NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: The 100, Cobie Smulders and Netflix making changes
Sep 4, 2019, 7:06 am
ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
Look at that, we're already half way there!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
With Hurricane Dorian going strong, and the first images coming in from the Bahamas, its important to be donating to the Red Cross and other aid agencies around the country. These guys are going to need it.
NETFLIX IS CRAZY
Netflix has announced it's going to start moving away from binge releasing it's shows. It wants to try a weekly release format and see what the results of that are. Overall I think this is a mistake, because if they had stayed with the binge watch format they would be basically the only one doing that, giving them a distinct advantage and differentiator from the other services. Part of what's coming next is who offers what, and what features and libraries they have. I personally think it's a mistake because making the shows bingeable lets the writers of the shows develop stories and have arcs and episodes that don't necessarily "drive" the plot. If they move to a weekly release format, I'm not sure they'll be as rewarding overall.
OLD SHOWS MAKING A COMEBACK
Right now I'm watching The 100 for the first time, it's ok but it's fun to find new things to watch and get into. This is one of those shows that maybe I've should have been watching when it started but I totally missed out on and now I'm picking up. One of those that people may not know about is Steven Universe, a great animated series that just released a movie on Cartoon Network, lots of big name RB stars and other stars are involved in the project and there's tons of great characters and music in it.
IMPRESSIVE
It's really impressive that somehow Netflix was able to secretly film a Breaking Bad sequel starring Aaron Paul. No one knew it was happening? No one knew it was coming, nothing had leaked and I keep an eye on all the good rumor websites. Filming a secret movie for such a popular franchise is super impressive and deserving of recognition, so I'll say it. Great job Netflix!! Now here's hoping it doesn't suck.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
The show Stumptown looks great, I'm really excited for it to come out. Cobie Smulders seems great in it and I'm starting to really enjoy her in roles. After a great run as Maria Hill, which I'm guessing she's coming back to in the near future, she was also great in the Jack Reacher sequel and really nailed the action parts. I'm looking forward to seeing her in this role next and hopefully it's as good as these others have been.
Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.
They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.
Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.
In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.
“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”
By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.
Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.
“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.
In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.
And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.
The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.
“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”
All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.
FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.
“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”