep up with everybody the way you can your good friends, and I’m glad that he wanted to keep up with me. I thought I was weirding him out, but he made an effort to reach out to keep up the relationship afterward and I think that’s cool. I like doing that when I have the opportunity to because these people do offer a lot to me. I just really hope that they like the movies that I make. It is really important to me, and it doesn’t sit well with me when someone doesn’t like something that they’re in.

I also feel like, I don’t know, TV is just so over-edited these days, especially documentary or reality TV, it’s like you don’t get a real sense of who these people are. They’re all these amazing characters and amazing stories on TV, but they’re told in the most awful ways and chopped up into these really stylized reality shows. And in my show, I just want to create an opportunity for people to very nakedly have the microphone and just say what they want, and I feel like giving people that extra time on camera, I think gives them much more, I don’t know, an actual platform rather than just over-editing something. I’m having a hard time describing this.

‘How To With John Wilson’ debuts on HBO Friday at 11PM ET

The six years between Gone Girl and Mank is the longest David Fincher has gone between films. This is unacceptable, as the Oscar-nominated filmmaker is incapable of making a bad movie (even The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has its moments), but also understandable, considering he was busy with Mindhunter in the years between.

Fincher served as the unofficial showrunner for season one of Mindhunter, but when the scripts came in for season two, “I ended up looking at what was written and deciding I didn’t like any of it. So we tossed it and started over,” he told Vulture. “I brought in Courtenay Miles, an AD I’d worked with who wanted to write, and she ended up co-showrunning Mindhunter.” That lightened the load, but it was still 90-hour work weeks (“When I got done, I was pretty exhausted”), and there was another issue: the budget.

“Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was an expensive show. We talked about ‘Finish Mank and then see how you feel,’ but I honestly don’t think we’re going to be able to do it for less than I did season two. And on some level, you have to be realistic about dollars have to equal eyeballs.”

When asked by Vulture about a possible third season, a Netflix representative said, “Maybe in five years.” That’s still a shorter amount of time than between Gone Girl and Mank, which premieres on the streaming service on December 4.

(Via Vulture)

The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was basically a disaster. Trump was a constant source of interruptions and went on wild tangents about Biden’s family, which eventually prompted Biden to tell Trump to shut up (he also called him a clown). Trapped in the middle of all that was moderator Chris Wallace, who was widely panned for his inability to rein in Trump and attempts to pacify the president by promising him that he’s going to “love” the next topic. Even Wallace himself admitted he was “disappointed” by the whole proceeding.

However, thanks to the trainwreck from Biden and Trump’s first clash, the Presidential Debate Commission made the wise decision to mute the candidates’ mics whenever their opponent is talking, and it made a world of difference in the final debate. While there were still plenty of outlandish moments, the president was more subdued thanks to the inability to interrupt Biden, which led to a relatively smoother debate by comparison. Moderator Kristen Welker also received praise for her choice of questions and her aggressive attempts to keep Trump on topic that was made easier by the muted mics. Needless to say, that’s an option Wallace wish he had, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit to his Fox News colleagues that he was “jealous.”

In Wallace’s defense, he was in an impossible position with Trump. Had the first debate not gone terribly because of the president’s frantic behavior, the muted mics would have never been an option. And even then, there were still several moments in Thursday’s debate where Welker struggled to rein in Trump. At the end of the day, Chris Wallace shouldn’t feel too bad because, when you think about it, he had to be steamrolled so Kristen Welker could mute.

Few foods can beat the cheeseburger. Juicy ground beef patties sitting atop a tomato and some lettuce with melted cheese dripping down from all sides, plus a little sauce to pull all those umami flavors together? It’s almost perfect.

Almost.

You know what makes a cheeseburger even better? Throwing a grip of bacon on it. Just piles of bacon. It adds crunch, making each bite an audible delight. It also bumps up the salt levels into that dangerous-but-still-delicious range and offers a nice hit of smokiness.

