Tag: Brooklyn

As Kevin Durant Trade Speculation Drags On Celtics Should Stay the Course With Core

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While the Kevin Durant soap opera drags on, it seemed like any interest the Celtics may have had in the Slim Reaper evaporated once they started bolstering the current roster with legit rotation guys like Malcolm Brogdon and Danilo Gallinari. These are the exact kind of moves that seemingly fill the holes that the 2021-22 team had. But then a late night Woj bomb said the C’s were still in on KD. In retrospect it looks like Woj and/or Shams may have been doing the bidding of Nets GM Sean Marks looking to drum up a better return, who 4 weeks after the initial trade request has “failed” to find a new home for Durant. Whether that’s by design or not is debatable because it’s impossible to get equal value for a player like Durant. The Jazz getting FOUR first rounders for Rudy Gobert didn’t do teams hoping to lowball the Nets any favors either. Hence, the trade speculation continuing into its third month which is unheard of in today’s NBA.

Either way the question will not go away as there have been reports of specific trade offers the Celtics have made to Brooklyn as well as counter offers by the Nets. (Tatum completely sidestepped the question when asked if he wants the team to keep Brown or go after Durant so that must be confidence inspiring for Jaylen.) My original point remains though, the Celtics need to stay the course rather than blow up their core to bring in Kevin Durant, who is without a doubt an all-time talent, but will also be 34 when the season starts with a significant injury history. As tempting as it is to chase the dragon here after years of the Celtics promising fireworks (and Kevin Durant is the Drogon of NBA trade bait), if I’m the Celtics I am standing pat.

The Celtics literally just got to the NBA Finals and lost to a once in a generation type dynasty. Disappointing, but losing to a team that has won four of the last eight NBA championships is hardly a reason to blow up your entire roster. If I could get Durant without giving up Tatum or Brown then yes absolutely 100%, but that’s only happening in NBA2K after you turn off the fair trade feature.

The Nets super team experiment clearly has imploded with some going so far as to call it “the biggest disappointment in NBA history.” I’m not ready to give it that lofty title quite yet, but it is the kind of calamity that people will write books about. After Kyrie hemmed and hawed about whether he even wanted to come back to Brooklyn (all while trying to secure that max deal from the very same employer), he finally decided to opt in for the last year of his deal. Not long after Kyrie hit send on the tweet, Kevin Durant decided he’d had enough of the clown show and wants off the ride.

While the internet mockery of the Nets has died down in recent weeks, it still seems like just a matter of time until Durant is dealt. With a young team on the verge of a title and having just brought in key reinforcements, I hope Brad Stevens doesn’t try to move up the timeline and make a trade that could derail the whole thing.

PS – With all that being said, it would be high quality entertainment if the Celtics were to trade for Durant and then win a championship at the expense of yet another Brooklyn trade. Nets fans would be screaming at their TVs like Obi-Wan on Mustafar.

Kyrie Irving Was Acting Like an Insufferable Asshole Once Again Before the Nets Celtics Game

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Is Kyrie gonna read some horoscopes and tarot cards like your earthy crunchy ex-girlfriend after the game too?

I understand this probably comes off as sour grapes to anyone that hasn’t had to listen to Kyrie’s bizarre press conferences and media appearances on a daily basis (buckle up Nets fans), but I swear the Celtics dodged a bullet when this guy decided to skip town. I’m not a very religious or spiritual person so I’m not here to dump on anyone’s beliefs, but seriously what in the hell is Kyrie doing here? He is legit every girl I went to school with that uses crystals and what position the moon is in to guide their life decisions.

If there’s one thing I give credit for it’s for just not giving a shit how out to lunch you appear to be to just about everyone because this little act came just hours after Charles Barkley roasted Kyrie for his media act.

The Celtics Are Hosting the Nets on Christmas Day

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Christmas Day NBA is my favorite sports day of the year hands down. You get five marquee basketball games to watch from your morning mimosa coffee all the way to your post-Xmas dinner blackout when all the IPAs you’ve been guzzling catch up to you late night. Obviously 2020 is a little bit different as I had Thanksgiving dinner at my house with just my wife and my dog like I live in Siberia, but Christmas Day NBA is a tradition that needs to continue. Not to mention we get gifted with the excellent Christmas present sneakers (we used to get Christmas Day jerseys before the Nike overlords stole that joy from us).

