Ty Watches, and Loves, "Uncle Drew"

I finally saw the movie "Uncle Drew", and I absolutely loved it.

Now, before I get blasted for liking this movie so much I want to say that, I know it was not your traditional good movie. It was cheesy and hokey and crony and silly and a whole lot of fun. I read some reviews after I watched it, and for the writers saying it "lacked realism", or "was filled with non actors" or "clearly a kids movie", I have to say, shut the hell up. We all know that it wasn't real. I mean, the movie was based off a Pepsi commercial that first appeared like 5 years ago. It was all made as a joke. This was a vehicle for Kyrie Irving to dress up in old man makeup and school young basketball players on famous street ball courts.

As far as the kids movie thing, so what. A lot of great movies are "kid" movies. I had "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies" as one of my top movies of 2018. That is a kids movie. So are some classics like "Toys", "Wall-E", "The Mighty Ducks", "The Lion King", "Bambi", I could go on and on and on. But the difference, the critics all loved the childish nature of the other movies I just mentioned, yet they trash "Uncle Drew". It makes me so upset that this new age of movie critics, most of them are younger than me, have no imagination. Now I know that I have been called out for a lack of imagination because I don't like the TV show "PJ Masks", but that critique I wrote was in jest. I was just tired of watching that god damn show. I know my kids love it, and I know it is goofy, but it is also a cartoon. "Uncle Drew" is not a cartoon, so the younger critics feel like they need to knock it down a few pegs. What they really need to do is chill the hell out.

The thing that irked me the most was the whole, "there's no real actors in the movie". First off, Lil Rel Howery is a great comedic actor. I enjoyed every second of him in this movie. Tiffany Haddsih is also great, and she has become somewhat of a critical darling. Nick Kroll is funny as hell. But I think what the major critics were trying to do was call out Kyrie Irving, Chris Webber, Nate Robinson, Lisa Leslie, Reggie Miller, and to a lesser extent, Shaquille O'Neal. But my major blowback to the people that said "no real actors", no shit. These guys are former pros, or current pro basketball players, and now some of them do commentary. Like I said at the top, this whole movie was based around a commercial where Irving clowns other basketball players while dressed as an old man. "Uncle Drew" wasn't going to be awards bait. It wasn't made to teach a real lesson. It wasn't going to be a coming out party for anyone in it. It was made because it was fun. It was also made for people who truly love the game of basketball.

Take away the smaller stuff I really enjoyed about the movie, the preacher and church scene with Webber and Leslie is great, the stuff with Shaq was hilarious, as I said before, Lil Rel was excellent. But, the pure basketball, and the love for the game of basketball was front and center. I think that is why I love this movie so much. I feel like it was made specifically for someone like me. Someone that likes old school basketball mixed with new school. Someone that likes to hear actors say lines like, "that is why I still play, because I love the game", or, "you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take", or when Shaq calls Irving "KOBE" at one point because he won't pass the ball, or when Lisa Leslie destroys people with her inside game. It was so much fun to see the best of the best show their stuff. The basketball in this movie was pure. It was akin to the football in a movie like "Friday Night Lights", or the baseball in "Major League". It looked and felt real. I assume they really were playing, and I love that.

"Uncle Drew" is a fun movie that is pure joy for big time basketball fans. I applaud Irving and Webber and Reggie Miller and Nate Robinson and Shaq and Lisa Leslie for going 110 percent and totally buying into their roles. I love this movie so much. My hat is off to "Uncle Drew".

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. When it comes to movies about basketball, Ty will also defend “Eddie”, and “Like Mike”. He will not defend “Juwanna Man”. Ty does have some limits to the basketball movies he likes.

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Jimmer Fredette Belongs in TBT and Not the NBA

Last night while channel surfing, I came across a basketball games. I was intrigued because the NBA is in the dead period, college basketball is a ways away from tipping off, summer league is over and the G League doesn't start for a bit. At first glance I thought it may have been the Big 3, but, unfortunately there were 10 guys on the court. I was confused what I stumbled across, but it was basketball, so I decided to watch for a bit.

What I saw was some very poorly played basketball. Now, these guys are much, much better than I will ever be at basketball, but what I watched last night wasn't even the equivalent to minor league baseball, the CFL, the arena league or the G League. Hell, I'd even take mid major college basketball over what I saw last night. After about 5 minutes of watching, the abbreviation "TBT" kept showing up. I didn't know what this stood for, but I then remembered seeing something similar to this last year while doing late night channel surfing last summer around the same time. I remembered that "TBT" stood for "The Basketball Tournament".

