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crazyintheeast · 2 years

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I posted 16,005 times in 2022

219 posts created (1%)

15,786 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@agentsweetdreams

@fluent-in-lesbianism

@ukulelekatie

@fuck-yeah-dylan

@whentherestrouble

I tagged 1,001 of my posts in 2022

#warrior nun - 189 posts

#avatrice - 171 posts

#scylla ramshorn - 37 posts

#sister beatrice - 35 posts

#virginia gardner - 33 posts

#the wilds - 32 posts

#ava silva - 31 posts

#raylla - 30 posts

#motherland fort salem - 30 posts

#bobbie draper - 29 posts

Longest Tag: 107 characters

#congratulations. it took you nearly ten years to see what anyone with common sense could see from the start

My Top Posts in 2022:

1,072 notes - Posted November 5, 2022

Imagine Ava proposing to Beatrice with an engagement ring that has a divinuim stone in it so it glows every time Ava is near. Both Beatrice and Ava think it's super romantic and nobody has the heart to tell them that to people not familiar with divnium this looks as if Ava put a cheap LED light on a ring. And then one day Beatrice's mother sees it and for the first time in her life she finds something even more offensive then her daughter's homosexuality. Tacky jewelry!?!? Completely unacceptable

1,306 notes - Posted November 12, 2022

So here is the idea. A Xena reboot but there is a twist. The pilot starts and it's Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor having a cute lunch date in present time. Suddenly they start reminiscing about the good old days and bham. The entire first episode of Xena starts airing. And that's the entire concept of the the reboot. Every episode opens up with an immortal married Xena and Gabrielle in present time doing cute couple things for two minutes as an excuse to remember something and we just go straight to airing an old Xena episode. Completely unchanged except for one thing. Kevin Sorbo is digitally removed from all episodes and replaced with Charlize Theron

2,735 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

I feel like we don't talk enough about just how amazing Ava and Beatrice story line has been. Ava is a deeply deeply traumatized person. She has spent her whole life being essentially a prisoner who suffered daily abuse. She had no agency, no freedom just a vile old woman telling her all the time how she is broken, how she is a burden. The only friend she had was a child himself. The squatters she had were nice but that's just what they were nice. And the boy was hot but it was blatantly obvious that as far as Ava was concerned it was just about sex and adventure But then came Beatrice and the first thing she did was call Ava out in her bullshit but it was not done in a malicious way and I feel that Ava could feel the enormous difference between Beatrice calling her out and the vile nun who abused her her entire life. And then this fucking scene, Ava was having a full on breakdown and instantly sought comfort and Beatrice was there. Quite likely the only person who has hugged Ava and offered her real comfort for more then a decade. And then it just got more and more intense as Beatrice just kept caring, kept supporting Ava. And also kept her calling her out which I think is something Ava really appreciates because she can she that Beatrice is doing it because she believes in Ava not because she wants to hurt her But the effect is not just one sided. Look at Beatrice reaction in this gif. How stunned she is that someone is seeking comfort in her. We don't know much about her past but we know enough to form a reasonable theory. Look at the very first episode and how Mary treated Beatrice, generally how Beatrice acts with her Sister Nuns. She is friendly but you can feel the distance and based on her breakdown it's clear that her parents were deeply homophobic and knowing how cruel kids can be it's quite likely that she was shunned not only at home but in school as well making her closed, always keeping her distance so she won't get hurt again. And then comes this adorable idiot who pretty much burst through her walls, who sees her for what she is and still calls her beautiful instead of shunning her How could they not fall for each other?

3,379 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Supergirl writers: A surprising amount of people ship Kara and Lena . I suppose we could give them some more scenes together. Strictly friendship of course but still enough to keep those shippers on the hook

Pitch Perfect writers : A crazy amount of people ship Beca and Chloe . Let’s put a few comedic scenes of them to keep them on the hook

Warrior Nun writers : A lot of people ship Ava and Beatrice so we are thinking … let’s go hard for it in season 2 . I am thinking …. . Ava and Beatrice are roommates working in a bar together . We will start with them pining for each other and being insanely jealous whenever they see someone else speaking with them . Also of course we will have them just be happy and dancing together and being so lost in each other’s eyes you could clearly see the unspoken love . Now for episode two …..

3,817 notes - Posted November 10, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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jackrussle · 20 days

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Michael fassbender is an intense sexual object for me, he's very intimidating and untrustworthy but i find his sexuality irresistible and undeniable, hes 1 of the few actors with a libidinal presence and he could get canceled if he spoke even slightly out of turn. There's actors capable of great romance -> sexuality i.e. Josh O'Connor but sexual energy... Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, daniel craig, that French actor I can't remember the name of, he isnt relevant but hes still working - kevin bacon, Nicolas galitzine even if he isn't my type and I don't get it, a lot of tv actors tbh, etc etc I'm missing a few. Weirdly I think if timothee gave a shit he could exude some legit libido bc of his pussy hound ways, but he wants $$ so he's basically asexual. Also he's paul atreides, a character who doesn't understand pleasure. cmbyn and bones and all tho - luca brings it out in everyone, that's the power of italian pervs. As for women there's like 100 actresses that have an irresistible, palpable sexuality

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college-girl199328 · 1 year

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The city's transportation committee is voting on whether or not to reopen Wellington Street to vehicles following the 'Freedom Convoy.' A year after the 'Freedom Convoy' protest shut down Wellington Street, a city of Ottawa committee has voted to reopen it to cars for now.

The city's transportation committee voted unanimously to reopen the street to traffic "as soon as it is operationally feasible," but no sooner than March 1. The vote is subject to approval by the city council.

Wellington Street has been closed in front of Parliament Hill—between Elgin and Bank streets—since late last January when protesters descended on the capital and hundreds of trucks parked downtown.

The street became the epicentre of the Freedom Convoy as demonstrators set up a large stage and other infrastructure, most infamously a bouncy castle and a hot tub.

The Transportation Committee heard from about a dozen members of the public on Thursday. These members advocated for closing the street to cars and turning it into a space for pedestrians and cyclists.

Others, such as Kevin McHale from the Sparks Street BIA, argue it's time to open the street to cars. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has advocated for reopening the street to cars. On Thursday, he told Newstalk 580 CFRA the right course of action is to reopen it for now while a longer discussion about the street's future happens.

He also said it would take some time to prepare for the street to reopen. Among other things, traffic signals were removed on Metcalfe and O'Connor streets. City staff estimate it will take between four and eight weeks to get the signals reinstalled.

Last month, a House of Commons committee recommended keeping Wellington Street closed permanently to vehicles and extending the vehicle-free zone one block farther west, to Kent Street.

A report from city of Ottawa staff earlier this month said the closure had not caused a "total failure" of the transportation network in the downtown core, but warned that an increase in traffic due to construction and federal workers returning to downtown offices could impact traffic in the area.

The motion passed by the transportation committee on Thursday also recommends city staff explore options for temporary road closures on Wellington Street this summer for special events. It also recommends that city officials continue discussions with the federal government about expanding the parliamentary precinct to include Wellington Street.

The motion also included an amendment to add a temporary protected bike lane to the street. Council will debate the matter on Feb. 8.

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smokeybrandreviews · 3 years

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Smokey brand Retrospective: The Gift and the Curse

Brendan Fraser has seen a resurgence lately and i love every bit of that. Dude has been one of my favorite actors for decades. I’m an Eighties kid who grew up during the Nineties so i was right there when he came onto the scene. I was a massive fan f all of his early work; Bedazzled, George of the Jungle, Encino Man, Airheads, Blast from the Past, and even Monkeybone. Dude hit his stride right around the Aughts and then completely disappeared. We found out later it was because of some really f*cked up sh*t but he made it through and proved he still had with Robot Man on Doom Patrol. I’m so glad this guy got another shot at this movie star sh*t but i wanted to revisit the franchise that put him on the map: The Mummy.

The Mummy

I love this campy ass flick, man. I saw this one in the theaters because, at the time, i was super into CG. It had only been a few years since Jurassic Park blew that sh*t out the water and only a few months after The Matrix made everyone sh*t the bed. The Mummy just missed that window but it was still incredibly enjoyable. This was my Indiana Jones because i didn’t care about Indy for a long time. It’s not that they were bad movies, i was just too young to appreciate them. The Mummy came out right at the time i started to really understand why i liked cinema, what a good permanence truly was, and how beautiful a film could be. The Mummy covered almost all of those bases. Fraser did an excellent job as Rick O’Connor and Rachel Weisz stunned as Evelyn Carnahan. F*cking Evie, man. I was already a fan of Fraser but this movie made me really pay attention to Weisz and she became one of my favorite actresses. It helps tremendously that she is f*cking gorgeous! Rounding out the cast is John Hannah as Evie’s brother, Johnathan and Arnold Vosloo as the titular mummy, Imhotep. Also, i can’t not mention the scummiest of scumbags, Benny, portrayed so effortlessly by Kevin J. O'Connor.

