R.I.P. James Gandolfini: “Booth Reserved For The Soprano Family”

After Wednesday’s incredibly sad news of the passing of acting giant James Gandolfini, many tributes to the late actor have been shared by peers and fans alike. Beautiful as many of the obituaries and gestures have been, perhaps the most quietly moving as been that from Holsten’s Ice Cream Shop in Bloomfield, NJ.

Holsten’s was the location of the iconic final scene of The Sopranos; not a day has passed since the airing of the show’s finale where fans haven not sat at the booth where the scene was shot to take photos and take in the scenery.

To honor the actor, the shop’s owner Chris Carley has placed a “Reserved” sign on the table atop a newspaper with a photo of Gandolfini.

NBA Finals: Game 7 Hangover

• 37, 12, and 4. 45 minutes played. 5 threes. I guess we got “World Destroyer LeBron” after all.
• As someone who cannot stand most of the Heat players, I am profoundly disappointed with the result of this series. I hate (HATE) that Wade now has three titles, and that I live in a world where Mario Chalmers is a valuable contributor to multiple title winners. But as someone who loves the game of basketball, and as someone who appreciates the history of the game and this league, I am truly thankful to have been able to watch LeBron James in his prime. Seeing LeBron continue to push his limits these last few years, to have now fully realized his otherworldly potential as a player, has been a pleasure (despite how much I have rooted against his team succeeding). My resentment and sports-hatred towards Chris Bosh, Wade, Chalmers, and others on his team does not supersede my ability to respect and appreciate James’ achievement.
• On the note of legacies though, can we please all try our best to have a deferment on the whole “Where does LeBron rank all-time?” discussion for now? Two titles and all of his individual successes have surely secured his place “in the conversation” as one of the greatest to ever play – for now, acknowledging that alone really ought to be enough. None of us know where this run is headed: the Heat could run off another title; or, they could lose next year, but reload in a few years and have a second reign at the top of the NBA mountain; or, this could be the last time James wins a title. No one knows at this point. That ignorance of what it is to come is a truly beautiful and magnificent thing. It may seem that he is pre-destined to continue to stack chip after chip until he’s caught Jordan (Just ask him: “Not five, not six, not seven…”). Remember though that we once thought that would be true for the Shaq/Kobe Lakers as well. So, We. Just. Don’t. Know. Enjoy that, and argue about his place in history when his time is done and his career is set in stone. As fans we often rob ourselves of enjoying a great player’s prime years because we are consistently trying to put their achievements into historical context, even while they are still happening. We do that just so that we can proclaim his place in the stars neatly and move to the next debate. I am as guilty of this rush to evaluating legacies as anyone, but at least I have the self-awareness to know it is a foolish instinct. I will get off my soapbox now by adding that when LeBron is Tim Duncan’s age, or when he is in Kobe’s current position as the league’s elder statesman, THEN we should go about trying to figure out where his career ranks in history, not before.

Much more, after the jump…

Seven Key Questions That Will Decide Game 7

1. Which LeBron James will we see tonight? Headband-less Destroyer-of-Worlds LeBron? Or Shrinking Violet, 3-12, Boris-Diaw-Can-Guard-Me LeBron?
2. How much energy does Tim Duncan possibly have left in the tank?
3. Can Danny Green, or perhaps Gary Neal, recapture the magic he lost in Game 6?