The only time you’ll opt for a bacon-less cheeseburger over one with bacon is when you’re trying to mind your health. That’s fair, we’re not saying bacon is more delicious than life itself, but… sometimes it is. In those times, you’re going to want to eat the best. So we rounded up all the best fast food bacon cheeseburgers and ranked them.

We opted for bacon cheeseburgers that are menu staples at their respective fast food restaurants, so you won’t find any limited time Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Pub or Travis Scott burgers here. Meaning these rankings will remain in perpetuity! No one can question them, EVER!

8. Jack in the Box Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger

Jack in the Box has had a fall from grace unlike any other fast-food restaurant. JiB use to be the place that didn’t “make it until you order it” but anyone who has been in the last… I want to say ten years, knows full well that Jack in the Box is the type of food you don’t eat unless you’re drunk and everything else is closed. The Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger has two beef patties, a mix of American and Swiss cheeses (admittedly a nice touch) mayo, mustard, ketchup, and four strips of bacon on a buttery bun.

The ingredients here should work, but the flavor just isn’t there. The cheese is less melted than it is sweaty, and the mix of mayo, mustard, ketchup, Swiss and American cheese is just too much. What you’re left with is a messy burger that tastes equally messy as flavors collide into a way that’ll make your digestive system hate you for days.

Skip this one.

The Bottom Line: The worst fast food bacon cheeseburger.

7. McDonald’s Bacon Quarter Pounder With Cheese

Remember when we said there wouldn’t be any trendy promotional burgers on this list? Well, we lied. Kind of. The Travis Scott Burger is the same thing as a McDonald’s Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese, only the Cactus Jack has lettuce. Does that make it better than McDonald’s menu mainstay? A little.

This burger claims freshly cooked beef, two slices of American cheese, onions, pickles, mustard, and ketchup on a sesame seed bun with applewood smoked bacon. As far as McDonald’s burgers go, it’s probably the best tasting on the menu. The mustard/ketchup combo is a signature flavor from McDonald’s, the pickles all bring a nice tangy-sweet balance that simmers down the bright bite of fresh onion. The meat is noticeably peppered, which works harmoniously with the applewood bacon.

The Bottom Line: Probably the best burger on the whole McDonald’s menu.

6. Burger King Bacon King

The Bacon King is a fairly new bacon cheeseburger on the scene, debuting a few years back along with the Crispy Chicken sandwich when BK revamped much of their menu. It’s clearly inspired by Wendy’s Baconator and if that far superior sandwich didn’t exist, the Bacon King might’ve been reason alone to venture out to Burger King.

The Bacon King features two charred flame-grilled quarter-pound patties, two slices of American cheese, ketchup and mayo, and thick-cut bacon. It’s bigger than the Baconator, but much much flatter, which doesn’t give it the grandeur that its name suggests. This comes down to the way the Bacon King is layered — it’s a mess. Globs of sauce, thin overly-dry meat patties, and a haphazard assemblage of bacon. It shouldn’t taste good, but somehow it does. The charbroiled meat compliments the smokey flavors of the bacon and the buttery bun introduces some sweetness that gives the burger a dangerously addictive quality.

We just wish there was more care in the presentation.

Bottom Line: A delicious bacon cheeseburger option if there isn’t a Wendy’s nearby.

5. Rally’s/Checkers BaconZilla

Like the Bacon King, the BaconZilla is also inspired by the monstrous presentation of the Baconator. Unlike the Bacon King, Rally’s BaconZilla actually has its own thing going on. Yes, the two beef-two cheese construction is there, but Rally’s kicks things up a notch by adding an extra layer of melted cheddar cheese, which adds a sharpness to the cheese and brings a gooey mouthfeel that the other burgers on this list just don’t have.

If you love a messy, cheesy burger, this is the bacon cheeseburger for you. It’s also the burger of choice for those who like fattier, thick pieces of bacon. Bacon cheeseburgers tend to feature flat, extra crispy pieces of bacon, but the BaconZilla’s pieces have a homemade quality that feels fresh off the griddle.

The Bottom Line: Lovers of cheese and fatty bacon look no further, this is the bacon cheeseburger for you.