The Celtics are no stranger to Christmas Day games as they were featured for five straight seasons during the Pierce, KG, Ray Allen era when they were routinely one of the best teams in the league. They got relegated to spectators during much of the post-Big 3 rebuilding era and didn’t play again on Christmas until 2016, but the Celtics actually hosted their first Christmas Day game *ever* in 2017.

Now we turn to the actual matchup, which is so choice. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and co. vs the rebuilt on the fly sudden powerhouse New Jersey Brooklyn Nets led by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Now Kyrie would like everyone to think he doesn’t care about any perceived “rivalry” with his former team in Boston, but he does seem to dodge the Celtics every time the Nets play them. This would be Kyrie’s first game back in Boston since leaving the C’s in free agency if he does indeed suit up. With his buddy KD back in action though I would expect Kyrie to want to show off his shiny new toy.

And for that reason…

This will be the biggest rivalry shit talking season between myself and James in a decade when the Patriots made a habit of breaking my heart and losing to the Giants. Well after YEARS of us roasting all Nets fans for the trade that shall not be named…

…Brooklyn is looking for some long awaited revenge. How this Nets team is actually going to mesh though remains to be seen. With notable pill Kyrie, otherworldly talented yet hyper sensitive KD, and a brand new first year coach in Steve Nash, the Nets are either going to come out of the gates on fire like the ’07-’08 Celtics and win 66 games orrr they’ll be a complete dumpster fire.

So even though Kemba Walker will miss this game with his everlasting gobstopper of a knee injury, I need Tatum to drop 40 on the Nets on Christmas Day. Don’t want it, need it.

Steve Nash is the New Coach of the Brooklyn Nets

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ESPN – Hall of Fame guard Steve Nash has signed a four-year contract to become the next coach of the Brooklyn Nets, sources told ESPN. The Nets announced the hiring Thursday afternoon.

In recent weeks, Nets owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks have been aggressive in recruiting Nash to make the leap that he had so far resisted in his retirement as a transcendent player: head coaching.

The Nets are keeping Jacque Vaughn as the lead coach and making him the highest-paid assistant in the league, sources said. Vaughn made a strong impression on Tsai and Marks after taking over for Kenny Atkinson in February, including during the league’s restart in Orlando, and he likely would’ve been the Nets choice had Nash been unconvinced of taking the job, sources said.

My first reaction was WOW Steve Nash is jumping into coaching! Followed immediately by wow the Nets are AGAIN hiring a head coach with zero coaching experience just six years after the unmitigated disaster that was the Jason Kidd experiment. But in all seriousness, I love this move for the Nets.

Ironically enough, Nash and Kidd went into the HOF the same year, but Nash is a different story entirely. A lot of people don’t realize Nash has actually been running the Canadian National Team for years as its GM from 2012-2019. So he has quietly been developing his team building chops for a while behind the scenes. I completely forgot he was a consultant for the Warriors too so he apparently already has a relationship with Kevin Durant. Add in the fact the Nets’ GM Sean Marks was a teammate of Nash’s in Phoenix and he’ll have solid backing right out of the gate.

Despite all that I do wonder how Nash as the guy in charge for the first time will mesh with mercurial superstars in Kyrie Irving and Durant. But these guys likely hand picked Nash so they should be on board. It will be interesting to see how the three work together when things inevitably get rocky like they do for any team. We’ll see just how much of LeBron has rubbed off on Kyrie, as LeBron is infamous for working behind the scenes to hire and fire coaches.

Nash is an extremely intelligent guy who has played with Hall of Famers, superstars, and mercurial talents like Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Grant Hill, Amar’e Stoudemire, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, and Joe Johnson among others. This guy has probably been an armchair psychologist for the better part of 20 years. He played with Ron Artest for christs sake.

Not to mention he has been teammates with a handful of guys that went into coaching themselves like Kidd, Avery Johnson, Walter McCarty, and Steve Blake. He even played for Danny Ainge in the late 90s!

