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Part of the problem with debating abortion legislation is that there is no clear definition of what it even is. Some might say it’s the termination of an unwanted pregnancy, but sometimes a pregnancy that ends in abortion was very much wanted. Some might say it’s the killing of a baby in the womb, but plenty of abortions take place after a baby has already died in utero.

Merriam-Webster defines abortion as “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus”—a definition that points to the following heartbreaking story and the reason why abortion is not as cut and dry an issue as many make it out to be.

Haylie Grammer shared her family’s experience with “late-term abortion” in the death of her daughter, Embree, at 25 weeks, and it illustrates how abortion can look very, very different than what people imagine it to be.

Grammer wrote:

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“I saw this article today about Senator Gary Peters and his abortion story. It reminded me why I am pro-choice and reminded me that people need to hear my story too. Some of you may have already heard my story, but I think it is a good reminder of how politics are used to control women’s bodies and how everything isn’t always what it seems on the surface.

4.5 years ago, I gave birth to my first born. Her name was Embree Eleanor Grammer. She was born via c-section on April 25, 2016. She weighed 4lbs 4oz. She was only 25 weeks gestation. She lived for approximately 20-30 minutes. She was born with a tumor that was roughly the size of a volleyball that was invading her body both externally and internally. It was sucking her blood supply, pushing her organs out of place, deforming her body, and overworking her heart. We found out about the tumor only 5 weeks prior. In that 5 weeks the tumor grew from about the size of a walnut to the volleyball. I grew along with it, from the tiny bump of a first time mom at 20 weeks to measuring the same as a pregnant woman who was roughly 36 weeks along. In 5 weeks.

That 5 weeks was the hardest 5 weeks of my life. We had sonograms twice weekly, traveled across the state to visit more specialists, and were told that essentially our sweet Embree would probably not make it. We had a choice to make. The state of Texas allows an abortion a time period after 20 weeks if the pregnancy is life threatening to the mother or if the fetus has “abnormalities.” We qualified for this. I have always been pro-choice, but I have never been pro-abortion for myself. While I agree that women have the right to do what is best for them, I myself wasn’t ever planning on getting an abortion. I also had hope. Hope that Embree would be healed. Hope that the tumor would stop growing. So we chose to push on with the pregnancy, hoping that Embree would have a chance. I was counting down to the age of viability, just hoping that if I could keep Embree cooking until then, maybe…. just maybe, modern medicine and prayers could keep her alive.

We were not only closely monitoring Embree, but doctors were closely monitoring me. Even though Embree was still alive, she was not in good shape. She was developing Hydrops and I was at a risk of developing mirror syndrome. This would be life threatening to me if it fully developed. On April 22 I went to my second sonogram of the week and my doctors were concerned with the swelling in my feet. I was told that I had a decision to make. Not only was I starting to develop the beginnings of mirror syndrome, but we were 2 weeks away from 27 weeks. This was important because at 27 weeks, I would no longer be able to deliver Embree in Texas via c-section. Why? Because according to the law, by choosing to deliver Embree this early, I would be having an abortion. And while at 24.5 weeks I was still in the grey area of Texas Abortion law where I could deliver her, at 27 weeks I would not be. Surprised this is considered an abortion? Many are. Stay with me.

We decided to schedule our c-section for that Monday. I would be 25 weeks. We made it past the age of viability, but it was becoming obvious that she would not make it. We met with NICU doctors and they reviewed our case. They decided that they would not be attempting any life saving attempts on Embree after she was delivered. This meant officially, we were choosing to have an abortion. We were giving birth to our child early, knowing full well that she would not survive. This is what ‘late term abortion’ looks like. Catch that political buzz word? I will explain more below.

