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himbeaux-on-ice · 3 years ago

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KK deserves more than 6mil for 1 year and there is no way Habs CAN'T match that. It was so low I thought it was a joke of an offer as petty revenge for the Aho one. Literally had a $20 signing bonus tf. With both teams picking up racists this is good PR frankly to excite fans.

Sorry, I actually disagree pretty solidly with almost all of this, but the reasons are complex and lengthy to explain, so I’m going to put it all under a cut.

Listen, I personally believe based on what we’ve seen from him in the playoffs that KK can eventually develop into a $6.1 million dollar player — it seemed like he did well once the team had been put through Ducharme’s mini-training camp before the playoffs that actually allowed the chance to cement his systems, and put up good numbers generally during the run for someone his age. If they can find a way to get that kind of stuff out of him in the regular season, he could very well be worth $6.1 or more down the road. I really truly think he has it in him with the right coaching and the right work put in.

The problem is, owing possibly to how the Habs have chosen to develop him (remember, he came to the NHL pretty much straight out of the draft) and how very young he actually is, he has not yet actually PROVEN that he can be a player of that value consistently for most of a season at any point. I’m willing to put an asterisk on his struggles this year, because it was a weird fucking season and the Habs had a rough go of it in several points, especially down the stretch, and because we’ve seen the ability is there in the playoffs. But given what we’ve seen while he’s been on his ELC, there has been no guarantee so far that a team that signs him to $6.1 million is going to get $6.1 million in value out of him this coming season.

Like, set aside league-wide valuations for a second, and think about what the Habs, based on their budgeting and philosophy and management choices, are paying some of their top foundational players right now in terms of cap hit. Toffoli makes $4.5 million, so will Hoffman. Anderson makes $5.5 million, as does Drouin. Petry makes $6.2 million. Edmundson makes $3.5 million. Jake Allen, a player so valuable to this team that we risked “Price to Seattle” to keep him, is $2.87 million against the cap. Gally, the lifeblood heart and soul of this team who has given his literal blood sweat and tears to it for almost a decade, only makes $6.5 million against the cap. They apparently weren’t even willing to offer Phillip Danault, defensive cornerstone of the playoff run, the $5.5 million he got from LA. With Weber on the LTIR, if KK signed with the Habs at $6.1 million, he would be the third-highest paid player on the active team when you exclude dudes named Carey Price (who is an outlier and should not be counted). I love the kid. I think he’ll be a bonafide star someday. He has NOT earned that kind of payday yet, based on the established scale of how the Habs reward their players.

Based on my amateur understanding of NHL contracts and the market, a reasonable deal with KK from the Habs would have been somewhere in the area of $2-3 million (so, what they pay for players like Lehkonen (2.3 mil) or Byron (3.3 mil) or just signed Armia to (3.4 mil)), for maybe about 2 years. By the time that runs out, he’d be 23 years old and heading into the prime of his career, and you would probably have a better idea of whether he’s made that big next step or not — if he has, you probably just got two years of great hockey out of him at a STEAL, and can at that point sign him for a nice juicy contract that will pay him to that level and lock him up through his prime years (which is what you would dangle to entice him to take the short deal for now). And if when that short deal is up he hasn’t made that next leap, then you either sign him back at what he is worth, or if that’s an impasse, part ways. He has said he wants to help bring a Cup to Montreal, and do it with the core of young guys they’re assembling (and close friends like the other Finns on the team) — with that, maybe some performance bonuses if he really kills it, and the promise of something bigger down the road once he proves himself (plus the knowledge that he might not get higher offers elsewhere because of how he’s struggled) you could probably get him to sign a deal like that with the Habs.

HOWEVER.

Now that he has signed this offer sheet, he WILL get $6.1 million. Not only for this year, but once the one-year deal expires, any extension offered to him by anyone is required to start at that number. Regardless of how he performs. Unless he has the breakout year of all breakout years, this will really screw him over — because if he DOESN’T perform to the $6.1 million level, a team (be it the Habs or the Canes) is not going to want to sign him to a second deal at that pricetag. He’ll have to go hunting as a free agent, or get traded before he expires and become another team’s problem. (Note: I’m not exactly sure if the offer sheet process allows Montreal to match with a contract at the same value but longer term, but that doesn’t really solve the problem of being locked-in at $6.1 million after next season even if they can). I understand why he signed the offer sheet — his career earnings so far total just over $2 million, and of course both he and his agent would jump at the chance to guarantee adding triple that in just one year, with the promise of more of the same on his next extension. I’m sure he probably thinks he’s worth it, or can prove he is worth it. He probably thinks the Habs believe in him enough to match it, too — I don’t think he wants to leave Montreal, but he probably sees this as simply an earlier achievement of what they would hopefully be paying him anyway someday, in his eyes.

But even if he DOES perform up to that level, if he remains on the Habs that creates another massive problem crunching up against the salary cap: Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans are both RFA’s at the end of the 2021-22 season, and THEY will be looking for their “grown-up” contracts at that time, the SAME time KK will need to be signed again. Nick is probably going to develop into the better player between him and KK (look at where he already is right now), so even if KK performs excellently next year as say 2C, Nick looks like he will be even better at 1C — and if I’m Nick’s agent, I’m definitely starting my contract negotiations with what the Habs would be paying KK as my absolute lowest starting figure, if not higher. Jake probably has more of a 3C/4C upside, but if KK struggles and plays at a 3C/4C performance level and Jake does that well or better, then if I’m Jake Evans’ agent I am definitely putting my starting figure for negations right around $6.1 million, because I can argue “well, you’re paying Kotkaniemi that much, why not my client?”. Romanov is due up for his post-ELC RFA deal after next year too — because he’s more of a defensive defenceman who isn’t expected to score much, he likely can’t command the kind of figures that an offensively productive centre does, but you still need to have enough cap space to actually sign the guy for what he’s worth; Romanov is eligible for arbitration in that negotiation, so lowballing him too hard could get complicated and contentious fast. And all of this isn’t even including factors like depth players on one-year deals who will need to be replaced or brought back after this year, etc.

Accepting/matching this contract creates a dozen new problems the Habs didn’t have before at all. It carries massive risk and could cause problems for the cap and for roster construction even if KK takes off like a rocket and lives up to the figure on the sheet. I didn’t even touch on the absolute hell the fanbase and media will put him through if he is in Montreal on that kind of payday compared to the rest of the team and fails to live up to it. Alex Galchenyuk only made $4.5 million while he was here and struggling. Look how that turned out for him. You’ve seen how people get when Carey has a rough patch, how the $10.5 million gets brought up and thrown around, and that’s with Carey goddamn Price. I have been around this fanbase long enough to see what happens when people don’t feel you’ve lived up to your pricetag. It gets nasty. Think whatever you’ve seen hurled at Mitch Marner this year, then multiplied by a factor of “fanbase whose expectations have been disproportionately raised probably beyond what’s realistic by the miracle playoff run” and “the Montreal hockey media eats people alive even in good years”. He has been lucky so far in his struggles because he’s still young enough to be cheap. And I’ve still seen plenty of people already writing him off anyway.

Make no mistake: I love KK, I love what he brings to the team, I love how he fits in with the rest of the young core and their dynamics, and I really believe he has the potential to break out into a formidable 2C lowkey-superstar. And I was really, really looking forward to hopefully watching that growth and achievement happen with the Habs, as part of the super exciting future that has been building here. I will be heartbroken if this leads to him leaving, genuinely. My biggest worry with having this bright and shiny new core was always that I would have to watch it get torn apart and turn sad just like the last one.

But now that this contract, right now, at this point in his career is going to be the price of keeping him? I don’t know if matching it will be what’s best for the team as a whole, or even what is best for KK. I don’t know if Carolina actually gives a shit about him as a player enough to use and develop him right if they keep him, or what their end goal here even is other than definitely very literally getting petty revenge for the Aho thing, just look at their Twitter (I think the idea of this as DeAngelo counter-PR has become a bit overblown as an explanation, because surely they MUST know they could end up holding the tab for this and all the risk of it in the end, and that this will die down eventually, so either they’re incredibly stupid or there’s some other benefit here).

And regardless of which way everything goes, I can’t think of anyone I trust less to make the best choice for everyone involved than Marc fucking Bergevin.

#long post #sorry not trying to be mean just literally don’t agree with this at all #habs #Jesperi kotkaniemi #wnylanderthals #asks #montreal canadiens

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hopeymchope · 3 years ago

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Godzilla Singular Point

I came into Singular Point with some trepidation because Godzilla’s history in anime is both very recent and extremely bad. The three anime movies released between 2017 and 2019 are easily the worst work of famed writer Gen Urobuchi and honestly contain more bullshit than I can even get into here. Those movies and this series were both Godzilla anime properties commissioned by Netflix, which didn’t get my hopes up very much. Thankfully, Singular Point is a very different beast from the anime trilogy. One could argue it’s very different from most Godzilla media, actually — at least from my perspective. And I’m still a pretty entry-level fan of Toho’s Big G, all things considered.

Let me just warn you right up front: This smartphone-based virtual assistant is basically the breakout star of the series.

When you think “Godzilla,” you probably don’t think “incredibly dense sci-fi concepts,” but with the big G’s first-ever anime series, the writers clearly set out to change that perception. Before the first kaiju even appears, the lead characters are plucked from obscurity and dropped into a mystery that involves fourth-dimensional time travel, physical objects that look different from all sides, theoretical math concepts, self-propagating A.I., and a whole lot more. And it’s NEVER made clear how all of it connects to the rampaging kaiju! Although we spend a lot of time investigating a red dust or sand that is very obviously tied to the monsters in SOME way, no one ever makes a connection that explains the relationship. Maybe we’re supposed to wait for a later season to connect the threads... but let’s get into the idea of “another season” later.

I like to think of myself as someone who typically enjoys hard sci-fi, but even with the characters spending loads of time trying to explain the high concepts driving the story, I was never able to fully wrap my head around what was going on in the mystery at the center of GSP. I rewound and rewatched a few explanations, but I still walked away feeling lost. I eventually settled on some vague, loose understandings of most of the ideas mentioned, but those understandings were subject to being ripped apart in subsequent scenes when I was shown or told something completely at odds with what I thought I knew. I can’t say I was ever bored with the thick, dense scientific concepts on offer — trying to find purchase with these far-out ideas kept me glued to the screen — but damn, I sure wish I was able to comprehend them.

What do we want?! DENSE SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION AND DEBATE! When do we want it?! AFTER THOROUGH RESEARCH, TESTING, AND PEER REVIEW!

Another weird thing about this show is that the lead characters remain in separate locations and on separate tracks for the entire duration. We have Yun — a mechanical engineer and programmer who has an amazing grasp on physics and human behavior. And we have Mei — a grad student who is deeply invested in theoretical science, UMAs, cryptids and other far-flung concepts. Both of them are basically geniuses in their fields, and even though they take opposing views of just how flexible reality is, their shared ability to think “outside the box” becomes the crucial component in solving the mystery at the core of the series. Because they don’t even know one another (despite being separated by like, ONE degree), they only ever interact via text messages and behind screen names, which feels pretty damn weird. At least I immediately liked both of them, with Yun being the standout to me because of how his lowkey reactions to crazy shit generates a lot of humor.

This soundtrack cover LIES; you will never see these characters in a room together like this.

Alas, we don’t get to know the characters a whole lot beyond what we learned of them in the first two episodes. It’s not long before they’re trapped in a series of complicated exposition dumps, endlessly attempting to explain the high concepts of the show to other characters as well as my dumb ass in the audience. The fact that I liked them in the first couple of episodes carried me through more than half of the show, but I was always hoping to see them share more of themselves or just display more emotion. Anime as a medium excels at emotional storytelling. But despite the major, world-altering events the characters are constantly warning us about, none of them seem to have many emotions about said events.

Further complicating matters is how, when major events finally occur in this show, they are often kept off-screen. One character shockingly dies, but the portrayal of that death is so piss-poor that I didn’t even realize it’d happened until someone mentioned their death in the next episode. After that vague death, I was particularly sensitive to anything that looked like it might possibly be lethal. Yet a later event that is played up as a tragic, fatal occurrence ends up... fine, somehow? It’s not clear how the character survives, because — even after one of our heroes is left screaming their name in despair as they seemingly die — nobody ever talks about or explains how he’s just fine a couple of scenes later. And near the end of the series, there’s a major transformation that occurs for one of the characters, and we never see it happen nor do we understand HOW it happened. It’s just that suddenly, this character is extremely different due to off-screen reasons that are only vaguely verbalized.

I guess these two really bonded at some point for some reason? And what you are seeing here is literally the height of emotion shown in the entire show.

Even though the overarching story of the series so far pretty clearly wraps up in episode 13, we then get a post-credits tease for a potential second season. So the question becomes: Would I watch that?

Well... Godzilla Singular Point is a series with a lot of issues that kept me at arms’ length from it — tons of extremely confusing dialogue, highly frustrating choices in direction that lead to baffling storytelling, characters who are mostly exposition-dumping — and yet there’s still some foundational work here that I appreciated a lot. When the action occurs, it’s pretty cool/fun. And when urban destruction occurs, it can be awe-inspiring. The human characters, though little-explored, have likable and interesting foundations to them that could be expanded upon. And I didn’t even mention the soundtrack, which features a variety of musical styles combined with the classic Ifukube theme music and an OP that is an absolute banger. (I have a weakness when it comes to music; a good soundtrack can carry me through even the blandest series sometimes.) Even the core idea of centering a Godzilla series around hard science and mathematical concepts is a compelling one, I think! I just hated the execution of it; they went waaaaay too far on poorly explaining incredibly complex, mind-bending concepts for my pea brain to handle it. They spend so much time trying to explain things, yet somehow they never succeeded for me.

Ultimately, I’d probably give the show another chance. But if I do give another season a chance, it’ll be on probation. I wouldn’t watch the entire season unless I could see within four episodes that they’d definitely improved things.

Would I recommend that anyone watch the series as it currently stands? I mean... not really? I guess if you really dig complex math, hard theoretical science, and/or Toho’s stable of monsters, then maaaaaaaaaaybe give it a shot. But otherwise? Naaaahh. It’s not good enough at anything to make it stand out from the anime crowd. I didn’t hate it like I hated the Godzilla anime films, but Singular Point is still something that both casual viewers and most fans can comfortably ignore for the time being. It’s not a complete disaster, and it’s not without its highlights... but it’s definitely disappointing in my opinion.

OKAYOKAYOKAY, so let’s talk about the kaiju for a bit!

Below will be SPOILERS revealing all of the kaiju that appear in Godzilla Singular Point and giving my feelings on them.

Godzilla — It’s interesting to see a version of Godzilla that borrows some ideas from Shin Godzilla. Shin G has been incredibly unique until now, but this Godzilla manages to fold some of Shin’s distinctive aspects in with the more classic/typical versions to build a fun new depiction. Be forewarned that Godzilla doesn’t show up until the series is halfway over, and he doesn’t get a ton of screen time, either. He’s used quite sparingly and kept in hazy settings, often framed from the neck-up when they show him. It’s a little frustrating that they felt the need to shroud him so much, but I respect the fact that whenever Godzilla is shown, the destruction he causes is on a scale far beyond anything that the rest of the kaiju ever do. He is pure devastation.

Rodan — He’s easily the biological kaiju with the most screen time in Singular Point. Rodan is first introduced as one gigantic pterosaur, but if you’ve seen ANY trailers for this show then you already know that his depiction transitions into an asston of smaller pterosaurs, all of whom are also called “Rodan.” (Apparently the word Rodan is both singular and plural, like the word “buffalo.”) Although he looks kind of cool at first, pretty soon Rodan showing up isn’t special or threatening anymore. Rodan appearances go from “a big goddamn deal” to “some bland background noise” before the series is even 1/3 finished. The design might be a little too far removed from the original for my own taste, but even if I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t be able to care for this Rodan simply because he’s rendered so unimportant and unimpressive.

If you go out in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise...

Anguirus — Now check this guy out! Anguirus gets one of the coolest fights in the show and also demonstrates some powers that are well beyond anything we’ve seen him do before. Because he sticks to unpopulated areas, we never see him do much damage to Japan, but he is definitely holding all the attention when he’s on-screen. He’s a highlight for me — a total badass who is very unique in his abilities. And the stated origin for his name is goddamn adorable.

Manda — Yup, Manda is in this series... but I don’t have much to say for him. It seems like the creators of the anime didn’t have much to say about him either. His role amounts to little more than a repeated cameo, and in most of those cameos you only ever see his tail. When we finally see his full body, it’s done so briefly and kept at a distance, leaving me with no real impression. I had to look up his design online and... yup, that sure looks like Manda. Final score: MEEEEHH.

Kumonga — I definitely did not see this appearance coming! Kumonga is much smaller here than you may be used to, but she gets to star in the most suspenseful sequence in the series and easily earns the most exciting cliffhanger moment at the end of an episode. I was utterly glued to the show during her screen time, which comes with a lot of icky twists. Good ones! I honestly like Kumonga here more than I ever have previously.

NEW PHONE WHO DIS

Salunga — Uh, who? This is the one monster that isn’t based on a classic Toho kaiju but instead is a brand-new creation. I suppose that everybody who touches the Toho Kaiju franchise wants to make their own mark on it in some regard. But a big part of the fun of this series for me personally was the anticipation of seeing new interpretations and designs of classic Toho monsters. And so, given that he kind of resembles both Baragon and Gabara, I never stopped wishing they’d just used one of those guys as the basis and namesake. Taken on his own, however? He’s... pretty neat. Not unique or exciting, but solidly above par. He resembles a cross between a lizard/dinosaur and an ape, plus his head has some nifty coloration.

Our Jaguar!

Jet Jaguar — I guess Jet Jaguar isn’t exactly a kaiju in the traditional sense because he’s a Giant Robot. However, if you want to consider him one, then I wager he probably gets even more screen time than Rodan! We meet him almost immediately when the series begins. Initially an odd pilot-driven robot that was constructed at the whim of a quirky old factory-owner with too much disposable income, Jet Jaguar grows and changes over the course of the show, ultimately undergoing a transition in episode 7 that makes him pretty damn impossible to dislike. In fact, I utterly adored him by then. This is definitely the best Jet Jaguar I’ve ever seen. His design is recognizably similar to the original yet utterly distinct, too. Like many of the other kaiju here, he’s not nearly as big as he was when he was first introduced to the movies, but his size is ideal for battling the smaller-scale monsters that we spend most of the series on.

#godzilla #godzilla singular point #anime #anime reviews #kaiju

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tisthenightofthewitch · 5 years ago

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THE 20 GREATEST GHOST SONGS – RANKED - KERRANG!

From Opus Eponymous to Prequelle, we rank the greatest compositions from Ghost

Words: Sam Law

Photo: Tom Barnes

Undoubtedly the breakout band in heavy music over the past decade, it’s been a wild ride for Swedish creeps Ghost. Melding elements of hard rock, doom, classic metal, psychedelia and outright guitar-pop – then daubing on the corpsepaint – their combination of deceptively digestible sound, occultist ethos and anti-ecumenical aesthetic has captured the imagination of music fans and sling-shotted their live ‘rituals’ into arenas on both sides of the Atlantic.

Of course, mysterious mainman Tobias Forge (aka Papa Emeritus I-IV, aka Cardinal Copia) has had his struggles. In 2013, the band was forced to temporarily rebrand as Ghost B.C. for legal reasons in the U.S. The initially intriguing, fluid anonymity of his bandmates’ Nameless Ghoul personas (even Dave Grohl apparently once donned the cowl) became a sticking point, too, as the collective sued Tobias in 2017, failing in their suit but also dispelling some of the precious mystique.

That Tobias has endured – not just surviving, but flamboyantly thriving in the heightened spotlight – feels like proof his band are here to stay. New music is eagerly anticipated in the not-so-distant future but, for now, we rank the 20 tracks on which Ghost have built their unholy empire thus far…

20. MUMMY DUST (MELIORA, 2015)

‘I was carried on a wolf’s back, to corrupt humanity / I will pummel it with opulence, with corpulence and greed!’ Arriving on a wave of staccato percussion, spiked with gnarls of riffage and flashes of synth, this pounding cut from 2015’s Meliora – named after the insubstantial detritus of years past – plays out as one of Ghost’s most compelling indictments of the avarice of mankind. Although its creeping instrumentation, growled baritone and choral climax don’t exactly show the Swedes at their most inventive, Mummy Dust has been elevated massively in the live arena, with Papa leaning into the lurching malevolence before showering the audience with ‘money’. In Ghost we trust.

19. WITCH IMAGE (PREQUELLE, 2018)

Ghost might have traversed a full spectrum from gouging metal via classic rock to shimmering guitar-pop thus far, but the further their sound has strayed into the light, the harder the lyrics have drilled down into darkness. It’s never been truer than on this underrated ditty from Prequelle. A textbook three-and-a-half-minutes built of sweet acoustic and rich electric guitars surging towards its massive chorus, you can practically taste the relish as Tobias ladles the syrup onto some of his darkest words. ‘While you sleep in earthly delight, someone’s flesh is rotting tonight / Like no other to you, what you’ve done you can not undo…’

18. CON CLAVI CON DIO (OPUS EPONYMOUS, 2010)

After the baroque organ intro of Deus Culpa, it’s the throbbing bassline of Con Clavi Con Dio that truly pulls back the sacristy drapes on Ghost’s compelling debut. Translating crudely as ‘With Nails, With God’, the title Con Clavi Con Dio is actually an attempt at clever wordplay, drawing comparisons with the nails of crucifixion and the conclave of bishops at the head of the church as Tobias sings, ‘Our conjuration sings infernal psalms and smear the smudge in bleeding palms.’ Theological musing aside, it’s the dark swirl of sound here that truly draws the listener in, with gauzy layers of guitar, synth and vocals – not to mention the devilish tritone interval – building into a towering cathedral of subversion.