NBA Finals: Game 6 Hangover

• So…wow. I can’t even… No, just forget it. Still speechless, a full day and a half later. There are no words. I’m without words. I am wordless.
• Ah hell, let’s give this recap a try any way. Game 7 is only a few hours away – the shelf life on this is practically up as is…
• So, in attempting to recap Tuesday night, the most challenging part of assessing what happened is to force yourself to not get too wrapped up in the moment. All that will do is lose overall perspective, and lead to even more hyperbole than normal. The game was certainly one of the most special contest we’ve seen in years, maybe even this century, but there was an immediate reaction to want to crown this as “the greatest basketball game ever” that rang a bit false to me. There is no doubt that the storylines and the narrative drama that played out over the fourth quarter and overtime make this one of the most riveting and emotionally compelling games anyone can remember. But it was not necessarily particularly well played – at least not all the way through – and it did not feature good officiating, or sustained stretches of great play for both teams. What we saw instead was pockets of singular moments, or runs, of brilliance, and incredible isolated moments where star players rose to meet the moment they were in. And that was wonderful, and thrilling, and as entertaining as anything I’ve seen on a basketball court since the 1990s. But it was not GREAT basketball – it was great theatre from teams that were fighting tooth-and-nail despite poor execution and exhaustion.
• For me, great theater and great single plays in isolation are important when identifying a game was transcendent, as are the built-in narratives around ‘heart’ and ‘legacy’ and ‘historical significance’. But also important is having prolonged great play on the floor from each team at the same time, and we didn’t get much of that. Just like in every other game this series; we saw one team go on a massive run met by an equally massive response from the opponent, and a seesaw of momentum, but not big plays met with big plays in immediate response.
• So, a day removed to have time to reflect and consider Game 6 of this series for all the memorable, fun, electrifying moments it brought us, I would place it immediately beside Game 7 of the 2010 Finals between LA and Boston as one of the two most entertaining and memorable games I’ve watched this century, but I can’t go higher than that. Perhaps the drama that in inherent in a Game 7 compared to just a Game 6 is what ultimately means the Lakers’ win trumps the wackiness from Tuesday night for me, or maybe (definitely?) it is because I am a Lakers fan and therefore have a considerable personal bias in assessing how special and emotionally taxing that Game 7 was. Either way though, I think what we got the other night is something that we as basketball fans will all remember for years, if not decades, on, and it is a reminder of how much fun it is to be a fan of this game

More thoughts on Game 6, and some on Game 7, after the jump…

NBA Finals: Game 5 Hangover

• In ‘Kenan Thompson as Charles Barkley’ voice: “GINOOOOOBILIIIII!!!!”
• In a Finals matchup that has been most defined by its scoring runs, it is telling that the Spurs’ seized control of the series with a performance that featured unique runs of 19-1, 15-2, and 10-0 at different points of the game.
• While there is no question this series has been memorable, it is interesting that five games in we have had only one contest where both teams played equally well. Only Game 1 has been a single digit win, and in every other game one of the teams has totally and utterly seized control in the third quarter to the point where every other game so far has seemed decided halfway through the fourth. One team has always found itself mid-way through the third quarter, and manages to push its advantage until the lead is out of hand. Miami hopes they are the team that finds that 5th-gear in the third quarter Tuesday night, or else they risk heading home for a very long, very interesting summer.
• Speaking of runs and of the fickle nature of momentum in this series, Coach Spo had an excellent description during his post-game press conference as to why the game got out of hand in the third quarter. Spoelstra said that when Miami missed a series of shots that they typically should make, and that from there their confidence dropped and their mistakes compounded so that the Spurs’ momentum “snowballed” to very quickly push the game out of reach.

“Magna Carta Holy Grail” Trailer

Camp Ye or Camp Jay – how do you prefer to watch The Throne?

Are you part of the Yeezus backlash? Or the backlash to the backlash? Do you speak “Swagheli”? Or are you sitting out Ye’s newest altogether, instead waiting on a new offering from his sometimes partner and The Original God MC, J-Hova?

This summer you won’t have to choose one or the other, because Jay will apparently be following Yeezy’s lead and dropping his own ambitious, sonically diverse, challenging, radio-unfriendly album.

In other words, if you are a rapper and planned on having any shot at owning this summer, time to rethink your release date and hope for the best in Q4.

Last night, following the end of the second quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Jay dropped an ad with Samsung announcing his new album Magna Carta Holy Grail is coming July 4^th, meaning a previously-unannounced LP will be out in just a few short weeks. The full video from last night’s ad is embedded below, after the jump…

Your New Favourite GIF Ever: The Leo Dance

Go ahead and take the rest of the day off to celebrate our collective achievement. We did it – the perfect GIF. Good job, everybody.