As you can imagine, this was the worst and longest weekend of our life. We knew that in 2 days we would be meeting our daughter and letting her go. But it gets so much worse. Again, this is considered an abortion. A late term abortion. The State of Texas, like most states who have a large majority who claim to be ‘pro-life,’ has many restrictions in place to prevent abortions from happening. Here is the thing about abortion legislation…. it doesn’t differentiate between what we were going through and what the ‘pro-life’ groups think they are preventing. The laws in Texas stated that in order for us to give birth to Embree and have a chance to hold her while her soul still resided in her body, we had to do the following: 1. Our doctor had to apply for permission to perform the c-section from the state. This had to be done 24 hours before the surgery. We had to go to the hospital on the Saturday before we were to give birth, in the midst of our mourning, to sign a paper requesting an abortion. Put yourself in that situation. Forever, in the records of the State of Texas, there is a piece of paper that says that I aborted my precious Embree. 2. On top of filing this paperwork for us, our doctor also had to give me a pamphlet published by the State of Texas about the consequences of abortion. By law, she was required to give me a booklet that told me that if I had the abortion I would suffer from depression and anxiety for the rest of my life, have an increased risk of breast cancer, and possible be infertile in the future. Think I’m kidding? Have a look: https://hhs.texas.gov/…/women…/womans-right-to-know.pdf

If you consider yourself “pro-life” you are probably thinking something like, “yes but your situation was different. This isn’t what I’m fighting against.” Or maybe you’re thinking “but I don’t consider this abortion.” Great. But the actual definition of abortion is “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.” So while YOU might not consider what we went through to be an “abortion,” it was. I had an abortion. I had a late-term abortion.

Why am I bringing this up? Why am I telling you this? Because when lawmakers and people fight to end ‘abortion,’ they are talking about this too. When you hear about ‘late term abortions’ taking place, THIS is what is happening. It’s not women who have carried babies to full term and then just deciding to have an abortion. It is women and families who are devastated that they are in a situation in which they have to decide whether to let a child suffer in the womb, or end their suffering. ‘Pro-life’ laws are designed to make this process difficult. They are designed to put obstacles in place. This process is already difficult enough. Even women who are deciding to have an abortion at 8 weeks. It’s already a hard decision so why are we allowing people to torture them too. Every time people talk about saving the babies and being pro-life, I cringe on the inside. Not because I don’t want to save babies, but because I want to save babies. Save babies from suffering that they are made to endure because some man who has no medical training has decided that he knows women’s bodies better than doctors. I cringe because I know as a survivor of these terrible ‘pro-life’ laws that these laws are being used to trick women in America to vote against their own interest in hopes that they are saving the unborn. I cringe every time I hear people call those who vote in favor of Pro-Choice laws… ‘murderers,’ because they are saying I murdered my Embree.

I chose to deliver Embree on April 25, 2016 via c-section. I chose late-term abortion. I did so because it was the only way I could hold my baby girl while she was still alive. It was the only way I could encounter her soul until we are together again in heaven. This is why I am Pro-choice. Remember Embree and I when you vote.“

If your first response to this story is, “But that’s not abortion!” you’re not just incorrect, you’ve also missed the point. Due to the circumstances and the laws of the state she was in, yes, this was legally considered an abortion. And if you think it shouldn’t be, who do you think should make that decision? Who gets to define abortion so that it accounts for the millions of different individual circumstances that come into play? Most of us don’t even want the government deciding which doctors we can go to—do we really want elected officials with no medical training making decisions about our specific, personal medical care?

Grammer isn’t alone in sharing personal abortion stories that people don’t think of as abortion. The families who desperately wanted a baby, who ended up having to make the rock-and-a-hard-place choice to abort because the alternative would have been a short, pain-filled life for their child. The mothers having to endure long, drawn out, potentially dangerous miscarriages and being forced to carry a dead baby inside of them because abortion restrictions gave them no other choice.

Some might say that these stories and experiences are not the norm, but they actually are when it comes to late-term abortion. Third trimester abortions are medical choices that aren’t easy for any individual or family, and they are situations that medical professionals and patients need to make together, not the government. Pete Buttigieg said it beautifully: “The bottom line is, as horrible as that choice is, that woman, that family may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance, but that decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made.”