This is all before you even mention just how great of a player Steve Nash truly was. He’s a 2x MVP and an 8x All-Star so this isn’t some stats nerd holding the clipboard, this is one of the greatest players of all time. Yet he’s still young enough at 46 for Durant and Kyrie to be violently aware of Nash’s stature as a legend of the game. That grants him boatloads of respect just walking through the door.

Although as a rookie head coach Nash needs to be prepared for the ball busting that will inevitably come from the veterans on the team for his ill advised Sports Illustrated cover shoot in LA.

I am fascinated thinking about how Nash will coach his team considering he was part of arguably the most famous offense ever created (behind the Triangle Offense) with the Seven Seconds or Less Suns. He won two MVPs playing for Mike D’Antoni in that style of offense so I wonder is something like that going to be his bread and butter? Add in the fact he was a consultant with the Warriors and you get a guy that has institutional knowledge of how to run a fast paced, pick and roll focused, three ball launching type of offense. Kyrie would EAT in that type of offense. Now he obviously has two superstars on his roster that can score from anywhere regardless of the offense, but Nash is more than aware of how too many stars on one team not buying into a system can sabotage a seemingly great thing. Remember his comments from his time in LA where he not so subtly criticized the offense they installed/the lack of adoption from some of their core guys.

“I think Dwight just didn’t hide the fact that he didn’t like it. You either have to decide and say ‘I’m not going to like it and move on or just eat it and make it work. You could tell he wasn’t committed to moving on. He didn’t like it. He was stuck in ‘I don’t like it mode.’ I’m not putting it on him but you can tell it really bothered him.”

…Howard resisted playing pick-and-roll with a point guard who perfected that play.

“He wanted to get the ball in the post,” Nash said. “Kobe can be a pain in the [butt]. Tough beans. That’s tough beans. Instead of being like, That’s Kobe and moving on and trying to work with it, it bothered him and ruffled his feathers. The ball didn’t move enough for him. When the ball doesn’t move enough, it means he didn’t get the ball enough.”

Either way I think his collection of experience of being the best player in the world, the pilot of the best offense in the league, the teammate of future NBA coaches, the elder statesman on a disastrous Lakers team, the GM of Team Canada, and a consultant for the All-World Warriors teams puts him in a unique position as a rookie head coach. I’m excited to see what he does for the Nets even if I do hope the Celtics crush them for the next decade.

Kyrie Irving Elected VP of NBA Players Association. HAHAHA

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Kyrie Irving is now second in command of the NBA Players Association, and his fellow players just put him there. Only in America.

But seriously, Kyrie is the real life version of Michael Scott who says things just to see what happens.

The guy who famously said ridiculous things like “What does government mean to you?” and “Fuck Thanksgiving” is now going to have a hand in shaping the future of the league.

This is a list of ridiculous stuff Kyrie said in 2017 alone. That is who now has his hand on the bag representing every player in the league. Good luck guys. I’m sure negotiations will go well when he tells Adam Silver he’s not woke enough and moves to have all Christmas Day games cancelled.

But seriously, Kyrie is going to say something outrageous in a meeting sooner than later and then blow up when it becomes a news story.

You are a celebrity that gets paid millions of dollars a year so yes people pay attention to what you say. And now Kyrie’s in a position where his words and actions will have a real affect on his NBA peers, which is something he has not shown a willingness to accept in the past.

So we’ll see how this goes because Vice President of the Players Association is far from a symbolic position.

Twitter is already batting a thousand with reactions to the news.

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The Gamblers Guide to Betting on the Celtics and the Atlantic Division This Year

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So we’re two weeks into the 2019-20 NBA season and the Celtics are a solid 4-1 with wins over the Knicks (twice), the Raptors, and an incredible comeback win over the Bucks. Their only loss came on opening night to the Sixers, made worse by the sight of Al Horford in a Philly jersey. The Celtics look like they’ll be a pretty good team made better possibly with addition by subtraction. Kemba Walker looks like a match made in heaven as a guy who can drop 30 a night, yet is more than happy to pass up a last shot to blossoming superstars like Jayson Tatum.

