2026-04-24 23:08:15
Much has been made of the arid state of NBA rivalries, a parched climate that owes itself to, depending on who you ask, player empowerment, AAU culture, the parity era, or the internet's anti-geographic effects. There's something to this, though all but the most committed Celtics-Lakers nostalgists would admit to at least one current exception: Nuggets-Timberwolves. These two teams are perfect stylistic and temperamental foils for each other, and they're currently three games into their third playoff series in the last four years. The present go-round is as laden with spite and loathing as the last one, a seven-game second-round slugfest in 2024, delivering reliably great theater and occasionally great basketball. As I was watching the Wolves dominate Game 3 on Thursday night, which they won 113-96 to grab a 2-1 lead in the series, I was struck by the impression that the emotional center of both the Wolves and their rivalry with the Nuggets is the brilliant, irrepressible Jaden McDaniels.
Each of the past two postseasons, Minnesota has reached the Western Conference Finals, somewhat against the expectations of many experts, though the Wolves' style makes them the most obvious group of playoff risers in the NBA. The issues that plague them in the regular season—drifting focus, weak backend rotation, a tendency to play down to inferior competition, Julius Randle all but sleeping on the court—are of a sort that burn off in the playoff crucible. Their strengths—indomitable physicality, a rock-solid top-seven, autarkic anchors on both ends of the court—matter way more. The guy that makes it all work is McDaniels. The wiry Seattle native is the ideal complementary wing player, in terms of both his skillset and the edge he gives his team as a leader.
McDaniels can guard up and down the lineup, he's a good rebounder, and he's figured out exactly how to play as a third and occasional fourth option. The consensus theory of this sort of player is that they are best left in the corner to provide a release valve for those responsible for dribbling the basketball. McDaniels has done a good deal of that in his career, though this year especially he has elevated Minnesota's offense by greatly improving his offensive game. He's now way more comfortable attacking closeouts and finishing in the lane, and he's figured out that when his drives get stopped, he can pass the ball to a teammate. The trick with McDaniels is that he's comfortable playing like a higher-usage player in a supporting role. He's not waving off Anthony Edwards to go one-on-one; he's found the right balance of aggression and deference.
2026-04-24 22:27:08
There’s an apocryphal story concerning the original pitch for Girls: Supposedly, Lena Dunham wrote it on the back of a cocktail napkin. It was all vibes but no plot or fleshed-out characters, and situated the show concept somewhere between Gossip Girl and Sex and the City. It was about the sort of girls Dunham—then 23 years old and making a web series in SoHo—knew and was friends with. The cocktail-napkin pitch has become a metonym for her career more broadly—evidence of either her breezy genius or the unacknowledged privilege that underpins it all.
Except, Dunham writes in her new memoir Famesick, that story is bullshit. “I’d actually written it on my brother’s laptop, borrowed for the trip.”
Dunham wants you to know that she understands her name ceased to be a precise identifier for her individual person long ago. She accepts that a life and legacy defined by those stories is the price she’s paid for fame. She gets it, she really does. But she wants you to know her side, too. Famesick is a granular, exhausting, 15-year-long account of her side, from her early days as an indie filmmaker in New York, her stay in rehab for a Klonopin addiction, to her new life in London with her husband, musician Luis Felber.
2026-04-24 21:57:37
Lily Yohannes plays soccer with an efficiency that would come off as mechanical if she didn't have the vision of an artist, resulting in some of the most beautiful dribbling sequences and long through balls that have ever graced a pitch. Indeed, the 18-year-old OL Lyonnes star is the USWNT's best midfield prospect in a decade.
Considering she shot into the elite echelons of soccer at such a young age—while she was 16 and playing for Ajax, she became the youngest player to ever start a Champions League group stage match—it's no surprise that her family has been a large part of her story. And what a family she has. Both of her brothers play professionally: 20-year-old Jayden plays for SC Telstar’s U21 side, and 22-year-old Aethan plays for Almere City FC's youth team as well as the Eritrean national team.