The Atlanta Braves took a 2-0 series lead in the NLCS on Tuesday night in an 8-7 win that got an awful lot more interesting than it likely should’ve been in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Dodgers bats woke up suddenly.

On Wednesday, they stayed awake in a big way as the Dodgers racked up a record-setting 11 runs in the first inning to effectively leave no doubt about this series going to Thursday at 2-1.

Corey Seager had his first of two RBI hits in the inning as the second batter, driving Mookie Betts in with a double to the left-center gap.

Will Smith would drive him in on the next at-bat with a rope to centerfield.

Two batters later, with two on and one out, Joc Pederson hit a three-run shot that was followed on the next pitch by an Edwin Rios bomb to dead center field.

Seager would return to the plate and drive in another run with a single to center, as the Dodgers ran Braves starter Kyle Wright after just two-thirds of an inning.

The Braves bullpen offering didn’t fare much better, hitting the first batter they faced — albeit, under some dubious circumstances — and then allowing Max Muncy to hit an absolute moon shot to right center for a grand slam.

In all, the Dodgers racked up 11 runs on seven hits in the first inning, setting a new MLB playoff record for runs scored in any inning by one team — breaking the record set by the St. Louis Cardinals one year ago against, yes, the Atlanta Braves. At least this time the Braves did this in Game 3 while up 2-0 in the series, rather than it being in an elimination game, but still, it’s rather incredible that one team has been on the wrong end of the two worst single-inning pitching performances in postseason history in back-to-back years.

The trend nowadays isn’t to remake movies as other movies. It’s to remake them as TV series. The same day it was revealed Grease is getting a prequel show, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Amazon was digging up IP that’s not even a quarter century old yet, reviving the 1997 slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer, but this time for television. (Of course, someone already tried to remake this one before, without much luck.)

The original film, which was based on a 1973 YA novel, concerns a group of teens who accidentally hit a pedestrian with their car then cover up the murder. The next year they find themselves suddenly stalked by a mysterious, hook-wielding killer, seemingly hell-bent on revenge. The movie rode the waves of the late ‘90s trend of post-modern horror, with self-aware teens often joking about the genre’s tropes and clichés. On top of creating Dawson’s Creek, Summer’s screenwriter, Kevin Williamson, also wrote the one that started them all, 1996’s Scream.

Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr., I Know What You Did Last Summer was a massive hit, but it was one of the last of its kind. Even though the Scream sequels continued to rake in cash, its own sequel, the amusingly titled I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, did not. But given that Scream itself is getting a fivequel, maybe that brand of horror will live again.

(Via THR)

The SEC is currently dealing with a number of COVID-19 outbreaks that have impacted scheduling for this weekend, most notably with Vanderbilt and Florida having to postpone their games this Saturday with Missouri and LSU respectively due to a number of positive tests.

Ole Miss is likewise dealing with players testing positive, as their game with Arkansas is still on for now but more positive tests later in the week could change that. The biggest game of the week in the conference is a showdown between the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams in the country in Alabama and Georgia in Tuscaloosa. On Wednesday, that game got a major shakeup in the form of positive tests for Alabama head coach Nick Saban and athletic director Greg Byrne, which will keep Saban off of the sidelines and thrust offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian into head coaching duties, with both Saban and Byrne releasing statements.

Per the statement, there are no other positive tests at this time for the team, but obviously testing later in the week will be important to monitor as Saban has removed himself from on-site team activities and is at home. The primary concern is the health of Saban and Byrne, as the Alabama coach is 68 years old. Hopefully he remains asymptomatic and is able to make a speedy recovery, but Alabama is learning what so many other schools have, which is that it’s impossible to fully insulate a team from the possibility of positive tests while traveling for games and being on campus.

The SEC isn’t alone in having games postponed, but right now they have been hit the hardest and now one of the all-time luminaries of the sport is impacted directly.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended education in every way imaginable. While it’s great that modern technology allows us to attend classes through Zoom or Google Meets, it’s just not the same as in-person interaction.