What made that Tatum game winner even better was that it was the exact same play that the Celtics ran in Orlando last year leading to Kyrie throwing a fit on the court for not getting the ball. Oh and Kyrie continues to be an absolute PILL in New Jersey, memorialized by Jackie MacMullan’s great piece last week. Enjoy the ride, Nets fans.

Now for the most important part: the gambling.  Its a little early to overreact one way or the other and the Celtics’ unlikely come from behind double digit win over the Bucks probably skews things a little bit. But pick your spots with this C’s team and you could make some decent cash as they continue to surprise people.

  • Philadelphia 76ers
    • ESPN Projected Finish: 57-27, 2nd in the East
    • Key Storylines: Addition of Al Horford, Finally Getting Over the Hump, Overcoming Lack of Depth
    • 5-0 Against the Spread

The Sixers took their biggest weakness last year, a lack of bench depth, and doubled down on it. They lost Jimmy Butler and JJ Reddick, but picked up big man Al Horford to pair with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. The Sixers have arguably the best starting 5 in the league, but the end of the bench is pretty barren yet again. With that being said they are 5-0 and the current No. 1 seed in the East so while they don’t have much margin for error, they are one of the most talented squads in the league.

  • Boston Celtics
    • ESPN Projected Finish: 48-34, 3rd in the East
    • Key Storylines: Loss of Kyrie Irving and Al Horford, Addition of Kemba Walker, Addition by Subtraction, Jayson Tatum the All-Star
    • 3-2 ATS

If the Celtics are going to go anywhere this year its going to largely be due to Jayson Tatum. Sure Kemba Walker is the latest max free agent in town and Jaylen Brown just got PAID, but this team needs Tatum to become an elite wing player this season if they want to do some damage. I’ve been predicting big things for Tatum despite a less than stellar second season. So far this season he looks excellent averaging 22 PPG while shooting 40% from the field, an impressive 48% from three and an abysmal 75% from the line. Along with Pascal Siakam, Tatum was voted by ESPN as the most likely player to make their first All-Star team in the East, both earning 68.2% of the votes. With Tatum and likely Kemba making the All-Star team, an improved Brown, a finally looking like a basketball player again Gordon Hayward, and All-World defense from Marcus Smart, this team could be in business. As we seem to say every year since KG and Perk left town, the Celtics will need someone to step up as a rim protector/rebounder/big man presence. Whether thats Enes Kanter, Daniel Theis or Robert Williams evolving into the role, the C’s will need someone to step up if they want to compete with the Sixers.

  • Brooklyn Nets
    • ESPN Projected Finish: 45-37, 5th in the East
    • Key Storylines: Addition of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, Kyrie Still a Pill
    • 2-4 ATS

This will be a much safer bet next season when Kevin Durant returns to the court, assuming he’s healthy, but in the meantime they will be a fun team to watch. Despite all his bizarre antics and issues with the media, Kyrie Irving remains one of the most electric one on one players in the league. While thats not necessarily the best path to winning a title, it definitely will steal the Nets some games they have no business winning.

  • Toronto Raptors
    • ESPN Projected Finish: 45-37, 6th in the East
    • Key Storylines: Defending Champs, Loss of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, Growth of Pascal Siakam
    • 4-2 ATS

Man what a roller coaster ride 2019 has been for Drizzy Drake’s favorite squad. Sorry let me clarify, I meant Drake’s hometown team the Raptors not his other favorite squad the Golden State Warriors. Winning their first title behind a Herculean effort from Kawhi Leonard solidifying his spot as the best player in the NBA…to Kawhi walking away and now defending their title with Pascal Siakam and not much else. Siakam was voted by ESPN as the co-favorite to earn their first time All-Star bid in the East. Its hard to be mad as the defending champs, but they went from the favorites (especially with a rapidly imploding Warriors team) to a team that will be scrapping for a bottom half seed in the East this year.

  • New York Knicks
    • ESPN Projected Finish: 26-56, 13th in the East
    • Key Storylines: ….lottery picks and 2020 Free Agency?
    • 1-6 ATS

If you bet real, actual, American dollars on the New York Knicks then you are on your own. Sure Marcus Morris is great to watch when he’s on, but you are banking on the latest iteration of James Dolan’s madness here. Maybe if you get them in a parlay, but other than that I cannot advise gambling on this dumpster fire.