I absolutely adore this film. It’s a not the best example of Nineties cinema, how can it be, and it’s a terrible remake of the original Universal Mummy but it does what it wants to do very well. I love the ideas and the world they built with this campy clusterf*ck. It shouldn’t work, it should be terrible, but it’s one of the funnest films i have ever seen. It has it’s issues, absolutely, but they are minor compared the non-stop action, the incredible cinematography, the dated but ambitious CG effects ,and solid performances from every principal actor. They really let Fraser do his thing and that energy carried over to the rest of the cast. Evie is every bit the bad ass as Sarah Connor or Ellen Ripley but is still a very girly-girl; Something that seems to be frowned upon nowadays. Imhotep id an unrelenting, vicious antagonist who controls powers from long ago, literally willing the seven plagues of Egypt into modern times. This movie is all over the f*cking place but it worse so well and every time i see it, i have as much fun as i did way back when i was a ripened fourteen years old.

The Mummy Returns

Boy, this one suffers terrible from Sequelitis. It does nothing new and is an almost exact retread of the first film but we have new characters and a new villain in the guise of... The Scorpion King! Yes, this is the first film that titular Arachno-Monarch makes his first appearance portrayed by a very young, very beefy, and later, very poorly rendered, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson! That’s right, long before he was Franchise Viagra, way before he was punching out Dom into a stalemate in them god awful Fast flicks, The Rock got his start here, in the sequel to The Mummy and he’s f*cking terrible! Oh my god, is he bad but it works. His awful, awful, performance fits right in with the utter camp of this ridiculous franchise ans, to no one’s surprise, i loved every second of it. Now, as much as i love The Rock in this thing, i have to absolutely give it to Patricia Velasquez as Meela Nais, the physical reincarnation of Imhotep’s regicide partner and f*ck-buddy, Anck-Su-Namun. I didn’t talk about her much in the entry about The Mummy but that as mostly because she was more a plot device rather than a character. She isn’t much else in this one either but at least we got to actually see her for more than ten minutes. Plus, that fight between her and Nefertiri was f*cking glorious. Sixteen year old Smokey appreciated the f*ck out of that.

The returning cast hits their points perfectly. That chemistry never falters. Fraser, Weisz, and Hannah are exceptional together and Vosloo is, somehow, both far more menacing and hilarious at the same time. There’s this scene toward the end where he is utterly defeated and it’s the funniest sh*t i have ever seen. I also really enjoy both Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay far more in this one than the last because he gets to do sh*t finally. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was also a welcome surprise as the muscle, Lock-Nah. Dude just kinds of stands around and i think he gets into a fight with Fehr that was pretty cool but a little trite. Obviously, as a film from the early Aughts, it has it;s problems. There’s a ton of culturally insensitive sh*t that Zoomers would probably be upset about but, you know, f*ck em. It’s like a sense f humor is illegal nowadays. That said, having Rachel Weisz, as gorgeous and half-naked as she is and was, portray an Egyptian is a little much nowadays. At least Patricia Velasquez is a type of Brown? An attempt was made. This thing is a mess and i enjoy every second of it. The Mummy Returns is substantially worse that the first but, at the same time, just so batsh*t that it is equally as entertaining. But f*ck that kid, though. Every time he’s onscreen all of the good times are thrown right out the goddamn window!

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I gave this one the hard pass for years. It looked like trash. Like straight up dog sh*t. This thing came out seven years after Returns and i just didn’t care. I was one hundred percent in my hipster film snob era and couldn’t be bothered. For a full f*cking decade and some change. Seriously, i just watched this thing the day before yesterday. For the first time. It was the inspiration for this retrospective because, after seeing this train wreck, i went back to check out the first two just to get the taste of dogsh*t out of my mouth. There are several changes made to the formula that immediately take me out of this film. First, and most egregiously, no more Rachel Weisz! She didn’t come back for the third. The reason behind her absence has run the gambit from vanity, to scheduling conflicts, to literally never getting a script. I don;t really care why, all i know is that her absence was felt. Maria Bello did her best but she isn’t MY Evie. Another “choice” was to age up that awful f*cking kid into an awful f*cking adult. That’s right, this is a “passing of the torch flick” and Luke Ford’s Alex O'Connell was supposed to take over the franchise going forward. That didn’t happen because this is Rick’s franchise. The Mummy would be nothing without Fraser and the at was proven when this thing tanked. It wasn’t all bad though. I really liked the new mummy, Han. They did some really fin things with his abilities and Jet Li never once phoned in an action scene. Unfortunately, even with the strength of the brand and outstanding lead performances, this thing still sucks.

I had a time with Tomb but it wasn’t like the time i had with it’s predecessors. I don’t know if it’s because I'm so much older and hardened by life but all i see is the flaws in this one. It doesn’t have the nostalgia goggles like the first two so i can’t enjoy it like i enjoy those. I just see plot holes instead of camp. Bad CG instead of rustic attempt. Poor set pieces instead of Nineties jank. Bad character writing instead of unfortunately hilarious dialogue. Tomb isn’t terrible but it ain’t good wither. It;s mediocre and i know the first two aren’t great but they’re better than whatever this wanted to be. It’s weird to see because there are a lot of great ideas here. I can see the vision that lays outside the margins and it’s frustrating. Fraser does is in his element as Rick and Li’s Han is a physical powerhouse but that’s not enough. As awesome as this movie gets when those two are on screen, literally everything around them is dismissible and i don’t understand how or why. I think a lot of the chemistry was lost when the focus was shifted to Alex from Rick and the recasting of Eve really didn’t do this film any favors. However, even with all of my frustrations, i can’t say i had a terrible time with this thing. It was entertaining, if a little bogus.

#The Mummy #The Mummy Returns #The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer #Brendan Fraser #Rachel Weisz #Smokey brand Retrospective

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airmanisr · 4 years

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UP 119: An unlikely celebrity by Kevin Madore Via Flickr: When looking at photos of the Last Spike Ceremony on the Transcontinental Railroad, we see lots of distinguished looking men clad in formal attire and two ornately painted steam locomotives. Given that gold and silver spikes were being "driven" with a silver spike maul, I think that most folks who take the time to think about it probably assume that the two locomotives were specially built, or at least specially prepared for the occasion.....perhaps the finest engines either railroad could bring. In actuality, none of that was the case. The honest truth is that neither the Union Pacific's 119 nor the Central Pacific's Jupiter were specifically picked for the ceremony and in fact, both railroad intended for other locomotives to be there. In the case of the Union Pacific, the special train carrying UP Vice President, Dr. Thomas Durant ended up being stopped by bridge problems east of Promontory. It seems that a swollen river had washed out some of the supports to the Devil's Gate Bridge and the engineer on the so-called "Durant Special" refused to take his engine across the bridge. Instead, he gently nudged a cut of passenger cars across so the train made it to the other side, but UP had to dispatch another engine from Ogden, to pick up the cars and bring Durant to Promontory. The 119 happened to be that engine and she ended up being "immortalized" in the famous photos by Russell and Hart. The locomotive you see in this photo is not the original 119. Like so many great American artifacts, nobody really thought much about saving her until she had been unceremoniously scrapped in 1903. Fast-forward to 1975 when the National Park Service had a dilemma. They owned the the historic location of the Last Spike Ceremony, but had no locomotives to facilitate historic re-enactments. In past years, they had borrowed former V&T Engines "Dayton and "Inyo" from movie companies, as stand-ins, but those engines were now the property of the Nevada State Railroad Museum and weren't going anywhere. Instead, the Park Service commissioned a pair of replicas to a firm known as O'Connor Engineering Laboratories, of Costa Mesa, CA. Fortunately, Company President Chadwell O'Connor was a railfan himself, so the construction of these replicas became a labor of love. He engaged the services of Railroad Historian Gerald Best and Disney Animator Ward Kimball to help with the project. No plans or drawings existed for the two engines. O'Connor and team literally had to re-engineer the two locomotives from the historic photos of Russell, Hart and others. It was painstaking work, but no detail was spared. Interestingly, one of the most difficult tasks was figuring out how to paint the two engines, since all of the existing photos were in black and white. When the two engines were shipped to Promontory in 1979, they were works of art....and they still are, some 40 years on. They are as accurate as human hands could make them. The headlights and cab lights are real oil lamps....even the cross-head pumps on both sides are fully operational. Although the line they operate on is about as insular as it gets, the Park Service maintains them to FRA standards, including doing 1,472 Service Day Inspections. Contractors from the Utah area are brought in to do most of the heavier maintenance. The locomotives typically do demonstration runs several times daily, in addition to participating in periodic re-enactments of the Last Spike Ceremony.