17. FAITH (PREQUELLE, 2018)

No relation to the oft-covered George Michael classic, the fourth single from 2018’s Prequelle feels like a defiant statement of the band’s arena-straddling prowess twelve years in. Powered by snarling six-strings and pounding drums – custom engineered to get tens of thousands of fists pumping – it’s seething proof that this band’s heaviest sounds are still among their best. At the same time, we get a furious flash of the man behind the mask as Tobias takes aim at his ex-Nameless Ghouls with some serious lyrical barbs: ‘The Luddites shun the diabolical, a fecal trail across the land / Although it stinks, feels and looks identical / And a pack of fools can take the stand.’ Oooft.

16. PER ASPERA AD INFERNI (INFESTISSUMAM, 2013)

Riffing on the popular Latin phrase ‘Per aspera ad astra’ (‘Through hardship to the stars’), Per Aspera Ad Infini literally translates as ‘Through Hardships To Hell.’ Its churning sound diabolically matches up. Layering on riffage that calls to mind the epic doom of heroes like Candlemass, marching-beat percussion and a lyrical treatment revolving around that title chanted as a mantra, there is sinisterness throughout. Its defining quality, however, is the fragility and despair Tobias manages to summon as he begs with ecstatic fervour, ‘Oh Satan, devour us all / Hear our desperate call.’

15. SECULAR HAZE (INFESTISSUMAM, 2013)

The lead single from 2013’s sophomore LP Infestissumam immediately built on the spooky foundations laid by Opus Eponymous with broader pantomime atmospherics and – on its live premiere in Linköping, Sweden, where Papa Emeritus II was unveiled – the first branches of their expanded mythos. A carnivalesque organ sets the tone of mischievous eeriness before the pendulous musicality hits full swing with Papa inviting us in: ‘You know that the fog is here omnipresent when the disease sees no cure / You know that the fog is here omnipresent when the intents remain obscure – forevermore!’ As if their mainstream-invading intent wasn’t clear enough, its single release even came with a B-side cover of ABBA’s I’m A Marionette featuring Dave Grohl on drums!

14. SEE THE LIGHT (PREQUELLE, 2018)

Another barely-veiled reference to Tobias’ struggles with ex-bandmates, See The Light is also one of his band’s most shamelessly uplifting compositions. Feeling like a positivist ’80s anthem – shot through with a little venom – its tinkling keys, soaring synths and understated, rumbling riffage propel an effortlessly memorable message about transcending the ill-will of one’s antagonists. Sing it together: ‘Every day that you feed me with hate, I grow stronger!’

13. DEUS IN ABSENTIA (MELIORA, 2015)

Riding on the metronomic beat of their Monstrance Clock, the closer on Ghost’s third album (translated from Latin as ‘In The Absence Of God’) is an extravagant exercise in arch theatrics. Benefiting from Klas Åhlund’s grandiose production, Tobias comes across as both demon and angel, extending his dark invitation: ‘The world is on fire, and you are here to stay and burn with me / A funeral pyre, and we are here to revel forever.’ Concluding with a hymn-like Latin chorus, it feels like the ultimate corruptive culmination: a musical sacrament truly touching only to those in the know.

12. STAND BY HIM (OPUS EPONYMOUS, 2010)

The track that started it all. Inspired by that irresistible lead riff – stumbled upon while practising for another band – Tobias foresaw a deep, dark well of potential waiting to be tapped and threw himself in headlong. Although Stand By Him’s schlocky lyrics feel gleefully on-the-chin nowadays (‘The Devil’s power is the greatest one / When His’ and Hers’ holiest shuns the sun / A temptress smitten by the blackest force / A vicar bitten blind in intercourse’), they paved the way for everything that followed. On top of that, its soaring ‘It is the night of the witch…’ chorus line even rivals that of Donovan’s Season Of The Witch (an obvious influence) for sheer spellbinding catchiness.

11. GHULEH/ZOMBIE QUEEN (INFESTISSUMAM, 2013)

One of the less immediate tracks on Ghost’s second album was also its most important. A staggering, seven-and-a-half minute opus that unfolds from its sorrowing piano line and Papa’s desiccated hiss through a swaggering midsection to a conclusion full of proggy bombast; this was proof of the untold breadth and depth of their vision and sound. Pushing from their basis in ’80s classic rock through the looser sounds of the ’70s and right into ’60s psychedelia, this ode to the titular zombie queen (‘Up from the stinking dirt she rises, ghastly pale / Shape-shifting soon but now she’s rigid, stiff and stale’) feels like Tobias’ first real attempt to stretch his (cursed black) wings and remains amongst their most rewarding compositions.

10. RITUAL (OPUS EPONYMOUS, 2010)

Anyone who remembers Ghost’s ethereal emergence from the shadows likely does so with this earworm writhing in the back of their mind. Combining the slick melodies and wry fatalism of prime Blue Öyster Cult with the crunchiness of Pentagram and Saint Vitus – soothing organs and a driving bassline pulling away – they had the musical formula nailed. It was the imagery contained therein, however (all ‘bedouins and nomads’, fallen angels and ‘smells of dead human sacrifices from the altar bed’) that captured the imaginations of a congregation ravenous for a fresh take on ancient evil. Here, the doors to the sanctum were truly open.

9. YEAR ZERO (INFESTISSUMAM, 2013)

Tying into the Ghost B.C. renaming necessitated by their Stateside legal wranglings (the year zero being the pivotal point between the B.C. and A.D. timelines), Infestissumam’s sixth track developed into one of the greatest showcases of their dark majesty. Opening with a powerful Gregorian chant (‘Belial, Behemoth, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Satanas, Lucifer’) calling to mind Jerry Goldsmith’s legendary soundtrack to The Omen, Ave Satana, the direct riffage and bludgeoning choruses that follow hammer home a sense of sheer monstrosity. Typically, the Year Zero concept is subverted, with Forge (and, reportedly, guitarist Martin Persner) picturing an ancient antagonist far predating biblical times: ‘Since dawn of time the fate of man is that of lice, equal as parasites and moving without eyes / A day of reckoning when penance is to burn, count down together now and say the words that you will learn.’

8. MIASMA (PREQUELLE, 2018)

Just when you think you’ve got Ghost figured out, they pull something like this. The first of Prequelle’s two extended instrumentals feels like showboating from an outfit whose legitimacy some fans had dared question following the acrimonious departure of so many players. Rearing into view as an expansively primitive space-rock soundscape, layering up into an ’80s prog epic, then exploding in a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of synths, Michael Jackson riffs and the best metal saxophone this side of Norway’s Shining, it was proof that Tobias’ vision would not be dictated solely by his own crooning King Diamond fixation and that it, frankly, knew no bounds.

7. ELIZABETH (OPUS EPONYMOUS, 2010)

Four years since their formation, Elizabeth felt like the break Ghost had been waiting for. Released on 7” vinyl (with the less-ear-catching Death Knell on B-side), the Mercyful Fate comparisons were immediate, with many seeing the sense of eerie grandeur and kitsch luridity at play as directly descended from the great Danes’ 1987 classic Devil Eyes. An ode to infamous Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory – alleged serial killer and bloodbather – sees Papa getting his teeth sunk in lyrically: ‘Her pact with Satan, her disposal of mankind / Her acts of cruelty and her lust for blood makes her one of us!’ The fine balance between sensuality and sin has yet to be bettered.

6. RATS (PREQUELLE, 2018)

The lead single from 2018’s Prequelle feels like a bridge between the (relative) heaviness of the band’s past and the unfettered theatricality of the album that was about to follow. Powered by a straightforward riff and piercing organs, dazzling solos and a rogue harpsichord, its introduction of the Black Death concept in which the album would wallow (refracting contemporary grievances through the filthy lens of the 14th century bubonic plague) felt both atmospherically appropriate and deliciously alive. The Scandi-pop ‘oooh-aahs’ in the chorus remain one of the band’s most gleefully irreverent touches, too. And the question of whether ‘them filthy rodents still coming for your souls’ is reference to Tobias’ old bandmates has provided rich fuel to keep the metal gossip mill turning.

5. MONSTRANCE CLOCK (INFESTISSUMAM, 2013)

In the Roman Catholic church, the monstrance is an (often ornate) receptacle in which the consecrated communion host is displayed for veneration. A monstrance clock was an aesthetically-similar Renaissance-era timekeeping device capable of displaying date, time and a wealth of other celestial information, often used in church rituals. We suspect that Ghost just liked the faintly cheeky sound of the phrase when quickly spoken. Still, the song they wrought from that initial giggle is utterly unforgettable. Deliberately paced and overflowing with evangelical zeal, a slow build flourishes into a splendiferous closing chorus that’s turned many an arena into a church of the Dark Lord: ‘Come together, together as one / Come together for Lucifer’s son!’

4. DANCE MACABRE (PREQUELLE, 2018)

If Rats was pandering somewhat to the existing fanbase, Dance Macabre was the other side of the coin. A shamelessly retro ’80s-style power ballad that’s as light on overt Satanic references as it is heavy on the cheese, some fans saw it as a form of selling-out: a dilution of devilish imagery in service of greater American radio-rock appeal. Perhaps they had a point. From its fist-pumping percussion and effervescent guitar solo to that ‘wanna, be wit chu’ chorus hook, however, it’s executed with enough committed precision and knowing panache to stand on its own terms, and a whole legion of new fans couldn’t help be swept along through the gateway and on to far darker delights. Tobias’ explanation that this is a soundtrack for people living like there’s no tomorrow – as many literally did during the plague – adds an extra dimension. Best experienced with the gleefuly vampiric music video.

3. CIRICE (MELIORA, 2015)

It’s strange how things work out sometimes. Originally conceived with producer Klas Åhlund as a nine-minute instrumental deep cut, Cirice was chopped down and reworked into Meliora’s irresistible lead single – becoming the song that really kickstarted Ghost’s stratospheric ascent. An insidious opening combusts into an infernal crescendo before lurching into the band’s most bludgeoning riff to date. All the while, Papa’s beguiling vocals reach out, full of dark romance, for new converts to their corrupted congregation. 2016’s GRAMMY for Best Metal Performance felt like just reward for such inspired work. The Roboshobo-directed music video – featuring a school talent show that’s almost as horrific as the ones we remember – is another stone cold standout.

2. SQUARE HAMMER (POPESTAR, 2016)

Following the unprecedented success of Meliora, Ghost found themselves suddenly commanding crowds far larger – and more diverse – than they’d seen before. Most of the ingredients for these grander live rituals were already in place, but they lacked the barn-burner early in their set to get these massive rooms onside. Dropped as the standalone original track on the Popestar covers EP, Square Hammer gave them just that. Abstractly melding the cultist themes of Satanism and Freemasonry, the concept of selling one’s soul – ‘ready to swear right here, right now, before the devil’ – was hardly new, but the outright pop energy of those surging synths and that exuberant chorus clearly signalled that the game had changed.

1. HE IS (MELIORA, 2015)

If Ghost’s diabolical mission statement is to make the Luciferian ideals more palatable to the masses, then He Is must be their masterpiece. So perfectly camouflaged – with twanging acoustic guitars and reverberating vocals that could’ve been nicked from the golden age of AOR – is their message, that they could drop this at any Christian rock festival and only the most switched-on devotees would know the difference. Openly indebted to giants like Kansas and Journey (and less openly to more recent occult acoustic acts like Ancient VVisdom), there’s a burning light to the sound. The use of divine-sounding Latin (‘Nostro Dispater, nostr’alma mater’) to identify the titular ‘He’ as the dark lord of the underworld is just another characteristically twisted masterstroke. Kneel at their altar.

All rights owned by Kerrang!

What do you guys think?

Personally there’s a few I’d replace and Ritual is always my NO.1.

#The Band Ghost #Ghost Band #Cardinal Copia #Tobias Forge

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onestowatch · 3 years ago

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Lollapalooza 2021: 15 Ones to Catch (Who Aren’t Headlining)

Lollapalooza is officially one week away, and wow does that feel good to say. As one of the first music festivals to welcome us back to festival season after a far too long hibernation, the annual festival, hosted at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, is set to bring the musical stylings of Tyler, the Creator, Miley Cyrus, Foo Fighters, Megan Thee Stallion, and plenty more. But, unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are that you’re already more than familiar with the artists set to headline. So why not figure out who to see while you’re waiting to scream along to Call Me If You Get Lost.

From collectives who are moving beyond the need for genres to music that is just as likely to make you cry as it is laugh, these are 15 ones to catch (who aren’t headlining) at Lollapalooza 2021.

Peach Tree Rascals

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When & Where: Sunday, 2 p.m. at Bud Light Seltzer Stage

Peach Tree Rascals’ Lollapalooza set has been a very, very long time coming. The Bay Area–bred collective has been steadily making waves with their genre-bending approach to indie-pop that calls to mind a more idyllic, lovesick BROCKHAMPTON (an act you should most definitely catch as well). And despite emerging a growing fan-favorite in the last couple years, the aforementioned rascals have yet to play a show, ever. With a headline tour that was canceled due to COVID, Lollapalooza will officially be making history as the first-ever Peach Tree Rascals set.

Tate McRae

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When & Where: Saturday, 5:15 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Tate McRae’s rise through the pop stratosphere has felt meteoric. First gaining fame at the young age of 13 for being the first Canadian finalist on So You Think You Can Dance, McRae has certainly come a long way to stand as one of the most promising voices in pop. With a vocal range more than powerful enough to deliver haunting dark pop ballads like “you broke me first” one moment and stand side-by-side with Khalid on the summer bop “working” the next, there are no two ways about it. McRae is a pop star in the making and this is your chance to catch her before her inevitable headliner status.

Marc Rebillet

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When & Where: Saturday, 9:00 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Part-time meme and full-time artist, Marc Rebillet creates music with an unmatched comedic timing. It’s a comedic genius that has led to him getting a 24-hour ban on Twitch—for taking his shirt off in the middle of a stream, an act which I’m guessing Lollapalooza will be more than forgiving of giving his penchant for performing in a bathrobe. The self-described improvisational artist creates all his songs from scratch, resulting in an experience where no two live shows are quite the same. Come for the comedy, stay for the absolute dancefloor bangers.

Dayglow

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When & Where: Thursday, 3:45 p.m. at Lake Shore Stage

Dayglow is sure to bring a smile to your face and put a pep in your step. Apologies if I sounded like my grandparents there, but there’s no denying the sonic sunshine that is Dayglow’s rapturous brand of indie-pop. Paying homage to the dance-inducing melancholy of ‘80s pop duets, it’s difficult not to get swept up in the Austin, Texas–bred artist’s hypnotic vision. It’s the sort of euphoric music that feels almost tailor-made for the return of festival season—drenched in sunny rays and brimming with infectious sincerity.

Giveon

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When & Where: Friday, 4:45 p.m. at T-Mobile Stage

Before his breakout moment on Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” Giveon was already charting his path for R&B domination. With an angelic and haunting baritone, each R&B rumination carries with it a palpable weight—an emotional turmoil that is only elevated by the minimalistic soundscapes which allow the proper space for his transfixing voice to fully shine. For a crash course on Giveon, check out a compilation of his two standout EPs, When It’s All Said and Done… Take Time. Or better yet, experience the magic of Giveon live.

Ashe

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When & Where: Thursday, 6:30 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Ashe creates effortlessly timeless music, blurring the line between the nostalgic songwriting of Fleetwood Mac and a modern-day folk-pop star. The sentiment is best expressed in her critically-acclaimed debut album, Ashlyn, which demonstrates the Los Angeles artist’s peerless songwriting acumen, toeing the line between rapturous euphoria one moment and deeply affecting storytelling the next. If you need a good laugh or cry, do not miss out on Ashe.

Sir Chloe

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When & Where: Sunday, 12:45 p.m. at T-Mobile Stage

Fronted by Dana Foote and comprised of Teddy O’mara on guitar, Palmer Foote on drums, and Austin Holmes on bass, Sir Chloe’s music exists in the nebulous void of haunting dark pop and heart-rending alternative garage rock. The New York–based indie rock band originally started as a college project, birthed in the music halls of Bennington College, and now they’re set to take Lollapalooza by storm. With an impressive debut album, 2020’s Party Favors, under their belt, this set feels only the beginning for the bewitching indie outfit.

jxdn

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When & Where: Sunday, 3 p.m. at Bud Light Seltzer Stage

jxdn is the latest artist to make good on pop-punk’s continued resurgence. The first signing to Travis Barker’s DTA Records, the breakout singer-songwriter has found a fan in not only the blink-182 star but in Machine Gun Kelly, who jxdn is set to tour with this fall and makes an appearance on his debut album, Tell Me About Tomorrow. With an acclaimed debut album in the books and some of pop-punk’s biggest stars behind him, jxdn is sure to deliver a Lollapalooza debut for the ages.

AG Club

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When & Where: Friday, 7:45 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

AG Club, an abbreviation of avant-garde club, is a genre-less music collective that shares a lot in common with fellow Lollapalooza must-see act, Peach Tree Rascals, including a collaborative single. But don’t get things twisted, this Bay Area collective has their own vision in store for you. With a brash, in-your-face attitude, AG Club is likely to draw comparisons to the Saturation era of BROCKHAMPTON and glory days of ASAP Mob, but with their introspective, omnivorous approach, they deftly manage to emerge as an act all their own. If you want to go where the party is, don’t miss AG Club.

Tai Verdes

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When & Where: Friday, 1:45 p.m. at Bud Light Seltzer Stage

Where would we be without TikTok? I, for one, would be without my preferred form of short-form entertainment and the world be without the infectious pop-R&B stylings of one Tai Verdes. Originally working at Verizon before his breakout single, “Stuck in the Middle,” became a viral hit on TikTok, Verdes is now one of the most promising and rapidly rising acts in music today. And with his debut album, TV, the viral star proved himself no one-hit-wonder, delivering a collection of tracks that span a range of emotions and genres that we cannot wait to experience live.

Dominic Fike

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When & Where: Thursday, 7:45 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Dominic Fike is a musical chameleon. First breaking out with his unassuming radio hit “3 Nights,” to only jump into the absolute vibe that is the Kenny Beats–assisted “Phone Numbers,” and culminate it all with the genre-spanning debut album, What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Fike is an artist whose limitations seem limitless. It’s a notion that plays out in his breathtaking live show, reworking his hits with an insatiable appetite until they’re songs that exist only in that singular moment. Fike’s is set you will not want to miss.

Oliver Tree

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When & Where: Thursday, 9 p.m. at Grubhub Stage

Alternative auteur Oliver Tree is nothing if not unpredictable. Flaunting his signature JNCO jeans and an impressive professional razor scooter pedigree, the inimitable artist delivers on an infectious blend of alternative, electronic, hip-hop, and pop that defies any simplistic classification. And with his debut album, Ugly Is Beautiful, now out in the wild after a much-hyped cancellation and subsequent surprise release, Tree has more than his fair share of music to pull from. Plus, given his penchant for going in and out of retirement like he’s trying to break a record only known to him, it’s probably best not to miss this set.

RMR

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When & Where: Sunday, 2:45 p.m. at Tito’s Handmade Vodka Stage

RMR originally made headlines with his breakout single, “RASCAL,” a transfixing country trap ballad that saw the rapper donning a black balaclava and Saint Laurent bulletproof vest while rapping over an interpolation of Rascal Flatts’ “Bless The Broken Road.” Since then, the anonymous rapper has been spotted hitting the town with Sharon Stone and embracing his penchant for melodic trap in the Westside Gunn, Future, Lil Baby, and Young Thung–loaded Drug Dealing Is a Lost Art. Existing at the fusion of trap country and melodic rap, RMR’s Lolla set is one you’re not likely to forget anytime soon.

Chiiild

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When & Where: Sunday, 12:00 p.m. at Lake Shore Stage

Nostalgic and novel, Chiiild’s self-described brand of “synthetic soul” is nothing short of intoxicating. Setting its own sauntering pace, Chiiild’s unique take on R&B and soul takes on a cosmic energy, as if floating through a wormhole with nothing but a single cassette deck on hand. It’s a testament to the Canadian band’s all-encompassing approach that draws upon not just R&B and soul but psychedelia, jazz, indie, and pop to craft a sound that is all their own. Take a trip on Sunday, and meet us at Chiiild.

All Time Low

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When & Where: Thursday, 6 p.m. at Tito’s Handmade Vodka Stage

Because teenage you wasn’t old enough to convince your parents to let you see All Time Low the first time “Dear Maria, Count Me In” was trending.

#lollapalooza #lollapalooza 2021 #tate mcrae #peach tree rascals #marc rebillet #dayglow #giveon #ashe #sir chloe #jxdn #ag club #tai verdes #dominic fike #oliver tree #rmr #chiiild #all time low

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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The Karate Kid: The Real Martial Arts History Behind the Movies

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When it comes to martial arts films, The Karate Kid was a game changer when it came out in 1984. Its lasting cultural impact was a landmark advancement for the western understanding of the martial arts. But was it a genuine representation of Karate?

Den of Geek consulted Dr. Hermann Bayer, an expert authority on Okinawan Karate and the author of the upcoming book Analysis of Genuine Karate―Misconceptions, Origin, Development, and True Purpose. Dr. Bayer remembers firsthand how The Karate Kid stimulated the Karate boom in the mid-eighties because he was a practicing Karateka then. But as a martial scholar, he’s pragmatic about his opinions.

“First and foremost, we have to bear in mind that we are talking about a movie, not about a documentation or a piece of research,” says Bayer. “This means that we need to concede that fascinating viewers by something pretty, amazing, or spectacular to look at is more important than authenticity.”