It’s also tough to recreate the camaraderie that can develop in a classroom.

The impenetrable distance that exists between teachers and students in the COVID-19 era was bridged recently when a group of students came together to tell their professor how much he really means to them.

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Professor David Branscome at Florida State University has become accustomed to teaching to a mostly blank screen these days. Even though there are 180 people in his mythology class, only a few opt to attend the lecture with their screens and microphones turned on.

At the end of his lectures he will usually say “have a great weekend” and his students will reply with the customary, “you, too.” But this time, one student replied with “I love you.” To which Branscome replied, “I love you, too.”

After that lecture, a group of students got together on a the texting platform GroupMe and put together a plan to bombard their professor with an “I love you” at the end of the next lecture.

A few days later, at the end of class, one by one, the students showed their love by saying, “I love you,” to which Branscome replied: “I love you, too,” or “I love you all.”

The video of the lovely send off was captured on TikTok where it’s received over 600,000 likes.

Darline Philius, a sophomore in the class, says that the chain was a way of bringing the class together while they’re apart. “We’re not able to be with each other, in person,” the 20-year-old told Insider. “So this is our type of bonding.”

But it was also a way to show their deep feelings for the professor. “We really do love this man,” Philius said.

via Jackson Myers / Flickr

Branscome has found a positive way to see the to the recent disruption to the educational system.

“I’ve actually been very pleasantly surprised with the environment,” he said. “In some ways, it contributes to class discussion. Every student has a front-row seat.”

He also believes that the fact that the pandemic has created a unique bond between people.

“I think that this is one of the nice things about the online environment, strangely being apart brings us closer together — at least in this environment,” he said.

Branscome believes that the “I love you” chain was a way for him to express his true feelings about his students.

“I do care about each and every one of them,” the professor said.

The wonderful bond created between Professor Branscome and his students is a great example of how living through tough times encourages people to focus on what really matters in life. It also provides a bit of hope that, one day when this is all over, we can all say that living though the pandemic made us more gracious people.

On October 18, “The Simpsons” will debut it’s 31st “Treehouse of Terror” Halloween episode. This year’s show includes parodies of Pixar, “Toy Story,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and Netflix’s “Russian Doll.”

A minute-long preview teasing the Halloween tradition also touches on a night that will be one of the scariest of our lifetimes. Millions of Americans are fearing what could go wrong on election day after living through the horror of 2016.

In the trailer, Homer is stuck in the voting booth, unsure of who to vote for for president. His progressive daughter, Lisa, steps into the booth to remind Homer of everything that has happened in the past four years.

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“Dad, by all that’s decent, how could you forget everything that’s happened the last four years?” Lisa asks.

All Homer can conjure up is when Faye Dunaway announced the name of the wrong film at the 2020 Oscars.

So, for the benefit of Homer and undecided voters across America, a list scrolls before the Simpsons’ patriarch reminding him of 50 of the terirble things Trump has done throughout his political career.

The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror Lists 50 Reasons Not to Vote Trump

www.youtube.com

The list:

Made it okay to shoot hibernating bears

Put children in cages

Called Mexicans rapists

Imitated disabled reporter

Looks lousy in a tennis outfit

Can’t get wife to hold hand

Called third world countries ****holes

Called Tim Cook ‘Tim Apple’

Said Jewish people who vote Democrat are disloyal

Showed top secret documents at Mar-A-Lago restaurant

Called white supremacists ‘fine people’

Leaked classified information to Russian ambassador

Asked the president of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens

Called for China to investigate the Bidens

Walked into the dressing room at Miss Teen USA pageant

Pressed the Australian prime minister to help Barr investigate Mueller

Talked about grabbing *****

Lied about the size of his inauguration

Refused to release tax returns

Gutted the E.P.A.