#Locomotive

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crushondonald · 5 years

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Remembering Donald O'Connor ❤

“A performer has to answer to himself. If you think something’s funny, you’ve got to go out there and try. It’s only by trial and error that you find out.”

August 28, 1925 - September 27, 2003

“I’m tired of being a machine … I am no angel, I’m the same as everyone else, with the same temperament and temper. I resent having people tag me as perpetual, super-polite juvenile. I’m subject to fever, headaches and bad-temper just like anybody else.” February 1954

“Alcoholism was a desease, a genetic thing. I used to have a marvelous time drinking. Until I passed that invisible line and became an alcoholic. I figured that I could master the rehab programme, be out there in a week, go back to drinking. But once I was there, something marvelous happened. My obsession to drink left me. Now I have been a recovering alcoholic for fifteen and a half years.” June 1994

After he suffered a very serious physical collapse caused by excessive alcohol abuse in 1978, Donald was finally hospitalized for approx. three months. Ever since he was cured from alcoholism in 1979, Donald recovered visibly, regained the trust of his family, went back to work successfully and never touched a drop of alcohol again for the rest of his life. On top of that, he claimed that he had never been happier in life ever before.

“He’s the man you’d wish to be with you for the rest of your life.” Gloria Noble O'Connor ~ Donald’s second wife

“I’m the guy who danced through life. It seems that no matter what I do, if I did MacBeth, they’d want me to do eight bars of ‘Tea for Two’ just because it pleases. It’s the kind of dancing I do – jumping around and having a good time. It’s happy, gay, and pleasant. Dancing is so wonderful. Once they start the music, your whole day, if it’s been rotten, seems to melt away. You get carried away in the tune that you’re moving to. It’s a marvelous catharsis … to be able to get on top and tap dance.”

“Donald was a spontaneous artist and comedian, and he could never do anything the same twice. There was no way you could say, ‘Do it this way, and it will be funnier.’ It was all improvisation.The dummy he uses in the dance, for example, was lying on a rehearsal stage next door to us [on the set of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN]. We walked in one day and Donald started to fool around with it. For half an hour, we just roared with laughter. Finally, we said, ‘Well, let’s put that in the number.’ All of it came right out of Donald. It was unbelievable. We had to throw out 20 minutes of it.“ Gene Kelly

“I was born in a trunk, and I’ll die performing.”

… you nearly made it, Don! I love and miss him with all my heart … it is a blessing that Donald shared his unique talent with the world for more than 70 (!) years! He loved to entertain his audiences, was a passionate performer and made generations laugh (of course, he still does!), even though he had to struggle with many personal, painful strokes of fate. Donald O'Connor was the youngest and the fourth surviving child of seven, born to John Edward “Chuck” O'Connor, who was from County Cork in Ireland, and Effie Irene O'Connor (née Crane), both vaudevillians. The O'Connor Family was billed as “The Royal Family of Vaudeville” at the time. When Donald was 10 months old, his father died from heart attack while performing on stage, only a few weeks after his seven year-old sister Arlene was killed in a car accident. As she was crossing the street with Donald in a stroller, the car hit her. Miraculously, Donald remained nearly unhurt. Effie O'Connor had become extremely overprotective of her remaining children, seeming never to completely recover from the shock of losing her daughter and husband within weeks of each other. Donald joined the family act when he was just a toddler. He enjoyed being on stage, which also served as escape from his domineering mother. Sadly, she had a good reason to worry. Until 1958, Donald finally had survived all his siblings. Don was only 19 years old, when he married his first wife Gwen Carter in 1944, the year he entered service in WWII. While he was overseas, he got acquainted with the devil who became finally an obsession ... alcohol. After returning home, life went back to normal very slowly. Universal Pictures, where he was under contract since 1942, did not really know what to do with him. His first apperance on screen after the war followed in 1947. In the meantime, his daughter Donna was born in 1946. Unfortunately, the marriage of Don and Gwen didn’t went very well and finally ended up with divorce in 1954. All these incidents and the fact, that Don was always a workoholic resulted in alcoholism, he suffered from for almost 25 years ... creepingly getting worse and worse over the decades, reducing his ability to work increasingly and reaching its sad low point, visible to the outside, in the 1970s. As he was also a heavy smoker, he additionally developed a heart deasease. Burning the candle at both ends resulted in a heart attack in 1971, a serious physical collapse in 1978 and a quadruple bypass surgery in the early 1990s. That was quite a price to pay, but he always managed to pick himself up and keep going. After all, Donald O'Connor stayed down-to-earth and was beyond that one of the most versatile, charming, modest and sweetest gentlemen in Hollywood. ☆ Thankfully, Don found happiness with his lovely second wife Gloria Noble. She was the love of his life and the best that could have happened to him. Because of his addiction, they went through hard times, but she never let him down. Their marriage lasted over 46 years until his death in 2003, three children were born to them.

Dream team - Donald & Gloria at “Ciro’s” in 1956. They got married in October of the same year. ☆ Since I was a child, I’ve adored him as an excellent (tap) dancer, singer, comedian and actor. By the way, he was a great composer, too! Until 1955, at the age of 30, Donald had appeared in 45 (!) motion pictures [“Singin’ In The Rain" is #38!]. The press called him “the youngest old-timer in show business” at that time. That’s quite a statement of what had been accomplished by such a young man. In addition, his vaudeville background, successful TV shows during the 1950s and 1960s as well as a vast number of stage performances his entire life speak for themselves. It always seems to me that there was nothing Donald couldn’t do. In his later years, when the popularity of musicals slowly had faded away, Donald should have been managed better. After “Singin’ In The Rain” he never got a role again matching his extraordinary talent in this way, even if he made some wonderful movies in the 1950s, such as “Call Me Madam”. It wasn’t considered enough that he was a also a fine ‘serious’ actor, proved by his performances in the ‘Francis the Talking Mule” series or in ”The Buster Keaton Story” (although the script is awful and terribly incorrect!) and even in his early roles as a child. It makes me sad that Hollywood didn’t really know how to take advantage of his versatility. Unfortunately, he does not receive the credit he really deserves … he was so much more than 'Cosmo Brown'! ☆ Over the years, I’ve also developed profound respect and admiration for this wonderful man away from the spotlight. I’m fascinated by his real life achievement, kindness, honest modesty and willpower. Hopefully, someone will pay tribute to this endearing human being and unique artist, perpetuate his memory by writing down his life story. Maybe one (or more) of his four lovely children, Donna, Alicia, Donald Frederick or Kevin … … I could die happy then!

“I’m no longer a superstar. Now I’m working on being a quasar, because stars wear out. Quasars go on forever … I look for the parts where I die and they talk about me for the rest of the movie.” 1992

Happy Birthday Donald 💋 … You’ve always been my mentor and the light of my life, darling!

Keeping his legacy alive … le grá go deo ♡♡♡

(Photos on top show Donald O'Connor over the decades, in order 1930s - 2000s from left to right.)

#Donald O'Connor #Happy Birthday my love ♡♡♡!!!!#💖💗💖💓💖#what more could I say for now?!#this tribute finally got much longer as I planned ...#but he's absolutely worth it and deserves it so much!!!#THE LIGHT AND LOVE OF MY LIFE ♡♡♡#please give him a little love too!

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bthenoise · 4 years

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Super Bowl 54 As Predicted By Members Of State Champs, Set It Off, Counterparts, Four Year Strong & More

Alright football fans, it’s that time of year – time for the biggest day in sports: the Super Bowl. The Big Game. The Colossal Showdown. The Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Chiefs fans have been waiting for since… January 11, 1970 aka the last time the Kansas City franchise won a Super Bowl.