Her father, Daniel, has been her most outspoken supporter. Daniel's Twitter account reads like a standard—if more thoughtful than most—soccer stan account, so long as you ignore the posts when he mentions being Lily's father. He reposts compilation videos other people have made of Lily's highlights, writes tactical analyses of Lily's and other games (he's a Chelsea supporter), talks about pay equity in the women's game, and makes the occasional impassioned political post.
2026-04-24 21:09:38
It’s Los Angeles in the 1970s. Cars are as long as boats. Beachside tacos are practically free. The sun glares through chunky brown fog, but does nothing to prevent assorted bad acts from happening. A man with a casual, even careless manner may not seem to have what it takes to see justice done, but being underestimated is essential to his process. If you’re thinking, “Yes, I already watched Columbo during Covid like everyone else,” I have some great news for you about The Rockford Files.
If you belong to the TV-watching community, chances are you have imprinted on at least one police or legal procedural. Maybe Law & Order marathons got you hooked on Sam Waterston’s tremulous righteousness as Manhattan A.D.A. Jack McCoy. Perhaps its spinoff, Special Victims Unit, drew you in with its mix of sexually based offenses and hysterical fearmongering about the many dangers of modern life. NCIS might be your opiate of choice if you prefer to see crimes solved navally. The appeal of shows in this category is twofold: 1) it’s satisfying to watch a mystery get wrapped up in 40-some-odd minutes; 2) these are network shows with three-digit episode counts, such that you might just get tired of their samey-ness before running out of episodes to watch. Indeed, all of the above are still pumping out new episodes right now.
But if you watch TV and consume news, there may come a point when your enjoyment of these shows, which both center and lionize characters on the enforcement side of the law, might start to curdle somewhat. Yes, McCoy wins cases, but it’s often via shady moves that the audience is expected to affirm. The members of the elite squad known as Special Victims Unit apprehend sex criminals at rates that far outstrip that actual division’s real-life stats, and hate nothing more than a suspect who knows his rights in ways that probably track much more realistically. NCIS’s Jethro Gibbs … okay, I have no idea what his deal is, but the man works for the Pentagon, so it’s probably at least a little immoral.
2026-04-24 02:53:46
It's a tough situation for Drew. While he has dialed up his football fandom to super-sicko levels (complimentary) in recent years, my interest in the sport has remained stubbornly around average. When we discussed having an NFL Draft-focused episode of The Distraction, we were politely avoiding talking about the fact that I can't go nearly as deep on the subject of sleeper mid-round edge rusher values. Thankfully, we hit upon a compromise that worked for all of us: having the legendary Aaron Schatz, now of the sports analytics site FTN and the founder of Football Outsiders, as a guest, then spending half the episode talking about how awful online media is. Something for everyone!
Aaron had a lot to say about his (highly negative) experience with the venture capitalists who bought and ultimately killed Football Outsiders, which Mike Tanier wrote about for us a couple years ago, and which finally wound down once those owners just straight-up stopped paying anyone. That URL, which once contained nearly decades of football analysis, from writers who became stars in their field and also in pro teams' front offices, is now a dead link.
2026-04-24 01:44:21
Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday at Defector during the NFL season. Got something you wanna contribute? Email the Roo. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it.
The NFL Draft starts tonight in Pittsburgh, and no one gives a shit. Occupancy rates at both hotels and Airbnbs in the Steel City are falling woefully short of initial projections. Fans who live in other cities are uninterested in paying up to four figures for a single hotel room, and locals aren’t exactly pleased that their public school system was compelled to switch to remote learning for three full days this week just to accommodate the event. The hype for this weekend is at such a low ebb that Fernando Mendoza, tonight’s No. 1 overall pick, has decided not to attend. This draft is deader than your love life, and everyone knows it.
This shouldn’t be the case. Even with a draft class that’s unremarkable by nearly everyone’s standards, the streets of Pittsburgh should still be teeming with drunken yinzers and myriad Jets fans who made the drive just so that they could boo the selection of Arvell Reese in person. Hell, I should be at the draft right now, rocking my Kevin Williams jersey and keeping my eyes open with broken toothpicks so I can stay awake to see the No. 18 pick announced live. Then I could fall asleep in my hotel room and wake up the next morning to enjoy a traditional Pittsburgh breakfast of a scrappleburger with two McGriddles for its bun.