Confiscated and destroyed interpreter’s notes after meeting with Putin

Tweeted classified photo of Iran missile site

Called Baltimore a ‘disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess’

Described Meryl Streep as ‘over-rated’

Leaked information to the press about the 2017 Manchester arena bombing

Did not attend any White House correspondents’ dinner

Said Megyn Kelly had ‘blood coming out of her whatever’

Called Carly Fiorina ‘horseface’

Ruined impeachment

Brought Ivanka to the G7 summit

Corrupted Congress

Appointed and didn’t fire Betsy DeVos

Put Jared in charge of Mideast

Served McDonald’s to Clemson football team

Destroyed democracy

Lost Hong Kong

Threatened Marie Yovanovitch

Pulled the U.S. out of climate agreement

Allowed bounties on soldiers

Invaded Portland

Withdrew from W.H.O.

Bragged about knowing the date

Commuted sentences

Said to swallow bleach

Person, woman, man, camera, TV

Destroyed post office

Paid $750 in taxes

Wants third term

Wanted to be on Mount Rushmore

And we haven’t even said the worst one

If you love true crime podcasts — and let’s face it, who doesn’t — and also getting stoned — again, who doesn’t? — you’ve probably thought at least once during a pod, “That’s cool man, but how can I get more of the Grateful Dead into this?”

No? Is that just us? Well, either way, if you love true crime podcasts and The Grateful Dead you’ll be happy to know that somebody finally had the good sense to combine those two subjects into one thing. Dead and Gone is a new true-crime podcast from Tenderfoot TV, hosted by Disgraceland‘s Jake Brennan and Up and Vanished‘s Payne Lindsey. The premise is pretty straightforward — it explores the mysterious world of murdered and missing “Dead Heads.”

The cases covered in Dead and Gone, which span a period of five decades, have little in common at a superficial glance, but one strange commonality unifies them — all of the unsolved cases have a Dead Head at the center. Whether it’s a ticket stub, a t-shirt, or the murder of two fans following a Bay Area concert in 1985, Dead and Gone presents eerie connections between these unsolved murders and the Grateful Dead that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, as every great true-crime podcast should.

Ahead of Dead and Gone‘s debut episode, which launches tomorrow, we’ve got an exclusive sneak peek into the show so packed full of atmosphere that it will transport your from your living room straight into a foggy night in 1980’s San Francisco’s Caesar Chavez park. At a double murder scene. Take a listen to the first 10 minutes of tomorrow’s episode above, and then throw on “Truckin’” to lighten the mood.

Strap in, folks, this story has a few layers. Which is why we’re even writing about it in the first place.

It all started, for most of the world, with this New York Times story Tuesday morning, about the mayor of Anchorage, Ethan Berkowitz, abruptly resigning from his office. The reason, Berkowitz said through a spokesman at the time, was his “unacceptable personal conduct.” Conduct which the Times went on to explain involved an “inappropriate texting relationship” with local news anchor Maria Athens.

Mr. Berkowitz’s resignation followed an unsubstantiated claim posted to social media on Friday by the news anchor, Maria Athens, promising viewers an “exclusive” story set to air on upcoming newscasts. Mr. Berkowitz responded by calling the allegations “slanderous” and false, and Ms. Athens shot back by posting what she said was an image of the mayor’s bare backside, with a laughing emoji.

But as political leaders in Anchorage lined up to defend Mr. Berkowitz, the mayor came forward on Monday with an admission: He and Ms. Athens had previously engaged in a “consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship.”

The claim (false, it’s important to note) was that Berkowitz “has his male genitalia posted on an underage girl’s website,” and Athens apparently posted it without her employers’ permission. Leading to an altercation in which she was arrested:

Late Friday afternoon, Athens got into a physical fight with her station manager boss, with whom she was in a romantic relationship, according to court documents.

A charging document in the case says Athens and station general manager Scott Centers fought in a car “about work,” with Athens punching Centers and hitting him with her cell phone. Athens said she grabbed Centers’ arm because he was driving erratically during the argument but denies attacking Centers.

Later, Athens allegedly hit Centers again inside the TV station. When police arrived at the TV station and arrested her, she hit a cop on his vest and tried to kick the doors of the police cruiser, causing police to put her in full restraints, the charging document said. Athens said she did not touch the officer. Also, she said, “I was never in full restraints.”