Now, knowing most of you are probably absolutely thrilled to not watch another Tom Brady-led Super Bowl and instead a Patrick Mahomes vs Jimmy Garoppolo matchup of the ages, we wanted to do our best to help build anticipation.

In order to get you even more excited for this Sunday’s championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, we reached out to a handful of sports-savvy artists to see who they think will win it all.

To see what members of Set It Off, State Champs, The Word Alive, Fit For A King, Four Year Strong and more had to say about Super Bowl 54, be sure to look below. Afterward, make sure to tweet us @TheNoise and let us know who you have winning!

Cody Carson - Set It Off

This is going to be one hell of a game. The 49ers running game is a force to be reckoned with and if the Chiefs can’t stop it, it’s going to cause them problems because it’ll keep Mahomes off the field for longer. And that’s the other side, Mahomes will not be stopped. So it’s run vs. pass and I’ll take pass all day. It’s gonna be close but I think it’ll be 31-28, Chiefs win.

Tyler Szalkowski - State Champs

I predict that the San Francisco 49ers will win the Super Bowl 31-24. I expect to see some high powered offense from both sides but I think the 49ers defense will be terrorizing Mahomes the whole game. I sure hope this ages well!

Telle Smith - The Word Alive

49ers 27 - 21. The reason I think the 49ers are going to win is because I was reading a bunch of stuff on how this matchup is going to go. One, I think with the 49ers all year, everyone was saying like, ‘Oh they're not gonna win.’ The Chiefs [on the other hand] were pretty much Super Bowl favorites from day one and I love watching them, they're really fun to watch. But the 49ers defense, they play the one kind of defense that Mahomes has struggled against -- which is cover three. I really feel like, unless they make some strong adjustments, it's not going to be as easy for the Chiefs to go off offensively. That's what's really won them games [this season]. It hasn’t been their defense. Their offense has just been so good that it didn't matter how many points the other team was scoring. The thing about the 49ers too, like they did last week, they can win with six completions and 80 yards passing or Garoppolo can throw for 300-plus yards and they can win that way. So, I think [the 49ers] just have a better base-level, how-you-play-football team. I think with the Chiefs’ offense, if you could pick any one offense in the NFL, you'd probably take them. That's my prediction.

Ryan Kirby - Fit For A King

I'm going with the Chiefs, 35-21. I really feel like the Chiefs have an offense you can't slow down. The 49ers are great but don't have the offense to keep up with them and I don't think their defense will be as effective because of how explosive Mahomes and the Chiefs offense is.

Alex Biro - Selfish Things

31-28 SF. Beyond the Vikings, the 49ers have always been one of my favorite football teams. KC has a strong defense but SF has been rushing well through the playoffs and looked pretty untouchable last weekend. 4th quarter field goal with under two minutes left seals it for the 49ers.

Dan O'Connor - Four Year Strong

I’ll go with the 49ers. Garoppolo knows how to work the pocket and keep the ball moving down the field. [If] their offensive line doesn’t have a lot of luck running the ball they will have to rely on his pass game. I think it will come down to the wire with the 49ers on top.

Kevin Jordan - This Wild Life

Based entirely off of their team names I think the 49ers will score exactly 49 points then just take a knee. We played a show at a Chief’s Bar once and their fans were gigantic and scary so I can only imagine how much more gigantic and scary the actual players are so they will score 98 points.

Dan O'Connor - Four Year Strong PART TWO

I think it will be a close game, but at the last second Tom Brady will descend from the heavens, QB sneak the final touchdown and win the game for the Patriots.

Brendan Murphy - Counterparts

Fuck the Super Bowl it’s the BrennyBowl™️ now.

Tom Williams - Stray From The Path

Purple Gatorade to be dumped on the [winning] head coach. +1650. Risk $50 to win $825. TAILS on the pre-game coin toss. -115. Risk $230 to win $200. TAILS NEVER FAILS. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TO WIN. Risk $690 to win $607.

WATCH MORE:

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#The Word Alive #Set It Off #State Champs #Counterparts #Four Year Strong #Fit For A King #This Wild Life #Selfish Things

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smokeybrand · 3 years

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The Gift and the Curse

The Mummy

The Mummy Returns

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I had a time with Tomb but it wasn’t like the time i had with it’s predecessors. I don’t know if it’s because I'm so much older and hardened by life but all i see is the flaws in this one. It doesn’t have the nostalgia goggles like the first two so i can’t enjoy it like i enjoy those. I just see plot holes instead of camp. Bad CG instead of rustic attempt. Poor set pieces instead of Nineties jank. Bad character writing instead of unfortunately hilarious dialogue. Tomb isn’t terrible but it ain’t good wither. It;s mediocre and i know the first two aren’t great but they’re better than whatever this wanted to be. It’s weird to see because there are a lot of great ideas here. I can see the vision that lays outside the margins and it’s frustrating. Fraser does is in his element as Rick and Li’s Han is a physical powerhouse but that’s not enough. As awesome as this movie gets when those two are on screen, literally everything around them is dismissible and i don’t understand how or why. I think a lot of the chemistry was lost when the focus was shifted to Alex from Rick and the recasting of Eve really didn’t do this film any favors. However, even with all of my frustrations, i can't say i had a terrible time with this thing. It was entertaining, if a little bogus.

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junker-town · 4 years

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Doc Rivers’ history of playoff collapses, explained

Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images

For the third time in his head coaching career, Rivers’ team blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA playoffs.

The Los Angeles Clippers were on the brink of a trip to the Western Conference Finals with a 3-1 series lead over the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs. While the Clippers had never reached the conference finals in franchise history, this year was supposed to be different after acquiring Kawhi Leonard and Paul George over the offseason. Anything less than a championship was going to be considered a disappointment.

With the Lakers advancing past the Houston Rockets in five games in the second round, it sure seemed like the Battle of Los Angeles in the conference finals that felt inevitable all season was about to happen. That’s when the LA started to unravel:

The Clippers blew a 15-point lead to lose Game 5

The Clippers blew a 19-point second half lead to lose Game 6

The Clippers totally collapsed in the fourth quarter to lose Game 7

Just like that, the Clippers’ season is over. Denver came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Utah Jazz in round one, and did it again in the second round against a more powerful Clippers team. It’s a feeling Clippers coach Doc Rivers knows all too well.

Of the 13 teams to come back from a 3-1 playoff deficit in NBA history, Rivers has been on the losing side three different times in three different decades. Rivers won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008 and helped the team reach the Finals in 2010, but it’s impossible to ignore all of the blown playoff series he’s been a part of after Boston’s charmed run.

Here’s a look back at Doc Rivers’ worst moments as a playoff coach.

2003: Rivers’ Orlando Magic blow a 3-1 lead to the Detroit Pistons

The No. 8 seed Orlando Magic weren’t supposed to have a chance against the No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons. Orlando had finished 42-40 and lost Grant Hill to scary complications from season-ending ankle surgery during the regular season. The Pistons, meanwhile, were the only team in the East to win 50 games.

Orlando did have one thing going for them: the league’s best scorer in Tracy McGrady. McGrady averaged better than 32 points per game to win his first scoring title that year. In the Game 1 of the series, with high schooler LeBron James in the stands, McGrady dropped 43 points to power Orlando to the victory.

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Detroit would win Game 2, but Orlando took Game 3 and Game 4 to surge ahead to a 3-1 series lead. Then the Pistons reeled off three straight victories to win the series.

Pistons coach Rick Carlisle made more adjustments than Rivers in the series, most notably using rookie wing Tayshaun Prince as a defender on McGrady after he earned a DNP in Game 1. Prince would go on to be a big piece of the Pistons’ rotation throughout the playoffs before they were eliminated by Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets in the conference finals. The Pistons would win the championship the next year after hiring Larry Brown as head coach and trading for Rasheed Wallace.

Rivers would be fired by the Magic the following year after starting the season 1-10. He was hired by the Boston Celtics the next season.

2015: the Clippers blow a 3-1 to the Houston Rockets

The Clippers enjoyed perhaps their greatest moment in franchise history when they outlasted the Spurs in Game 7 of their first round playoff series in 2015. Chris Paul hit the game-winner, but he also suffered a hamstring injury that caused him to miss the first two games of the team’s second round series against the Houston Rockets.

The Clips stunned the Rockets in Game 1 without Paul, then lost Game 2. LA roared back to win Game 3 and Game 4 with CP3 in the lineup, putting them ahead 3-1 and on the brink of the first conference finals appearance for both Paul and the franchise. You already know what happens next.