“Who Gon’ Stop Me, Huh?”

Watch: “Wolf of Wall Street” Trailer

Based on its absolutely incredible new trailer, I feel secure in having projected this as my Second-Most Anticipated Film of the Year back in January.

In my best Stefon voice: “2013 hottest trailer is Wolf of Wall Street. This film has everything: monkeys, stacks of money taped to women’s bodies, lobster throwing contests, Goodfellas 4th-Wall Breaking, Coach Taylor, that thing where you throw a midget against a dart board.” Imagine Leo channeling Patrick Bateman, but with less murder and more McConaughey, to the sound of Yeezus‘ “Black Skinhead”. Oh, and add in the most insane dance this side of Diddy…

See the full trailer, after the jump…

NBA Finals: Game 3 Hangover

• “Get your name in the paper” – G. Popovich, The Best.

• Two days later, it seems tempting to reduce the entirety of Game 3 down to the following two sentences: “Danny Green and Gary Neal were incredible. LeBron was incredibly human.” That kind of distillation of what actually swung Tuesday night’s game is not exactly “wrong” – it is efficient and any many ways the result is as simple as “The Spurs role players were great and Miami’s stars were not” – but it does miss a lot of the details in the name of a condensed narrative. Sure, you can understand what happened by reducing the game down to San Antonio hitting threes and Miami quitting, but if you have the time and interest there was more complexity to the match-up than just those talking point.

• That said, it’s not a bad idea to start by hitting those same talking points – Gary Neal and Danny Green were unbelievably good Tuesday night. Sports fans and writers are guilty of throwing around words like “amazing” and “extraordinary” too often, but here they seem apt considering the deviation above each player’s expectation level of performance. When Wade or Parker has a game like this, it is worthy of praise, but also within reason; given their talents and place in the hierarchy of the League’s elite, it is completely rational to that they would perform to that level. That’s not the case with Green and Neal. They played arguably their greatest games as professionals during what was the most pressure-filled game of their respective careers (to date, at least). That is worth applauding. Each player embraced the moment and completely gave themselves over to it without forcing the issue, and as a fan of the sport it was a treat to watch, team allegiances aside. Green’s sheepish/“aww shucks”/ “I can’t really believe this either guys” grin after his seventh three of the night was the best moment of the series so far in my opinion, because of the humanity and relatability it captured. Maybe I am just a sucker for NBA mortals upending the balance of power instead of the traditional NBA Titans like Duncan or LeBron solely defining events.

More thoughts on Game 3 after the jump…

NBA Finals: Game 2 Hangover

• Kenny Smith put it best during the post game analysis on NBA TV last night: “Players win awards; teams win titles”. Game 2 was not about either team’s stars. The outcome had everything to do with the role players, with “everyone else”, and not with big names on the marquee. LeBron, Duncan, Wade, and Parker each ranged somewhere between “mediocre” to “truly lousy” and ultimately equaled one another out with their own sub-optimal performances. And so it was the play of their less heralded teammates that secured this win for Miami (and on the other side, San Antonio’s role players were responsible for keeping their team in the game for as long as they did). In a league where an insane amount of praise/blame is heralded upon star players for the fate of their teams, it was refreshing to have a contest where the transcendent greatness of the main talents was not the main factor that swung the decision one way or another.
• Amazingly, the Heat still have not lost back-to-back games since mid-January. This will never stop being incredibly impressive.
• An even scarier stat if you are a Spurs fan: Miami is beating their opponent by an average of 21.6 points per game in games after every loss this postseason. That is some Biblical-level of retribution.
• On the oddness of LeBron’s performance: He wasn’t terrible, but he clearly was not himself, and was not playing with any kind of urgency despite it looking at times like the Spurs might effectively end Miami’s title hopes right there. As much as he has been capital-E “Everything” for this team all year, it was his teammates that won him this game. He’s still the best player alive of course, but that was just a very peculiar, generally poor effort through three-quarters.

Much more, after the jump…