LIL YACHTY – COFFIN
ITS US.

On a few occasions during Benedict Men, the 12-episode Quibi docuseries executive produced by Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, I went back to something that the series’ director, Jonathan Hock, told me about sports documentaries before I dove in. As he explained, sports documentaries need to strike a balance.

“Well, the key to the good sports documentaries in my estimation is that they’re never about the sport,” Hock said. “And yet at the same time, the sport itself does provide a crucible for our characters to endure, to pass through, and to take the measure of themselves as individuals. ”

It’s hard not to consider that second point in just about any portrayal of high school basketball in America, particularly when it’s a vehicle like Benedict Men, which follows the basketball program at prestigious New Jersey prep school St. Benedict’s in Newark. In addition to its radical approach to education — which was featured on 60 Minutes in 2016 and puts students in charge of how the school functions — St. Benedict’s is an athletic powerhouse in the state. The soccer program, for example, has produced multiple members of the United States Men’s National Team, including former captain Claudio Reyna and one of his teammates at the school, current national team manager Gregg Berhalter.

But for Garden State natives like myself, the school has always been synonymous with its basketball program. St. Benedict’s just wins basketball games, including this past year’s State Prep A title, and sends dudes to college and the pros. J.R. Smith is a Gray Bee. Lance Thomas is, too. A handful of other dudes (Isaiah Briscoe, Trevon Duval, Tyler Ennis) who have had cups of coffee in the Association call the school home.

At the head of the school, someone with whom all the aforementioned names is assuredly familiar, is a Benedictine monk named Ed Lahey (affectionately known to the students and the viewers of Benedict Men as Father Ed). An alumnus of the St. Benedict’s — who, in a powerfully New Jersey moment, told me he went to school with much older relatives of mine — Lahey graduated in 1963, and since 1973, when the school reopened following a brief closure in the aftermath of the infamous Newark Race Riots in the late-60s, he’s been at the helm.

He also, as we learn in the second episode of the series, isn’t a particularly big fan of the way basketball, oftentimes dangled as golden ticket to the league for young men of color who have aspirations of a better life for them and their families, works in the United States. He makes a jarring comparison between high school basketball and slavery, and excoriated the myriad of voices in a young man’s life who are actively attempting to get them to buy into the thought of them having what it takes to become the next LeBron James some day.

“No 16 or 17 year old kids should be in a position of thinking that he’s got the whole burden of supporting his family and getting them out a poverty-stricken or worse misery situation,” Lahey tells me. “No kids should have on them, but the system stinks. The whole system stinks, which keeps people of color stuck in the situations that they’re in.”

It doesn’t help that basketball can run pretty antithetically to the way St. Benedict’s looks to operate. The school’s motto is “What hurts my brother hurts me,” and in the world of high-level high school hoops, viewing yourself as a member of a collective isn’t always easy. There are moments in the documentary where the program, led by head coach Mark Taylor, has to reckon with this. The on-court stuff you expect (players falling asleep on defense, or making terrible decisions with the ball, or deciding to shoot themselves out of slumps) pops up, as do things like showing up late to practices or struggling in school.

All of this is what inherently got me thinking about Hock’s quote.

Benedict Men is, at its core, about basketball’s role in something much larger: a community made up of kids who will, one day, go on to do something other than play basketball. While the school — and, by extension, the basketball program — teaches its students everything you might expect, there’s also an emphasis placed on understanding that your best interests and someone else’s best interests are two in one the same, something that Lahey believes important to emphasize in general.

“Whatever hurts my brother hurts me, or whatever hurts my sister hurts me, is what the place is built on,” Lahey says. “That’s how you create community, and what we’ve lost in this country, what’s been destroyed in this country, is the sense of community. We suffer from it horribly. And if we can’t figure it out, there’s going to be big, big problems beyond us, in the not too distant future, is my belief. So we work overtime on creating community and constantly communicating this sense of community, and that’s what a team is built on it.”

The season the team goes through in the documentary tests the sense of community the program is built on. A collection of its players go through their own ups-and-downs, whether it’s current Xavier guard C.J. Wilcher hurting his ankle, Eastern Illinois big man Madani Diarra working to get healthy after missing a year and a half due to a knee injury, or St. Peter’s wing Zarique Nutter hitting a collection of bumps in the road during his time with the team. The Gray Bees have squad-wide affirmations after wins, major heart-to-hearts following low points, and with a season culminating in a loss to a rival in the state title game (it’s not a spoiler since it’s several years old and something you can Google), the ethos of the program and of the school at large are put to the test.