4. Carl’s Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger

If you think the Western Bacon Cheeseburger is way too high on this list, I can understand that, but most of the good bacon cheeseburgers out there are clearly influenced by the standards set by Wendy’s Baconator. The Western Bacon Cheeseburger is very much its own thing, and that’s cool. One charbroiled beef patty, two strips of crispy bacon, American cheese, onion rings, and BBQ sauce. It’s got an insane level of crunch — making it the best bacon burger for ASMR fanatics — and the savory BBQ sauce elevates the smoked flavors of the bacon, which is why it gets away with just two measly strips.

Somehow the whole thing tastes more bacon-y than the competition and come on, crispy onion rings? Why don’t more burgers on this list have crispy onion rings?

The Bottom Line: Different than every bacon cheeseburger on this list. If you want something heavy on the umami, this is the burger for you.

3. Shake Shack SmokeShack

The SmokeShack is your choice of a single or double cheeseburger with delicious Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, chopped cherry peppers, and ShackSauce — which is basically a thousand island-type sauce — on a spongey potato bun.

Everything about this burger is delicious. The soft and squishy bun, the Angus beef patties, the perfectly rendered bacon, and those delicious slightly tangy cherry peppers — it truly feels gourmet.

And yet… it isn’t our favorite. There’s just something that isn’t memorable about this burger, it’s a great option when rolling through Shake Shack but it’s not the type of bacon cheeseburger you spend any time craving. It doesn’t feel dangerously decadent, it’s the bacon cheeseburger your parents want you to marry. And who needs that?

The Bottom Line: One of the highest quality, gourmet-style bacon cheeseburgers you’ll find in the fast-food space. Delicious ingredients that sadly don’t live up to the sum of their parts. It’s like the Traveling Wilburys of cheeseburgers. Full of big names that are somehow better enjoyed on their own.

2. Wendy’s Baconator

The Baconator is probably the first cheeseburger that comes to mind when someone says the words “bacon cheeseburger.” It has set the standard for the modern fast-food bacon cheeseburger — two quarter-pound beef patties, two pieces of melted American, and no lettuce. Why no lettuce? Because this is the Baconator baby! They’re not f*cking around — this is an absolute meat bomb, the type of bacon cheeseburger that puts you in an immediate food coma and makes you swear off bacon cheeseburgers for at least a week.

Wendy’s fresh overly-salty beef is teeming with delicious burger juices that meld perfectly with the melted cheese and double layer of bacon. The key here is the construction: a soft and spongey bun topped with a beef patty, then cheese, then bacon, then beef, then cheese, then bacon, ketchup, mayo, bun. It’s crafted in such a consistent and harmonious fashion that every bite of your burger matches the last, giving you a consistent experience from first to last bite.

What other fast food burgers can you say that about?

The Bottom Line: Clearly an icon and a staple of modern American fast food. The Baconator will probably be the best bacon fast-food cheeseburger you’ve ever had. Having said that, it’s not the best we’ve ever had.

1. Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger

The Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger is the greatest hits package of fast food bacon cheeseburgers. Do you like the smokey flavor of Carl’s Jr’s Western Bacon Cheeseburger? Load up your bacon cheeseburger with BBQ sauce! Enjoy the high-quality flavors of the fresh meat burgers from Wendy’s and Shack Shack? Five Guys has got you there. Think all of the other burgers on this list are missing a key ingredient? You can make it your way at Five Guys.

Five Guys makes the best bacon cheeseburger because you can have it any way you want. Throw grilled onions, mushrooms, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, or tomatoes on there. They’ve got relish, hot sauce, A1, you could even sprinkle cajun seasoning on the beef and eat the whole thing with a side of peanuts.

Five Guys’ build-it-yourself menu style puts the power in your hands and we’ve got to give them the top spot for that. Anyone can have their favorite fast food bacon cheeseburger at Five Guys. That makes them the champ.

The Bottome Line: The bacon cheeseburger for bacon cheeseburger experts. The Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger is whatever you want it to be and that’s a beautiful thing that virtually no other fast food restaurant offers.