The Year That The Karate Kid Premiered

When we reflect upon the original, we must remind ourselves that the landscape of martial arts films in the west was vastly different in 1984. There just weren’t that many martial arts movies in western pop culture back then.

Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon came out over a decade before The Karate Kid, and tragically, Lee didn’t live to see it succeed. Many B-movies coat-tailed on Enter the Dragon‘s success, especially in the subgenres of Bruceploitation and Blaxploitation. This comprised the bulk of martial arts for western audiences. Beyond the imported niches of Hong Kong Kung Fu and Japanese samurai movies, there just weren’t that many other martial arts films available. And those were limited to showings in second- and third-run theaters or midnight “Kung Fu Theater” TV broadcasts. Consequently, the genre was considered low-brow entertainment with minimal impact on the box office.

When The Karate Kid debuted, most of today’s martial arts superstars had no Hollywood presence. Despite starring in dozens of Hong Kong films, Jackie Chan had only led one Hollywood production by that point. That was Battle Creek Brawl, made by the same filmmakers who did Enter the Dragon, however it under-performed and was deemed a failure. His other Hollywood credits in 1984 included a cameo in the sequel ensemble comedy The Cannonball Run II. With only three minor Hollywood appearances, he was still virtually unknown to the Western audience.

Chuck Norris was more prominent having starred in more than a half dozen B-action flicks by then. His 1984 entry was Missing in Action in which Jean-Claude Van Damme had an uncredited role. JCVD didn’t grab any limelight until four years after The Karate Kid, when he starred in his breakout lead role for Bloodsport. Jet Li was only on his second film that year, Kids From Shaolin, but that wasn’t shown outside of Chinatowns in the U.S. It would be another 14 years after The Karate Kid before Jet made his first Hollywood appearance as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4.

The Karate Kid changed the way martial arts films were perceived. It demonstrated that the martial arts genre could deliver wholesome family entertainment, as well as good box office returns. It ranked fifth among the highest grossing films of 1984, behind Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins. The Karate Kid was the sleeper hit of the year, and it made Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) into crane-kicking icons.

The Limitations of the Karate Kid Trilogy

The Karate Kid was a Hollywood adaptation of a common plot device of Kung Fu movies – the training trope. Many of Jackie Chan’s late seventies films were “martial training” stories. Those narratives can be distilled down to three acts as seen in The Karate Kid: the hero suffers an injustice — like the murder of his family (or in Daniel’s case, just getting bullied) — then the hero finds a quirky master who uses obscure, almost non-nonsensical training methods, and finally the hero, armed with these hard-earned skills, takes revenge.

Jackie’s groundbreaking 1978 Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow is a perfect example of this. That was a turning point for Jackie, the launch of his unique style of comedy Kung Fu, back when he was in his physical prime. In that same year, the Kung Fu grindhouse Shaw Brothers studios delivered the timeless classic film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, which is a perfect example of the same formula. “Martial training” stories are even retold in animated films like Mulan and Kung Fu Panda. The Karate Kid just had the ingenuity to set it at West Valley High School in San Fernando, California.

Today, Daniel-san is enjoying a revitalization through Netflix’s hit series Cobra Kai. Packed with more easter eggs that an April bunny basket, Cobra Kai has been rectifying flaws from the original films with a subtle, yet effective elegance. Despite its time-honored success, the original films fell under tremendous scrutiny from genuine Karatekas who were quick to point out inaccuracies. Frankly, for such a flagship film of the martial arts genre, the martial arts weren’t that good. The main cast of the original film had little or no martial arts background. Kreese (Martin Kove) was the only cast member who studied Karate prior to the films.

Part of this adds to the charm. Despite being the All Valley Karate Champ twice in a row, Daniel is a newbie to the art. In fact, the original trilogy happens in a little over a year. The Karate Kid takes place in 1984. The Karate Kid III, despite premiering in 1989, depicts events at the following All Valley Karate Championships. Daniel goes from zero to hero in an alarmingly short time.

How could Daniel genuinely master Karate with so little training time? Is “wax on, wax off” deck sanding and fence painting truly that effective? Of course not. If it were, the MMA cage would be dominated by car washers, carpenters, and house painters. That’s the magic of movies. Movie martial arts are no more realistic than movie car chases.

This still begs the question – how much of Miyagi’s weird training really works?

“Whole floor. Right circle, left circle.”

Traditional martial arts training can take many forms, and the spirit of Mr. Miyagi’s esoteric lessons isn’t too far off the mark. Although few practitioners today carry water up mountains like the Shaolin monks, mundane chores like cleaning and repairing are still implemented in training within a traditional Dojo. Frankly, the repetitive nature of martial arts practice is boring so any way to invigorate enthusiasm is welcome. And the efficiency of multi-tasking is always appreciated, even in modern strip mall Dojos.

A common training ritual is cleaning the floor before class. This is extremely important because most Dojos practice barefoot. Many old school Dojos require that students push damp rags across the floor with their hands in a low crouch. As anyone who has done it knows, this is harder than it looks and serves as an excellent warm-up exercise. When the Dojo needs repairs, students pitch in where they can because a good Dojo fosters community that way, and variations on training emerge within those tasks akin to Miyagi’s painting and sanding. And if there’s a Dojo fundraising carwash, you know there will be plenty of “wax on, wax off” practice.

But beyond the waxing, sanding, and painting, how real is Miyagi-Do?

“Only root Karate come from Miyagi.”

There are two styles of martial arts represented in The Karate Kid, Okinawan Karate and Korean Tang Soo Do. Kreese’s Karate is Tang Soo Do mostly because the choreographer for the original films was Grandmaster Pat E. Johnson, a leading proponent of that style. Although most likely the product of coincidence, it fit Kreese’s character perfectly. Many U.S. soldiers who served in Korea brought Tang Soo Do back to the states when they returned, just like Kreese, including Johnson and his martial comrade, Chuck Norris.

In Season 3 of Cobra Kai, Kreese’s backstory confirms what martial arts fans have always suspected – that his style of Karate is in fact, Tang Soo Do. Calling it “Karate” was not inaccurate. Few Americans know Tang Soo Do, so even today, some schools market themselves as “Korean Karate.” Tang Soo Do is a predecessor of Taekwondo. Taekwondo is the other Asian martial art in the Olympics alongside Judo, but this is soon to change.

Cobra Kai Season 4: What to Expect

By Gene Ching

Cobra Kai and the Debate Around Cultural Appropriation

By Gene Ching

Miyagi-Do is derived from a branch of Karate known as of Goju-Ryu. Writer Robert Mark Kamen had learned some Goju-Ryu which inspired him to create Mr. Miyagi. He even poached the name of the founder of Goju-Ryu, Chojun Miyagi, and adapted the history to fit the Miyagi family history for The Karate Kid II where they travel to Okinawa. Goju means “hard-soft.”

“Karate legend Miyagi Chojun gave the name ‘hard-soft’ to the style in the mid-1930s,” explains Bayer.

Bayer finds the contrast between Miyagi’s and Kreese’s philosophies more intriguing than their difference of styles. “I see the first movie of the trilogy as the most important in terms of establishing the two contrasting mindsets of Mr. Miyagi’s ‘Karate approach to life in general’ and John Kreese’s ‘No mercy’ combat-specific attitude. However, both mindsets are essential to and part of genuine Karate.” Bayer claims that fighting in genuine Karate is exclusively reserved for life-threatening situations. “Karateka never start a fight; they always end a fight―and to end a fight ‘no mercy’ is essential.”

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The All Valley Karate Championships and the Olympics

The most unrealistic story element in The Karate Kid is the All Valley Karate Championships. Beyond the controversy about whether Daniel-san’s crane kick win was illegal, Karate tournaments didn’t have the level of production value in the eighties depicted in the movie. Even today, they seldom get that elaborate. A hexagonal ring is hard to make out of the square puzzle mats typically used for local tournaments nowadays. And that spectacular tournament table backdrop was way beyond the budget of tournament promoters. However, Karate will soon be showcased on the global stage, replete with a grand pageantry far beyond what the All Valley Championships imagined.

The Tokyo Olympics will introduce Karate as one of the five new sports in 2021. This will be divided into two categories: Kata, which is a solo form recital akin to gymnastics floor routines but with kicks and punches instead of leaps and flips, and Kumite, which is sparring. Here, Dr. Bayer draws an important distinction between authentic Karate and sport. It’s a critical distinction for what plays out in The Karate Kid. “As long as any kind of rules are implemented, combat changes into some kind of game,” says Bayer. “Life-protecting fighting is pure violence, pitiless full-power action, and has no place in a sport setting.”

Here also is where Bayer sees Kreese’s villainy. A symptom of his wartime PTSD, Kreese is unable to make the distinction between self-defense and sport. “The ‘No Mercy’ combat approach in competition and sports is inexcusably misplaced and represents an ‘Americanized’ misconception of Karate, characterized by ‘winning at all costs’ in combination with the importance of fancy uniforms, of ranks, and of other attributes in an attention-seeking culture.”

According to Bayer, this is also where the authenticity of Miyagi’s contrasting Karate approach shines. “This is the exact opposite of Mr. Miyagi’s humble Karate-Do mindset, where ranks, belts, and other visible signs of competency are irrelevant. His answer to the question what belt he wears was ‘Canvas. JC Penny. Three ninety-eight. You like?’ In spite of its lethality, the purpose of authentic Karate training is not the use of violence, it is gaining self-control, especially in situations loaded with threats and aggression, and where blood pressure and adrenaline levels are off the chart.”

Despite this separation of killing art and sport, Bayer still sees the role of sport Karate as extremely important, and he can’t wait to see what happens at the Olympics. “Sports Karate canalizes aggression into fun and competition activities, and its training practices are perfect for physical education, for health and fitness purposes. Under a responsible coach, students grow mentally and are guided towards positive values―reflected in modern physical education learning outcomes and their according training designs.”

“Karate here. Karate here. Karate never here.”

Despite its martial shortcomings, The Karate Kid succeeds in revealing the heart of Karate. The hardships Daniel endures, his loyalty to his sensei, Miyagi’s humility, and the distinctions between the street fights and the championships all play out with an uncommon sincerity, and perhaps that is the secret of its longevity. Even if Miyagi-Do is entirely by Kamen’s design, it’s a clever homage to Okinawan Karate. And even in the martial world, that’s hard to find.

“Authentic Okinawan Karate’s genuine purpose was exclusively self-protection and the protection of someone’s life,” says Bayer. “This genuine Okinawan Karate is hardly to be found in today’s worldwide Karate practice.”

The Karate Kid trilogy is streaming on Netflix now.

The post The Karate Kid: The Real Martial Arts History Behind the Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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amortm · 6 years ago

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* 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐔𝐏 , pretty kitties ! i'm terribly sorry abt my absence on the dash alongside you angels , & trust that i’m fully embarrassed of my slow ass , but i finally typed this baby out , & i can’t wait for y’all to meet my love , 𝒋𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔 !

* ╰ it’s an absolute dishonour to meet you , julianna / jules . at twenty - one , you’ve disgraced the peralta family name & failed to carry on their legacy as an elite . as a result , they’ve requested that we at the academy do our best to rid you of your venality , & seeing as though they’re worth 86m , we dutifully obliged . while your pleonastic & inexorable attributes have always promised failure , it’s your spar with pride & ghosting your breakout acting role after you found out your daddy secured it for you that got you committed . before we take possession of you , it’s imperative that we know that you are a cisfem who prefers she & her pronouns , & you resemble diana silvers . your birthday is on april 26th , making you a recalcitrant taurus , & you were transported to us all the way from vail , co . at the present time , you work off campus at seaside florist . go ahead & purchase that extra large suitcase , disgrace . you’re going to need it .

your name / age / pronouns / timezone / etc .

hiya loves ! i go by blue & she / her pronouns , i’m 9teen , & i’m a pst baby ! i’m one of the six lovely admins @ #unholy , & they’re all superstars , so imagine my daily awe ! anyway , i’m beyond excited to finally get the ball rolling , & share the dash with you babes !

muse inspo .

noora sætre , the goldfinch , ella of frell , neil perry , charlie dalton , claire saffitz , monica geller , carla lalli music , mia thermopolis , adam parrish , blue sargent , anna ou !

character details :

💐 : sweetly judgmental , adoringly vindictive / vindictively adoring , witty ‘n gritty , bitingly tender , expressively stubborn , softly feral !

😈 : hershey’s chocolate , brooklyn pizza , baguettes , collector edition copies of wuthering heights , selfies , her mom , richard siken anthologies , twilight ( #teamedward ) , crowded movie theaters , english gardens , the air in new york , the air in vail , snowboarding , her hair , hot chocolate ( no whipped cream , half a bag of mini marshmallows dumped atop ) , andrew garfield , her discover weekly playlist , german shepherds , harry potter , lord of the rings , comedies , horror movies , nude lipstick , chocolate chip toffee cookies with sea salt drizzled on top , mamma mia franchise , dissertations , driving , any typa jacket / coat , being the big spoon , her father , coca cola , lilies , disney t - shirts , her father’s films , take out , farms , italy ( every single crevice of it ) , the plaza hotel , mint chip ice cream , hats , trains , monthly horoscopes , ancient history , greenwich village , maggie rogers , mating ritual , vampire weekend , mitski , the wombats , magic bronson , jade bird , hockey , pretending to be a fairy / witch / mermaid as a child , naruto , avatar the last airbender , stepping over state / country lines , hot water with honey , amazon prime !

👿 : the marvel franchise except for the captain america & thor trilogies , coffee & tea , shorts , sweet potatoes , layovers of any length , socks , soy milk , her arms , chihuahuas , a song of fire & ice novels , super fudgy / rich cake & brownies , cooking for herself , being told what to do , being wrong & having everyone know it , people who are rude to employees , bad tipping , margaret atwood , her first grade teacher , plastic coke bottles , too much pepper in a dish !

upbringing & family life , life before the academy , etc .

julianna rachel peralta was born to a beauty - charmed family of three , with a new yorker mother & italian father birthing the healthiest & happiest girl parents can dream for . her mother , susanna ‘ susie ’ peters , was coined the model that pioneered 90′s fashion , a la kate moss , & met julianna’s father , elio peralta ( think the francis ford coppola of this verse ) , whilst she was briefly on set for jack to see friend fran drescher . their love stemmed from there , after she made a mocking comment & he overhead & mocked her in return for it , & the whirlwind romance that captivated their world for the next few years led to miss jules being born . neither of her parents desired marriage from each other , rather believing that their love knew no bounds , even those of matrimony , but never did it dim the bond held between the small family of three . once jules was in their arms , they relocated from new york to colorado , into the quaint town of vail , surrounded by pristine mountains & crystalline air , where susie & elio found a pocket of indisputable peace after a small winter trip in their first year of romance .

it was there that jules grew up , & there that the love of her parents faltered . her mother missed the world of fashion , the rhythms & rhymes of the space she knew as well as in maintaining the fame that spotlighted her so , while elio’s passions for turning out film after film dwindled . & when the offer from vogue came in , waxing poetic about a fresh position as a fashion editor , both she & elio knew that their paths would veer . their love was no less , but integral factors of their relationship were now fractured , & they each desired after different things . this was all said to julianna , in soft tones & with assuring words . yet , never was it promised that everything would be the same as it was , for the truth was in something unsaid . susie moved to new york , while elio & jules stayed in that mansion in the mountains , & all was as fair & well as it could be , with julianna staying with her mom during the fall season & discovering every little piece of italy in the summers . christmases & hanukkahs were always shared in vail , & susie tagged along european dives when her schedule allowed for it . it was as if their relationship & subsequent uncoupling were trivial details no one could bother to account for , until , in the worst spot she’s ever seen her mother , it came out that elio peralta found a new woman to share a life with , & that their new life together would be housed in the same home that susie & elio specially chose & , in emotional terms , truly built themselves & carved their family in its foundations . it was a betrayal of the deepest caliber , & from there the small peace that still was at the core of their little family was forever severed , & it became obvious to jules that those few years were lucky .

she was thirteen when famed actress lily taylor ( aka jennifer connely lmao ) moved into her family home , bringing her adopted eleven - year - old twins with her . in a sense of loyalty to her mother & her own hurt over the despair that her father caused their original trio , jules was heartily & positively prepared to hate the new additions to her family with a vindictive fidelity . her plan was promptly overturned , however , when she spent day upon day with her new fam & steadily allowed them into her heart . this , of course , was paired with doubtless guilt , spurred on by her own mind whenever she flew to nyc to see her mother , but soon enough this was caught by each of her parents , & susie was insistent in her assurance that whatever frigidness she still held for elio & his new beau ( which julianna didn’t bother to correct with wife ) , it in no way extends nor should be mimicked by her . elio , in turn , was quick to promise to jules that his love for her mother flamed in his heart to this day , but each of them are happier living their lives in the lifestyles they’ve chosen , with the people they’ve chosen .

there really wasn’t anything to do but swallow their words , & live by the sentiments they expressed . jules was both a mama’s & daddy’s girl in one , so to take their words as fact was an ignorance she allowed herself , even when the hurt look on her mother’s faced inevitably shone through in hidden moments .

but when jules turned seventeen , susie fell in love with a musician / designer named tommy lever she met while interviewing his collection for vogue , & the two fell deep , far enough to sway susie into moving to brazil during the spring season , away from her beloved manhattan loft , to be with him in his home ( the link is crucial to his characterization lmao , as lenny kravitz is essentially tommy lever ) . when she can , jules visits as often as she’s allowed ( always ) & has gained a room herself .

after that , however , the cycle between her various homes continued , well into her slipping teendom , & when the prospect of college crunched down on her , the choice seemed inevitable . nyu gained a classics & theater major for its class of 2019 ( she skipped the third grade , a fact she didn’t stop bragging about at that age ) , but in her senior year of university , the walls came crashing down .

what sin are they categorized under ? why ?

jules belongs to the sin of #pride through & through . after all , if there was one damning trait to send her straight into the pits of burning infernos , her prideful sense of self would be it . that’s not to say she’s arrogant ( nor am i saying she isn’t ) , but it’s more that she can’t take being undermined or allow the supposed undermining to go unpunished . she has a great deal of #pride in her own self worth & capabilities , though she’s usually loathe to make it known in plain terms , & if she feels attacked in that manner , she’ll completely close up . this often , as you’ll surely be able to tell , beckons problematic shit .

what got them sent to the academy ?

during jules’ senior year at nyu , she was contacted by her agent ( shared with her father ) & offered an audition for a leading role in a major hollywood studio film . throughout the years , she dabbled in theater & attracted a starring role or two along the way , especially in school productions , but the plan for success was always envisioned after college . when she got the call , however , she handled it with a happy - go - lucky fuck it sort of approach , & a week later , when she received the good - bearing call , there was no backing out , or so she thought . tentatively dropping out of the semester in which she would graduate , jules modeled the next few months of her life around the film , happily doing so .

yet , the first week into rehearsals brought down a cloud so dark she thought she’d choke under it . she overheard a few producers on their lunch break , talking about this - & - that - esque bullshit , but just as she was passing , one of them made a comment about the peralta girl , & how hollywood legacies are the roaches of the industry . how directors from the middle ages should just stick to ruining things behind the camera , not forcing a disaster in front of it .

that day , jules walked out of set & never took a step back in . effectively ruining her future career in the process , she ghosted all contact from the production & even went as far to jet off to brazil to regenerate with her mom as an escape . she couldn’t even pick up where she left off during the semester , & simply had to sit back & witness her classmates of four years graduate without her . her parents were furious , but the only thing she gave in return was a steely silence , refusing even turn a glare to her father . now , she’s been shoved into the hands of the academy , biding the days until she could return to nyu in the fall .

what do you think they’ll struggle with the most at the academy ?

tbh , the biggest issue for jules is the resentment curling at her core . at her father , the film , the academy , herself . right now she’s just in a foul mood & sick at being forced into glitterati rehab , but her #pride won’t allow her to fail , even if she wishes to do it just to spite everyone . she is a people person , however , & will almost definitely warm up , even if it’s just for appearances sake .

extra details : links you’d like to incorporate , wanted connections , literally anything else you want to include , etc .

wanted connections will be coming soon ! for now , please enjoy this authentic video of jules chillin in her fav corner of the world , aka italia , taken by her bff eli 😔✌️

#unholyintro #icb how LATE my ass is w this gd intro #cue y'all throwing the torches and pitchforks @ me JDJKSDJSKDJDSKJDSDS #⋆ ╰ ` 𝒹𝒾𝒶𝓂ℴ𝓃𝒹 ╱ 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑦 ╱ 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 . : dev .

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fandomshatelgbtqpeople · 6 years ago

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In her directorial debut, Janet Mock pulls together all of the strengths of Pose, delicately balancing the moments of lightness and darkness from a script co-written by her and Ryan Murphy with powerful visual storytelling. Her eye and style bring a sense of urgency but also a deeply intimate feeling to this episode. It might be her debut, but there’s prowess in every shot. Over the course of the episode, she gets to tackle a fight scene, two musical numbers, two ball sequences, and a whole lot of drama, humor, and emotion, and she does it all with style and substance.

“Love Is The Message” hooks from the very first scene. It picks up right where last week’s cliffhanger ends, with the confrontation between Angel and Patty. While the twist then hinted at melodrama—especially given that it was the last beat of the episode—it takes a much more nuanced and compelling turn here. Patty isn’t looking for revenge, doesn’t shift the blame from Stan to Angel. She just wants answers that she knows she can’t get from her lying husband, and Angel doesn’t hesitate to give them. Their conversation is sad and revealing, both of their wants and needs laid out plainly before them. They’re not exactly allies, but they aren’t enemies either.