It’s a really interesting documentary, one that gives a glimpse into a basketball program that is a microcosm of a school that features a vast, diverse population. Students from all backgrounds — different races, different religions, different classes, etc. — are part of a radical experiment to try and figure out what happens when you believe in the power of a community to overcome, a rising tide to lift all boats. Should one boat get a hole in it, there is a sea filled with others ready, willing, and able to assist.

And at the center of it all — although this is surely a depiction he’d dislike — is a septuagenarian Benedictine monk with a thick Jersey accent and an overwhelming belief in the inherent good his students possess. Basketball is merely a way to build bridges to unite them in that inherent good.

This is on display in the final scene of the documentary. It takes place at the school’s graduation ceremony, and Lahey’s arms are wrapped around a pair of members of the team — Diarra and starting guard Jake Betlow. The former is a practicing Muslim, the latter is Jewish, and Lahey, of course, is Christian, something that he points out to the duo’s delight.

As a man of unshakeable faith, Lahey wants to teach his students that the divisions that exist because of things like the version of God they believe in are unnecessary.

He explains:

What gets us in trouble, Bill, as you know, is religion in this world. We kill each other over religion, but there’s a difference between religion and faith. Faith has to do with a relationship with the mystery of what we in English called G-O-D, God. Of course, the problem is that once you name that mystery, you’ve already limited it, right? Limited the mystery, which you can’t do, but we have to use words. So this mystery of divine love is part of every major religion, certainly there is religions of the book — Islam, Judaism, and Christianity — and I describe it, I think, for people usually is we’re all climbing the same mountain of faith, but we’re just climbing it from different sides. Islam coming from one side, Judaism kind of close to us coming up. But the great news is that we all meet in the eternal embrace of the mystery of love, of the mystery of the divine, of God, on the top of the mountain.

That’s the shocker. That’ll be the shocker for some people, they’ll get up there and they’ll say, ‘How the hell did you get here? You’re not Christian, or you’re not Muslim, or whatever.’ But so, if you can focus on faith and helping kids to realize that God’s love for them as they are, and God loves all of us as we are, that’s the the good news, especially if you know how you are and that you realize that God loves you, anyway.

That’s what we’re trying to communicate, not so much religion. Religion is the rules that kind of support the belief. But if you get focused on all the rules and everything, that’s what allows us to start hurting one another. So yeah, guys like Mandani and Jake Betlow, that’s critical to who we are. And these kids, why do we do it? Why? Because we want to be a sign of faith. People come to faith by seeing signs of faith. The signs of faith essentially are two things: love and unity. Not unison, but, unity, accepting the other the way the other the way the other is and love for yourself. And to do that, you have to understand the other person’s suffering. It’s super important. And that’s what we can’t do, we can’t do that as a country in our relationships with other countries, and we can’t do that in this country with one another, understand the suffering of the other and the reality of the other.

Benedict Men is, of course, a documentary about a basketball team, a very, very good one at that. But it’d be a bit inaccurate to say that it’s a documentary about basketball. It wouldn’t have been in the school’s spirit if it was.

Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/benedict-men-intervew-father-ed-lahey-basketball/

As part of Bon Iver’s “For Wisconsin” initiative, Justin Vernon is hosting contests, winners of which will get to meet him and discuss voting. Vernon posted a photo of one of those meet-ups yesterday, and in it, he performs a new song he wrote for the recently deceased Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Your Honor.”

Introducing the song to contest winners Benny and Eric, Vernon said, “I wrote a song on Friday, which I never do anymore. I kinda wrote it right after we heard about Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing. She just opened so many doors for so many people that people don’t even understand or realize, and her service to the nation, I think, is still somehow underestimated.”

He then played an electric guitar and sang lyrics like, “Time’s getting shorter and shorter / Why waste your fine life? / See it’s already fostered in for ya / Can’t you just feel for another? / I implore ya,” and, “This is farther and farther from over / You’re in the margins of time / What say you, what say your honor?”

Before the song, Vernon and the contest winners discussed politics. Eric, an unsure voter, brought up his struggles with the current two-party system, a topic that was the focus of their conversation.

Watch Vernon perform “Your Honor” and talk with the contest winners above.

Source: https://uproxx.com/indie/bon-iver-ruth-bader-ginsburg-your-honor/

Source: https://news.knowyourmeme.com/news/jacob-wohl-jack-burkman-charged-with-felonies-in-detroit-related-to-robocall-scheme

Grupo Firme – Grupo Codiciado – Algo Tranqui – Gracias (Video Oficial) 2020
Directo:⏭AlgoTranqui 2:33 👈
Directo:⏭Gracias 5:04 👈

Music video by Grupo Firme performing – Algo Tranqui – Gracias-. © 2020 Isael Gutierrez & Evert Gutierrez , Exclusive License To Music Vip Entertainment .