The "TBT", I know that's redundant, is a tournament style basketball competition where the winner gets 2 million dollars. Now, that is 2 million dollars to spread out among the entire team. That's not a lot when you think about it. I then started to recognize some of the guys playing in the game last night. I didn't remember many of the names, but I remembered seeing them in summer league, on NBA teams as of a few years back, playing in college basketball. They looked familiar to me. I then heard an announcer say, "and James Michael McAdoo with the bucket." I knew that name. He was on the Warriors a few years back, the first year they won their title. I then heard about some of the other teams that had already been eliminated, and names became recognizable again. I heard names like Jared Sullinger and Greg Oden, oh how the "mighty" have fallen. Other names like Brandon Triche, Hakim Warrick, Andrew Dakich, Mark Donnal, Stu Douglass and Jon Horford all ran familiar to me. Some of these guys I knew from college, namely all the former Michigan players, (Dakich, Donnal, Douglass and Horford). I also recognized Brandon Triche from his solid college career at Syracuse. Same for Hakim Warrick, but he did have a cup of coffee in the NBA.

The one former big name that kept showing up, especially last night since the team was named after him and his family, was Jimmer Fredette. You all remember him, right? He was the former college player of the year. He was a lottery pick. He was supposed to be the next great three point shooter in the league. He was going to be, one of many that have not made it, the Sacramento Kings savior. But, last I heard about Jimmer Fredette was, he was playing in China. Sure, a year or so back he was in the G League, and got called up to play for the Knicks for a minute, but that was it. Then, as I said, he signed on for a team in China. By all accounts, the few stories that are leaked here and there, he is lighting that league up. I've heard that he goes for 60 plus points regularly. I've heard that some teams G League affiliates have their eyes on him now. So, I stayed tuned in after the first 5 minutes because I thought maybe this time, the "TBT" would be better.

Sadly, it was not.

Team Fredette, led by Jimmer, was basically a clear out for Jimmer, so he could shine. Every time down the court, he brought the ball up, and 99 percent of the time, he took the shot. I had heard that he was putting up 40 fairly regularly in this tournament, but when you shoot 30 plus times a game, you should be scoring that much. His defense, or lack there of, was also horrendous. They were hiding him, in the "TBT", and he was still atrocious. And the team they played, I cannot remember for the life of me their name and I just watched the game less than 24 hours ago, defeated his team handily. They actually played defense and used team work and made easy shots. They didn't look good doing it, but they did earn themselves a chance at the 2 million dollar prize money.

Look, this was a bad basketball game that I watched. I did choose it over preseason football, because who in their right minds want to watch Baltimore and Chicago in the first preseason game on August 3rd? Not even the presence of Lamar Jackson was enough to pull me away fro a crummy basketball game. But, that needs to be said. Yes, I chose to watch this game because I love basketball, but it was awful. And for those that are saying this is Jimmer Fredette's comeback story, the way he performed in the "TBT", stop it. Fredette's days as an NBA player are done. He couldn't get separation from dudes that have been out of the league, or were never in it in the first place, at all last night. His jumper isn't nearly as good as it used to be either. As for defense, he still stinks, like I said earlier.

Sure, it was a cute little story, but TBT proves that Fredette is washed. I'd rather have guys like Nate Robinson, Zak Irvin or any guy currently on a G League roster. Fredette is trash, and so is the "TBT". But, I will probably watch the final because I am a junky. But man oh man is it some sub par basketball.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

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Welcome Back NBA Dunk Contest

Practicing for the 2025 dunk contest

This past Saturday, I witnessed one of the greatest dunk contests I have ever seen. The dunk contest has fallen pretty far the past decade. It was long and boring. Contestants got as many tries as they needed, dragging the contest past the two hour mark, easily. The contestants weren't that good either. Sure, you'd get a Blake Griffin, although I think he's very overrated, or a John Wall or even a Dwight Howard, but for the most part, we got guys like Nate Robinson and Terrence Ross. These guys are all phenomenal athletes and freakishly athletic, but we didn't get the stars that the fans wanted.