So to wrap it up, who has the best shot at winning the division? Lets not get ahead of ourselves and ask who’s going to take down LeBron and the Lakers or Kawhi and the Clippers in the Finals quite yet. As of late October, the Sixers had become -200 favorites to win the Atlantic, improving from -160 on opening night. The Celtics remained the second-favorite, but were well back at +420, only a shade ahead of the new-look Raptors at +490 with all odds via Sports Betting Dime. Expect those odds to be a little closer together when they’re updated next. Boston’s impressive 116-105 win over the 60-win Bucks made a statement that Brad Stevens’ team is going to be a tough out this year.

I LOVE the Celtics at +420 to win the division. Sure that means catching the Sixers and winning 50+ games, who ESPN has them finishing 9 games behind, but those are odds to bet on. The Sixers at -160 is almost even money and forget it if Embiid misses time with the annual injury or load management concerns. The Raptors feel pretty unlikely to leapfrog both Boston and Philly so I’m not sold on them, and I think this season is a holding pattern for Brooklyn and yet another rebuilding year for the Knicks. So slap down some cash on the Celtics and enjoy the ride.

#The300sPodcast – Next Up for the Celtics: Kemba Walker

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Red and Mattes jump into The 300s Podcast studio to discuss all the swirling Celtics rumors that are out there. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the NBA Offseason is the best show on TV.

– Kemba Walker signing a max deal with the Celtics?

– Kyrie Irving is a PILL

– Al Horford is likely gone

– Are the Celtics’ young guys getting off too easy for their role in the drama around the team last season?

– Recapping the Celtics draft night and what it means for the 2019-20 roster

– NBA Free Agency and potential fits for the C’s

The Celtics Now Belong to Jayson Tatum

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Danny Ainge refused to include Jayson Tatum in any Anthony Davis deal (as he should have). Kyrie Irving is as good as gone. Al Horford just opted out of his last year. Look around guys.

The Celtics now belong to Jayson Tatum.

If you had asked me two years ago (23 months ago but whos counting) I would have traded “every player on the Celtics roster” for Anthony Davis. But so much has changed since then. AD shot his way out of New Orleans, he demanded a trade to the Knicks or the Lakers, his agent Rich Paul tried to strong arm a deal to LA mid-season and then made it wildly clear that AD would not re-sign with Boston. Now I get it that it’s Danny Ainge’s job to call that bluff and pull the trigger on a trade because A. Davis may end up loving Boston like Kevin Garnett did and B. Davis suddenly would be sacrificing $50 Million dollars to leave Boston for LA. But, by landing in LA, Davis and Paul both get exactly what they wanted. Maybe it was a bluff, maybe it wasn’t. All I know is I’m not trading Tatum and the rest of the team for a guy who may or may not play in Boston for less than 12 months. I’m just not doing it. Tatum has shown way too much promise and you’d have to throw in heart and soul guys like Marcus Smart *just* to make the money work. Pass.

As for the Kyrie situation, I have been going back and forth on my thoughts because I hate reacting to news that hasn’t happened. I don’t want to bury a guy for a decision he hasn’t made yet. BUT, it sure seems like Kyrie is already out the door. There are reports that the Celtics are resigned to losing him in free agency. In fact Adam Himmelsbach wrote in the Globe that Kyrie has essentially “ghosted” the Celtics leading up to free agency, which would be the least surprising shit I’ve heard about him if true. Kyrie has shown that, despite all his grandiose speeches and delusions of grandeur as this elder statesman, he is just immature. A leader, or even a grown ass adult for that matter, handles last season very differently. I’m 30 and even I know that publicly criticizing younger, more impressionable co-workers is a piss poor way to inspire confidence and improve performance. Read a management book on one of your 6 hour flights for christ’s sake. Even Cleveland.com is criticizing Kyrie for making the same mistakes as the guy he so desperately wanted to get away from on the Cavs.

That doesn’t mean I think things are beyond repair though; I honestly believe Kyrie could come back, show a little embarrassment at the way everything has been handled the past 12 months, put up a good month of basketball and all would be forgiven. But, I just don’t think thats the way he’s wired.