Hip-hop is moving as fast as ever. Luckily, we’re doing the work to put the best new rap music in one place for you. This week, there were videos from Jack Harlow, Rico Nasty, Gucci Mane, and Don Toliver, Run The Jewels, Reason, Nas, Big Sean, Don Toliver, And Hit-Boy, Aminé. There was also new music from Guapdad 4000 and Deante Hitchcock, Lil Yachty and Sada Baby, Moneybagg Yo, DaBaby, and City Girls. Here’s the rest of the best new rap music.

Blacc Zacc — 803 Legend

Blacc Zacc is affirming his place in his region throughout his latest project 803 Legend. It feels like southern trap rappers are prolific by nature, and Zacc is true to form on his second project of the year. He puts in pain over 13-tracks, talking about the pitfalls of the grind on songs like “Broke My Heart” with Kevin Gates.

Calboy — “Gang Gang””

Chicago rapper Calboy is on his grind on “Gang Gang,” where he rhymes, “Everyday I wake up, gotta get this paper” over 808-driven production. The track is from the deluxe version of his Long Live The Kings album.

Dave East — Karma 3

Dave East just fed his cult fanbase Karma 3. Coming in at a whopping 23 songs, the project shows East getting in his reflective, lyrically sharp zone, including delving into “high-level rap” with Benny The Butcher on the filthy “Stone Killer.”

Joyner Lucas — Evolution

Joyner Lucas is back with Evolution, his fourth album and second project of 2020. The 13-track album features Game, Ashanti, and Rick Ross, who struts on the affirmatory “Legend.”

Junglepussy — JP4

Brooklyn MC Junglepussy has said that JP4, which released today, “really sounds like and feels like I got” to her desired sound as an artist. She explores a variety of means to get to that point on the eclectic, rambunctious 10-track project.

Lil Gotit — “Tellin Ya” Feat. Lil PJ

Lil Gotit is “trappin’ just like Belly” on “Tellin Ya,” the Atlanta artist’s latest loosie. He and his frequent collaborator Lil PJ take turns unleashing braggadocious, melodic verses over spooky, 808-based production.

Marlon Craft — “Hoodie Weather”

Marlon Craft spoke to the moment in two fashions on “Hoodie Weather,” the second single from his upcoming album. Yes, it’s almost November, but Marlon’s also referencing a hoodie as an ode to Trayvon Martin while noting, “Still word to Trayvon, our hoodies gon’ stay on.”

NoCap — “I Can’t”

Changing for the better is easier said than done for Alabama rapper NoCap on “I Can’t,” a track where he’s partially remorseful over evocative production but also laments being in an environment where “n***s around me, trappin’ for some Jordans.”

Q Da Fool — Dope On A Spoon

PG Country rapper Q Da Fool is back with his Dope On A Spoon album. The 13-track project focuses on exactly what the title suggests. Q gives his growing fanbase another glimpse of flashy, fiery rhymes over thumping production, The project boasts features from Peewee Longway and Mulatto, who shows up on the frenetic “Gotta Go Get It.”

Rahli — “Do Dirt Alone” Feat. Kevin Gates

Kevin Gates offered a gritty verse to the remix of St. Louis rapper Rahii’s “Do Dirt Alone” project. He offsets Rahii’s steely whisper with his gruff Baton Rouge baritone, telling enemies “I can see your heartbeat, where your game face at?”

Rucci & ALLBLACK — “Okay Doeee”

Rucci and ALLBLACK are “bout a bank roll” on “Okay Doeee,” a bouncy single from Rucci’s recently released Midget album. They paired the track with a video that intersperses scenes of them being interrogated and in jail (no fun) with them rapping around wads of money, some drinks, and beautiful women (a lot more fun).

WhoHeem Feat. Tyga & Lil Mosey

WhoHeem’s “Let’s Link” has been a viral TikTok hit for some time. He just released a remix to the in-demand track with Lil Mosey and Tyga, who offered a pair of flirty verses to match WhoHeem’s desire to “treat you like you monarchy.”