After losing Game 5, the Clippers were in position to close out the series in Game 6. Los Angeles led Houston 87-68 late in the second half. Houston coach Kevin McHale famously decided to leave James Harden on the bench for almost the entirety of the fourth quarter, but the Rockets’ bench lineup led by Josh Smith and Corey Brewer pulled out one of the most shocking upsets in NBA history.

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The Rockets would win Game 7 and advance to the conference finals, where they lost to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors. The Clippers were never really the same after blowing what felt like their best chance. LA would lose in the first round the next two years before dealing both Paul and co-star Blake Griffin.

The Athletic had a great look back at the adjustments Rivers could have made on the five-year anniversary of the loss. It’s true that LA had basically zero depth that season, but Rivers still could have played Jamal Crawford and his son Austin less while boosting minutes for a versatile defender in Matt Barnes. The Clippers also could have run the offense more through Griffin, who has becoming a legitimate playmaker at that point in his career.

2020: Possibly the Clippers worst collapse yet

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Clippers over the last three games of their series against Denver. Los Angeles’ depth — thought to be a major asset coming into the season — proved to be underwhelming, with Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell notably struggling throughout the end of the series. The Clippers’ stars weren’t much better. In Game 7, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George both failed to score in the fourth quarter. The game plan was faulty as well, with Rivers deciding to double-team Denver star Nikola Jokic in the post on every touch despite the fact that Jokic is the best passing center ever.

Again, the pass is great, but it's the perfect timing & passing when LAC is most vulnerable that is impressive here. As the double comes & Grant cuts into the paint & Jokic knows exactly how LAC will rotate. He waits for Morris to commit to the cutter & hits Harris for 3. pic.twitter.com/R6uho742ZO

— T.J. McBride (@TJMcBrideNBA) September 16, 2020

Perhaps more than anything, the Clippers simply failed to execute. The collapse against Denver certainly isn’t all on Rivers, it’s on every member of the team that let it happen. There are some alarming trends for both the coach and the team at this point, though.

Rivers hasn’t just blown 3-1 leads, he’s also blown three separate 3-2 series leads, including one in the 2010 Finals:

Doc Rivers has coached SIX teams that have blown 3-1 or 3-2 series leads: 2020 Round 2 vs Nuggets, 3-1 lead 2015 Round 2 vs Rockets, 3-1 lead 2012 East Finals vs Heat, 3-2 lead 2010 NBA Finals vs Lakers, 3-2 lead 2009 Round 2 vs Magic, 3-2 lead 2003 Round 1 vs Pistons, 3-1 lead

— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) September 16, 2020

For the Clippers, it’s their sixth blown series lead in their last seven playoff appearances. SB Nation’s Whitney Medworth chronicled the Clippers’ playoff disappointment back in 2017.

2013: 2-0 lead against the Grizzlies

The Clippers blew a good old fashioned lead to the Grizzlies this year.

2014: 1-0 lead against the Thunder

Donald Sterling’s TMZ tape was released this postseason. And while they beat the Warriors in Round 1, who knows what kind of effect that had later on.

2015: 3-1 lead against the Rockets

Chris Paul played through a tough hamstring injury and despite building a 3-1 lead, they still let it slip away.

2016: 2-0 lead against the Trail Blazers

Paul and Blake Griffin both went out with season-ending injuries before Game 3.

2017: 2-1 lead against the Utah Jazz

After going up 2-1 in the series, the Clippers lost Griffin to injury.

Does this mean Rivers is a bad coach? Of course not. He’s a champion for a reason, and is said to have a rare ability to manage superstar egos. Part of coaching is being a leader and commanding the respect of a locker room, and few are better than Rivers at that. Who could forget Rivers’ powerful plea for social justice back in late August?

Doc Rivers with raw emotion and a thunderbolt cry for justice: "All you hear is Donald Trump & all of them talking about fear. We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot...It's amazing, we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back." pic.twitter.com/19dHu9UlZ5

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) August 26, 2020

Where Rivers occasionally falls short is in making mid-series adjustments in the playoffs. Some coaches prefer to stick the game plan they tried to perfect all year and trust their team will eventually win with their bread-and-butter strategy. Rivers fits under that category. Other coaches throw everything at the wall and try to manufacture any advantage they can as they see what works and what doesn’t over the course of a series. Carlisle has a reputation for being a coach that adjusts on the fly, and Toronto’s Nick Nurse famously experimented with a variety of strategies last year during the Raptors’ run to an unlikely championship.

Rivers won’t be fired even after such a bad playoff collapse against Denver. He’s reportedly a big reason why Kawhi Leonard decided to sign with the team:

Playing for Doc Rivers was a major component in Kawhi Leonard joining the Clippers. Rivers will be running it back next season, according to @ChrisBHaynes

— Clips Nation (@clipsnation) September 16, 2020

Perhaps the Clippers will retool their roster over the long offseason to push the team over the hump. Maybe they just need to have some better luck on open shots, or show more discipline in executing their game plan.

The Clippers will be in contention to win a title as long as they have Leonard, but there’s no doubt this season qualifies as a major disappointment with a second round playoff exit. It’s just that maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised, given the history of the franchise and its head coach.

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airmanisr · 4 years

Video

flickr

CP 60 "Jupiter": An unlikely celebrity by Kevin Madore Via Flickr: When looking at photos of the Last Spike Ceremony on the Transcontinental Railroad, we see lots of distinguished looking men clad in formal attire and two ornately painted steam locomotives. Given that gold and silver spikes were being "driven" with a silver spike maul, I think that most folks who take the time to think about it probably assume that the two locomotives were specially built, or at least specially prepared for the occasion.....perhaps the finest engines either railroad could bring. In actuality, none of that was the case. The honest truth is that neither the Union Pacific's 119 nor the Central Pacific's Jupiter were specifically picked for the ceremony and in fact, both railroad intended for other locomotives to be there. In the case of the Central Pacific, the special train carrying CP President, Leland Stanford to Promontory was headed up by a locomotive called "Antelope", which was intended to represent the CP at the ceremony. Stanford's train was operating as an extra and was following a regular passenger train headed by Jupiter. Unfortunately, either Jupiter wasn't flying the correct flag to warn crews that there was a second section, or the track crews didn't notice it. Either way, an MOW crew proceeded to fell a large tree across the rails as soon as the regular train passed. When Stanford's extra arrived, they didn't see the tree until it was too late, and Antelope hit it, causing some damage. Rather than bring a damaged engine to the ceremony, Stanford telegraphed ahead and had Jupiter wait at the next station. His consist was pinned on to her, and she was "immortalized" by the cameras of Russell and Hart at Promontory. The locomotive you see in this photo is not the original Jupiter. Like so many great American artifacts, nobody really thought much about saving her until she had been unceremoniously scrapped in 1909. Fast-forward to 1975 when the National Park Service had a dilemma. They owned the the historic location of the Last Spike Ceremony, but had no locomotives to facilitate historic re-enactments. In past years, they had borrowed former V&T Engines "Dayton and "Inyo" from movie companies, as stand-ins, but those engines were now the property of the Nevada State Railroad Museum and weren't going anywhere. Instead, the Park Service commissioned a pair of replicas to a firm known as O'Connor Engineering Laboratories, of Costa Mesa, CA. Fortunately, Company President Chadwell O'Connor was a railfan himself, so the construction of these replicas became a labor of love. He engaged the services of Railroad Historian Gerald Best and Disney Animator Ward Kimball to help with the project. No plans or drawings existed for the two engines. O'Connor and team literally had to re-engineer the two locomotives from the historic photos of Russell, Hart and others. It was painstaking work, but no detail was spared. Interestingly, one of the most difficult tasks was figuring out how to paint the two engines, since all of the existing photos were in black and white. When the two engines were shipped to Promontory in 1979, they were works of art....and they still are, some 40 years on. They are as accurate as human hands could make them. The headlights and cab lights are real oil lamps....even the cross-head pumps on both sides are fully operational. Although the line they operate on is about as insular as it gets, the Park Service maintains them to FRA standards, including doing 1,472 Service Day Inspections. Contractors from the Utah area are brought in to do most of the heavier maintenance. The locomotives typically do demonstration runs several times daily, in addition to participating in periodic re-enactments of the Last Spike Ceremony.