Athens was charged with misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct and jailed at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center. [Anchorage Daily News]

Athens, it also turned out, prior to going public with their relationship, had left Berkowitz an unhinged voicemail (you really must listen to it) in which she accused him of being a pedophile, called him a “Jew motherf*cker,” said she would kill him, and signed off with “have a great Friday, you motherf*cker,” all in her practiced newscaster voice.

Ethan, it’s Maria Athens from Fox/ABC/CW/News Net National Alaska. Uh, I just learned through my g- my, eh, ah….Emmy-award winning journalism, you’re also a pedophile and like little girls and children, and there’s a website. I’m so f*cking exposing you. I’m gonna get an Emmy. So you either turn yourself in, kill yourself, or do what you need to do. I will personally kill you and Mara Kimmel my god damn self, you Jewish piece of living f*cking sh*t. You have met your match, motherf*cker. You have met your motherf*cking match. I can’t believe- I am such a good person, and thought I loved you. I f*cking hate- I don’t even hate you. I will pray for your Zionist f*cking ass, you piece of sh*t loser. And, I’m putting this on the news tonight. Bye! Have a great Friday, you motherf*cker!

You might naturally wonder what led Maria Athens to believe that her “inappropriate texting” partner was a pedophile. It turns out, it all started with a piece Athens had been doing about a local owner of a shop that sells booze-infused cookies.

The name of the owner and cookie shop have since been scrubbed from the sites that had them, apparently at the request of the cookie shop owner herself. But according to the cookie shop lady’s daughter, who runs an OnlyFans account, her mom was unhappy about her escorting, and during an aside with Maria Athens during the cookie piece, may have convinced Athens that Mayor Berkowitz had been paying her “underage daughter” to escort for him. This even though, according to the daughter, she was neither underage nor familiar with the mayor.

This from the daughter’s tweet thread and the Anchorage Press:

So for a bit of back story, I was an escort in Alaska in 2018. I would get paid to go on dates with men or to keep them company (I never did anything sexual or was paid for sexual favors)

She was obviously still very upset at the idea of her 18 year old daughter escorting. She started asking me questions about who I would work with, and all I told her was that my favorite person I worked with was a man that worked for the state of Alaska.

All I told her about this man was that he worked for the state of Alaska, and that he was short. That’s IT, okay? I didn’t say any names, nothing.

Fast forward to 2020, my mother owns a cookie business that’s doing somewhat successful, and a local news station asked my mom if she would like to do a story about it. My mom said yes and went to the interview.

The interviewer was Maria Athens, who (according to my mother) asked her about what my mom thought about the local anchorage Mayor, Ethan Berkowitz.

My mom asked if he was short. After learning he was short, my mom decided that Ethan Berkowitz was the one I was an escort for.

She went off on a whole story about how I was an escort for Mr. Berkowitz, that he hired me for sexual favors, sent me pictures, etc. because she was receiving attention for what she was saying, and she wanted her five seconds of fame.

I was NOT and escort for Ethan Berkowitz, I don’t know that man and I have NEVER met him. He has never sent me naked pictures or posted any on any of my websites, I have no idea who that man is. Maria Athens is running a fake story in attempts to ruin this mans life.

Also apparently last night she was arrested and that’s why she wasn’t on air.

The Anchorage Press also has a text from “Angelbbx2” (aka Redhead Rae) to her mother trying to get her to call Maria Athens and explain that this was all a case of mistaken identity. But Athens apparently ignored the mom’s calls (the mom says cryptically that Athens “has an agenda”), and soon enough, Athens had already outed Berkowitz on Facebook and sent him that voicemail Anti-Semitic death threat pedophile accusation. Athens seems to have had some kind of mental breakdown between 2015 and the false pedophilia accusation this week, if these clips are any indication. 2020’s mainstreaming of elite pedophile cabal conspiracy theories can’t have helped things.