Back in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's, we got the biggest stars to compete in the dunk contest. Guys like Larry Nance, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Vince Carter, just to name a few, regularly competed in the dunk contest. Those were some of the best competitions. The coin flip showdown between Jordan and Dominique was so, so incredible, even though Dominique got totally screwed out of the win. When Dr. J was in the contest, he was doing things no one at the time was doing. I didn't see that one live, obviously, but the videos of his dunks are awesome. When Larry Nance was in, he looked like he was floating through the air. It was majestic. Then, in 2000, I witnessed what I consider to be the greatest dunk contest ever. I don't remember the other contestants, but I sure as hell remember Vince Carter. He did some of the most incredible, mouth agape dunks I'd ever seen. The "hand in the cookie jar dunk", going between his legs on a bounce pass, throwing it off the side of the backboard, I mean, it was just insanely athletic and so impressive. I remember sharing his sentiment, after doing the windmill off the side of the backboard, that the contest was over. You could see him mouthing the words, "it's over", and he was 100 percent correct. He absolutely dominated that dunk contest. The fact that I don't even remember his competitors shows you how incredible his dunks were. After that contest, I was sure that the dunk contest was going to be as great every year. I was very wrong.

The All Star weekend dunk contest became boring, as I said before. Too long and no stars. Some will tell me that the Blake Griffin contest, when he dunked over a car, was exciting. I say you are wrong. Who cares that he jumped over a car. It would've been impressive if he dunked over the top of the car, but he went over the front hood. I bet the majority of NBA players can do that exact dunk with no problem. The Blake Griffin hype was at it's peak then, and his dunk was way overblown. Like I said, he is overrated. Some will also throw out the Nate Robinson back to back wins, but those were incredibly boring and his dunks were not even close to what Spud Webb did when he won. Spud Webb only had three chances to do his dunks. I believe that Nate Robinson, whom I enjoy, went on for almost thirty minutes before throwing down one impressive dunk. He had unlimited time and attempts. You give any NBA player that much time, they will come up with something great. Other people may even think that the Dwight Howard win was impressive, but he barely did anything. Also, he's a 7 footer, he better damn well do something impressive. But, he didn't really do anything impressive at all, unless you count wearing a Superman cape as impressive, I don't. So, yeah, the dunk contest was in a real rut.

Last season Zach Lavine of the Minnesota Timberwolves, made it kind of exciting. The pool of contestants still wasn't that good, but the highlights the next day of what Lavine did had me and a lot of others intrigued. He did some really cool stuff that kind of hearkened back to the good old days of the contest. Then came this past Saturday night. The contestants, once again, weren't household names, but two of the four are big time jumpers. Hardcore fans of the NBA know all the contestants and know that Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon are world class leapers. They can "jump out of the gym". The other two contestants, Will Barton and Andre Drummond are decent athletes too. Barton is a freakishly good jumper. No one knows him because he plays very sporadically on a pretty bad Denver Nuggets team, but he can jump. Andre Drummond is an All Star, but he's not known for his dunking ability. He's a rebounder and defender. Both Barton and Drummond failed to impress, but Barton not doing well was the only shock to me. Drummond didn't belong in this contest. Then, Lavine and Gordon owned the rest of the night. Aaron Gordon went first and his first attempt was awesome. He soared through the air and completed a bounce pass between the legs windmill. It was awesome. Then, Zach Lavine did a 360 windmill, behind the back reverse dunk. It was something I'd never seen before and I was hooked. They traded one awesome dunk after another. Gordon brought out the Magic mascot and did a between the legs grab off the mascot's head dunk. Awesome. Lavine then proceeded to catch an alley oop from the free throw line dunk. Phenomenal. Then, Aaron Gordon did the best dunk I'd seen since Vince Carter. Using his mascot again, he took the ball off his head again, but then he put the ball underneath his legs and reverse slammed the ball. It was the best dunk I have ever seen. Go watch it right now, it is so cool. Then, Lavine did some more stuff from the free throw line, including a windmill from the free throw line. That takes so much leaping ability and so much athleticism and Lavine made it look easy. The two of them traded 50's from there on out, until Lavine finally won in a dunk off. Watch the whole duel, it is awesome.

This was the best dunk contest since 2000 and probably the best dunk contest of all time. Aaron Gordon and Zach Lavine brought it back from the dead. The dunk contest was appointment TV when I was a teenager, then it was really bad for a decade plus, but if it continues to be anywhere close to where Saturday night was in the future, I will be in front of my TV every All Star weekend to see the dunk contest. It was that awesome.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once saw the head editor to an epic double jump dunk. It is a slam dunk to follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.