Angel posits a hypothetical: Does Patty think he can love them both at the same time? That’s what she wants, his love and devotion. But she also expresses that she felt like a kept woman, knows that she was starting to associate all of her worth with his attention. These personal revelations on her part give new, deeper context to her relationship with Stan, crucially putting a fine point on the underlying possessiveness in his dynamic with her. Patty’s wants are parallel but still different: She, too, feels that Stan treats her like a doll, like her self-worth is tied up in his whims. She’s pretending that this is what she always wanted, but she isn’t so sure. Finally, Pose peels back the layers to Patty. Kate Mara and Indya Moore both turn in their best performances of the season so far in this scene. Moore’s delivery of “If you wanna see who I am, that’s the last place you should look” is awards-worthy on its own.

The dialogue throughout the episode is biting, and Pose’s deep ensemble brings it all to life, gives specificity and layered emotion to the words. Pray Tell is unraveling in the face of his boyfriend Costas’ steady health decline. He’s noticeably drunk at the balls, keeps playing the same song—“Love Is The Message”—on a constant loop. The youngins at the ball think it’s just an older guy being nostalgic, but of course Pray Tell is caught up in a nostalgia loop for deeper reasons. It was his and Costas’ song one summer, before the HIV epidemic, before Pray Tell had to bury so many friends and lovers. The song becomes his breakdown echo chamber, his desperate plea for the past and for hope. Billy Porter has served all different dynamics this season with his performances week-to-week, and his portrayal of Pray Tell’s spiral is visceral.

House of Evangelista attempts to intervene, but he can’t hear it from them, feels that they don’t know the true extent of his pain. This goes much deeper than a bender. He finds a glimmer of hope when a nurse in the HIV ward (played by Sandra Bernhard with a dependable level of spunk) suggests that he do something for the patients. He puts on a cabaret night, which gives not only Porter a chance to show off his pipes but Mj Rodriguez, too. Seriously, are there any limits to Rodriguez’s talents? She has easily been the breakout star of this show (which is not discrediting anyone else on the show—everyone is so good!), and her performance of “Home” just drives that home even more. It’s raw and magnetic and an instance when Pose’s long runtimes really works in its favor. This shouldn’t be truncated at all. It’s too powerful, too meaningful of a moment.

But it isn’t really until Costas begs Pray Tell to move on, asks him to grieve for one day and then remember how to live and love again, that he can truly pull himself out of the darkness. Costas’ death in the episode feels inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking. In fact, that’s what’s so devastating about the vibe in the hospital and Pray Tell’s interactions with Costas throughout: No one is getting better.

Pose, as usual, doesn’t lose itself in the darkness. It strikes a wildly impressive balance between showing the horrors and tragedy of this epidemic while also finding moments of hope, joy, and kindness. Even the sharp-tongued Judy offers a bit of light in the dismal setting of the hospital. And Pray Tell dresses up the rec room in a very believable and grounded way, doing the best he can with the little resources that he has.

Even Blanca’s little subplot with a smooth-talking guy named Darius has fun layers to it. Blanca’s number one priority is her house and her children, but of course she wants companionship, too. And when Darius comes in with his pick-up lines and flirtations, something flutters within her. But when the other girls tell Blanca he’s a playboy who they’ve all slept with (Trace Lysette has a super fun guest appearance here, and I hope we get to see more of her), she loses some of her giddiness. Blanca wants something real. Pose uses this seemingly small subplot to play with a lot of different things, including Blanca’s anxieties about having to disclose her status to potential sexual partners. The moment of her facing Darius and telling him that she doesn’t want to be anybody’s plaything at the end of the episode is a wonderful display of sisterhood. All the other girls, even Lulu and Candy from her rival house, stand by her side up against him. These little moments of sisterhood throughout Pose are magical and are deeply embedded in the show’s DNA. Even amid the darkness, a sense of family, love, and community shines through and carries these characters forward. Love is the message, indeed.

Stray observations

Billy Porter and Sandra Bernhard’s dynamic is just so good. I did get very nervous that Pray Tell was going to out Blanca’s status. The slow zoom-in on Pray Tell during his intervention monologue was just so powerful. Mock’s direction is phenomenal. I do finally like where Patty’s arc is going. The way she seizes control of her life feels organic and real. Stan and Matt’s office brawl could have been a bit shorter, but the way that Stan’s life is blowing up right now is admittedly engaging. The way he breaks down at the psychiatrist’s office and says he doesn’t know what he wants/wanted is convincing and more interesting than if he were to just start spewing excuses. I love Angel so much.

#pose #pose fx #spoilers #janet mock #i'm so happy for her and for pose!

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your-dietician · 3 years ago

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The Bucks’ path to the NBA Finals — The Undefeated

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/nba/the-bucks-path-to-the-nba-finals-the-undefeated/

The Bucks’ path to the NBA Finals — The Undefeated

There’s a well-known comment in Wisconsin when it comes to the hometown Milwaukee Bucks’ chances in a given playoff series: Bucks in six.

What started as a fool-hearted, yet enduring proclamation by then-Bucks guard Brandon Jennings ahead of a 2013 first-round series matchup with the “Big Three” Miami Heat – (“I’m sure everybody is writing us off but I see us winning the series in six,” Jennings said at that year’s Wisconsin Sports Awards) – morphed over the years into a rallying cry for a team that hasn’t made it to the NBA Finals in nearly half a century. Sometimes close, but never close enough.

But in the past eight years, starting just a few weeks after Jennings’ doomed prediction (the Heat swept the Bucks in 2013) with the drafting of a lanky kid out of Greece named Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks have revamped, reconfigured, restarted and rebuilt themselves into an actual title contender that no longer lives on the fringes of the playoffs.

On Saturday night, after back-to-back years of underperforming in the postseason, the Bucks clinched the Eastern Conference title with a 118-107 victory over the Atlanta Hawks, fittingly reaching their first NBA Finals since 1974 in six games.

And it was all without Antetokounmpo, who has been sidelined with a hyperextended left knee since the third quarter of Game 4. For a team that prides itself on playing as a complete unit, rather than a Gladys Knight & the Pips-style one-man show, the Bucks leaned heavily on their two other stars, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton. The duo combined for 59 points, 13 rebounds and 16 assists, with Middleton overcoming a poor first half (five points and five turnovers) to drop 23 points in the third quarter.

“Khris carried us there for a lot of it, just leaving his heart out there,” Holiday said. “Just kind of like if we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down on his shoulders. I’m riding with him, riding right into the Finals.”

Making it easier for the Bucks on Saturday was that Young, who bruised a bone in his foot during Game 3, was clearly still hobbled. The third-year guard declined to attack the paint and had his passing lanes clogged up, leading to him starting the first quarter with nearly as many turnovers and personal fouls (three) as minutes played (four). At one point, Young shook 7-foot center Brook Lopez for an open look from atop the key but uncharacteristically passed the ball away.

“I still have pain. It’s going to be like this for at least a couple more days, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to feel 100%,” Young said after the game. “So I was going to go out and at least try and try to do it again.”

As the game wore on, Young became less timid, but aside from another breakout game from guard Cam Reddish (21 points, 6-of-7 on 3s), the Hawks weren’t enough for Milwaukee. While the Bucks were failed by poor shooting, lack of energy and hustle in the two games they lost in this series, those were their keys to victory on Saturday. The Bucks outgained the Hawks in 3-pointers (17-12) and rebounds (46-43) and committed one less turnover, the type of complete performance that is needed out of a championship winner.

“We needed everybody. I think that’s the best part about it. We needed something from everybody,” P.J. Tucker said. “Our bench was amazing all series, all playoffs, everybody on our team gave something.

“Giannis goes out, Bobby [Portis] has been great, everybody came in and fought hard the entire series. It just shows our team. It just shows the guts of our team.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo (left) and Khris Middleton (right) celebrate as Eastern Conference champions.

David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

Before this season, this Bucks team wasn’t able to put it all together at just the right time.

As the team’s production began to rise during the 2017-18 season, when Antetokounmpo started to show flashes of the superstar he would soon become, so did their expectations. The Bucks finished the next two seasons with the best record in the league, but were dispatched from the playoffs early by two hungrier teams that went on to win the East.

They were then, fairly or not, labeled as a “regular-season” team, meaning they could be successful during the regular season, but once the playoffs hit, they didn’t have the mental toughness and/or strategy to be championship caliber.

It also didn’t help that Milwaukee ran into players who decided to go supernova during the playoffs. In 2019, Kawhi “Cyborg” Leonard, on one good leg, snatched the heart from the Bucks as the Toronto Raptors overcame a 2-0 deficit to run off four straight wins on their way to an NBA championship. Last season, inside the Walt Disney World bubble, Jimmy Butler willed the lower-seeded Miami Heat into a second-round upset of the Bucks ahead of their own run to the Finals. Even this postseason, the Bucks had to battle the offensive brilliance of Kevin Durant and Young, at least until the latter’s series-altering ankle injury in Game 3.

In the past, when the pressure reached a precipice, everyone from the coaches to players seemed to falter. Antetokounmpo and Coach Mike Budenholzer couldn’t figure out how to scale the “wall” defenses built. Middleton, while brilliant when he’s on (particularly against the Boston Celtics), would suddenly develop a case of the yips in pivotal postseason moments. Shots that would fall for role players wouldn’t fall anymore, no matter Budenholzer’s “let it fly” mantra.

“It’s adversity,” Pat Connaughton said of losing in the playoffs the past two years. “I would say it’s unfortunate, but you learn a lot from losing. You really look yourself in the mirror and there’s two ways you can go: You can hang your head about it or you can use that as motivation to get better and fix the problems that you have and continue to work every single day and understand that it’s a process.”

But this season and its playoffs were different. The Bucks were more flexible in everything from their roster construction to their offensive sets. Those who couldn’t step up in crunch time in the past were suddenly inheritors of the clutch gene.

“Every team has a different journey and every team has to go through different things,” Budenholzer said. “… I think just like every team in the league, when this group hasn’t been able to advance, hasn’t been able to continue, it’s hurt. It’s been hard. The offseason, the guys have put the work in, the players have put the work in. And I’m impressed with what they have done, really every year, but coming into this year.

“But there’s still work to be done.”

Budenholzer has been heavily criticized over the past two years for his failure to adjust in the playoffs. According to various reports, his job was on the line if the Bucks weren’t able to make tangible progress in the playoffs. But he has made the necessary changes to get his team to the Finals. And it was general manager Jon Horst who helped construct a roster that emphasized both 3-pointers (as he had in the past) but also toughness, both the physical and mental variety.

Portis, who signed to a two-year, $7.5 million deal in November, made all the difference in Game 5 (and had the Fiserv Forum crowd in a frenzy during the blowout in Game 2). Tucker, who was traded to the Bucks in March, played strong defense on Durant in the second round. Jeff Teague, who played for Atlanta for parts of eight seasons, made three 3s in Game 6. Bryn Forbes, who cooled off in the later rounds, outscored Butler in the first round. Connaughton grabbed offensive rebounds and hit timely 3s. Lopez, Donte DiVincenzo, the list goes on.

As for the Bucks’ Big Three of Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Holiday (acquired in November from the New Orleans Pelicans), each had their mental breakdowns and struggles during both the past and these playoffs, but when the team needed them to help close out games, they showed up: Middleton’s game winner against Miami in the first round, Antetokounmpo in crunch-time minutes against Brooklyn in the second round, and Holiday in the last two games without Antetokounmpo.

The team that could start strong but never finish has finally vanquished that label. And it’s poetic that it was Middleton who led the Bucks to this Finals run.

Middleton has grown from an afterthought in the 2013 trade that shipped Jennings off to Detroit and brought Middleton, Brandon Knight and Viacheslav Kravtsov to the Bucks (Middleton was referred to as one of “two other players” at the time of the trade), to the certified closer on a team that is four wins from winning its first title since 1971.

As the Bucks tanked and rebuilt around Antetokounmpo at the beginning of last decade, Middleton was there for the rough days of sub-.500 records, missed playoffs and lottery picks. Through his game winner against Miami, his dual 38-point games against Brooklyn and Atlanta, and his second-half outburst on Saturday, Middleton sums up just how far these Bucks have come.

“Honestly, it’s been a long journey, but it’s been a great journey,” Middleton said after the game. “It’s been worth it. We put ourselves in position to be in the NBA Finals. After winning 15 games in our first year here and seven years not making the playoffs to the last two years thinking we had a chance and just didn’t do enough and now we’re here.

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“This is what we’ve worked for.”

Martenzie is a writer for The Undefeated. His favorite cinematic moment is when Django said “Y’all want to see somethin?”

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junker-town · 4 years ago

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How elite athletes have struggled with the long-term effects of Covid

For some athletes, the road back to 100 percent isn’t a straight line.

Covid does not discriminate. Even elite athletes competing at the highest levels of their sports are susceptible to the virus’s long-term effects.

It’s been nearly a year since Covid changed everyday life as we know it. People have committed to slowing the virus’s spread by staying home, socially distancing, and wearing masks as vaccinations have slowly been rolled out. While progress has been made, there is still so much we don’t know about this virus.

Across multiple leagues, stories of athletes diagnosed with Covid have circulated, and everyone’s recovery has been different. Often, the road back to 100 percent isn’t a straight line.

From struggles with conditioning to discovering after-effects that threaten to derail promising young careers, Covid has wreaked havoc on athletes amateur, professional, and otherwise. These are the struggles certain athletes have had coming back from a positive test.

Mo Bamba and Jayson Tatum struggled with conditioning at 22 years old

Mohammed Bamba of the Orlando Magic and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics are two NBA players who have openly discussed the long road back from Covid. Despite each recovering and showing no symptoms, they have found it hard to get their wind under them as they work themselves back into top form.

Bamba, known for his elite shot-blocking ability, was drafted No. 6 overall in 2018 to the Orlando Magic. Despite the talent he brought to Orlando, he played limited minutes and had marginal production due to the Magic’s crowded front court. Bamba was diagnosed with the virus on June 11th, 2020, but tested negative before reporting to the bubble, where he played a total of 10 minutes. Nearly six months later, he still had not fully recovered.

Steve Clifford, when asked about Mo Bamba: "There's no real timetable for him to be able to come back and fully participate. I think that he'll be able to do some things that are more organizational and everything. But he's a ways away, and there's no timetable on his return."

— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) December 1, 2020

Leading into the 2021 NBA All-Star break, Bamba has only played 16 games for the Magic and has spent most of his time out of the rotation. Like many, his initial symptoms were loss of his senses: lack of taste and smell. He also dealt with fatigue and muscle soreness, but his conditioning has held him back though he is cleared to play.

Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum has also had issues getting his wind under him after his return. Tatum tested positive for the virus on January 9th and returned to the floor after missing more than two weeks later that month. Tatum detailed his struggles to feel 100 percent, saying: “Just running up and down the court a few times, it’s easier to get out of breath or tired a lot faster. I’ve noticed that since I’ve had COVID. It’s just something I’m working on. It’s gotten better since the first game I played, but I still deal with it from time to time.”

Jayson Tatum said he is still dealing with the after-effects of COVID-19 more than a month after he initially tested positive for the virus. "Just running up and down the court a few times, it's easier to get out of breath or tired a lot faster." pic.twitter.com/hnW7sVZeN4

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 16, 2021

Yoán Moncada and Kenley Jansen had a hard time reaching their pre-Covid production in baseball

Outside of affecting athletes’ conditioning, Covid can also impact overall performance throughout the season. That was the case for Yoán Moncada, the 25-year-old White Sox third baseman.

Moncada, one of the top prospects in baseball, finally had a breakout season in 2019 when he hit .315 with 25 home runs for Chicago. He tested positive for the virus before starting the shortened season the next year and saw his numbers steeply decline. Moncada ended 2020, hitting .225 with six home runs. His OPS fell from .915 to .705. He detailed his experience with the virus in September 2020:

“Definitely my body hasn’t felt the same after the virus. I feel a lack of energy, strength, it’s just a weird feeling. It’s different.”

“When I got to Chicago, before I tested positive, I was feeling strong and with energy. Now, it’s like a daily battle to try to find that strength, that energy to go through the day.

In the same vein, Kenley Jansen, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, tested positive in June. During recovery, he said,

“It definitely takes a toll on your body. It’s not a virus to play around with.”

Janson was right, it took a toll on him, and he has glimmers of the player we knew he could be, but it was few and far between during the 2020 season. Though he ended the season in a better place than he started, Covid did play a major part in his struggles throughout the year.

Tommy Sweeney and Ryquell Armstead ended their seasons due to Covid complications.

Tommy Sweeney of the Buffalo Bills was one of the first NFL players to develop a season-ending condition from Covid complications. He developed myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle. This is often developed after viral infections and goes undetected in many people.

TE Tommy Sweeney will be out for remainder of season after a cardiologist discovered he has myocarditis, a condition connected to COVID-19. #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/GRokB9lmk6

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 23, 2020

Because the heart muscle never rests, stress to the heart or raised heart rates can be problematic. Fortunately, Sweeney’s condition was detected, as myocarditis is the cause of 5 to 22 percent of sudden cardiac death in athletes under 35 years old.

Coach Sean McDermott said:

“He’s had a rough year, with the injury, Covid and residual piece of the Covid, unfortunately. We know he’s a good football player and a guy that we believe in and can’t wait to get him back on the field when he can in the offseason.”

Ryquell Armstead of the Jacksonville Jaguars was hospitalized twice due to complications. Set to be Leonard Fournette’s replacement, he decided to return the following season to leave ample time for recovery.

College athletes have had varying side effects from the virus

At the college level, athletes from various sports have battled the virus and recovered, but just like the pros, recovery is not always linear.

Travez Moore, an outside linebacker at LSU, lost a significant amount of weight necessary for his position while infected with Covid.

Xavier Thompson, a defensive end for Clemson, decided to redshirt due to the virus’s negative effects on his mental health. Thompson had battled both strep throat and the virus, and head coach Dabo Swinney said not being able to work out due to the virus “put him in a bad place mentally as well.”

Asia Durr’s professional career is in jeopardy due to Covid

Unlike many of these athletes, Asia Durr has seen more than a dip in performance, a few missed games, or one forgone season. She is a Covid long-hauler, someone who survived the virus but didn’t completely recover, and she has no timeline for her return.

Many of the symptoms associated with long-haulers are developing brain fog, vertigo, debilitating fatigue, and difficulty breathing. Due to these symptoms, Durr and other long-haulers have no timetable for returning, and there is a chance it won’t go away.

Stay Safe ✊ ❤️ -AD pic.twitter.com/StcOHWMBML

— Asia Durr (@A_Hooper25) July 7, 2020

Durr was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft and was drafted by the New York Liberty. At 23 years old and with the potential for a full career ahead of her, Durr described her symptoms. She said,

“There’s days where I feel great, like I could go out and go to the store or I could clean up. And then there’s days where I’m like, ‘I just have to stay in the bed,’ and you just feel like you got hit by a bus.”

She went on to say,

“I haven’t been able to (pick up a ball and play). It’s really challenging for me. But I’ve talked to doctors and they’ve told me I’m not cleared yet. I’m not cleared to be able do anything physically, which could cause flare-ups. That’s what’s really hard for me. Because in life whenever something was hard, I would go play. I can’t even do that now. I can’t even shoot a free throw.”

While we have heard many stories of athletes recovering and carrying on with their seasons and careers, it is evident that is not the case for every athlete. Even in peak physical condition and in their early to mid-20s, athletes are dealing with the virus’s harsh effects and extended complications. It’s important to shed light on the reality of what is going on and the risks associated with Covid, even for the most physically elite.

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tylerhoechlin · 7 years ago

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Back From the Brink

Dylan O’Brien was groomed to be Hollywood’s next young leading man. Then a tragic accident made him question everything.

Dylan O’Brien knows you want to know what happened to him.

Some people search his face for scars. Others ask the 26-year-old actor questions about the accident in 2016 that nearly cut short his career and could have ended his life. For more than a year, he was able to dodge that scrutiny and recover in private. Now, with a new movie coming out and a press tour required to promote it, things are different.

“I was anticipating this for a long time,” he says over lunch at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. “It used to really anger me, even just the thought of it. I just knew that eventually, I would have to be asked about this.”

He confesses these angry thoughts about as affably as any person could, as though he’s upset to even get upset. That doe-eyed decency has proved key to O’Brien’s screen appeal: In his breakthrough role as the lead of the Maze Runner franchise, he’s introduced in media res, thrust into a coliseum of YA terrors before we even learn who his character is. As he shakes and shivers and tries, alongside the audience, to make sense of his otherworldly predicament, you can’t help but root for him.

Not every actor can inspire that feeling in a viewer, but in O’Brien’s case, it’s so innate that the director of his new film, the action vehicle American Assassin, cast him simply after looking at his head shot. “I remember in that first discussion with my producers, names were being thrown around, and the one name I didn’t know yet was Dylan’s,” says Michael Cuesta. “I Googled him, I saw his picture, and I just said instinctively, ‘He’s right.’ There was an innocence and a vulnerability to him, and I hadn’t even seen his work yet. It’s an instinct you just have to trust.”

Cuesta wasn’t the only one besotted. At a time when Hollywood likes to import most of its young leading men from overseas — like Spider-Man’s Tom Holland, Star Wars breakout John Boyega, and an entire family of Hemsworths — The Maze Runner established O’Brien as a rare homegrown movie star. His profile grew ever larger while he shot the sequels to The Maze Runner and neared the end of his time on the MTV series Teen Wolf, and as work began on the third and final Maze Runner film, O’Brien started to look ahead to the future.

And then, just days into shooting that sequel, O’Brien was seriously injured in a stunt gone wrong. Pulled from one vehicle, he was reportedly struck by another, leaving him with a concussion, facial fracture, and brain trauma among his injuries. Production shut down for several weeks, then indefinitely. O’Brien withdrew from public view during his recovery as rumors flew that he might not return to the film. Half a year went by as O’Brien tried to heal and, at the lowest point in his life, mulled whether he wanted to continue his career at all. “I really was in a dark place there for a while and it wasn’t an easy journey back,” says O’Brien. “There was a time there where I didn’t know if I would ever do it again … and that thought scared me, too.”