And this is why the Boston Celtics do not kowtow to superstars. The C’s did everything they possibly could have to appease their young superstar in Kyrie Irving and he still is less than two weeks away from likely leaving them at the altar. You may need to do that in order to win an NBA title, but I’d rather live and die with guys like Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas than beg a superstar to please come play for our historic franchise. Why?

Woj also tweeted earlier today that Horford has reportedly opted out of his contract.

To be completely honest, I fully expected this from big Al. He is 33 years old with one year left on his deal in a suddenly barren free agent market. This is his last chance to get a long term deal. So he could opt in and cash the $30M check, or he could opt out and potentially negotiate a 3-year $60M deal to stay with the C’s and secure the bag for another $30M. Nobody is going to pay Horford $30M per on his next deal so it makes perfect sense for him to opt out. Orrr he could see the writing on the wall in Boston and try to take a lesser deal to jump ship to a more clear cut contender. Except, theres not so many clear cut contenders out there now with Golden State’s rash of injuries, Kawhi’s uncertainty in Toronto, LA’s revival with AD, Philly’s 3 starters heading towards free agency [plus Ben Simmons needing a max extension next summer], Milwaukee lurking, not to mention the apparent turmoil in Houston. So theres a whole lot of second tier teams that think they have a legit shot at a title next year.

I know Mattes wrote about this potential deal before, but with Al Horford opting out it makes a trade for Mike Conley seem unlikely at this point. Not that a soon to be 32-year-old point guard would necessarily become the face of the Celtics, but its another legit player seemingly off the board. In fact, just check out Mattes’ entire breakdown of what the Celtics can do this offseason with AD off the board.

So to Tatum, Brown and the other young guys: you all privately and publicly battled with Kyrie last year for mostly petty reasons. Kyrie is definitely to blame for that, but Tatum, Brown and co. aren’t without fault. Either way the team suffered as a result. Tatum, Brown and the young guys reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals without Kyrie (and Hayward) so I get it. Well now Kyrie is all but gone so here you go. It’s your team now Jayson. Jaylen can be your 1A, but this is your team.

Tatum has the best pedigree, the highest ceiling, has shown the most elite offensive flashes, and has the length to play D, can be a spot up shooter or get to the rim. I am excited to see what a 3rd year Jayson Tatum looks like with the ball in his hands a lot more. I think Tatum will be an All-NBA player before long….but he better be. Danny just bet the next decade of the Celtics’ fortunes on Tatum being that good. Because if he’s not, we have become the Atlanta Hawks.

The 300s Marvel Cinematic Rewind Presents: Captain America: The First Avenger

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The300s MCU

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The first time I watched Captain America: The First Avenger, I had zero expectations. I was won over by Iron Man, disappointed by The Incredible Hulk, flat out angered by Iron Man 2, and bypassed Thor altogether. Hell, I didn’t even see this movie until two weeks before The Avengers hit theaters. The Avengers hype was in full swing at this point and I was struggling to get on board. Maybe this whole MCU thing just wasn’t for me? At the time I was living in Los Angeles with some friends and all we did was watch movies during the week, so eventually this was bound to be thrown on the TV some random night. I always enjoyed the work of Chris Evans, who at the time really wasn’t in a heck of a lot. I adored Sunshine (the highly underrated sci-fi thriller) and of course who could forget his starring role as Jake Wyler in the amazing Not Another Teen Movie (you did remember that was him, right?)

Captain America: The First Avenger is set in 1940s New York City and tells the story of Steve Rogers. Rogers, a Brooklyn native, has his heart set on joining the armed forces, but is consistently shot down based on his small physique and a laundry list of health issues. He attends the Stark Expo in Queens (as seen in Iron Man 2, albeit many years earlier) with his best friend Bucky Barnes. His plan there is to try once again to sign up for the military as he thinks by doing so there they’ll be a little more lenient on who they let in. Bucky, who is ready to ship out the next day, frowns upon Rogers idea and encourages him not to keep trying to enlist under different names, which he warns is highly illegal. Rogers expresses to Bucky just how badly he wants to join and feels he could be doing so much more for his country. Overhearing this conversation is Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci). Dr. Erskine approaches Rogers while taking his enlistment physical and offers him a “chance” at becoming something more.