#Locomotive

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xtruss · 4 years

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IRAN BACKS CHINA, CALLS TO INVESTIGATE U.S. 'CREATION AND SPREAD' OF CORONAVIRUS

— By Ton O'Connor | 3/18/20 | Newsweek

Iran has backed China's calls to investigate yet unfounded claims of the United States being the origin of the new coronavirus as an international blame game worsened over a pandemic that has infected more than 200,000 people across the globe.

Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani lashed out on Twitter Wednesday against what he called the "typical way" in which some U.S. officials have emphasized China and its central Hubei province city of Wuhan as the likely place where the COVID-19 disease began and have blamed both Beijing and Tehran's governments for failing to stop its spread. Shamkhani argued this was being done by U.S. officials done in order to "evade responsibility" themselves.

"Instead of leveling false accusations against China and Iran, U.S. officials should respond to international demands regarding its role in creating and spreading the coronavirus and the continuation of its crimes against the Iranian people by keeping in place the economic sanctions," the senior Iranian official wrote.

Shamkhani's rhetoric echoed that of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, who alleged in a tweet Thursday that it "might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan."

The tweet accompanied a clip in which Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield acknowledged during a House Oversight Committee session that there was a possibility that people in the U.S. who died of diagnosed influenza may actually have been killed by COVID-19 prior to widespread knowledge of the disease. Neither the CDC nor the World Health Organization has reported any COVID-19 infections in the U.S. prior to the outbreak in Wuhan.

Chinese and Iranian officials pose for a picture published February 29 by Tehran's embassy in Beijing after the Red Cross Society of China donated COVID-19 testing kits and other medical supplies to the Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

WHO recommends that new infectious diseases not be associated with geographic locations; people's names, a species/class of animal or food; cultural, population, industry or occupational references or terms that incite undue fear. Its 2015 guideline cites the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus as a good example of such naming practices and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus as a poor one.

Still, President Donald Trump has actively sought to portray the COVID-19 as a "foreign" disease and has recently adopted the term "Chinese Virus" in his social media messaging. He told reporters Tuesday that he instituted the latest term because he "didn't appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them."

Trump dismissed reports that such terminology might offend Asian-Americans or put them at risk at another conference the following day, saying "they probably would agree with it 100 percent, it comes from China."

Other Republican lawmakers such as Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Senator Rick Scott of Florida have adopted similar, controversial terms to describe COVID-19. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the term "Wuhan virus" in countering what he called a "disinformation campaign" by the Iranian government regarding the origin of the disease.

"Instead of focusing on the needs of the Iranian people and accepting genuine offers of support, senior Iranian officials lied about the Wuhan virus outbreak for weeks," Pompeo said during a press conference Tuesday. "The Iranian leadership is trying to avoid responsibility for their grossly incompetent and deadly governance. Sadly, the Iranian people have been suffering these kinds of lies for 41 years."

"They know the truth: The Wuhan virus is a killer, and the Iranian regime is an accomplice," he added.

The Trump administration has also accused China of attempting to initially cover up the extent of the epidemic, which soon produced new outbreaks in South Korea and Iran. While Italy today has the most reported active cases and deaths outside of China, Iran still has still struggled to contain a coronavirus that managed to infect and kill even elite government officials.

Iran has appealed to the International Monetary Fund for $5 billion in emergency funding to help handle its crisis as the country contends with U.S.-imposed economic restrictions laid out since the U.S. left a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal. The agreement saw Tehran agree to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Still, the Trump administration left in May 2018, arguing the accord did not go far enough to prevent Iran's support for foreign militias and its ballistic missile development in a move that deeply escalated tensions between the two foes.

"Unlawful US sanctions drained Iran's economic resources, impairing [the] ability to fight #COVID19," Iranian Foreign Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Tuesday. "They literally kill innocents. It is immoral to observe them: doing so has never saved anyone from future US wrath. Join the growing global campaign to disregard US sanctions on Iran."

The following day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi criticized Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Morocco and the exiled government of Yemen for blocking a Non-Aligned Movement joint statement opposing the ongoing U.S. measures against Iran as it faced mounting COVID-19 infections. China, a party to the nuclear deal, has frequently criticized U.S. sanctions against Iran and has stepped up humanitarian assistance to the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"The Iranian government and people are at a crucial juncture in their fight against the epidemic," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told a press briefing Monday. "Continued unilateral sanctions at this particular time will only make things worse, which apparently breach international law, basic norms governing international relations and humanitarianism."

"They also severely impact Iran's epidemic response and the delivery of humanitarian aid by the U.N. and other organizations," Geng added. "We urge the relevant country to immediately lift such sanctions on Iran, stop getting in the way of Iran's efforts against the epidemic, and avoid further harm to Iran's economy and people's livelihood."

Robert Destro, the State Department's assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said last week that the administration would "try to be useful and to provide assistance" to countries like Iran, North Korea and China. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has argued, however, that any country looking to support the Islamic Republic should first consider demanding the release of political prisoners.

"We made a commitment to do everything we can to provide them with all that America can deliver for Iran. I hope they'll accept that offer," Pompeo Tuesday's press conference. "That alone will contribute to Iran being able to manage this problem set for the Iranian people. I hope they'll take us up on these humanitarian efforts, not only us but countries all around the world who want to come help the Iranian people stay healthy and mitigate the risk that's there."

On Tuesday, however, the top U.S. diplomat announced new sanctions against those "who have engaged in activity that could enable the Iranian regime's violent behavior." The designations were listed Wednesday by the State Department and included nine entities and three individuals from Iran, China and South Africa.

The move also came as violence continues to rock Iraq, where a U.S.-led coalition formed to battle the hardline Sunni Islamic State militant group (ISIS) have increasingly faced off with Shiite Muslim militias, some of whom had close ties with Iran.

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dnowit41 · 5 years

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Meet the Gen Z Dallas Mavericks

Dallas is pairing Kristaps Porzingis with the reigning Rookie of the Year, Luka Doncic, in hopes that a young core will return the Mavericks to the glory days of Dirk Nowitzki and NBA title contention

By Kevin O'Connor

“Drinking early this weekend?” That’s what my Uber driver asked as she dropped me off at Community Beer Company in Dallas on a Friday morning in October. I had to explain myself: No beer would be consumed by me. It just so happens that you have to walk through a brewery entrance to get to the Dallas Mavericks practice facility, where I had some meetings that day. She laughed and said, “The Mavs? Oh. My son loves Luka.” As I would soon find out, so does everyone in Dallas, from the fans drinking beer inside the taproom to the employees working down the hallway at the Mavericks headquarters.

“We are as excited as we were 20 years ago. The hope is that over time this builds into a 2011-type run,” Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said from his office. A big American flag hangs behind his desk, but when it comes to looking for good players in far-off places, the Mavericks are well traveled. Today, it’s Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis; 20 years ago, it was Dirk Nowitzki, then a 21-year-old German entering his second NBA season. Dirk’s emergence in the 1999-00 season injected hope into a franchise with the NBA’s second-worst record in the 1990s. Since that year, the Mavs have the second-best record, have made many deep playoff runs, and in 2011, finally won a title.

Now, Dallas is following a blueprint similar to the one it followed with Dirk and Steve Nash at the turn of the century, or Dirk and Jason Kidd from 2007 through 2012. Doncic and Porzingis alone give the Mavs a shot to be good now, and someday, a chance to be special. If you’re looking for the next young team to enter the championship chase, look no further than the Mavericks.

Dirk’s jersey no longer hangs in the locker room, but soon it will hang in the rafters. Throughout his influential 21-year career, Nowitzki helped shape the league by making it cool for tall guys to shoot 3s, and changed the perception that international players would wilt in the face of the NBA’s physicality. It’s appropriate the baton was handed to a pair of European stars in Doncic, born in Slovenia, and Porzingis, who hails from Latvia.

Expectations are high in Dallas, but before Nowitzki won a championship, the Mavs went through heartbreaker after heartbreaker. Doncic and Porzingis “haven’t been through that, yet the light shines white-hot on the both of them,” Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle said at the team’s 2019-20 media day. “We got to help them navigate through all that. It’s a challenging thing. It takes love. It takes understanding. It takes empathy.”

No, Carlisle has not been body-snatched by a self-care guru, he’s just adapting to a new generation of players. “Rick is a lot more touchy-feely … just a lot lower key,” Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told me. “He’s always demanding and detail oriented, but Rick is smart. He recognizes where the Mavs are in our life cycle. We’re the Gen Z Mavs.”