YFN Lucci — “Sept. 7th”

Apparently, September 7th is a day of infamy in YFN Lucci’s life, as he explores on his latest single. He pours his heart out over a sullen instrumental, bemoaning a fall out with a fake friend, and letting us know “if you thug how we thug then I know what you been through.”

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

With momentum building for the NBA to move the calendar up and bypass the chance to host fans for a full 82 games, the league’s Board of Governors will reportedly meet on Friday to discuss beginning the 2020-21 season as soon as Christmas Day.

The report comes from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst, who indicate many team governors are growing impatient with the idea of waiting all the way until the spring, when it might be more feasible to make money on ticket sales and other gameday revenue, rather than starting sooner and getting back on track for the traditional July-June league year.

The push for a Christmas Day start to the 2020-21 NBA season, which would naturally please the league’s TV partners, is gaining momentum, league sources say

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 23, 2020

Returning by either Christmas or a few weeks later for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend would give the league its marquee television broadcast days and catch fans during a time of year when they are likely more used to tuning into the NBA. As a result, ESPN reports, the league could also consider playing a shortened season that would also help put them on a path toward playing the postseason and Finals in the late spring and early summer.

Though the team governors will meet this week and have done so several times since the Lakers were crowned champions, ESPN reports that Oct. 30 is shaping up to be a “key date.” That is the latest deadline the league and the players’ association put in place to strike a deal to amend the Collective Bargaining Agreement and create rules for next season.

It appears the two sides are making progress on a salary cap and other logistics, but Oct. 30 would also likely be the latest the league could wait before giving teams the green light for training camps if Christmas Day were indeed to become tip-off day. Putting everything in motion to start in just over two months seems like an aggressive timeline, but it’s clear the league is more seriously considering starting sooner than later.

Kawhi Leonard and Paul George certainly aren’t the first superstar pairing to come up short during their first season together. Heck, LeBron himself can tell them a thing or two about that given the Heat’s infamous collapse in the 2011 Finals against Dirk and the Mavs.

Of course, they went on to put up one of the more dominant single-season runs in NBA history the following year, winning 27 straight at one point and eventually bringing home two more championships to Miami before the dissolution of the Big 3 Heat. Now, PG and Kawhi are hoping they can follow a similar tract.

However, that would require them to stick around beyond next season, depending on how things pan out, as both can opt out of their current contracts in 2021. If you ask new head coach Tyronn Lue, he’s not worried about it. Lue, who was a Clippers assistant under Doc Rivers last season, believes that a lot of their chemistry issues were due to injuries and missed time, and he’s positive they can rectify that moving forward and, moreover, that his two stars will be in L.A. for the duration.

Here’s what Lue told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols on Thursday:

“I think Kawhi and PG are here to stay for a long time,” Lue said. “It’s just, I think in their situation and where they want to be is here with the Clippers. We’ve just got to make it a great environment, and we have to win.”

Lue also talked about being in the hot seat, given the enormous pressure they face to win a championship. It’s a situation he’s faced before when took over for David Blatt in Cleveland, so Lue says he welcomes the pressure. But plenty of questions remain about chemistry on the roster, despite the wealth of talent, combined with the fact that several players are set to enter free agency.

Regardless, the Clippers will once again be one of the favorites in the West, although they’ve learned the hard way that it’s never something you can take for granted.

Over the summer, John Boyega started telling fans on social media that he’s “moved on” from Star Wars, which later evolved into the actor getting brutally honest as he put Disney and Lucasfilm on blast for failing POC characters like Finn and Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose. After that one-two punch, you’d just assume that Boyega has washed his hands of the galaxy far, far away, but in a new interview, he surprisingly revealed that the door is still open for him to return as Finn, but under very specific circumstances.