Now, though, he is ready to talk about it.

“In a lot of ways, those six months went by like that,” he says, snapping his fingers. “And then, in a lot of ways, I can still remember that six months as if it was five years of my life.”

…………………………

Ask most young actresses when they wanted to become a movie star, and it won’t even be a question: They’ve been planning for it their whole lives. Kristen Stewart has been acting since she was a preteen, and at 14, Emma Stone put together a PowerPoint presentation to convince her parents to move to Los Angeles so she could go on auditions. But young American men seem come to acting differently — or indifferently. Channing Tatum was a model and dancer who happened into commercials before becoming a movie star. Chris Pratt happily toiled in obscurity as a Bubba Gump waiter in Hawaii when he was convinced by a customer to act in her film.

O’Brien’s foray into the industry was similarly unplanned. His parents had the expertise — O’Brien’s mother taught an acting class, while his father moved the family to California when O’Brien was 12 so he could pursue work as a camera operator — but in high school, he played drums in a jazz band instead of signing up for drama class. Like many of his classmates, though, O’Brien had a habit of posting videos to YouTube. They’re still there today: Check out his user page at “moviekidd826” and you can watch all 14 of his short comic sketches. Some of them are fairly simple, like his too-enthusiastic lip sync to the Spice Girls song “Wannabe,” and one of the uploaded clips is a teen staple, the video he made to ask a girl to prom.

Still, the shorts are clever and surprisingly narrative-driven, and O’Brien is a deft comic performer in all of them. He wouldn’t have thought of what he was doing as acting — he was just being himself, after all. But it’s exactly that unvarnished quality that made him so appealing, and as the videos began to circulate, he was signed by a woman who is still his manager today. Soon enough, he was being sent out to audition for projects like Valentine’s Day and Wizards of Waverly Place.

He hadn’t grown up knowing that he wanted to be an actor, but give O’Brien some credit: Once he figured that out, he committed hard. “My first semester of college, I’m going to sociology and English and psychology and all I cared about was getting home and preparing for whatever audition I had,” he says. “I’d be on IMDb looking at projects in development that I’d be right for and I’d send them to my manager and be like, ‘What’s going on with this?’” His ambition often outstripped his experience. “I was obsessed with having one of those auditions finally work out, and I was very impatient,” he recalls, laughing. “My manager would be like, ‘You have to understand, this could take years.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m going to get one of these.’”

Only a few months after his high-school graduation, that’s exactly what happened. O’Brien was cast on Teen Wolf, a fledgling MTV series based on the campy 1980s movie. This version skewed darker and filled its cast with hunks, with the howls meant to come from the audience each time a sexy werewolf stripped off his shirt. It was a notable hit for MTV, and though O’Brien was cast as the human best friend — not as the protagonist, Scott, or as any of the eye-candy beasts on the show — the role was a good fit for his boy-next-door charm. He wasn’t just Scott’s friend. He felt like yours, too.

“That show really became my school in a lot of ways,” says O’Brien. “I never took a second on set for granted. Even on my first day on the pilot, when my work finished for the day but then they were going to this other location to shoot another scene, I just went with them.” As a cable show, Teen Wolf filmed only five months out of the year, so O’Brien had plenty of time to hop on to other projects: He took Zooey Deschanel’s virginity in a New Girl flashback and popped up on the big screen in films like the teen romance The First Time and the Vince Vaughn–Owen Wilson comedy The Internship. “I would want to get on as many sets as I could,” he said. “And I was still very much ambitious about being in movies, too.”

In 2013, the year after The Hunger Games hit big, O’Brien was cast as the lead in another book-to-film YA franchise, The Maze Runner. The rare $100 million hit toplined by a young actor under 25, it propelled O’Brien onto studio short lists and led to more work in bigger movies, including Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon and a Maze Runner sequel, The Scorch Trials. 20th Century Fox picked up an action comedy with O’Brien attached, a sign of his growing clout, and as Cuesta looked for someone to play black-ops recruit Mitch Rapp in American Assassin, based on a popular book series by the late Vince Flynn, he alighted on O’Brien.

“He looks like a boy next door, like my son’s older friends,” says Cuesta. “Like a young man who has one foot in that postadolescent place and is about to cross over into adulthood and take that rite of passage.”

In March 2016, just as O’Brien headed to Vancouver to film Maze Runner: The Death Cure, he committed to star in American Assassin, which would represent his biggest break so far from youth-driven fare. He planned to film that after wrapping The Death Cure, squeeze in some time to shoot Teen Wolf’s farewell season, and move on to the movies that studios had been setting up for him.

“To see him blossom in his career and see what he was taking on, it was amazing to watch,” says O’Brien’s father, Patrick. “And then to see that broken … it was hard.”

…………………………

O’Brien would rather not relive the particulars of his accident. “There’s really been one or two people who have tried to dig and find out what happened and I cut it off,” he says. “And I’m comfortable with where I draw the line.”

What’s known is that after that stunt on the set of The Death Cure went awry and production shut down on March 18, 2016, the studio planned to resume filming May 9, hoping to still make the film’s set February 2017 release date. Weeks later, though, it was clear that O’Brien’s injuries were so serious that filming could not begin again.

“I had lost a lot of function, just in my daily routine,” says O’Brien. “I wasn’t even at a point where I felt like I could handle social situations, let alone showing up and being responsible for work every day. Long hours on set, delivering a performance and carrying a movie … it just makes your palms sweat.”

O’Brien calls his recovery process “overwhelming,” though the biggest toll the accident took on him was psychological. Even if he could find his way back to the sense of stability he had before the accident, and even if those scars could heal, would he still want to return to the high-flying movie career he’d worked so hard to set up? After it all went away, he couldn’t even be sure he was the same person anymore.

“And then there was a part of me, too, that was feeling pressured and stressed out by the mere fact that I had all of these people still emailing me, checking in,” he says. “I would get so fucking mad. Like if ever I heard from a producer [who was] seeing when I’d be able to get back on set, I’d fucking go nuts. It would really, really piss me off.”

But as O’Brien recovered in private, rumors flew that his injuries were much more extensive than was reported, and the people behind the projects O’Brien had set up were forced to weigh their options. Cuesta didn’t want to recast American Assassin, but he also didn’t know what state his star was in. During his recovery, O’Brien had not communicated with the production in four months.

“I didn’t want to let it go, and I also had this really interesting, deeper connection to this character over the course of those four months because of what I was going through,” says O’Brien. American Assassin begins with a freak tragedy, as Rapp’s fiancée is gunned down by terrorists during a beach vacation and dies in his arms. Lost in a rabbit hole of grief, Rapp spends the next few months weaponizing his anger and decides to hunt down her killers himself. “I felt like I could portray that and wanted to be the one to do that justice — it was almost like an honor for me at that point,” O’Brien says. “But at the same time, I was still in such a fragile personal state that I had this other force telling me, like, ‘No fucking way’ that I can do it. ‘This is too soon, too soon. Tell them to leave me alone, I need more time.’”

Unfortunately, the film didn’t have much time to spare. If American Assassin didn’t go into production before a certain date, the film rights would revert back to Flynn’s estate, and if O’Brien still wanted to play Rapp, he’d have to spend two months getting into physical shape for the role. It was a daunting regimen of learning fight choreography and adding muscle to his frame that would take a lot of work for any actor, let alone one who was still reeling from his physical nadir. “I knew it wouldn’t be getting back on the horse in a light way,” says O’Brien.

And so, at the end of July, he recommitted to American Assassin. It was a signal to the industry that he wanted to work again, even if, privately, he still wondered if he’d be able to make it through. On the one hand, the time O’Brien spent in the gym with action coordinator Roger Yuan gave him something that he could focus on during those long days. But even as he grew physically stronger, O’Brien was still struggling with heavy emotional and psychological episodes during his recovery.

“Sometimes I’d literally show up at the gym having a panic attack, and my trainer would be like, ‘All right, let’s just go get breakfast,’” says O’Brien, who came to treat Yuan almost like a therapist. “I can’t give enough credit to him … he was really there for me, and not just like a trainer where it’s like, ‘Well, come on, man, I gotta pump you up.’ He cared more about my mind and the state that I was in.”

Near the end of their training, O’Brien was in the best physical shape he’d ever been, an unlikely development given the events of the last few months. But despite all that training to become Mitch Rapp, O’Brien’s anxiety only grew as the start date drew near. The day he was supposed to fly to London to prepare to film the movie, O’Brien had what he describes as an emotional breakdown in the airport. With his father and girlfriend Britt Robertson by his side, he questioned whether he could continue.

“I didn’t even think they’d let me on the plane, to be honest,” he says. “I must have looked high or something.” O’Brien’s father, who had planned to spend the first few weeks in London getting his son acclimated, proved to be the rock he needed in that moment. “I don’t think I would have been able to step onto the plane without him,” says O’Brien.

“That was a tough year for us,” says his father Patrick. “It was hard to see him like that … he’s such a special kid.” Patrick had never set foot on one of Dylan’s sets before — “I thought it was important to let it be his life and not be mine” — but on the first day Dylan shot American Assassin, he knew he had to be there. “It was mind-blowing,” says Patrick. “I was watching him from the monitors, and he was busting out 50 push-ups in between takes.”

It was all for a wordless sequence where we catch up with Mitch months after his fiancée’s death, watching him train and harden himself in his dark apartment. As O’Brien walloped on a punching bag and bust out dozens of pull-ups, the intensity was like nothing Patrick had seen from his son before: “Obviously, I’m getting concerned. I’m watching the monitors and I’m seeing the stress he’s putting on his body and his face and all the places that have been of some concern of late.”

When Cuesta called “cut,” Patrick walked past the first assistant director and up to Dylan. “I was almost nose to nose with him, and I’m not sure he saw me right away. He was in it, as much as you can be in it. And I said, ‘Dylan?’ He looked at me and kind of focused. And I said, ‘Are you okay?’ And he said, ‘I’m good.’”

“If he didn’t have the accident,” says Cuesta, “would he have connected that well with Mitch? I don’t know, but it definitely brought truth to it.”

O’Brien acknowledges that, too. “I’d just been through a lot that summer and the fact that you spend all this time not even knowing if you can do that again …” He pauses, and swallows. “Even right now, it’s just kind of hard to talk about.”

It helps, he says, that Patrick came aboard for the rest of the shoot as a camera operator, staying by his side when he needed him most. With his father there, he could be fearless. “I would just think about where I was at psychologically in June and July, how insurmountable the task seemed to me,” says O’Brien. “And then just to be there on the last day knowing that I did it, with my dad there at my side, it was just a really, really great feeling.”

“He’s in a good place now,” says Patrick. “And nothing makes a parent happier.”

…………………………

O’Brien doesn’t sugarcoat his recovery. Sitting in front of me at lunch, he looks every inch the movie star he was before: hair tousled, eyes bright, his face covered only by stubble. He is candid about what it took to get to this point, though, and even after filming American Assassin, the question remained: Was he ready to finish Maze Runner: The Death Cure, putting to bed the series that had given him so much and taken plenty, too?

“Nothing inside of you wants to go back to that,” O’Brien admits. “It took a lot of deep searching past those gut instincts that I was having just because of the trauma that I experienced to realize that I did want to finish it.”

Did he consider asking the studio to move on without him? “I wouldn’t have been ultimately happy with that, I don’t think. In the moment, it would have been a temporary relief because I would have run from it, but it would have always stuck with me a little bit … I knew it was going to be really hard, harder than Assassin probably, but [I thought] if I got through that, I can get through this, and I think I’ll come out of the other side being really happy that I did it. And I did.”

He resumed filming The Death Cure in March, which is now set for release in January 2018. His father followed him to South Africa, where the movie was shot, and was made a co-producer on the film; O’Brien now counts it among his best experiences on a project. He even found time to return to the final season of Teen Wolf, which had written around his absence while he recovered. The series finale of that show will air on September 24, and soon enough, every obligation O’Brien had set before his accident will be behind him.

“Coming out of the other side of all this is basically a whole new chapter, and I think I will be going about it differently,” he says. “I’m excited to have more balance going forward. Like, I’m not somebody I don’t think who’s going to do three or four movies a year and feel like I have to constantly pump them out. I think there’s something to be said about pacing yourself.”

In the meantime, he’s bought his first house, which gives him a little stability in an uncertain industry. He recently threw a party there to celebrate his 26th birthday — “It turned into more of a rager than I intended it to be,” he laughs — and an hour into it, O’Brien and his friends were already jumping off the roof into his pool. It’s a future that he could not have imagined just a year and a half ago.

“I’m excited to see what comes my way, see what I’m interested in next, and just see what happens,” says O’Brien. After Teen Wolf and The Maze Runner conclude, it’s wide-open space. “It’s the first time that I’ll be operating in my career without those two roles, really.”

He thinks about it and smiles. “It’s good, though, to not have that safety net.”

[source: Vulture]

#wow #dylan o'brien #american assassin #this was really hard to read #article #vulture #accident #recovery #patrick o'brien #michael cuesta #scruffysterekposts

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bthenoise · 5 years ago

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Yes, Another Decade Recap List: These Are The 16 Most Impactful Records of the 2010′s

Look, to be honest, when it came to constructing some sort of “end of decade” list looking back on the 2010′s, we here at The Noise really had no idea what we wanted to do.

With literally hundreds and hundreds of amazing releases over the last 10 years, how in the world are we supposed to pick “the best” of the decade?

The answer: We aren’t.

See, the idea of something being labeled “the best” is subjective. It’s simply one person’s opinion vs the other. And truthfully, the idea of us thinking our opinion on something is any better or more important than yours makes us look like a bunch of assholes.

Really, who cares what we think is the best?

So, after constructing a colossal playlist featuring 1000 of our favorite songs from the 2010′s, something became very clear to us. Of all the songs we picked, there were a handful of records that contributed way more songs than the others.

Simply put, these albums made a lasting mark on this decade that go way deeper than them being any good or not. These particular albums helped influence a generation, jumpstart artists’ careers and ultimately solidify themselves as the most impactful releases of the 2010′s.

The albums we decided to shine a light on from the last ten years are records that carry more weight than just being a fan-favorite. We’re talking about releases we’ll look back on as a moment where everything changed for that artist.

To check out the 16 albums we think are the biggest movers and shakers from our scene over the last ten years, be sure to look below. Afterward, if you hate our list and really want to tell us your opinion, you can file a complaint at: [email protected].

16) Movements - Feel Something

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Starting our list off is a debut record from 2017 that helped propel a band from opening act to headliner in no time. With an impressive six-track EP released the year prior, SoCal act Movements quickly solidified their emerging star status with their flawless LP Feel Something. Following their first-ever full-length, Movements went on to sell out 27 dates of their first headlining tour and perform on the main stage of the final cross country Warped Tour. With a new album on the horizon, we’ll see just how far Movements and their unique brand of alternative pop-punk are able to take things leading into a new decade.

15) Dance Gavin Dance - Acceptance Speech

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How does a band with two former frontmen and four fantastic LPs continue to thrive eight years into their career? Enter, Tilian Pearson. Following another departure of original vocalist Jonny Craig, post-hardcore experimentalists Dance Gavin Dance turned to the former Tides Of Man singer to handle the vacant role of clean vocals. The result? The game-changing release of Acceptance Speech which helped spring-board the band to another level of musical perfection. Six years and three more genre-defining albums later, DGD and Pearson are still going strong gearing up to headline their own hometown festival and release their ninth full-length album all thanks in part to their 2013 LP.

14) Ice Nine Kills - The Silver Scream

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Coming in as the most recent record on our list, this horror-based release will be seen as the turning point in a band’s seasoned tenure. After 10-plus years of honing their craft, Boston’s Ice Nine Kills finally saw the fruits of their labor with the groundbreaking, career-defining album The Silver Scream. Taking the passion of metalheads and scary movie fanatics and combining them into a blood-soaked, breakdown-heavy package, Ice Nine Kills constructed a record that will easily withstand the test of time and help them extend their careers well into the 2020′s.

13) Code Orange - I Am King

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Dropping the “Kids” from their moniker and shifting gears into their first album as just Code Orange, the Pittsburgh bruisers constructed an unrelenting metal record that shook listeners to their core. With a punishing opening track that literally warns you about what you’re about to experience, it was pretty evident I Am King was unlike anything people have ever heard. Coupled with the mind-altering “Dreams In Inertia” and the utterly pulverizing “My World,” Code Orange quickly and deservingly so became the metal megastars they were destined to become.

12) Ghost - Meliora

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Speaking of metal megastars, after slowly creating word-of-mouth with their cult-like presence, throwback metal sounds and revolving door of Papa Emeritus frontmen, Sweedish act Ghost finally put it all together with their third studio album Meliora. Lead by the Grammy-winning single “Cirice,” Meliora fused haunting heavy metal imagery with roaring and anthemic songwriting creating the perfect package of evil-yet-accessible music. Debuting at number 8 on the Billboard 200 chart selling an estimated 29,000 copies in its first week, it was clear no matter which Papa was fronting the band, Ghost was ready to claim their spot atop the metal hierarchy.

11) Issues - Issues

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Not many bands can say that their first full-length album debuted inside the top ten of the Billboard 200. But then again, not many bands are Issues. Fusing djent, hip-hop, metal, pop-punk, R&B and more to create their sensational self-titled album, Issues proved they were more than just a band featuring former members of Woe, Is Me. Instead, Issues showcased a group of talented, trendsetting musicians destined to change the landscape of metalcore music for the better.

10) I Prevail - Lifelines

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After a famed cover of a well-known pop artist quickly put them on the map, Detroit’s I Prevail instantly had all the pressure in the world as they started to create what would be their debut album. Riding the success of their first EP Heart Vs Mind and tours with the likes of Hollywood Undead, Crown The Empire and Pop Evil, the Michigan act suddenly shot to the top of the metalcore ranks with the release of their remarkable, sonically-charged LP Lifelines. Charting at number 15 on the Billboard 200 selling over 19,000 copies in the first week, I Prevail went on to play Warped Tour for the first time -- finding a home on the main stage -- and later headlined the Rage On The Stage tour with scene veterans We Came As Romans, The Word Alive and Escape The Fate. Now Grammy-nominated and continuing to grow even larger, thanks in part to the accomplishments of Lifelines, I Prevail is without-a-doubt one of our scene’s biggest acts.

09) PVRIS - White Noise

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In the midst of metalcore’s supremacy in the Warped Tour scene -- thanks to the never-ending list of “Risecore” bands -- came an act no one saw coming. Featured on a roster with the likes of Memphis May Fire, Miss May I, Like Moths To Flames, Crown The Empire and more was a pop-savvy, synth-lead baby band mistakenly pronounced “p-ver-is.” With their infectious, critically acclaimed debut White Noise landing at number 88 on Billboard and totaling nearly 50 million YouTube views on its TEN music videos, PVRIS proved it was possible to make an impact in this community with sheer talent, hard work, and catchy-as-hell lyricism. After just one listen to the undeniably great lead single “St. Patrick,” you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.

08) Knocked Loose - Laugh Tracks

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15 years from now, if we haven’t burnt the earth to the ground yet, we’ll look back on the Laugh Tracks era of Knocked Loose and remember where we were -- you know, because by 2034 Knocked Loose will be one of the biggest bands on the planet. Anyway, for us, the most memorable moment was watching them play “Billy No Mates” on the 2017 Vans Warped Tour at the Full Sail Stage. It was easily the largest and most insane side stage set we had ever seen in our 10 years of attending Warped Tour. From that very moment, we knew Knocked Loose and Laugh Tracks were going to be a big deal. Fast forward to 2019 and the band is now selling out 2,000-capacity venues on a semi-nightly basis. 2034 here we come!

07) Beartooth - Disgusting

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Very rarely does a member of a former band make it bigger with his second act. In those situations though, those people aren’t Caleb Shomo. Venturing out from his teenage band Attack Attack!, Shomo started Beartooth as a fun project with zero expectations of anything blowing up. Little did he know after building buzz with his chaotic 2013 EP Sick, Beartooth was about to take things to a whole nother level with the release of their massive breakout LP Disgusting. Fiery and fearsome from start to finish and full of nothing but hits like “In Between,” "The Lines” and “Beaten In Lips,” Disgusting is definitely the fuse that lit Beartooth’s outstanding career.

06) Every Time I Die - Low Teens

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How does a hardcore band 18 years into a well-respected career keep things relevant and progressing to a point where they’re anointed into “cult” status? Well, how about releasing their darkest, most emotionally charged album of their discography. After a life-altering scare to frontman Keith Buckley and his family, the longtime vocalist constructed some of his deepest and most honest lyrics for Every Time I Die’s soul-crushing LP Low Teens. Featuring guest vocals from Deadguy’s Tim Singer and Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie (plus their most moving song to date “Map Change”), ETID showed off their versatility with their eighth studio album and were treated to a successful two-year touring cycle with the likes of Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, Motionless In White and Turnstile as well as a memorable run on the last-ever Vans Warped Tour. Not to mention, following the success of Low Teens, the band’s hometown of Buffalo, NY officially proclaimed December 15th, 2018 as “Every Time I Die Day” and a year later inducted them into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame.

05) Of Mice & Men - Restoring Force

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While some may point to 2011′s The Flood as the record that “broke” scene-favorites Of Mice & Men and others might argue their debut self-titled release was what laid the foundation for one of this decade’s most successful acts, we’d like to focus on 2014. Continuing to climb the metalcore ranks following the release of two very well-received records, Austin Carlile and Co. put out their career-changing LP Restoring Force featuring new bassist and clean vocalist Aaron Pauley. Laying to rest any displeasure about their changes in sound or lineup, Of Mice & Men went on to sell over 51,000 copies in the first week peaking at number 4 on the Billboard 200. Riding the success of their third full-length album, OM&M later went on to support bands like Linkin Park and Rise Against out on tour thus solidifying their spot as one of the biggest metalcore acts of the 2010′s.