Dallas’s core is young, so patience is required. Doncic is only 20 and entering his second season. Porzingis is 24 and the last time he played competitive basketball, LeBron James was a Cavalier and Kawhi Leonard was a Spur. Porzingis returns to the court this season following time away from the game. Porzingis was traded from the Knicks to the Mavericks in January. In March, a woman reported to the New York Police Department that Porzingis raped her in February 2018. The department’s Special Victims Division is investigating the case, and Porzingis has not been charged with a crime. The player’s legal representative has said the account is untrue and is part of an extortion attempt that, according to the lawyer, was being investigated by the FBI. In late March, Cuban told the New York Post, “We have been instructed by federal authorities not to comment.” Since then there has been no public comment by Porzingis or Mavericks officials on the matter.

The Mavs aren’t ready to compete against the pair of teams in Los Angeles (headlined, respectively, by LeBron and Kawhi), but they feel they’re at least ready to speak up in the Western Conference playoff conversation. Dallas has paired a 6-foot-7 playmaking savant who averaged 21-8-6 as a rookie with a 7-foot-3 shot blocker who can launch 3s from anywhere and averaged 23 points when he was last healthy. And the roster is deep and full of versatile bigs who can shoot 3s, switchable wings, and guards of different styles. “It’s a step-by-step process,” Nelson said. “We know what we’re up against in the West, but we’re all internally hoping for the playoffs.”

A collegiate vibe surrounds the Mavs. You can feel it after practices when Luka and Porzingis compete in laughter-filled shoot-outs against Dwight Powell and Justin Jackson. You can feel it with every word Boban Marjanovic speaks. It’s on sports radio and message boards. It’s on billboards plastered to the sides of freeways and high on buildings. In downtown Dallas, there’s a massive image of Doncic with spotlights shining from the top and bottom that keep him visible at all hours. At the top, it reads “HALLELUKA!” The Mavs themselves have a heartwarming affection for Doncic, too. After all, he’s been their basketball crush for many years now.

Nelson described scouting Luka as “love at first sight,” just like when he first saw Dirk at the Nike Hoop Summit in 1998. Cuban said the Mavericks knew two years before picking Doncic that they wanted him, but the only question was whether they’d ever be in a position to get him. So the Mavs tanked the 2017-18 season and Cuban got fined $600,000 after publicly admitting losing was their best option. “We worked hard to try and put ourselves in position,” Cuban said. “It was expensive for me.” After the lottery, Dallas was left with the fifth pick. They were crushed. Nelson never thought there’d be a way to trade up for Doncic. But they eventually did, by sending the fifth pick (Trae Young) and a future first (which would eventually become Duke forward Cam Reddish) to Atlanta. “When we were knocked down a couple spots in the lottery, I was absolutely sick,” Nelson said. “No disrespect to anyone else, it’s not that we wouldn’t have been happy, but guys that are 6-foot-7 with those skills are special.”

The Mavericks sacrificed to land Doncic because of the player he can become. “What’s Luka’s gift?” Nelson asked me. I said playmaking. “That’s why we’re so excited about him,” he continued. “The ability to make his teammates better is not only his greatest strength but also where he gets his greatest joy.” Nelson said Doncic has DNA like Kidd or Magic Johnson because of his blend of vision and mind-set. Doncic is a transcendent playmaker who manipulates defenders with his eyes and body, and then delivers passes in every direction all over the court with precision. There’s a Larry Bird–like quality to him: He’s not overly athletic, but his passing skills and instincts are already elite and could someday reach an all-time level.

Having a target like Porzingis can help Doncic reach his potential. Doncic will serve as the primary shot creator, and Porzingis as the finisher who stabilizes the defense. “They complement each other,” Carlisle said at media day. “Both of these guys can create problems on their own. When you get them together, we feel like they can create even bigger problems for opponents.”

Those problems will be created using the pick-and-roll: Carlisle’s offenses regularly rank near the top of the league in pick-and-roll frequency. Last season, Doncic was throwing lobs to Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber—both high-level finishers on the roll—and now KP can join in. Porzingis will be a major alley-oop threat whether he’s finishing with loud slams or with volleyball touch tap-ins.

Doncic puts passes where only his intended target can get it. Notice above how Doncic floats the ball, giving Porzingis time to elevate for the finish. In the past, Porzingis might not finish here. But during his time away he added 16 pounds of muscle, according to Mavs director of athletic performance Jeremy Holsopple, which should help him absorb bumps like the one here to score through contact.

Of course, Porzingis’s bread and butter is, and will always be, his jumper. Ever since he was a teenager playing for Sevilla, he’s been an effective shooter off movement, not just from a standstill. In the NBA, he’s hit a career 37.2 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s, and his 80.4 percent from the line is a positive indicator for his jumper. So far in the preseason, KP is clearly shaking off nearly two years of rust, but at least he’s receiving open looks.

All three of Porzingis’s 3s clank off the rim in the clips above, but who cares? He’s open, and Doncic’s passes are mouthwatering. There’s a behind-the-back pass, an over-the-head pass, and a leaning dart pass, all straight into Porzingis’s shot pocket. If there’s any doubt about KP’s shooting ability, watch this after-timeout play that Carlisle called:

Porzingis has notoriously gotten off to fast starts, and then seen his production fade fast through his first three NBA seasons because of fatigue and nagging injuries, particularly to his left leg. Playing with Doncic should help maintain his scoring efficiency with easier looks and simply less responsibility. “No disrespect to the Knicks, but KP hasn’t had a real point guard,” Cuban said. Porzingis’s three best point guards in New York were arguably Jose Calderon, Jarrett Jack, and Derrick Rose. Oof. What an upgrade in Dallas.

Doncic’s rookie year in Dallas was smoother than Porzingis’s time in New York. Porzingis got booed on draft night as an unknown to many Knicks fans fed up with a franchise that hadn’t won for decades. While with the Knicks, he had to deal with James Dolan, Phil Jackson, four different head coaches, and a deteriorating hero-ball aficionado in Carmelo Anthony. Meanwhile, Doncic has been the golden boy ever since he signed his first professional contract with Real Madrid at just 13 years old. He had the benefit of being drafted to an organization with stability and continuity, and a living legend in Dirk ready to teach him the Force.

Doncic has long been the knight in shining armor. The comparisons to Bird or Magic or Kidd don’t really affect him. “I had pressure since I was 15, so I don’t care about pressure,” he told me after a practice. It shows on the court: Doncic posted an effective field goal percentage of 56 percent in clutch situations, which ranks seventh best in the NBA for players to attempt at least 25 shots in the final three minutes. Doncic makes his team better not just with his passing, but his timely scoring.

He can attack the rim and unleash nifty floaters and layups, or pull up or step back like in the clips above. Doncic shot 31.3 percent on 380 dribble-jumper 3s last season—only James Harden, Kemba Walker, and Damian Lillard attempted more—but should develop into a better shooter. Carlisle said that Doncic worked hard on his shot this summer. When I asked Doncic about what he did, he said it was mostly about consistency, though one tweak was made to his form: Last season, he flared his right hand away from his body as he’d release the ball. So he worked on having his fingers follow through and down to create a straighter release that led to even better results. Doncic shot 37.4 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s and a surprisingly low 71.3 percent from the line.

Better mechanics should help, too. So should improved conditioning. This summer he got a dietician and a chef, and according to Cuban, “his girlfriend was on him about it.” Doncic has more muscle definition now; cutting pasta from his diet every day seemed to have helped. In the same way that Doncic’s presence will take pressure off KP, the inverse is true. Luka won’t need to always create shots now that he has Porzingis.

Shot creation wasn’t KP’s forte before entering the league, but he’s gotten much better. In the clip above, he used a tight crossover to create space against Andre Drummond. Porzingis says he works to perfect one- and two-dribble pull-ups, and any improvement since the last time we saw him would raise his ceiling. Porzingis was once dubbed a “unicorn,” but bigs with perimeter skills are common today; the differentiator at the position is the ability to generate shots off the dribble.

The post still has value though, especially as a playmaking hub. The Mavs will run a lot of pick-and-roll, which will naturally lead to a lot of defenses switching screens. Mismatches will occur when putting a bigger, slower dude on Luka. There’s no question Luka can roast them, but Kristaps will need to beat the smaller guys, too. For years, Nowitzki made defenses pay with moves to the rim or shots over the top with his one-legged fadeaway.