While discussing Colin Trevorrow’s abandoned Episode IX plans for a much more fleshed out stormtrooper revolution than the one shown in The Rise of Skywalker, Boyega expressed interest in still bringing that original story to life. “The concept art in the ‘Star Wars’ book has that image of Finn with the blue flag, and you have the AT-ATs lined up with tribal marks, and the stormtroopers take off their helmets. That would have been sick,” he told Yahoo. “That would have been dope, hands down.”

Boyega then said he’d love to watch the Finn’s story conclude on Disney+ where he says Lucasfilm is killing it with The Mandalorian. But when asked if this means he’d return to finish Finn’s arc, Boyega switched gears just a little bit and revealed that there’s one specific way he’d return to Star Wars. “Animated? Yeah that would be cool,” Boyega said. “You could do it all from home.”

Considering Lucasfilm has been very successful with its animated Clone Wars and Rebels series, which have been well received by Star Wars fans and, more importantly, have avoided the more heated online flame wars that plague the films, we don’t blame Boyega for making animation the medium of choice for Finn’s return. Way less drama.

(Via Yahoo)

Shawn Kemp is one of those NBA legends that been nearly lost to time. But not only is he one of the greatest dunkers in NBA history, he was also part of one of its dominant duos during the ’90s as a member of the Seattle Supersonics alongside Gary Payton. To this day, he remains a hero in the Seattle area, despite the organization having relocated to Oklahoma City more than a decade ago.

Kemp and Payton were among the many players whose accomplishments were somewhat overshadowed by Michael Jordan during that NBA era, having the unfortunate luck of running into perhaps the greatest team ever during what was their best opportunity for a championship run in 1996.

Now, Kemp has turned his efforts to one of the country’s fastest growing industries. On October 30, he’ll open Seattle’s first Black-owned cannabis dispensary, in an event that will feature Payton.

Here’s more from the store’s press release:

Joined by his former teammate, Hall of Famer Gary Payton, Kemp will commence the celebration with a green ribbon cutting ceremony at 12:45 p.m., followed by an official opening to the public at 1 p.m. “I’m looking forward to welcoming Sonics fans on a regular basis, starting with opening day,” said Kemp, who calls Seattle home and has invested in the city through several business ventures.

“My name is on this company and I have worked hard to bring Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis to fruition,” said Kemp. “I want to provide nothing short of the best selection, customer experience and prices in Seattle. I have incredible partners in Matt Schoenlein and Ramsey Hamide to make sure we deliver on that promise to our customers, who are our top priority.”

The grand opening will also feature the unveiling of a new mural from local artist Jeff Jacobson, and the store itself will offer express kiosks, online ordering, and curbside pickup in line with COVID-19 safety measures. Kemp hopes the store will act as inspiration for other Black business owners to get their ideas off the ground via Washington state’s new social equity program.

Even though Ryan Reynolds usually keeps things light, he’s still got moments when he gets really real. That includes his admission this year that getting married at a plantation was a “giant f*cking mistake” and explaining, among other things, how it’s “impossible to reconcile” that he hadn’t realized the gravity of the venue. And in 2018, the Deadpool jester opened up about how he really wanted to vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, “but I didn’t get to have a voice,” since he wasn’t a U.S. citizen at the time.

He apparently satisfied that requirement for 2020. Reynolds set out (with Blake Lively by his side) to cast his first U.S. presidential choice during early voting. Naturally, he joked about this “super scary” moment and praised Blake “for making my first time so gentle and loving.” That rascal. Also, Blake was strangely shoeless in his Instagram post.

That wasn’t all. Note that in Blake’s below photo of the moment, it appears that she’s wearing shoes. She added that things went “REALLY fast” (zing!) and that “He wept. I pretended to weep.” Very funny, but really, look at her feet here.

Reynolds and Lively were, of course, messing with us. The detectives at InStyle noticed that Blake’s shoes are, uh, photoshopped onto her feet. Why? No one knows, other than maybe the pandemic is driving everyone a little nutty, and two of Hollywood’s most beautiful people are finding weird ways to keep themselves amused. Blake also added different shoes to her feet in an Instagram story. Really, go look. These two can’t keep their chaos constrained, and it’s a delight to see.