04) A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy

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Some people remember A Day To Remember’s Common Courtesy for different reasons. Maybe it was the hilarious “reality series” made to promote the record -- the “Golden Eagle” episode was our favorite! Or maybe it was the seemingly never-ending lawsuit battle between the band and the notoriously greedy Victory Records -- we’ll never forget when ADTR broke the news on stage that the album was actually coming. For us, what we remember most was the first time we saw the music video for “Right Back At It Again.” We watched that goofy, cartoony music video 500 times trying to catch all the different things they put in the video -- like did you ever notice the surfing dog or aliens abducting cows? Well, whatever it was that got you to check out Common Courtesy, there’s no denying the impact it had on A Day To Remember’s career as the Ocala natives have only gotten even bigger since that 2013 release. With a new album on the way from the not-at-all-greedy Fueled By Ramen, it’ll be exciting to see where the 2020′s take ADTR next.

03) Architects - Holy Hell

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With all the biopics being made today, there is no doubt in our mind one will be made about Brighton’s finest, Architects. With an already established career under their belts dating back to 2006, the band was continuing to see growth following their signing to Epitaph Records and the release of breathtaking LPs Lost Forever // Lost Together and All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us. Then, just like that, on August 20th, 2016 founding guitarist and primary songwriter Tom Searle lost his fight with cancer. Leaving the band in an obvious state of disarray after losing their bandmate and brethren, Architects were left with the choice of giving up or continuing Tom’s legacy. As with most biopics, this story has a positive ending as Architects decided to fight through the pain and ultimately release not just one of the best records of their career but one of the best records in metalcore, period.

02) Bring Me The Horizon - That’s The Spirit

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This can go one of two ways: You either accept That’s The Spirit is Bring Me The Horizon’s most impactful career-defining record to date or fight with us to the death that Sempiternal is deserving of this spot. Either way, there’s no denying Bring Me The Horizon’s influence on this decade. With their boundary-pushing LP That’s The Spirit, frontman Oli Sykes traded his growl for more of a pop-laced bite as BMTH ushered in their most successful era as a band seeing their fifth studio album land at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Still doubting That’s The Sprit’s impact on the scene? In 2018, only three years after its release, the gold-certified record amassed over one BILLION Spotify streams -- billion, with a B!

01) Pierce The Veil - Collide With The Sky

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Want to talk about a life-changing album? For San Diego scenesters Pierce The Veil, the famed four-piece went from a successful slow-building career to becoming a full-blown force with their third full-length record. Building off two well-received albums in A Flair For The Dramatic and Selfish Machines, Vic Fuentes and Co. (with the help of a Kellin Quinn-featured song) absolutely exploded into another stratosphere -- no pun intended -- with their now-gold-certified album Collide With The Sky. Lead by their platinum-selling single “King For A Day” and their Spanish-styled song “Bulls In The Bronx,” Pierce The Veil took the scene by storm thanks to their angsty, heart-pounding Fearless Records debut.

Honorable Mentions:

Deafheaven - Sunbather Falling In Reverse - The Drug In Me Is You Neck Deep - Life’s Not Out To Get You Nothing More - The Stories We Tell Ourselves PUP - PUP State Champs - Around The World And Back The Amity Affliction - Let The Ocean Take Me The Story So Far - What You Don’t See The Wonder Years - The Greatest Generation Wage War - Blueprints

#Best Of #Pierce The Veil #Bring Me The Horizon #Architects #A Day To Remember #Of Mice and Men #Every Time I Die #Beartooth #Knocked Loose #PVRIS #I Prevail #Ghost #Code Orange #Ice Nine Kills #Dance Gavin Dance #Movements

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topfygad · 5 years ago

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How Cleveland Reinvented Itself (and Helped Clean Up America)

“Wait. Cleveland’s river did what?”

There aren’t many cities on the planet that will be prepared to have a good time the 50th anniversary of their most notorious piece of historical past, an environmental catastrophe that turned nationwide information—however that’s what Cleveland is doing proper now.

Besides that’s not likely what it’s celebrating in any respect. It’s really memorializing what occurred afterwards, in these 50 intervening years.

It’s one of many biggest city renewal tales in U.S. historical past, and the creation of an thrilling, welcoming trendy metropolis that its residents might be pleased with, which I explored firsthand as a visitor of Vacation spot Cleveland.

It’s about how one metropolis’s instance helped a whole nation clear up its pure treasures, for generations like mine to take pleasure in. In case you’re a traveler based mostly within the States, and you like exploring America’s wild locations, you owe this metropolis numerous thanks. As my journey round Cleveland confirmed, it’s that necessary a narrative.

And above all, this story is about learn how to use your historical past, proudly and properly, to appropriate errors and make a greater future for everybody. Cleveland is celebrating how a lot it’s achieved to alter itself for the higher in that half-century—and as my journey confirmed me, the quantity it has modified is staggering.

In case you knew what this metropolis was like 50 years in the past and also you noticed it at this time, you’d must pinch your self. You’d by no means have guessed Cleveland’s Cuyahoga river, as soon as the supply of town’s biggest disgrace, might in the future be voted River of the Yr, out of all of the waterways in the entire nation, by the American Rivers Conservation Affiliation. However that’s precisely what occurred this yr.

The standard better of town has by no means seemed higher, and the worst has gone without end.

Cleveland’s story of restoration, renewal and conservation is a narrative everybody must know—and all of it revolves round what occurred on that river on that one sizzling summer season day in 1969.

Right here’s how the entire story performed out.

From Common Metropolis on the River to “Mistake on the Lake”

The town will get its identify from Basic Moses Cleaveland, whose surveyors based the place in 1796. The “a” was dropped in 1931— allegedly as a result of an area newspaper couldn’t match “The Cleaveland Advertiser” on its masthead and wanted to save lots of house. The brand new identify caught.

On the time of Cleveland’s founding, Ohio nonetheless hadn’t formally been declared the 17th of the freshly-minted United States Of America. And, because of a collection of oversights, this finally needed to be achieved in 1953 (!), underneath the signature of President Eisenhower to retroactively admit Ohio into the Union.

In a sensible sense, nonetheless, Cleveland was instantly of important significance for the success of the brand new nation. At a time when water was the one technique to shift heavy items effectively, Cleveland had entry to the Nice Lakes, connecting routes east, west, north and south, and sparking a increase in native canal constructing and, later, railway observe laying.

By the 20 century, Cleveland was each one in all America’s nice manufacturing cities and a extremely eye-catching place to discover, because of the 1920s structure that gave delivery to The Mall and the city-beautifying plan it was a part of.

Cleveland survived the pressures of mass-immigration; it survived the 1929 crash and the Melancholy; and it seemed to affirm its standing as one of many United States’ nice outdated cities.

Then it began falling aside.

The native economic system slowed down, employment turned precarious, there was little cash accessible to enhance town’s seems to be and all that trade began taking a horrible toll on the panorama, fouling the soil and town’s waterways with pollution of every kind.

On the morning of June 22nd, 1969, the unthinkable occurred.

The rubbish-covered river caught fireplace.

How one can Set a River on Fireplace

In case your response is “how on earth can a river catch fireplace?” you’re echoing the ideas of a complete nation.

The story ran in TIME journal on August 1st, 1969, and it sparked a nationwide outcry. It was the right instance of how far the nation’s environmental requirements had slipped. It was a supply of nationwide disgrace. It was an indication that one thing needed to be achieved.

So simply think about how Cleveland felt. Think about the embarrassment. Your metropolis’s river was so soiled with oil and particles that it caught fireplace? Oh man.

However Cleveland had already spent greater than a decade realizing it had an enormous drawback. The fireplace of 1969 was small compared to the one which roared down the Cuyahoga river in 1952. That one triggered over $1 million in injury, to boats, bridges, waterfronts—and town’s sense of civic satisfaction. There had additionally been different fires since then. A burning river in Cleveland definitely wasn’t a brand new factor.

The distinction in 1969 was that it turned nationwide information, partly because of the brand new metropolis mayor, Carl Stokes. He was pushing a $100-million cleanup program. And the 1969 fireplace was the right instance of why it was wanted.

He did his greatest to publicize the story, and regardless of little protection within the native media, it caught the eye of TIME journal, which was searching for a suitably dramatic story to launch its “Surroundings” part. It ran an article utilizing a photograph from the way more dramatic 1952 fireplace.

Instantly, Cleveland had one thing to say concerning the nation’s rivers as a complete.

How one can Clear up an Complete Nation

In 1969, the river was too polluted to carry a lot life, and a protracted stretch of it working into town middle was solely empty of fish. At the moment, over 60 species of fish swim alongside the Cuyahoga, and in March of this yr, they’re all suitable for eating—a direct results of that $100-million clean-up plan and the whole lot it had kickstarted.

In distinction, the federal funds for water high quality and air pollution management for the entire of the US in 1968 was simply $180 million. Cleveland turned the poster-boy for a way polluted cities might flip issues round, in the event that they acquired the proper of funding.

It sparked a nationwide renaissance in city river renewal. It led on to the passing of the 1972 Clear Water Act. And it turned a part of the stress put upon the federal government to create a company that would administer to the nation’s environmental issues, which turned the Environmental Safety Company, fashioned in 1970.

That’s Cleveland’s reward to the remainder of the nation. But it surely has had essentially the most affect at residence, as a result of at this time, Cleveland is secure, clear and completely attractive.

One of the best cause to go to Cleveland at this time isn’t to immerse your self in its historical past. It’s to take pleasure in what Cleveland has turn out to be—and see the way it used that historical past to encourage huge adjustments which have allowed it to redefine itself as one in all America’s biggest cities.

A Metropolis Redefined

Fifty years in the past, Downtown Cleveland was in noticeable decline. Large areas of town had been ghost cities, and its parks had been shabby and poorly saved. Heavy trade was collapsing in on itself, and the individuals counting on weak jobs had been taking a look at a bleak future.

(Plus, you understand, the river was on precise fireplace.)

However that dystopian future by no means got here.

Cleveland took a take a look at its downward trajectory and steered a brand new course, turning itself right into a poster-boy for city renewal and cutting-edge environmental reform.

The Cleveland of at this time is what occurs if you happen to begin caring about the place you reside. There’s masses to see and to discover, there’s wonderful meals, there’s a clear river teeming with fish and there’s an unlimited nationwide park to get your self misplaced in.

However to know trendy Cleveland, it’s a must to begin with the music.

Cleveland’s Music Scene Rocks Laborious

The Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame is the satisfaction and pleasure of Cleveland. You see, Cleveland was the place a number of the largest rock & roll stars of the 1960s and 1970s broke into the mainstream—and the place the time period “rock & roll” first got here into being, because of Cleveland DJ Alan Freed someday within the early 1950s.

The listing of musicians who launched their music careers in Cleveland is a who’s-who of all-time greats:

Bruce Springsteen

David Bowie

Roxy Music

Rush

Then there are the massive names really from Cleveland:

Tracy Chapman

the James Gang

Dean Martin

Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders

Trent Reznor

9 Inch Nails…

Ohio has all the time been a fertile place for storage bands, heavy steel, punk, indie and energy pop. However Cleveland is the place newcomers discovered sufficient golf equipment hungry for brand new expertise to get their careers began. Musical entrepreneurship is baked into town’s social scene, and each membership appears to have a narrative about “that point [some famous musician] performed a gig right here.”

Even at this time, Cleveland is busily trying to find the subsequent huge breakout act in well-liked music—and reveals no indicators of slowing down.

So what higher place for a museum celebrating one of the best of rock?

We’ve Received the Music—Now The place’s the Beer?

With a love of music, inevitably, comes a love of excellent beer—and Cleveland’s craft beer scene isone of essentially the most thrilling within the nation. (It’s now fourth in GQ journal’s listing of the highest 5 beer cities in America.)

On reflection, it appears an inevitable path for town to go in. Take a considerably rundown metropolis within the late 1960s with uncared for areas crammed with derelict buildings, and add numerous beer-making visionaries to fill them up once more.

As town transformed empty factories and workplace areas into lofts, eating places and retail areas of every kind, two Irish brothers with restricted brewing expertise took an opportunity on a neighborhood in want of a facelift.

And Nice Lakes Brewing (2516 Market Avenue) was born in 1988.

At Collision Bend on the Cuyahoga river, named after the precision required by barge-pilots to barter a really sharp bend within the river, brew grasp Luke Purcell discovered a spot appropriate to start out a brand new form of brewery. Recent from success serving to launch Nice Lakes Brewing to nationwide fame, Purcell wished someplace with hanging decor and a surprising view of the river to go with handcrafted beer and regionally sourced dishes.

The end result was Collision Bend Brewery (1250 Previous River Rd) – and it’s by no means been so well-liked as it’s at this time. In 2018, Collision Bend was named one of the best brewpub within the nation, in USA At the moment‘s 10Greatest Readers Selection competitors.

The breweries are nonetheless arriving. Because the “brewery district” attracted experience to the area round Nice Lakes Brewing, new firms sprung as much as meet the demand. One was Market Backyard Brewery (3418, 1947 W 25th St.) which is making nice strides after increasing in 2016, with 12 varieties normally on faucet and, its later addition, a sister brewpub in Ohio Metropolis.

Additional afield, Hansa Import Home turned the house for Hansa Brewery.

Platform Brewery (Lorain and W 42st St.) opened in 2014, Brick & Barrel (Flats) arrived in 2015 and Forest Metropolis Brewery (Duck Island) opened in 2016.

All This Music and Beer Is Making Me Hungry

Based on TIME Journal, Cleveland is now America’s seventh greatest metropolis for meals—and it appears eager to rise even additional up the ranks in future. The meals scene is admittedly sizzling proper now, with bustling meals halls, stylish bars and road meals, in addition to award-winning worldwide delicacies on provide if you understand the place to look.

The Meals Community’s Michael Symon will get numerous credit score for kickstarting Cleveland’s meals scene, and yow will discover his Lola Bistro at 2058, East 4th Avenue. (Nonetheless, it’s normally as busy as you’d think about, so it’s greatest to name forward.)

Take an important meal of the day (it’s no good making an attempt to discover Cleveland on an empty abdomen). Of the handfuls of classy new fresh-food cafes to select from, REBOL (101 W Superior Ave) is on the high of the listing. It has nice breakfast choices with vegan, paleo, keto and gluten-free choices aplenty, with a pleasant line in refined-sugar-free dressings and superfood smoothies. It additionally serves nice espresso (I can suggest toxin-free Bulletproof or their very own in-house mix).

In case you can’t get your self there in time, Restore Chilly Pressed (1001 Huron Rd. E) is constructed round serving beautifully refreshing fruit and vegetable juices, freshly-prepared that morning or made to order as you wait—with vegan and keto/paleo-friendly gadgets accessible.

Lunch in Cleveland is a chance to relaxation your toes and lounge away the recent noonside hours with a very good view. If that’s what you’re after, TownHall (1909 W 25th St.) affords traditional American dishes with vegetarian, vegan and non-GMO choices. They’re delivered with a courtyard and plentiful indoor and out of doors seating for resting your aching toes after a tough morning of sightseeing.

Or possibly you simply need an indie rock & roll-style story to go, by which case, head to BEET JAR (1432 W. 29th St.), purveyors of natural juices and wholesome takeaway. BEET JAR boasts some of the delightfully scrappy back-stories you’ll hear in Cleveland’s meals scene:

“Throughout buildout, we paid a few of our building employees in home-cooked meals, like Pierogi and kale chips, since we didn’t have a lot of a funds. It’s no secret that Beet Jar practically didn’t occur due to our lack of funding. We took satisfaction in our wrestle and did what wanted to be achieved.”

For one thing a bit of totally different, Anna within the Uncooked (1360 East ninth Avenue within the IMG Constructing Foyer) advertises itself as promoting “the one chef-designed juice and uncooked line within the nation,” providing wholesome choices which were engineered for taste, not only for the healthiness of their elements (though that, too).

Dinner at Spice Kitchen

And on the finish of the day, if you happen to can’t get your self a desk at Symon’s Lola Bistro, attempt Spice Kitchen & Bar, a classy and rustic American restaurant with seasonal, native elements and modern cocktails.

Or if you happen to’re feeling Italian, attempt Luca’s Italian (2100 Superior By way of), which has a deliciously European environment in a restaurant that serves essentially the most genuine of great-tasting Italian meals, with a spectacular view of Cleveland as a backdrop.

And, in fact, no journey to Cleveland is full with no cease at Mitchell’s Ice Cream!

Burn it off Open air…

Trekking within the Cuyahoga Nationwide Park

If adventuring via the Nice Open air is your factor—and I’m guessing it’s, if you happen to’re an everyday reader—this would be the spotlight of your journey.

Cleveland’s newly pristine surroundings is its satisfaction and pleasure, and the centerpoint of the 50th anniversary celebrations. There are occasions working all through 2019 (particulars right here). However the simplest way you’ll be able to see Cleveland’s pure bounty for your self is to get out of town, take the street in direction of Akron and maintain going till the whole lot turns unexpectedly, spectacularly inexperienced.

The Cuyahoga Valley Nationwide Park—the one nationwide park in Ohio, as from the yr 2000—is unfold over 33,000 acres between Cleveland and Akron. It borders the identical stretch of the Cuyahoga river that was once empty of fish within the 1960s.

These days, it’s a pure paradise—a spot of forest-covered hills, plunging ravines, sprawling wetlands, rivers and waterfalls.

An early morning at Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga Nationwide Park

There are over 125 miles of trails crisscrossing this panorama, with the 21 miles of the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Path forming the primary thoroughfare for trekkers.

Brandywine Falls is probably its loveliest spot. And The Ledges, a path winding via million-year-old rock formations within the Virginia Kendall Park, is a soothing afternoon’s stroll (2.5 miles) that reveals you numerous the park’s pure magnificence with no need numerous effort.

Kayaking on the River

Given its historical past, it is sensible that one of the best view of lakeside Cleveland is from the water. There are many pleasure-boat rental choices accessible. However in order for you a extra adventurous afternoon on the waves, you actually need to get your self in a kayak.

It’s first come, first served at Nice Lakes Watersports, that means you’ll be able to’t e book forward. For that reason, I’d suggest dodging the crowds (and the warmth, if the solar’s out in full power) by turning up very first thing within the morning.

When you’re away, you have got the entire mouth of the river at your disposal, the place Cuyahoha meets the seemingly infinite expanse of Lake Erie—with one of the best view of Cleveland’s skyline as your backdrop.

A Metropolis Again From the Brink—and Higher Than Ever

There are many classes to be realized right here, not only for the remainder of the US, but additionally for our planet as a complete.

Horrifying environmental points? Okay. Then one thing have to be achieved—giving up is just not an choice, as a result of one thing can all the time be achieved. And Cleveland proves this.

Cleveland is a superb instance of how dedication and help can flip a metropolis round. It’s a metropolis again from the brink that’s, at this time, thriving in a method no person would have ever anticipated. And it has a extremely vivid future forward of it, too.

Briefly: It’s a metropolis that reveals what’s doable for any of our cities.

Thanks for choosing the proper future for your self, Cleveland. It’s one thing you’ll be able to actually be pleased with.

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godiva640vbucks-blog · 6 years ago

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11 Solutions to Completely Sabotage Your vbucks fortnite cost-free

Gamers, younger kinds in any case, don’t seem to be to notice this sort of things. They’re immediately after assault rifles (preferably the Legendary SCAR), pump shotguns, bolt-action sniper rifles (the scope is actually a boon), chug jugs, slurp juices, bandages, medkits, and protect potions. They see, and covet, skins that search cool but have no bearing on video game play; for 20 bucks, you are able to don the Leviathan or even the Raven. Or they fixate on dance moves, the so-called victory emotes you may have your avatar carry out, in the heat of struggle or following a destroy. The Floss, the Contemporary, the Squat Kick, the Wiggle—these have spilled out into the planet. You may see individuals around you, or Qualified athletes on Television set, breaking into Bizarre dances. The just one often called Go ahead and take L is significant nowadays during the Bundesliga and at Moment Maid Park.

V BUCKS WITHOUT VERIFICATION

Loads of completed avid gamers glance down their noses at Fortnite, just how, Most likely, that some jazz and blues diehards, in 1964, dismissed the Beatles. The dances, the alliterative place-names, the dearth of real postapocalyptic menace: these can reveal a lack of seriousness that to some looks spell-breaking. A classmate of Gizzard Lizard’s, ZenoMachine, a gamer for lengthier than looks plausible (he started enjoying Workforce Fortress two in kindergarten and now develops his have games), is the eighth quality’s resident Fortnite Scrooge. “For starters, I’m not a enthusiast of the polygons,” ZenoMachine explained to me. We were with a park bench, following faculty—a uncommon strike of sunlight. “It's a Hello-res texture but low-res polygons.” Gizzard Lizard experienced warned me that I wouldn’t realize ZenoMachine, but I gathered that he was critiquing the game’s aesthetics. He liked a realer search. He objected to particular inconsistencies. The pickaxe, as an example, which players use to demolish partitions and structures, leads to Virtually no damage to other players for a weapon. “How can that be?” he reported. “I see why quite a bit of people like Fortnite. It targets players who aren’t skilled. Nonetheless it violates the guidelines of regularity.” He reported that The 1st time he performed he won—by hiding out until finally Absolutely everyone else experienced essentially been killed off. This is recognized as tenting, which is frowned upon by common players. “If a thing as simple as player preference influences another gamers’ knowledge, you’ve bought a layout flaw,” ZenoMachine stated.