Suscribete Aqui https://bit.ly/333fXen
Tema: Algo Tranqui 2:33 👈
Autor: Edén Muñoz
Tema: Gracias 5:04 👈
Autor: Adrian Chaparro
Director: Isael Gutierrez & Evert Gutierrez
Director De Fotografia : Mane Borja
Duración: 9:00
Disquera: Music VIP Entertainment ℗ 2020
Género: Regional Mexicano
Editora: Music VIP Entertainment ℗ 2020

Provided to YouTube by Music VIP Entertainment Inc. ℗ 2020
Released on: 2020-07-24 Auto-generated by YouTube.

Good things do come in small packages…

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Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/thechloewilliams/small-kitchen-organizers-walmart

Teyana Taylor – Concrete
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Music video by Teyana Taylor performing Concrete. © 2020 Getting Out Our Dreams, Inc./Def Jam Recordings, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

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As is often the case due to a hasty WNBA playoff structure that favors the top teams, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the league, the Seattle Storm and Las Vegas Aces, will meet in the WNBA Finals, which begin Friday night on ESPN2. The two best teams all year will culminate their Bubble season with a five-game series that features two of the last three MVPs, two veteran Hall of Famers, and two of the best coaching staffs in the league.

Since the league switched to a conference-less postseason in 2016, the Finals have been an annual treat, going a full five games in three of the past four years. With so much star power on both sides, this year’s series should be quite competitive as well, but Seattle breezed through the playoffs while the Aces enter the last round depleted and spent. Still, this series is going to be good, and these three keys could end up determining which side comes out on top.

1. The battle of unguardable MVPs

That’s what this one is all about. A’ja Wilson edged out Breanna Stewart for the MVP trophy this year, keeping Stewart from her second trophy in three seasons. They will likely match up a fair bit when Las Vegas goes small. As two of the best shot-makers in all of basketball, the way each player can get to their spots and knock down shots will go a long way in deciding the series.

Having limited Connecticut in transition in the last round, the Aces should be able to contain Stewart when she handles the ball in transition, and Las Vegas can switch different players on Stewart to make her uncomfortable. The Aces protect the paint better than any team in the WNBA, so expect Stewart’s game to take more of an outside bent in the Finals. But despite an incredible recovery from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, Stewart has been in a shooting slump since basically mid-August. Outside of a monster 31-point outing in Game 3 against the Lynx, Stewart hasn’t been a consistently dominant scorer in weeks.

She will face Wilson, who has been the best clutch scorer in the league, willing her team to the No. 1 overall seed and a Game 5 victory over the course of a few weeks to earn the MVP award and chart the course toward a championship. Sporting an old-fashioned game, Wilson is great simply because there is no way to guard her. Throw three players at her at the elbow and Wilson will rise up for a jumper over everyone. Sell out on protecting the rim and Wilson will face up and draw a foul. Match up with a bigger player and Wilson is bound to slip past them.

The odds probably favor Wilson in terms of individual shot creation, but Stewart’s shooting is a wildcard in this and every series. With a center who can rain threes, the Storm can invert pick-and-rolls, space the floor better than anyone, and dictate matchups all series long. When two great players match up with one another and get theirs, series are often decided by the role players and coaching.

2. The versatility battle with Dearica Hamby out for Las Vegas

The reason the Storm are so deadly is not just that they have a ton of talent. With Stewart and 2019 All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year Natasha Howard, Seattle’s frontcourt is perhaps the most flexible in the game. Both players can shoot from outside, create shots for themselves and their teammates, and defend 1-5. Think of this like when the Warriors down-sized with Draymond Green and Kevin Durant as their nominal bigs. There’s really no way to stop them when that happens.

Throughout the year, Las Vegas had its own small-ball post player duo of Hamby and Wilson to match the Storm. But in the semifinals, Hamby injured the MCL in her right knee. She will miss the rest of the season. The back-to-back reigning Sixth Woman of the Year is the ultimate modern big, a player who can protect the paint, initiate offense, and shoot. Without her, Aces head coach Bill Laimbeer simply lacks the go-to adjustment to match the Storm’s versatility.

The solution is fairly obvious for Las Vegas, as it involves playing the two best players on the team together as much as possible. While the Aces have played all of 2020 without Liz Cambage (medical exemption) and Kelsey Plum (Achilles), they made a big addition in the offseason in the form of the legendary Angel McCoughtry, who has been one of the best two-way players in the league all season. As Justin Carter noted at Winsidr, McCoughtry and Wilson have played together as the sole “bigs” for just four minutes all season, but Laimbeer noted postgame after Game 5 of the semifinals that those two would see time together against Seattle.

