Season 1’s one of my favorite comedy seasons ever. Season 2 is good. Season 3 struggled because IMO Harmon was really concerned about responding to all the weird fans and convincing them Rick was a piece of shit and he should feel bad about himself and you should feel bad about yourself for liking him. The last couple of seasons have steered out of that. 5 has been my favorite in some time.
Also if you like Rick and Morty except for the Harmon angst, Solar Opposites will be right up your alley
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I was actually at that game. I grew up 10 minutes from the palace, and the season before had bought a ticket package. This season I didn’t, but my brother-in-law called me the day of the game saying he had an extra seat. I went with him and my 2 nephews who were I think about 8 and 10 at the time. We had decent seats in the lower bowl, but thankfully we were on the other end of the court from where all hell broke loose. The only reason I was still even in the stadium when shit went down is because the kids wanted to stay. Otherwise I would have bounced out of there a couple minutes before, like many people did, because the Pistons were getting their asses thoroughly kicked. I remember they had Artest up on the jumbotron while he was laying on the table, saw the beer cup hit him, then next thing I know there was a brawl in the stands. Both my brother and I wanted to stay and see how this all played out, but decided for safety reasons that we should probably get the kids out of here because we didn’t know how bad it was going to get.
The only thing I really remember from the game that doesn’t seem to come through in the videos and documentary, was just the amount of crap being thrown from around the stadium. It looked like it was raining food & drinks from the upper level. At least that’s how I remember it. We made our way out without issue as 98% of the remaining fans in the stadium did. Traffic was worse than usual getting out with the convoy of police and EMS arriving, so we stayed in the parking lot with the radio on trying to get a listen to hear the details. Despite going to game 4 of the NBA finals the year before, this is the one sporting event I have the most vivid memories of.
I was a pretty big NBA fan at the time, and that Pacers team up to that point was dominant and likely the odds on favorite to win a title that year. Artest had his demons, but at that point in his career was probably the best 2-way player in the NBA other than maybe Kobe. O’Neal was playing on a level with other HOF bigs at the time like Duncan and Garnett. Father time was catching up to Reggie but he was still one of if not the best shooter in the NBA. Stephen Jackson seemed like the missing piece that was needed to turn the team from conference finalists to champions. None of those players were ever the same again after the incident. The Pistons went on to have a decent run for the next few years but could never win another title. The Pacers pretty much imploded. That could have been one of the greatest NBA rivalries ever had this not happened.
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Unpopular opinion : Wallace is 100% to blame for everything
I’ve heard that take before, it’s not all that uncommon, but it’s wrong.
Even in the documentary, you can hear how the other players on the team really put this all on Artest. The documentary was the first time I had heard the story about Jamal Tinsley telling Artest that now was the time to get his foul in. The previous season he was suspended multiple times for various incidents, one of which was exceeding the flagrant foul limit. I’m not sure if he actually got called for a flagrant on the foul on Wallace, but it was clearly a cheap shot that didn’t resemble anything close to an attempt at defense, and wouldn’t have been justified in a tie game, let alone a blowout. Yeah, Ben lost his cool afterwards, but no one else was worried. You heard O’Neal and the others talk about how these guys are all friends off the court, and didn’t really want to fight. Stuff like that happened in the NBA more frequently back then (although the Pistons/Pacers teams were outliers in the league with their style of physical play more reminiscent of 80s ball at the time). Wallace probably eats a 1, maybe 2 game at most suspension if that’s as far as it goes.
Ben didn’t run into the stands and attack the wrong fans. It started as an on court fight and Artest was really the one who threw the first punch in it. Sure, Ben didn’t have to react to it the way he did. But Artest didn’t have to react to the beer cup the way he did. But he did.
My other take is that any team that relied on Artest to be a significant contributor at the time was a recipe for disaster. He was well on his way to superstardom at the time, but it’s clear his head was never in the right place. His history of on court incidents and erratic behavior was well documented before that.
Yeah one central takeaway was Artest is just not right mentally and never has been. O’Neal was super impressive in the interviews. Stephen Jackson was hilarious. LOL at those asshole fans and the predictably useless cops.
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O’neal was an exec producer on the show
Went down rabbit hole of Alexandra Daddario’s YouTube. It’s pretty good, mainly her hanging out with two friends during quarantine.
Sample:
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Btw, watched first two episodes of white lotus. Thought it was quite good but too cringe for me, so just read plot summary of the remaining four episodes. A bit too dark and cringe but good quality show.
RM season 5 has been pretty bad over the first six episodes I’ve seen. Basically disappointing and lacking novelty.
yeah coincidentally watched e1 of white lotus yesterday man I don’t get how people like this stuff. I do like want to see what happens but huge oof on even sitting through just 5 more episodes. Maybe I’ll just read the summaries and be done.
I fast forwarded liberally.
As with the rest of White Lotus, I liked the ending.
Rich white people always win. The end.
I’m glad the kid got away from his horrible family, but it doesn’t make any sense. "Oh well he didn’t get on the plane, guess we should leave him in Hawaii!
Right. He’s 16 with no money, wtf.
That’s easier to explain (Hawaiian rower guys basically adopt him) than his family not turning around and grabbing him before he got more than a few gates away. I assume Mike White didn’t want the rich folks to get any redemption via actually listening to/supporting their son, so he had to just somehow get away.
Speaking of the rich folks, I understood Connie Britton to basically be the CEO or COO of like Google or Facebook. I think she could probably have sprung for an extra hotel room or two so her kids weren’t sleeping on cots and fold-outs, even in a really expensive resort.
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Here’s a pretty good interview from the creator explaining his motivations.
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I didn’t really understand the point of the pregnant lady storyline in episode 1.
White discusses it, but it was bad and dumb imo, as is his explanation. Helped turn me off of the show. Same with the close up of the dude’s balls. HBO loves shots only for shock effect, it was a staple of Westworld, which I grew to despise despite my interest in AI and sci fi.
Stuff like that is low brow imo. It’s the prestige TV equivalent of fart jokes in a comedy.
US TV has come a long way since the 80s when people weren’t allowed to say “toilet”.
obligatory
Just watched Escape at Dannemora on Showtime. The story about the prison escape where the prison seamstress was involved with the escapees. It was ok/pretty good. Crazy good cast - Benicio Del Toro, Paul Dano, Patricia Arquette.
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