ZenoMachine develops his own games employing a platform known as the Unreal Motor. Fortnite, since it transpires, is developed around the Unreal Engine, much too. The sport is the generation of a firm identified as Epic Game titles, dependent exterior Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1998, Epic unveiled a primary-human being shooter termed Unreal, which relished only average good results but which, Pretty much accidentally, had an enduring influence over the evolution of video games. Epic employed Unreal’s underlying architecture, plus some of its elements, for making what came to become often known as the Unreal Engine, a essential platform that supports all way of online games, be they shooters, brawlers, platformers, or sandbox R.P.G.s. It’s mainly a set of instruments that builders can use to structure and Develop game titles along with other simulations. Rather than starting from scratch in, say, C++, the favored graphic-coding language, impartial builders and other firms use the Unreal Engine to make their particular game titles. (The licensing with the motor, consequently, presents Epic the income move to commit time and assets to the event of strike game titles like Fortnite.) Annually, Epic makes use of existing online games, some of them all but neglected, to soup up the Unreal Engine, to ensure that it could possibly deal with an at any time much more advanced assortment of requires. Fortnite was the main Unreal Engine four release. Among other points, Epic needed to adapt the motor that will help its servers accommodate the huge quantity of facts that must be processed instantaneously when 100 gamers are competing in just one Fight Royale round. The query of which steps impact Other folks, and from what distance, on this huge storm-sieged island—the outdated if-then challenge—is a great deal more intricate than it would appear.

“Think of Fortnite as a visual type of media,” Jamin Warren, the editor of the lifestyle-and-gaming journal Kill Display, explained to me. Whatsoever Fortnite’s attract as being a recreation to Enjoy, It's also evidently the most beguiling one to watch. As video clip-activity spectatorship fills arenas, and siphons a generation away from precise sporting activities, Fortnite is now by far the most viewed video game on YouTube—by March, there had been Pretty much three billion sights from the countless classes that gamers experienced uploaded—and the highest activity on Twitch, the streaming System. Observing isn’t just for spazzes any more. “It’s made a kind of global arcade,” Warren explained. “Rather than a few kids hunting in excess of the shoulder of the new-shot more mature brother or whatsoever, down within the shopping mall, you've got a lot of persons looking at, and the individual actively playing the sport is actually a millionaire.”

The medium’s breakout star is called Ninja. He is a former Specialist Halo participant named Tyler Blevins, that has mentioned that he tends to make a lot more than fifty percent one million dollars a month by streaming his Fortnite classes, and his free of charge-associative commentary, on Twitch (which is owned by Amazon). His YouTube channel has much more than 10 million subscribers. Final month, he hosted a Fortnite Event in Las Vegas, within an e-sports activities arena, and Practically 7 hundred thousand people tuned in to his Twitch stream. I’ve listened to lots of teens check with him as America’s most important entertainer—which is not as hyperbolic because it Appears. In April, Ninja rated higher than any athlete on the earth in “social interactions,” a measure of social-media likes, opinions, shares, and views. Cristiano Ronaldo was No. 2. In March, Ninja consented to the Fortnite session with Drake.

Blevins, that is 20-6, arises from outdoors Detroit and lives in close proximity to Chicago (he received’t say where by) together with his wife, who handles his small business affairs. He streams 10 to fourteen hours daily, commonly from about 9 A.M. to three P.M. after which from 6 P.M. right up until Anytime. All told, he logs about 300 several hours a month. What one particular sees is his game display, with his avatar in what ever skin he has selected, and, within an inset, a perpetual shot of Blevins himself. A ninja headband girds a Bieber-ish shock of hair that he dyes diverse hues: emerald green, platinum, yellow. He’s a lean, boyish dude who seems to make an hard work to keep up some semblance of a smile all the time. His spiel is goofy, caffeinated, and moderately cocky. He does impressions. In March, he was mumbling some rap lyrics as he played, and in some way the word “indica” arrived out because the N-term. Amid the backlash, he apologized, form of, and, when it came time for me to speak to him final week, his manager’s just one condition was which i not request him over it, as he’d by now explained what there was to state, which was, in part, “I promise that there was no mal intent (I wasn’t even wanting to say the term—I fumbled lyrics and acquired tongue-tied in the worst doable way).” A scrupulous journalist might need identified as from the job interview, even so the teenagers I’d been speaking to with regards to the game were being so amazed that I'd speak with Ninja that I caved. At the last second, nevertheless, Ninja bailed, professing illness. Burn! (“I’m pretty guaranteed which was BS,” a kind of teenagers texted me. “I believe he was streaming nowadays.”) At any price, Ninja’s sensitivity is a sign that gamers like him are getting into the mainstream. They've to look at what they say.

Onscreen, the millionaire maintains the environs of the gamer boy. The digital camera usually takes within an acoustic-tile ceiling, wall-to-wall carpeting, bare drywall, plus a fourposter bed. There’s a framed Detroit Lions poster propped against a wall, alongside a mini-fridge stocked with Purple Bull. Ninja can be a lifelong gamer, but he would make a degree to remind his followers, lest they get the fall-almost everything bug, that he did properly in school, played soccer and other sporting activities, concluded college though holding down a job at Noodles & Business, and in some cases appeared, together with his spouse and children, on “Household Feud.” The sport ability is legit. He wins some thing like fifty percent with the countless video games he performs every single 7 days, from all comers. He’s a crack shot and has a nose for the high floor. As often as not, it seems he’s hardly paying attention. He’s looking at fans’ messages out loud, similar to a speak-radio host, or jabbering with Yet another Fortnite star, such as Dr. Lupo or KingRichard, if they’ve teamed up for just a match or two: “The recoil on this issue is stupid”; “You mentioned you experienced an entire shield, ass”; “So hold my dick”; “That male was trying to consume a chug jug. What a noob.” All accompanied by occasional bursts of gunfire. “To anyone looking at the stream, I hope you guys are taking pleasure in the information, man.”

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Gizzard Lizard’s shoot-out in Tomato Town passed off on the last night time of April, which was the last night time of Time 3. Anticipation was operating higher. One of many ingenious improvements of Fortnite is to introduce seasons of about two months, as with a cable-television sequence, also to combine new plot and recreation factors. (Previous week, within a crossover masterstroke, Thanos, the indestructible villain of The brand new Avengers Motion picture, dropped in on the game—that is, gamers could adopt a Thanos pores and skin—and so, for some time, the Fortnite established gleefully schooled numerous Thanoses in a way the Avengers could not.) On April 30th, a comet that were hovering more than the island was designed to strike right after midnight. For days, meteors had been showering the sport. Teasers—the newest getting “brace for effect”—had influenced a raft of speculation and conspiracy theories. To start with, individuals anticipated the comet to strike the crowded urban placing often called Tilted Towers, but some clues led Other individuals to predict, correctly, that the comet would wipe out Dusty Depot, which was thereafter to generally be referred to as Dusty Divot.

It absolutely was challenging to do research on an evening such as this; Gizzard Lizard returned to the sport. He played over a Personal computer he’d designed in school. It didn’t Have got a graphics card. He’d never been a large gamer—his dad and mom ended up relatively rigid about screens and experienced under no circumstances consented to an Xbox or perhaps a Wii—while he’d played Minecraft for quite a while. This volume of obsession was a little something new. He observed on his locate-your-friends bar that lots of schoolmates were being taking part in, so he FaceTimed just one who goes by ism64. They teamed up and hit Lucky Landing. Gizzard Lizard wore an earbud less than a list of earphones, to make sure that he could speak with ism64 although listening with the sound of approaching enemies. From a length, it appeared that he was talking to himself: “Let’s just Develop. Watch out, you’re gonna be trapped below my ramp. I’m hitting this John Wick. Oh my God, he just pumped me. Appear revive me. Make all around me and come revive me. Wait, can I have that chug jug? Thank you.”

I’d been struck, viewing Gizzard Lizard’s game titles for a couple of days, by how the spirit of collaboration, amid the urgency of mission and menace, seemed to bring out anything approaching gentleness. He and his close friends did favors for each other, watched one another’s backs, available encouragement. This was a thing that I hadn’t found Substantially of, say, down with the rink. One particular could argue the aged arcade, Along with the at any time-existing danger of bullying and harassment plus the obstacle of proclaiming dibs, exposed a kid to the planet—it’s character-creating!—but there was something being claimed for this kind of refuge, even though it did involve assault rifles and grenades.

And then the John Wick was upon him. “Oh God! Oh God!” Foiled once more.

A John Wick was an attained player who experienced acquired a pores and skin that bears a resemblance into the character played by Keanu Reeves within the “John Wick” motion pictures. (Formally, the skin is known as the Reaper, presumably to stop licensing fees, but gamers phone it John Wick.) It had been accessible to anyone who experienced attained all hundred tiers of the sport in Time 3—a combination of achievement and experience which would have needed playing for among seventy-5 and 100 and fifty hours.

As the last hours of Period 3 expired, players scrambled to reach Tier a hundred, and obtain their John Wick skins. Gizzard Lizard was nowhere close. He’d started off the year as a noob. Arrive the next early morning, Day Certainly one of Time 4, he experienced a intend to place during the hours to obtain to Tier one hundred. It will just take major commitment. For the first time, he purchased a thousand Fortnite V-bucks, for $nine.ninety nine, with which to acquire skins. He went While using the Carbide, a sleek one which introduced to intellect a wetsuit. This was the first time he—or, a lot more to the point, his parents—experienced ever used just about anything but quarters over a game.

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timsim26 · 8 years ago

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NHL Playoffs - 2017

Above are my predictions for the playoffs for the NHL 16-17 season. After a remarkable break out campaign from Connor McDavid, an amazing Columbus Blue Jackets coming out party and the many other wonderful stories that the NHL annually provides, it comes down to the best sporting time of the year. The moment, that every one of the 16 teams looks ahead at the next two months, hoping that they will write themselves into the history books forever. Whether it be an incredible overtime goal, a remarkable team effort, a bone crunching hit or a literal bone breaking shot block, the playoffs are where the players earn their money, glory and reputation. I really think that this year is as wide open as last year’s campaign and the Penguins and Sharks highlighted that, coming out of no where to battle it out in an epic fashion.

Overall Winner - Washington Capitals

This is the year that Alex Ovechkin and his star studded lineup take it all the way and raise the Cup. Ovechkin is still the man that everyone fears when you play the Capitals, however in the past 2 seasons, teamwork and role players have definitely been a major reason as to why the Caps are back to back President’s Trophy winners. Ovechkin had his second lowest scoring output of his career (excluding the 48 game lockout season) and far fewer shots, shot attempts and his second lowest career shooting percentage. You would expect his team to take a dip, however the Capitals are stacked with offensive and defensive weapons. 15 players scored 10 or more goals this season including a career high 33 from T.J Oshie and a monster 86 point season from Nicklas Backstrom. Braden Holtby had his third Vezina like season in a row (more on him later) and the Capitals bolster 4 defenseman that had 30 points or more. This has to be the year. They have the depth in every department and Barry Trotz needs to find a way to unleash the regular season Ovechkin who has had on 10 playoff goals in a single campaign. He needs to show up and the Caps need to find a way to get passed the second round. With a potential match up against the Penguins, the going will be tough, but if any Caps team is going to win, it is this one.

Biggest Potential Surprise - Columbus Blue Jackets

Now that it is April and the big names of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Anaheim and Washington are being thrown around as cup favourites, people have seemingly forgotten that Columbus did not lose in the entire month of December. To be fair the Jackets are playing their worst hockey of the season at the worst possible time, however they have an unbelievable team and the talent to make some noise. Ever since their remarkable run they have been a respectable 23-19-4 to finish 50-24-8. While the recent stretch might not sound impressive, remember this is a team that last year went 34-40-8 last season. They have had impressive resilience and are now bolstering the talent required to make a move in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Led by a returned to form Foligno and leading scorer Cam Atkinson, the Blue Jackets have a lot of offensive depth. 12 players with 10 or more goals and 8 players with over 40 points gives you lots of scoring depth. Zach Werenski, David Savard and Seth Jones lead an very talented and youthful Defense that can score and put the hammer down on opposing offensive players (Can you imagine if pick number 2 Ryan Murray stepped up as well). With all this talent up front and down back, you can’t forget the performance of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky had a career best 2.06 GAA (led the league) a matching career best save percentage of .932 (led the league), a career best 7 shutouts (= third in the league) and a career best 41 wins (third in the league). An absolutely remarkable season by a now reliable and dominant goalie. The Blue Jackets definitely have a test with the reigning champs in the first round, but if they do get passed them, be prepared for them to have a huge post season.

Biggest Potential Flop - Minnesota Wild

I love the Wild and they have a number of players that are very talented, however I feel they do not bring anything special that wins you a playoff series. They have a quality defense, a quality offense and a fantastic season from Devan Dubynk, however when you think of their team everyone that has had a good season is doing it in an under the radar fashion. They are a great team and after years of playoff failures, many expect them to go on and make the finals (in fact they are commonly the 4th favourite team to win according to Odds Shark and 6th favourite according to the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook). The problem in the past has been the Chicago Blackhawks and once again I expect that to be a huge problem for the under powered Wild. The Wild relied on a reformed Eric Staal, an aging defensive core and a breakout season from Granlund who scored 26 goals. In the prior 4 seasons of Grandlund’s career he had only scored 31 goals combined, so until he can bring it in the playoffs I remain hesitant to say he is the difference maker against a stacked Chicago team which still has the core 4 together of Seabrook, Keith, Kane and Toews. I expect another early exit for the Wild who must be cursing Chicago’s existence.

Player to Watch - Connor McDavid

This is an absolute no brainer. McDavid at 20 years of age became the Art Ross winner (likely Hart winner as the MVP) with 100 points. He ended the year with a 14 game point streak and since the beginning of 2017 has only had 5 games without scoring at least 1 point. The kid is an absolute beast and with 70 assists makes everyone him that much better. Maroon, Lucic and Draisaitl have experienced this first hand with 2 of the 3 having career seasons. He is also dynamic in turning defensive opportunities into break aways. He has scored so many break away goals/set up 2 on 1 goals due to his ability to read the play and also is incredible speed up and down the ice. It is his first experience with NHL playoff hockey and he has taken a team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. A big, rough and tumble team that can score goals with an impressive young goalie is definitely a good mix when you add in a 20 year old coming off a 100 point season. Expect the kid to make an impact against the Sharks straight away. Oh also, McDavid has enjoyed making the Sharks look like a joke with 4 goals and 4 assists in 5 games this season, which marked his best output against any team this season.

Make or Break Season - San Jose Sharks

Speaking of the Sharks, boy are they in for a challenge. A team renowned for choking and terrible output in the most crucial times, showed everyone just how much fight they had last season. Knocking off a very good Kings in 5, pulling out a clutch game 7 against a feisty Predators team and then blowing away the Blues after losing game 1. They were completely outclassed when it mattered most, but fought and fought right to the bitter end (Pavelski is probably still having nightmares about this miss). Now this is the year where I firmly believe their window will is well and truly close behind them when they eliminated. Compared with their opponent, the Sharks are much older and much more banged up. The Oilers are coming in with their full lineup, while the Sharks are surrounded by the Joe Thornton and Logan Couture injury cloud. You take the top 2 centers from any team and they look very shaky regardless of who they are (Imagine if this was McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins from the Oilers missing). What is the most troubling for the Sharks is they have key players that are aging/or unrestricted free agents. The core of Marleau (37), Joe Thornton (37), Joe Pavelski (32), Brent Burns (32), Paul Martin (36), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (30) and Joel Ward (36) are definitely a troubling sign for the Sharks. Especially when Marleau and Thornton are unrestricted and rumours suggest either Martin or Dillon will be scooped up by Las Vegas and the expansion draft. This may well and truly be the end of the San Jose Sharks as we know them. While this isn’t a bad thing, it just means that while Meier, Donskoi, Labanc and O’Regan are developing, guys like Burns and Pavelski will be wasted. Who knows, I could be wrong and these guys develop quickly and Doug Wilson can replace these leaving bodies with talent, but the future looks bleak. Many, many fans will tell you last year was the only chance this team had and it looks grim for the Sharks with the current injuries, lack of home ice and first round opponent. If the Sharks do get through the first round, the outcome looks much more promising however, so don’t count them out yet.

Conn Smythe Winner - Braden Holtby

Going along with the Capitals prediction to win, suggests they are going to need an absolutely stellar performance from their goalie. This is the case for every team that wins the Cup Finals. Just look at Matt Murray, Corey Crawford and Jonathan Quick’s efforts from the past few years as an example. If anyone can do it, it’s Braden Holtby. We have seen him put up his third 40 or more win season in a row and he has done so in career best fashion, posting bests in Goals Against, Save Percentage, Shutouts and was rewarded with the Jennings trophy. Holtby is extremely reliable in terms of his decision making and is renowned for making incredible saves to keep his team in games when they really don’t deserve to be. This season he has played less games than 2014-15 and 2015-16 and has the extra rest to carry into the playoffs. If the Capitals finally find their offense in the playoffs and Holtby continues his impressive run of performances, then he is no doubt going to be responsible for the Caps lifting Lord Stanley. He has never faltered for the Capitals in the playoffs, through 46 total games played he has 4 shutouts, a 937 save percent and a ridiculous 1.72 goals against. Statistics such as these and his impressive regular seasons of the past 3 years add up to a Conn Smythe winner if his skaters give him support.

#NHL playoffs #NHL #Hockey #hockey playoffs #predictions #NHL season #Stanley Cup #becauseitsthecup

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junker-town · 4 years ago

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NBA mock draft 2020: Final projection with two picks for each team

The Timberwolves and Warriors hold the keys to the draft

The 2020 NBA Draft will be remembered for its lack of consensus at the top of the board. While last year’s draft had an obvious No. 1 overall pick in Zion Williamson, the projected top picks this season have led to more division among evaluators. There are plenty of talented players in this year’s class, but each are flawed in their own ways. That makes team fit and long-term development more critical than ever.

LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, and James Wiseman have emerged as the likely top three picks. The Minnesota Timberwolves, holding the No. 1 selection, still haven’t given any major indications on what they plan on doing with the pick. So much uncertainty heading into Wednesday’s draft only makes it more fun to debate and project.

For our final mock draft, we decided to guess what teams might do with their pick, and then say what we would do with the same selection. Here’s a full breakdown with blurbs on each player below.

1. Minnesota Timberwolves - LaMelo Ball, PG, Illawarra Hawks

Why the Wolves would take him: Ball is far from a perfect prospect, but he still has a strong case as the top overall player in this class. Ball’s potential as an on-ball creator offers a clearer pathway to high-level impact than Anthony Edwards’ scoring ability, James Wiseman’s size, or Deni Avdija’s all-around game. As a 6’7 lead guard, Ball blends tight ball handling ability with tremendous vision and creative passing skills. The Wolves still have plenty of room for improvement in terms of creation even after acquiring D’Angelo Russell last year. If Ball isn’t a perfect complement to Russell and superstar big man Karl-Anthony Towns right now, think of him as a long-term insurance policy in case that pairing can’t live up to the hype.

OUR PICK: LaMelo Ball, G, Illawarra Hawks. We consider Ball to be the top overall talent in the draft, and the present-day fit in Minnesota isn’t enough to move us off that. Even with Russell, the Wolves simply don’t have enough creation ability on the roster to bypass Ball’s special talents. If it doesn’t work out, he should still retain value in a trade. Remember: his brother Lonzo was a big part of the Lakers’ package for Anthony Davis.

2. Golden State Warriors - James Wiseman, C, Memphis

Why the Warriors would take him: Golden State has leaked that it likes pretty much every player projected to go at the top of the draft, but the smoke tying the franchise to Wiseman feels like the strongest. The Warriors must view him as a plug-and-play option at center who gives them a dimension they’ve never really had: a young 7-footer who projects as a lob threat on offense and rim protector on defense around the team’s veteran stars. Wiseman has some very real red flags in terms of his limited versatility on both ends, but at this point it appears certain that teams view him as a lock to go in the top-three.

OUR PICK: Anthony Edwards, G, Georgia. Golden State feels like the best possible place for Edwards to develop. He could contribute wing minutes off the bench in the short-term without the burden of being expected to carry the franchise early in his career. Edwards could focus more on his off-ball scoring ability by attacking closeouts and finding holes as a cutter with defenses focused on Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. If any team can rewire the bad habits that occasionally sabotage Edwards’ all-world physicality simply by making the game easier on him, it’s the Warriors.

3. Charlotte Hornets - Anthony Edwards, G, Georgia

Why the Hornets would take him: Charlotte reportedly covets Wiseman, but if he’s off the board, Edwards’ promise as a takeover scorer might be too much to pass up. Edwards has absolutely elite athletic tools and some truly remarkable shot-making flashes when he’s locked in. The problem is that he often becomes a victim of poor shot selection and doesn’t appear to exhibit a strong feel for the game on either end. Charlotte simply doesn’t have anything close to a perimeter scoring star on its roster, and Edwards offers the potential to be that more than anyone else available.

OUR PICK: Onyeka Okongwu, C, USC. Okongwu is the top big man prospect in this draft class, in our humble estimation. The 6’9 center offers tremendous defensive versatility and efficient-but-low-volume offense that would immediately improve the Hornets. Perhaps more importantly, pairing Okongwu with last year’s first round pick P.J. Washington in the front court would finally give Charlotte an identity as a physical, athletic team that could beat up and burn older, slower bigs around the league.