While neither is a typical defensive anchor, both are great team defenders and are quick enough to keep up with the Storm. Las Vegas’ other options are Emma Cannon, a late-season signing who hasn’t played in the WNBA since 2017, and Carolyn Swords, the low-minutes veteran starter whose lack of athleticism could make her a liability in this series with Seattle presenting nowhere to hide. The best bet is that we see Las Vegas close tight games with Wilson and McCoughtry together at the 4 and 5, with second-year jumbo guard Jackie Young giving the team an ultra-small look or an extra weapon to switch around defensively in spurts.

3. The Sue Bird factor

There’s been a lot of “don’t bet against Sue Bird” going around on social media among WNBA pundits since the Finals matchup was decided, but can Seattle count on Bird to stay on the court and make a huge impact at this point? The future Hall of Fame inductee played in just 11 games all year and was basically only out there to knock down spot-up threes and set up teammates. That’s a perfectly fine player, and Bird has always raised her game in the playoffs, but a couple weeks from her 40th birthday, it would be hard for Seattle to bet on getting a legendary series out of her.

Still, it’s clear Seattle had the luxury of playing things patiently with Bird all year in the Bubble to get her right for the postseason and especially the Finals. While she only shot 35.5 percent in a semifinal sweep over Minnesota, Bird took her play-making to another level and played over 26 minutes per game. But with backup combo guard Sami Whitcomb out for the Finals for the birth of her daughter, Seattle’s depth is depleted and Bird may be needed more. Based on how much talent is on the Storm roster, that may be all they need. Certainly, Seattle won plenty in 2019 and 2020 even with an unavailable or inhibited Bird. Stellar third-year guard Jordin Canada is a more than capable fill-in for Bird and is often a better option defensively.

Against Las Vegas, it may not matter. As Ben Dull noted at Floor Game, the Storm’s usual blitzing defense may not be as necessary against the Aces, who run the offense inside-out rather than from the perimeter. That means the Storm can maximize Bird on offense without asking too much of her defensively. A few key clutch shots, fast break assists or simply being able to run the offense in crunch time could be a big help for Seattle in a series that could be closely decided.

The Aces come into the series after a slog of a semifinal battle against Connecticut, while the Storm are rested and possess a clear star talent advantage. Will that matter? Smart bettors would likely put their money on this fledgling Storm dynasty to continue, but the Aces have defied odds all year and have a clearer team structure centered around elite defense and Wilson’s brilliance. A long, fun series is likely in the cards here.

Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/keys-stats-2020-wnba-finals-las-vegas-aces-seattle-storm/

Onaje McDowelle

Onaje McDowelle is a contributing editor and writer for the Daily Dot. His work has appeared in GRAMMY.com, NPR, Austin Monthly Magazine, and more.

Source : https://www.dailydot.com/irl/first-nations-canada-ring-road/

“I just literally heard about it when I looked at my newsfeed on my phone about an hour ago.”

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Source: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/biden-trump-debate-guest-coronavirus-reaction

Hathaway! Spencer! Tucci! Mice absolutely everywhere!

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Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alliehayes/the-witches-remake-trailer

On Friday morning, America woke up to the biggest news imaginable: someone sucker punched Rick Moranis on the streets of New York City.

News quickly spread and dominated talk online, as not much else is going on these days, and though specifics were scarce there was video obtained by multiple news outlets that showed Moranis getting assaulted under a scaffolding on the city’s Upper West Side.

From ABC 7 New York:

Video shows the moment a man wearing a black “I (heart) NY” sweatshirt and a backpack hit the 67-year-old “Ghostbusters” star and knocked him to the ground.

It happened Thursday at 7:24 a.m. on West 70th street near Central Park West.

The attack happened just a few blocks from the apartment building where Moranis’ character lived in the movie.

The attack was seemingly as random as the headline it generated, but the outrage that came with it was swift. Among those reacting to the bizarre news online was Captain America himself, Chris Evans, who said on Twitter that his blood was “boiling” when he learned Moranis was attacked.

He wasn’t along in freaking out about Moranis’s plight and demanding justice for the man who once shrunk several objects — both inanimate and alive — without rebuke.

There was a lot of confusion online as to why a 67-year-old man minding his own business in New York would draw the ire of someone in “I <3 NY” clothing, but this year is full of unexplainable and frustrating things. Thankfully Moranis seems to be OK and this incident instead transformed into an appreciation of a beloved actor. But Captain America is still livid.

Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/rick-moranis-punched-new-york-chris-evans-reaction/