We should reiterate, Anchorage’s Democratic mayor Ethan Berkowitz resigned over all of this, even though all he has admitted to thus far was a texting relationship with this anchor who clearly has had some kind of mental breakdown. And all this, apparently, over a misinterpreted anecdote during a booze-cookie puff piece.

I think the cookie lady’s daughter summed it up quite well:

Man, this whole thing is like a Coen Brothers movie.

NBA 2K21 will release its next-generation version, with Zion Williamson on the cover, on November 10 when the Xbox Series X/S releases — with the PS5 coming two days later. The first next-gen trailer arrived last week, showing off the tremendous graphics improvements that are possible on the next-gen consoles as they are able to process so much more.

Looking good is one thing, but it doesn’t matter how much each player looks like their real self if the gameplay doesn’t matchup. That is a constant frustration of gamers with sports games, is that there’s too much emphasis placed on realism in appearance but not realism in gameplay and tendencies. On Wednesday, the second Courtside Report from the NBA 2K crew offered a look at some of the gameplay updates coming on the next-gen edition, most notably with how player-to-player contact will improve to be more realistic.

It’s something that is incredibly difficult to translate to the video game space, but it seems the next-gen consoles allow for even better and more realistic contact and reaction to contact in all phases. The first is in on-ball contact, as ball-handlers get bodied by defenders and have to carve their way through that contact to get to the rim, as now running right at a defender will lead to charges and force pickups, while taking the right angles will be rewarded.

At the rim, there is likewise an update in the form of players having to go around defenders and body-to-body contact having a more realistic impact on their ability to go up at the rim.

It certainly looks improved, with players not bouncing off of each other and defenders able to stay locked onto an offensive player and bump them in a much more natural way that impacts their dribbling and shot selection. There’s also updates to off-ball contact, most notably in screens as players will no longer be sucked into screens and contact will be determined by where the screener sets it — and who that screener is — allowing players to go under and over screens with partial contact in a much more realistic way.

There’s also updated dribble control, which they say is rebuilt from the ground up, to get rid of the accidental moments where your player turns the wrong way and allowing you to go where you’re trying in a much easier manner rather than fighting with the dribble system on how you want your guy to move. It all certainly looks nice in these videos and is a truly gorgeous presentation of a basketball game, but until we get it in our hands we won’t be sure exactly how well all of these updates work to improve the gameplay.

There may not have been a better frontcourt scorer than Obi Toppin in all of college basketball last season. As the sun around which Dayton’s system orbited, Toppin was the rare offensive player who was smart enough to feast on the easy stuff and skilled enough to cook up even more. And at 22 and already quite polished, Toppin in this year’s Draft — with a limited pre-Draft process and no tournament tape — is nearly certain to go in the top 10.

A somewhat surprising tweet from Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report from Wednesday morning, however, indicates that Toppin may be even more well-regarded than that.

This may just mean that in a Draft full of maybes and high-variance players, NBA teams are more unanimous in their appreciation of Toppin, not necessarily that he is the most likely player to be selected No. 1 overall. Even those who like Toppin tend to agree he will have some challenges adjusting to the NBA game because of his lack of lateral mobility and athleticism. The positional advantages Toppin had over more traditional lineups as a small-ball center will also be harder to come by as a pro. Still, landing someone who you know is likely to score in the NBA and be a rotation big man (think someone in the mold of John Collins) is enticing in a Draft that is weak at the very top.

The playoffs offer an interesting showcase of what style is dominating the league and which players can hang in that environment. Where does Toppin fit against a Lakers team playing Anthony Davis at center? What’s he to do if he matches up with Giannis Antetkounmpo? This is a high bar to hold a potential pick to, but because he is older and therefore closer to a finished product and because teams seem to be truly considering him more of a top-five option than simply a lottery pick, it’s the bar Toppin must clear if a team is to invest so much in him.