Rogers then ships off to boot camp where he meets Colonel Chester Phillips and Agent Peggy Carter (the former played by Tommy Lee Jones and the latter Hayley Atwell). Agent Carter immediately takes a liking to Rogers and motivates him along the way while Colonel Phillips sees him as wasting his time. After a brief competition to show off his determination and character as an individual (a scene incredibly reminiscent of Will Smith in the beginning of Men In Black just without all the humor, and hey! Tommy Lee Jones was in that too!) Rogers is selected by Dr. Erskine to participate in the super soldier program that he’s been working on.

Rogers is transported to a secret facility in Brooklyn where many government officials are standing by to watch the experiment take place. Rogers is injected with a serum and placed in what could only be described as a coffin-looking chamber where he evolves like a Pokemon into the Captain America we all know and love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmWLLempSyI

Unbeknownst to everyone in attendance, a Hydra agent has infiltrated the facility and sets off an explosion, devastating the lab and killing Dr. Erskine in the process. The devastation prevents further experiments from taking place, causing Rogers to be the only one of his kind. Convenient!

Meanwhile on the other side of the pond, Red Skull, the leader of Hydra, is testing weapons based off the technology of the Tesseract, aka the Space Stone of Infinity Stone fame. He plans to overthrow Hitler and the Nazis and take over the world himself. His weapons technology has the ability to vaporize people with a single blast!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE8hO79bsOc

After the whole ordeal at the lab, Rogers is shunned by the military as some sort of science project gone wrong. He wants to help in the fight against the Nazis, but he is instead cast as the lead in a traveling stage show who’s purpose is to sell war bonds. Rogers is forced to wear a rather garish costume, a uniform he would later adopt into his Captain America persona. Rogers feels underutilized and wishes he could be making an actual difference. Agent Carter reminds him that she believes he is meant for more.

Rogers discovers his friend Bucky and his unit have been captured inside enemy lines. Against Colonel Phillips wishes, Rogers and a platoon of men go and rescue Bucky and his guys where they run into Red Skull, who narrowly escapes.

When they arrive back at the base, Phillips is incredibly impressed with Rogers and his whole attitude towards him changes. He learns to trust him as a leader and embraces him for the super soldier that he really is. Howard Stark then provides Rogers with the notorious shield Captain America fans have come to know and love. Rogers and his team go on to assault various Hyrda bases across Europe, but when the group attacks a train transporting Zola, Red Skull’s #2 henchman, Bucky falls to his death (well, not really, but we’ll get to that at some other point).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZq-dH0ymXw

After interrogating Zola, the final Hydra base is discovered and Rogers decides to take on Red Skull once and for all. He boards a plane that contains bombs designated for various cities across the United States. In the ensuing fight, the Tesseract is damaged and a portal is opened to space where Red Skull is sucked in before it closes for good. With time running out, Rogers is forced to down the plane to save the lives of millions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nxfP0d5EVQ

Flash forward 70 something years where Rogers wakes up in a “hospital room” that turns out to be a sound stage. Naturally freaking out and feeling something is off, Rogers flees and discovers he is in the year 2012 in the middle of Times Square. Nick Fury shows up just in time for the credits to roll.

I should probably go ahead and say I absolutely love this movie. It has the strongest plot, message, and cast out of any of the Marvel films at this point. The film felt like it served an actual purpose, unlike some of its predecessors. Doesn’t hurt that it was directed by Joe Johnston, of Jumanji, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, and October Sky fame. So what did I like?

Chris Evans

He’s perfect for this role. They took a chance casting him and as I stated earlier, he really hadn’t been in a hell of a lot up until this point. Now obviously he’ll be known as Captain America forever.

Hayley Atwell

I adore Hayley Atwell for many, many reasons.

World War II Setting

I’m a sucker for all things World War II. It was a surprise considering we all knew The Avengers was on the horizon and I wasn’t really sure how it would line up without having Cap in a nursing home. The movie did patriotism well, without going completely overboard.