4. Chicago Bulls - Deni Avdija, F, Maccabi Tel Aviv

Why the Bulls would take him: Chicago’s wish came true when the team finally replaced their overmatched front office with Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley earlier this year. The Bulls’ new leaders have been extremely tight-lipped on everything so far, but speculation since lottery night has tied the team to Avdija. The 6’9 Israeli forward doesn’t have a signature skill, but he’s solid across the board and plays an aggressive but high-IQ game. Maybe he doesn’t have the long-term upside teams ideally want in a top-five pick, but at least he doesn’t have some of the glaring weaknesses other players in this class possess.

OUR PICK: Killian Hayes, G, Ulm. The Bulls have badly needed a lead offensive creator since the disappointing Jimmy Butler trade on draft night three years ago. While Chicago has a decent collection of young talent, none of it really fits into place without an offensive engine. Hayes has the most creation potential in this class outside of Ball, and he also projects as a really good defensive guard. Concerns about his first step explosiveness and three-point shooting are a bit overblown. He is both the best player and best fit for the Bulls at No. 4 if the board breaks as expected.

5. Cleveland Cavaliers - Obi Toppin, C/F, Dayton

Why the Cavs would take him: Cleveland has drafted high-upside offensive players with serious defensive question marks since LeBron James left for Los Angeles. Toppin would certainly fit that bill. The 6’9 forward was the best offensive player in college basketball last year, running to the rim for huge dunks and stretching out the range on his jump shot (he hit 39 percent of his threes) during a breakout redshirt sophomore season. He also played his college ball at nearby Dayton, which would perhaps give Cavs fans something to cheer for after a couple long seasons. For as special as Toppin’s offense could potentially be, his defense wouldn’t help what’s already one of the league’s worst units.

OUR PICK: Isaac Okoro, F, Auburn. The Cavs have finished dead last in the league in defensive efficiency each of the last two seasons. Okoro is the best defensive prospect in this class. The young forward from Auburn can shutdown a variety of player types at the point of attack, and always seems to be on-time when he needs to rotate. He really struggles to shoot offensively, but can still provide value by getting to the foul line and making smart passes in advantage situations. If Cleveland could teach him how to hit spot-up threes (a big ask), he would look like one of the better players in this draft class five years from now.

6. Atlanta Hawks - Tyrese Haliburton, G, Iowa State

Why the Hawks would take him: Haliburton has some bankable skills that make him appealing in a draft without much consensus at the top. The 6’5 guard projects as a nice complementary piece because he’s an excellent spot-up shooter and makes quick and accurate passes while spotting up on the perimeter. The bigger issue is he can’t really breakdown the defense off the dribble, so he needs to play with a more dynamic ball handler. While Haliburton put up an absurd 3.8 percent steal rate as a sophomore at ISU — a stat that often translates to pro success — his painfully skinny frame makes any defensive projection difficult at this stage.

OUR PICK: Devin Vassell, F, Florida State. Vassell fits the mold of the 3-and-D wing as an elite help defender who provides spot-up shooting on offense. While his limited creation ability is underwhelming for a top-six pick on the perimeter, he’s simply the type of player every good team needs. Whether Atlanta keeps this pick or trades it, Vassell deserves to go in this range.

7. Detroit Pistons - Patrick Williams, F, Florida State

Why the Pistons would take him: Williams has reportedly been shooting up draft boards over the last month or two, with the Pistons’ apparent interest fueling his rise. The 6’8 combo forward didn’t start a game for FSU this year, but he’s a big, long, and athletic prospect with promising flashes of all-around skill. Williams is also the youngest American-born player in this class, so he has plenty of time to tap into the two-way versatility he hinted at during his one-and-done year in college.

OUR PICK: Tyrese Maxey, G, Kentucky. Maxey probably isn’t the answer to the Pistons’ forever search for a lead offensive creator, but he’s the type of player who will make that person’s life easier whenever they get him. Maxey is an aggressive rim attacker on offense who can make tough finishes through or around contact in the paint. His three-point numbers were underwhelming, but the fact that he’s a great free throw shooter should mean he has room to grow there. He also plays bigger than his size with a 6’6 wingspan and aggressive point of attack defense.

8. New York Knicks - Killian Hayes, G, Ulm

Why the Knicks would take him: Hayes would be a steal at No. 8 based on raw talent and would also fill New York’s biggest need. A 6’5 lefty point guard out of France, Hayes showed skill and poise in running the pick-and-roll this season for Ulm. He has nice developing pull-up shooting ability and also a reliable floater he can go to when the defense is overplaying potential passing lanes. He’s also arguably the most advanced defensive guard in the class. Hayes’ detractors will point to his lack of explosive athleticism, struggles as a spot-up shooter, and extremely shaky right hand, but he’s already an effective two-way player despite so much room for continued growth.

OUR PICK: Kira Lewis, G, Kentucky: If Hayes is off the board, Lewis would be a wonderful consolation prize for New York. The 6’2 guard out of Alabama is the fastest player in the class with the ball in his hands, offering an ability to break down opposing defenses that the Knicks currently do not have on the roster. Lewis isn’t the most polished finisher or passer just yet, but his combination of rim attacking drives and pretty good spot-up shooting makes him a nice addition for New York’s rebuild.

9. Washington Wizards - Onyeka Okongwu, C, USC

Why the Wizards would take him: Washington badly needs front court defense, and Okongwu is an excellent defensive center prospect. At 6’9, 245 pounds, Okongwu has the strength to battle bigger centers on the ground, and the quickness to defend ball handlers out on the perimeter. He’s also a pogo-stick leaper who is quick off the floor as a rebounder and shot blocker. Okongwu may never score with volume offensively, but he’s efficient in every chance he gets, whether they come on putbacks, cuts, post-ups, or rolls to the rim. Washington should feel great about this pick if he’s still on the board at No. 9.

OUR PICK: Aleksej Pokuševski, F, Serbia. With Okongwu off the board, the Wiz decide to say YOLO and take a chance on the player who might have the highest long-term upside of any in the class. ‘Poku’ is a 7-footer who flashes shooting, passing, and ball handling skills while being the youngest player in the draft at 18 years old. His rail-thin frame is a legitimate concern, as is his overall lack of tape playing the second division of the Greek league, but Washington is in a position to swing for the fences on the future with this pick because their present isn’t that inspiring.

10. Phoenix Suns - Devin Vassell, F, Florida State

Why the Suns would take him: Vassell would be a great value for a Suns team that just acquired Chris Paul. The Florida State sophomore is the most polished 3-and-D prospect in this class, showing advanced help defense instincts and shooting ability on spot-ups and when running off screens. Vassell would be wise to work on raising his three-point volume in the league so he can achieve as much offensive impact as possible. On a team that already has one awesome, young 3-and-D wing in Mikal Bridges, adding Vassell would only give Phoenix more versatility.

OUR PICK: Deni Avdija, F, Maccabi Tel Aviv. An alternate reality where Avdija slips to Phoenix would be one of my favorite fits in the draft. The Suns need more playmaking in the front court and they need an aggressive complement to Deandre Ayton at the four, and Deni would check both boxes.

11. San Antonio Spurs - Isaac Okoro, F, Auburn

Why the Spurs would take him: San Antonio has done well before drafting young, athletic wings who are already stars on the defensive end but struggle to shoot. In all seriousness, any Kawhi Leonard comps for Okoro would be irresponsibly optimistic, but this is certainly an archetype of player the Spurs have helped develop in the past. Okoro badly needs to work on his spot-up shooting ability, but even the present state of his offense isn’t exactly a lost cause. He’s a monster at getting to the foul line and can make easy passing reads in the halfcourt. Did we mention he’s probably the best defensive prospect in this draft? The Spurs would love to see him on the board at No. 11.

OUR PICK: Patrick Williams, F, Florida. With Okoro off the board, Williams offers a nice combination of raw tools that can be molded into a versatile player at both ends of the floor. Williams is big, strong, and long, offering some real defensive playmaking ability and secondary rim protection with the promise of spot-up shooting. As the youngest college player in the draft, Williams’ skill set remains a work in progress, but he’s an enticing developmental prospect for a team with the patience and dedication to turn him into the best player he can be.

12. Sacramento Kings - Aaron Nesmith, SG, Vanderbilt

Why the Kings would take him: The Kings are perpetually looking for help on the wing and looking for shooting, and Nesmith checks both boxes. The sophomore hit 52.2 percent of his threes on 8.2 attempts per game as a sophomore at Vanderbilt, an astonishing rise after he hit under 34 percent from deep as a freshman. Nesmith doesn’t offer much as a passer or creator (he averaged less than one assist per game), but there’s hope he can contribute defensively with plus length (6’10 wingspan) for a shooting guard. NBA teams would have loved to see him prove his hot shooting over the course of a full season, but unfortunately he suffered a stress fracture in his foot that ended his year after just 14 games.

Our pick: James Wiseman, C, Memphis. I’m lower on Wiseman than the consensus because a) he isn’t super quick off the floor athletically, b) he isn’t a plus shooter or passer offensively, and c) he’ll likely only thrive in drop coverage against the pick-and-roll defensively. Even if his general lack of versatility limits his ceiling somewhat in the modern game, he still deserves to be a lottery pick because of his potential as a lob catcher and rim protector. Wiseman is a lock to go top-three. The Kings would be overjoyed in whatever alternate reality this could play out in.

13. New Orleans Pelicans - Tyrese Maxey, G, Kentucky

Why the Pelicans would take him: Maxey said the Pelicans were the only team he worked out for, and it sure seems like he’d be a nice complement to their young core. While the 6’3 guard isn’t a natural floor general, he is an aggressive scorer who’s great at getting to the rim and finishing from a variety of angles. Shooting will be his swing skill, but a free throw percentage in the 80s should inspire optimism. Defensively, Maxey plays bigger than his size because he’s long (6’6 wingspan) and physical. This would be an excellent fit for both the player and the team.

Our pick: Obi Toppin, F/C, Dayton. Toppin slides down my own personal board a bit because of his major defensive shortcomings, but there’s no denying how dynamic he is offensively. I admit this fit might not make much sense with Zion Williamson and Jaxson Hayes already in the front court, but Toppin feels like the clear best talent on the board and that is really all you need to take him.

14. Boston Celtics - Kira Lewis, PG, Alabama

Why the Celtics would take him: Lewis could go as high as No. 7 or No. 8, but it would be a blessing for both him and the Celtics if he fell to No. 14. Boston needs another ball handler who can put pressure on the rim, and that’s Lewis’ game. While he was just about the youngest sophomore in the country this year at Alabama — he entered the program as a 17-year-old freshman — his ability to get into the paint and hit spot-up threes could make him an immediate contributor for a team that could use an upgrade at backup point guard. Think of this as long-term insurance for Kemba Walker’s age and injury issues while also benefiting one of the very best teams in the East in the short-term.

OUR PICK: Tyrese Haliburton, G, Iowa State. Haliburton should be long gone by this point, but the late lottery feels like a more appropriate spot for his skill set. While Haliburton is basically the opposite of Lewis in a lot of ways — he’s allergic to getting to the rim — his ability to hit spot-up threes and make quick decisions as a passer helps him project as a solid role player long-term. He’d be excellent in Boston.

15. Orlando Magic - R.J. Hampton, G, New Zealand Breakers

Why the Magic would take him: Is Hampton’s wingspan (reportedly 6’7) long enough to earn consideration in the first round from the Magic? We kid, but targeting length is what Orlando has been known for under John Hammond. After focusing on adding big forwards and centers to the front court mix in recent years, it’s about time Orlando drafts a guard. Hampton has a strong argument as the best one available at this point. While he’s not yet a natural floor general, the 6’5 Dallas native can aggressively attack the rim and run offense as a secondary creator. He gives Orlando some long-term upside while also filling a need on the bench right now.

OUR PICK: Desmond Bane, G, TCU. Bane has emerged as everyone’s favorite sleeper — I credit the fantastic work of draft scout Spencer Pearlman — after a stellar four-year career and excellent senior season at TCU. Bane has a case as the best shooter in the draft, hitting 44 percent of his three-pointers and finishing in the 90th percentile on spot-up attempts nationwide. Bane also has some secondary creator potential and holds his own defensively. He may not have the flashy upside of a one-and-done prospect like Hampton, but he’s a more complete player right now.

16. Houston Rockets - Saddiq Bey, F, Villanova

Why the Rockets would take him: After dealing Robert Covington to Portland to acquire this pick, it’s clear Houston is in rebuild mode. Bey offers value as a polished offensive wing who should be able to contribute in the short-term. The 6’8 sophomore is coming off breakout year at Villanova where he made 45 percent of his threes and scored efficiently as a pick-and-roll ball handler (88th percentile) and in transition (93rd percentile). There are questions about what position Bey will defend and how much two-way versatility his game really has, but this would likely be an easy pick for the Blazers if he’s still on the board.

OUR PICK: Josh Green, G, Arizona. Another wing, Green is a far superior athlete (one of the draft’s best) and projects as a more impactful defender. He was also pretty good as a spot-up shooter at Arizona, hitting 36 percent of his threes and finishing in the 77th percentile on spot-ups.

17. Minnesota Timberwolves - Aleksej Pokuševski, F/C, Serbia

Why the Wolves would take him: Pokuševski is the year’s biggest boom-or-bust lottery ticket. Despite a rail-thin frame and limited film, Poku offers the promise of a 7-foot four man who can dribble, pass, and shoot. The Wolves are in position to take a swing for the fences if he’s still on the board at No. 17.

OUR PICK: Xavier Tillman, C, Michigan State. With Poku off the board, Tillman would provide an excellent interior defender for a team that doesn’t really have one right now. Tillman isn’t going to sky above the rim for blocks and rebounds, but he’s a strong and physical paint presence with sharp instincts who could handle a sizable role as a rookie.

18. Dallas Mavericks - Josh Green, G, Arizona

Why the Mavericks would take him: Dallas needs defense, it needs a wing, and it will always take a little spot-up shooting around Luka Doncic. Green fits the bill on all three, projecting as one of the draft’s very best pure athletes while also flashing his chops as a catch-and-shoot threat during his one season at Arizona.

OUR PICK: Tyrell Terry, G, Stanford. Terry is a 6’2 guard who’s more comfortable running around screens to get open from three than he is driving the ball to the rim on offense. That seems like a nice fit next to Doncic.

19. Brooklyn Nets - Precious Achiuwa, F, Memphis

Why the Nets would take him: Achiuwa would add length and athleticism to the Brooklyn front court while developing slowly behind the team’s headline stars. In the short-term, Achiuwa could be an energy big who makes a living in transition in short spurts. Down the road, perhaps he could become a small ball five who runs more traditional centers off the floor.

OUR PICK: R.J. Hampton, G, New Zealand Breakers: Hampton is an aggressive 6’5 combo guard who thrives going to the basket, but needs to fine-tune his shooting and decision-making. The Nets are in a good position to take a developmental guard who can learn from Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Steve Nash without the expectation of contributing big minutes this season.

20. Miami Heat - Cole Anthony, G, North Carolina

Why the Heat would take him: Anthony was considered by some as a potential top-five pick coming into the season before a rough freshman year at UNC that included a torn meniscus. While there have been whispers that NBA evaluators were always a tad skeptical of his fit in the league, his pull-up shooting and secondary pick-and-roll chops are appealing enough to bet on at this point in the first round.

OUR PICK: Cole Anthony, G, North Carolina. A little tough love from Miami goes a long way. The Heat could use another secondary creator with Goran Dragic getting older, and Anthony would have time to grow into the role. At this point, Miami is one of the best possible landing spots for pretty much any prospect in this draft.

21. Philadelphia 76ers - Desmond Bane, G, TCU

Why the 76ers would take him: The Sixers always need shooting and Bane is possibly the best shooter in this class. His ability to attack closeouts and make easy reads as a passer should also pair well with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Philly found an impact rookie in another four-year college player Matissee Thybulle late in the first round last year, and Bane could pay similar dividends this season.

OUR PICK: Aaron Nesmith, G, Vanderbilt. Nesmith is possibly even more dynamic as a long-range shooter than Bane, but his game is also isn’t quite as multi-faceted. He would be a great fit in Philly but should be off the board long before this selection.

22. Denver Nuggets - Jalen Smith, F/C, Maryland

Why the Nuggets would take him: Smith is a 6’10 big man who hit can hit threes and provide some rim protection. He’ll have to prove he can survive when teams target him in the pick-and-roll defensively, but his offensive skill set should play anywhere. Denver feels like a good fit for any potential floor spacer like Smith.

OUR PICK: Saddiq Bey, F, Villanova. Bey can really shoot at 6’8, but questions about what position he guards on defensively pushes him down my board a little bit. He would be a really great fit with Nikola Jokic as a spot-up shooter, but he’ll likely be long gone by this point.

23. Utah Jazz - Theo Maledon, G, ASVEL Lyon

Why the Jazz would take him: Maledon is a 6’5 guard who won’t dust defenders off the dribble, but still brings value with his pick-and-roll playmaking and spot-up shooting. He already proved he could hold his own as an 18-year-old in Euroleague, which seems like a good sign for his future. The Jazz could use a young guard to groom alongside Donovan Mitchell as Mike Conley gets older.

OUR PICK: Theo Maledon, G, ASVEL Lyon. Maledon might not have super-high upside like some thought at this time last year, but he does feel like a relatively high floor young guard with bankable NBA skills. It feels like he could develop into a nice player down the road with a good developmental staff in Utah.

24. New Orleans Pelicans - Tyrell Terry, G, Stanford

Why the Pelicans would take him: Terry established himself as one of the best shooters in this class during a breakout freshman season at Stanford to become a surprise one-and-done. Terry can shoot it off the dribble or from spot-ups with a quick release and deep range. While he’s undersized for a point guard and might need a few years to develop, his offensive skill set is interesting enough to bet on at this point in the first round.

OUR PICK: Grant Riller, G, Charleston. Don’t write off Riller just because he played at a small school and will turn 24 years old as a rookie. The 6’3 guard is an explosive three-level scorer with a quick first step and incredible finishing ability. He’d give the Pelicans a shot of perimeter scoring ability that would feel like a welcome addition.

25. Oklahoma City Thunder - Zeke Nnaji, C/F, Arizona

Why the Thunder would take him: The Thunder are in tear down mode and can afford to take a developmental prospect they think might have some long-term upside. Nnaji fits the bill. The 6’11 big man is a bouncy athlete and strong finisher who also has some spot-up shooting potential. The question will be if he can defend enough to stick at the five, but he is agile enough in space to compete once he bulks up.

OUR PICK: Zeke Nnaji, C/F, Arizona. I like Zeke’s upside more than some of the other bigs available in this range with bigger names or better college resumes. In the short-term, he fits the ‘energy big’ mold well.

26. Boston Celtics - Leandro Bolmaro, G, Barcelona

Why the Celtics would take him: The Celtics enter this draft with three picks, and if they keep all of them, it makes sense to use one on a draft-and-stash. Bolmaro is a perfect candidate. The 6’7 guard from Argentina flashed his playmaking potential and defensive instincts in a limited role with Barcelona this year. He’s in a good situation to develop over the next year while the Celtics monitor his progress from afar.

OUR PICK: Leandro Bolmaro, G, Barcelona. A draft-and-stash is a natural fit for the Celtics’ situation, and Bolmaro offers a decent upside play at this point in the first round.

27. New York Knicks - Robert Woodard, F, Mississippi State

Why the Knicks would take him: Woodard measured at 6’7, 230 pounds with a 7’2 wingspan, which counts as ideal size for an NBA combo forward. He generally plays a low-usage offensive game, but he proved to be a capable spot-up shooter during his two years at Mississippi State. This is a good spot to bet on a potential 3-and-D forward for New York.

OUR PICK: Robert Woodard, F, Mississippi State. Remember, the Knicks got this pick by using their cap space to sign a free agent (Marcus Morris) who they flipped at the deadline to the Clippers for this selection. The Knicks actually did something smart!

28. Oklahoma City Thunder - Tyler Bey, F, Colorado

Why the Thunder would take him: Bey is one of the most impressive defensive prospects in this class. The 6’9 forward is an instinctual help defender who is constantly disrupting actions with his length and athleticism. While his thin frame might limit his versatility a tad, his spot-up shooting potential on offense helps give him a clear pathway to value.

OUR PICK: Isaiah Joe, G, Arkansas: Joe has a thin frame and will need to prove he can handle the physicality of the NBA, but there might not be a more prolific shooter in this class. As a sophomore at Arkansas, Joe shot a three-pointer on 76 percent of his attempts, knocking down 34.2 percent from behind the line. His ability to get off a good look from three in any situation plus his natural touch makes him a good upside gamble at this point in the first round.

29. Toronto Raptors - Malachi Flynn, G, San Diego State

Why the Raptors would take him: Toronto could use some insurance in the backcourt with Fred VanVleet approaching free agency, and Flynn would be a nice value at this pick. While he isn’t the biggest or fastest point guard, Flynn was super productive in his first season at San Diego State and doesn’t have any major holes in his skill set.

OUR PICK: Malachi Flynn, G, San Diego State. The Raptors know a thing or two about how to develop veteran college players into two-way performers in the league. Flynn would be a nice long-term replacement for VanVleet or Kyle Lowry down the road.

30. Boston Celtics - Xavier Tillman, C, Michigan State

Why the Celtics would take him: Boston needs a center and Tillman is an awesome value at this point. Tillman was one of the nation’s most impactful players over the last 1.5 seasons as a 6’8 big man who dominated the paint defensively and scored efficiently on his offensive attempts. While he’s not an above-the-rim threat on either end, Tillman is an intimidating force on the floor who should be ready for a role as a rookie.

OUR PICK: Killian Tillie, F, Gonzaga. Tillie has had terrible luck with injuries throughout his college career, but when he was on the floor he was one of the most skilled forwards in the country. The 6’8 Frenchman has deep range on his jump shot and can also finish efficiently in the paint. Boston could use another forward with plus shooting and a strong feel for the game to add to their bench.

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