The other factor to consider is what top teams would be giving up if they go with Toppin over a more high-ceiling player like Onyeka Okongwu or Devin Vassell. The value right now of a versatile two-way big like Okongwu or a plug-and-play 3-and-D wing like Vassell is just higher than what Toppin is expected to be. It’s hard to see the league changing in a way that values Toppin’s finishing and spot-up shooting at forward more highly than an elite wing or a potentially dominant center.

Minnesota highlights this well. A top-heavy and offense-first roster with Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell leading the way needs complementary talent far more than a scoring forward. Positionally, the Timberwolves do have openings at forward, but stylistically, what Toppin does is a strange fit alongside the franchise’s two pillars, and he can’t maintain his value playing alongside superstars the same way a more balanced player could.

That balance equation poses the same issue for the Warriors, who will pick second in November’s Draft. They are looking for depth pieces who fit around their Big Three better than the likes of Alfonzo McKinnie and Quinn Cook, who were pressed into action in the 2019 Finals and struggled. It would be odd to see them value Toppin’s skill set over a player who is an even better shooter (Toppin doesn’t have the quickest release and rarely will shoot off movement or pull up from deep) and defender, especially if that player is a wing — it does no seem like a coincidence that Steve Kerr talked up Vassell on Bill Simmons’ podcast this summer.

The Hornets, who pick third this year, observed this challenge in 2019. They selected P.J. Washington, a player who is fairly similar to Toppin. In Washington, they acquired a more experienced and polished player who was a proven shooter, scorer, and good enough defender who could flex between multiple frontcourt positions depending on the lineup. Yet his ceiling is already in full view, and he’s still almost a year younger than Toppin. Charlotte has been more welcome to clear role players in the Draft if they are the best player available where they typically pick in the middle of the lottery, but they are now a roster in real need of star-level talent to make a playoff push.

Chicago is the first team that starts to make sense for Toppin. Having picked in the lottery for so many years now, the Bulls don’t have a particular need at any one spot on the depth chart, so they could afford to take a swing on a less-explosive player who they know will perform well for them. Take note as well of the fact that Toppin’s Dayton coach, Anthony Grant, is a disciple of new Bulls coach Billy Donovan dating all the way back to their time together at Florida, and Toppin could thrive in Donovan’s screen-and-move system, which Grant ran a version of at Dayton.

The Cavs, like the Bulls, possess enough high-ceiling perimeter talent that taking Toppin at No. 5 makes some sense. Cleveland could believe that on their more traditional roster, Toppin could work as a floor spacer and secondary scorer who could thrive getting easy looks from Darius Garland and Collin Sexton. That makes sense in theory and you could see Toppin filling a similar — if less dynamic — role to Kevin Love’s, but Cleveland could run into a similar issue as Minnesota in that exercise, suddenly looking at a roster that is very heavy on offense and short on the type of versatile wing that every great team has in 2020.

Looking through the Draft, it’s not until No. 9 where the Wizards pick that Toppin would be a really snug fit. Washington has a star in Bradley Beal and another in John Wall that they theoretically hope to keep around long-term and remain competitive. Add in another combo forward in Rui Hachimura and interesting wing play-makers like Troy Brown Jr. and Isaac Bonga, and the Wizards theoretically have the type of balanced roster, star power, and depth that could allow them to bring in Toppin and maximize his value right away rather than asking too much of him or forcing him into a challenging role. There are major concerns about what this team would be defensively, but their offense would, theoretically, be quite good.

As the NBA evolves toward the perimeter, having too many guys like Toppin would have drawbacks. It’s difficult to believe in Toppin’s perimeter defense or his jump shot becoming more dynamic, though perhaps his passing continues to evolve and he becomes a great play-maker for his teammates or can create his own shot at a high level. Players like that are just hard to fit into a modern roster unless they are truly elite offensive creators, and it’s hard to see a pathway to that type of output for Toppin right now.

In this Draft, the Dayton big man is clearly a lottery pick. NBA teams often value certainty more than the average fan. But a survey of the top five illustrates the challenges of fitting him onto a young core and why NBA teams would be wise to consider more than just his prolific talent alone before spending that kind of pick on him this November.