KP has gotten better on the post, but opponents still succeeded when putting smaller players on him to start possessions. I asked Porzingis whether he’s dedicated time to improving the post. “Earlier in my career, smaller guys like Marcus Smart would get me off balance,” Porzingis said. “But now I feel comfortable playing against a smaller guy. A lot of times what works is a quick move with one bump or just turn into his face and shoot over him. I’ve gotten a lot better at reading those situations. It’s a lot of film study, but also just playing, knowing how to play against a smaller guy instead of a bigger guy.”

Porzingis hasn’t had a possession on a smaller player yet, but the importance of his post potency was on display against Blake Griffin.

It’s late in the clock, so the Pistons doubled but Porzingis immediately recognized there was enough time to kick the ball out to Doncic. If KP is a post threat worthy of attention, the Mavs will be significantly more difficult to defend in the half court since they’ll be able to pick the best matchup available to attack.

Doncic spots up from outer space in the last clip, just like Porzingis was in prior attempts above. That’s all by design, as Cuban explained to me. “See these blue lines?” Cuban asked. He was pointing at the two lines behind the traditional 23.75-foot 3-point arc: one 28 feet from the rim, and another two feet further back. Here’s what they look like:

There are also four blue squares, two at the wings and two in the corners. These are meant to signify where they want their players spacing the floor as part of their five-out offensive lineups. “Seven years ago, we tried to show Dirk and Vince [Carter] that they shot better two feet behind the line than they did on the line because nobody was guarding them,” Cuban said. “Now we’re forcing guys to do it. And we actually track all of it, both guarded and unguarded. If you’re shooting back at 30 feet, all the space that’s created, you can’t guard all the way out there. Even if it’s Boban.”

Yes. Even Boban Marjanovic, the star of John Wick 3, will shoot 3s. At media day, Boban was asked about the idea of him launching from downtown and said, “When I hear that news, I was like ‘Yeahhhhhhhh.’ Maybe I’m the best shooter. You never know.” The Mavs tried the second-highest share of 3s last season with 42.2 percent of their shots coming from beyond the arc. The number should rise for a seventh consecutive year. “We’ll be a better shooting team. We’ll be a better spacing team,” Cuban said. “While some people were asking, ‘Can they compete for playoffs?” I’m like, ‘If we stay healthy, we’ll do more than just compete for a playoff spot.’”

Cuban might be too high on his own team, but Dallas has two rising stars, plays an analytics-happy style, and one of the absolute best Xs and Os coaches in the league. They also have the personnel to play different styles. They can utilize jumbo-sized lineups with a KP–Kleber frontcourt, Dorian Finney-Smith at wing, and two jumbo guards in Delon Wright and Luka. Or they can go small with Powell at the 5, Finney-Smith, Doncic, and two guards in Seth Curry and Jalen Brunson. Dallas can match up against any team, and maybe even dictate matchups.

Maybe Dallas doesn’t have the role players of a Raptors or Clippers, but if the Mavs can improve this season, don’t be surprised if “Brunson” or “Kleber” gain some notoriety around the league. Nelson went as far to say he would “love for this to be the core moving forward,” which is exactly what he should say to a media member. But the Mavs did sign most of these players to contracts through the 2022-23 season. They are enamored of their current group.

One obvious thing these players share: the ability to shoot. “In the old days, if a big couldn’t shoot it, it was like, ‘Okay, at least he’s a great defender, and this and that,’” Nelson said. “Now you have to look real hard at guys that can’t shoot, and it’s almost to the point where those guys are almost not draftable.”

Dallas’s roster largely reflects Nelson’s comment. Gone are the days of Tyson Chandler throwing down lobs but unable to space the floor. Now, Powell and Kleber are emblematic of the changing nature of the position. “We have a great mix. Luka and KP are two amazing talents that can create different scenarios for us on offense,” Kleber said. “But obviously we can help them.” How exactly? Kleber can shoot 3s and roll to the rim, and on defense, he’s both an excellent shot blocker and perimeter defender. Defensive versatility is vital since Porzingis will stay closer to the rim, and Doncic is best served hiding against inferior threats.

Kleber will share minutes with Powell, who Porzingis told me is “an animal.” Powell isn’t as productive as a shooter or defender but he is one of the league’s best lob threats: He made 78.6 percent of his shots on rolls to the rim, per Synergy. If Powell and Kleber could do a fusion dance to combine their best traits, Dallas would have the perfect frontcourt partner for Porzingis. Both players are signed through 2022-23 for a combined $19.4 million annually. What a bargain.

Dallas could do better at wing. Dorian Finney-Smith and Justin Jackson are versatile, switchable defenders, but they aren’t consistent shooters. They will have to have hot shooting seasons for the Mavs to excel against top defenses, otherwise opponents will help off of the both of them. Dallas acquired shooting elsewhere though. Tim Hardaway Jr. is the inverse of Finney-Smith and Jackson as a limited defender but a microwave scorer. If he buys into his complementary role, he could end up being another player who takes shot creation pressure off of Doncic. Dallas actually has plenty of options in that department, though.

“When you have a 6-foot-7 ball handler, you can mix and match,” Nelson said. “You can go switchable or stretchable, so it depends on the emphasis, it depends on the opponent, it depends on how Rick wants to attack.” Last year, the Mavs drafted Brunson, a gritty, unselfish guard with savvy playmaking skill. This summer, Delon Wright and Seth Curry were added. Wright will start next to Doncic; he said after a practice that Carlisle wants him defending the opposing guards, but at 6-foot-5 and 183 pounds with long arms, he’s one of the most versatile defenders in the league. Then there’s Curry, an elite shooter who can serve as a spark plug off the bench.

“We have an opportunity to be very good. We have a lot of great talent,” Brunson said. “Luka and KP have a lot on their shoulders, but everyone else will have to step up and help those guys out.” For all he can do, it’s not ideal for Doncic to be the team’s sole source of shot creation. After the trade deadline, Doncic averaged 97.1 touches per game. That’s more than Russell Westbrook, Nikola Jokic, and LeBron James. It was more than everyone—as a rookie! Many primary ball handlers, such as Westbrook, aren’t as effective off the ball. So it becomes necessary to keep the ball in their hands. That’s not the case with Doncic, so Nelson constructed a roster with multiple ball handlers to take the burden off Doncic, minimize any wear and tear, and allow Carlisle to get creative.

Doncic could be used as a screener, he could take pick-and-pop for 3s and attack off the dribble, or he could even roll to the rim to make use of his greatest gift: playmaking. Nelson said in the long term, he sees a world in which Doncic is used more like the Warriors use Draymond Green. Makes sense. Luka is large, smart, and can pick apart defenses with the pass. I asked Doncic about whether this role would work for him and he smiled as he said, “You gotta ask coach. He makes decisions.” The better person to ask is Nelson since he configures the roster, and the proper personnel is required to make that vision a reality.

What Dallas needs is the Splash Brothers—just one would suffice. Maybe even a distant cousin. But Dallas doesn’t have anyone who can even approach the floor-stretching brilliance of Steph Curry or Klay Thompson. Maybe Carlisle will experiment by utilizing Steph’s brother. Dallas’s next big acquisition should be a perimeter-oriented player who can unlock a new dimension of Doncic.

Nelson said the goal this year is to make the playoffs, then draft a player in 2020 and take the next step on the court, and then add more talent in 2021 when they could create tens of millions of cap space. “It’s a good draft in 2020, and then we have [free agency] the following year, so I think you can see a nice little … ” Nelson said as his voice trailed off and he gestured with his hands as if he were building steps.

The Mavericks sent their 2021 and 2023 firsts to the Knicks for Porzingis, but they still own their firsts in every other year. The 2020 draft is rich with talent, and then they could create max cap space in 2021 to pursue a player like Bradley Beal or Giannis Antetokounmpo. Even if the cap drops, they’ll still have enough to splurge on second-tier or third-tier free agents to build around their Big Two—that’s one of the big benefits of having your best player still on his rookie contract.

For now, the Mavericks are focused on their present. “You go through this transition and guys are excited for that to happen,” Cuban said. “The rise, right? The growth into becoming a winning team that can compete for a championship, that’s fun.” In the next two years, Doncic and Porzingis need to grow as leaders much like Nowitzki did many years ago. Dallas has organizational goals, and they aren’t shy about sharing them. “We liked the parade we had here in 2011,” Nelson said. “We want another one—well, everything but Dirk’s rendition of ‘We Are The Champions.’”

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