Captain America as a Franchise

While the MCU as a whole is awesome, my one complaint is that nothing aside from Infinity War/Endgame feels essential. We’ve been building for 11 years to a grand finale, yet each movie comes with the knowledge that there’s always a follow up film on the schedule. We’re constantly waiting to see what happens next while not giving enough merit to what’s currently on the screen in front of us. Think about it. Iron Man as a character is deeply loved by the community that enjoys these films, yet arguably there’s really only one good Iron Man movie. The sequels felt like filler, plagued with bad writing and just enough Tony Stark banter to distract us from realizing what we were watching wasn’t that essential. The Captain America films I would argue are the strongest standalone movies in the whole universe. They advanced the plot forward, yet are good enough to watch without thinking about what’s next in the queue. They also tend to have the most crossover with other characters from the universe. I mean, let’s be real, Civil War is an Avengers movie with a different title.

Final rating: 8.0 out 10.

Next up for The 300s Marvel Cinematic Rewind, The Avengers.

 

 

The Situation With the UFC’s First ESPN+ Card is Officially Nuts

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Yesterday morning, I sat down at this very keyboard and wrote out what I thought was a solid blog regarding the next UFC Fight Night in Brooklyn, which also happens to be the UFC’s first card on ESPN+ as part of the new UFC-ESPN deal. Well, that blog got deleted instead of being sent to Red for publishing. Fuck. Fate seems to have intervened, as it does however, and a whirlwind of announcements have been made since. Hard to tell where to begin.

What I wrote about yesterday was the UFC insensitively booking Greg Hardy’s debut for the Brooklyn card when the only other fight scheduled (at.the.time) was Paige Van Zant vs. Rachel Ostovich. Ostovich, if you don’t know, is the fighter who came into the public consciousness recently for the worst reasons, having been the victim of a brutal attack at the hands of her husband, a fellow MMA fighter. I mean, he broke her orbital bone. Ghastly stuff. But she’s a fighter, and fighters fight, and she decided to stay on the card, So what does the UFC do? O, only books a guy convicted of beating, strangling, and tossing, onto a bed laden with guns no less, his girlfriend. Best case scenario this was just a massive missed communication – not a misspelling by the way, I don’t mean signals crossed, I mean signals missed altogether. Worst case the UFC went too far with their “everybody deserves a second chance” stance on Hardy and this being a big event, decided it shouldn’t matter who he fights alongside. What I think they might do, given the backlash, is move his fight to a different card. Make the guy wait and excuse yourself with an “aw shucks” shrug. That will be enough. No need for a gigantic, phony public apology. If Ostovich raises hell however they are going to be in quite the spot with the press and fans alike.

That was supposed to be it. The Hardy-Ostovich story. But noooope. This card curiously lacked a headliner. What did the UFC do? They only moved the biggest fight they currently have booked, the Champ vs. Champ 125lb Title Fight between Henry Cejudo and T.J Dillashaw, to the top of this card, taking it from an uncomfortable spectacle on paper to the makings of a barn-burner. I mean this fight is not getting 1/100 the attention it deserves. In Cejudo you have a guy that should be getting all the love in the world; someone who has been the best in the world at every stage in the game, from Olympic gold medalist to UFC Champion after dethroning long-time, immovable champion Demetrious Johnson. In T.J Dillashaw you have a true blue nightmare at 135lbs; another excellent wrestler who under the tutelage of Duane Ludwig has rebuilt himself into a shape-shifting, ultra slick, world-class kickboxer that just simply freezes people. This fight is going to be insane. (Side Note: This leave UFC 233 without a headliner. Cormier-Lesn……?)

To round out yesterday’s announcement The UFC shifted a pivotal  women’s flyweight division fight from UFC 233 to the Brooklyn card. This one pits Arianne “Violence Queen” Lipski, who has only met a couple of opponents she couldn’t finish, against fan favorite Joanne Calderwood, who has only met a couple coaches she couldn’t fuck. The winner of this one is probably neck-and-neck with or just below Jessica Andrade for a shot at Cashmeouside for the Women’s Flyweight Championship.

When all is said and done this Brooklyn/ESPN+ card has gone from kind of bizarre to almost a real UFC MMA card. It still, in my opinion, needs a solid fight or two to make it worth tuning into for more than Cejudo-Killashaw, but they are this close. Wild night indeed.