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    Joan Jett Loves the New York Liberty. The Feeling Is Mutual.

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    As an early fan of the W.N.B.A. team, the musician saw the squad lose four championship series. This week, she returned courtside to cheer another attempt.Joan Jett’s unmistakable voice was carrying, and she was pretty sure it was working some magic.The New York Liberty had taken a slim lead against the Las Vegas Aces in the third quarter of Game 3 of the W.N.B.A. finals on Sunday, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was doing her part, bellowing along with the crowd’s “De-fense” chant from her courtside perch at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. When the Aces started to go cold, Jett took it as a sign.“I’m hoping they recognize my voice and I’m messing up their shot,” the husky-throated musician said, using an expletive. “It’s all mental, you know what I’m saying?”It was a must-win contest for the Liberty, who were down 2-0 in the best-of-five series. As Jett kept up her boisterous chant, the Aces missed six consecutive shots. The Liberty went on an 8-0 run, and the diminutive singer and guitarist jumped up to high-five the 6-foot-3 former Liberty center Sue Wicks, a friend.Some 10 years had passed since Jett last attended a W.N.B.A. game (her summer touring schedule got in the way), but she fell quickly back into the playoff delirium she had enjoyed as a courtside fixture in the late 1990s and early ’00s, when the team made the final round of the playoffs four times but failed to win a title.The rock star said she first fell for the game in 1996 when the N.C.A.A. asked her permission to use Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ cover of “Love Is All Around” to promote the women’s basketball tournament. The following year, the W.N.B.A. began its first season and Jett bought Liberty season tickets, often showing up to big games with a red cloth voodoo doll she used to taunt opposing players.“She’d hold it up and stab that dang thing!” Teresa Weatherspoon, the former Liberty guard, said during halftime. “When you talk about the Liberty, you have to mention Joan’s name. Any battle we had on the floor, Joan was in it with us.”Jett grew up a self-described tomboy in Rockville, Md., and became a fan of Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles at age 11, after her father took her to see the pitcher Jim Palmer throw a no-hitter. Her intersection with sports continues today: She still follows the Orioles faithfully, and is known to set up livestreams on the drum riser during shows so she can follow along. The theme song for “Sunday Night Football,” is an adapted version of the Blackhearts hit “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” performed by Carrie Underwood.During her early days of W.N.B.A. fandom, Jett opted to sit directly behind the bench instead of courtside with the other celebrities. (“It just feels more inside basketball to me,” Jett said. “You can hear the coaches talking.”) The Liberty would slap her hand on their way onto the floor. Jett occasionally came to practices, and once even flew to Houston with the team for a finals game.Jett developed particularly close friendships with Weatherspoon and Wicks, who remembers being so star-struck the first time she saw Jett at Madison Square Garden, where the Liberty initially played, that she almost knocked over Rebecca Lobo, the team’s center. Wicks had a copy of “The Hit List,” Jett’s 1990 album, while playing overseas in Europe, and said it had been a “great friend” to her during lonely stretches abroad. “For me, she’s a goddess,” Wicks said.In 1999, Ray Castoldi, the Garden’s organist, asked Jett and the Blackhearts to record “Unfinished Business,” a song he had written for the Liberty after their crushing finals loss that year. Jett not only cut the track the following season, but filmed a video with the team and performed the song at halftime during a game.“It’s hard to explain the energy,” Jett said of those early years. “I was on the outside looking in, but they made me feel like I was on the inside. It was a fun, really inclusive time.”Jett feels a natural kinship with athletes, who, like longtime touring bands, travel with a tight-knit team and are expected to perform on command. And like the athletes in the W.N.B.A., who have carved out a professional place for themselves while expanding the public’s idea of what women are capable of doing, Jett broke down boundaries in music: battling to prove to record labels and crowds that she deserved to be a frontwoman despite her prodigious talent. “We’re people that could relate to what each other was doing,” she said.Crystal Robinson, a former Liberty forward with whom Jett remains close, said the recognition was mutual: “For us, it was just the fact that she supported us,” she said. “She was fighting that female battle before we started. We had this camaraderie.”Jett’s return to the Liberty on Sunday was an overdue homecoming. Before the game, she nursed a beer as she held court with Wicks and Robinson at a table in the Barclays’ V.I.P. lounge. The recently retired W.N.B.A. star Sue Bird came by to pay her respects, as did the actors Jason Sudeikis and Michael Shannon, who portrayed Kim Fowley, the manager of Jett’s band, the Runaways, in a 2010 film.As the restaurant emptied before game time, Jett got restless. “I feel like we’re missing stuff!” she said giddily, before heading toward the court to find her seat. Just before tipoff, Becky Hammon, the Aces head coach who had been a Liberty guard in her playing days, spotted Jett taking a photo of her from across the court and struck a quick pose.Once the game started, Jett was up out of her seat to cheer on nearly every Liberty point. She gleefully taunted Hammon after a Jonquel Jones bucket (“Three-pointer, Becky!”), and debated foul calls with Wicks and Robinson. When Jones blocked a shot from the Aces star A’ja Wilson in the third quarter, Jett removed her black jean jacket to cheers from the crowd. “It’s hot in here!” she shouted back.After the Aces went cold in the third quarter, the Liberty stretched their lead. “I feel good,” Jett said. “But they’ve broken my heart before.”She appeared on the Jumbotron soon after, gamely swinging a Liberty towel overhead as “I Love Rock ’n Roll” blared on the public address system. Then, she fired T-shirts into the crowd with an air cannon, with the crowd roaring for her.“I felt the love,” Jett said. But she was mainly focused on her potential as a tactical influence: “It reminds Las Vegas that I’m here, and that can make them nervous.”She needn’t have worried. The Liberty found their rhythm in the second half and defeated the Aces, 87-73, extending the series to a Game 4, which will be played in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Should the team force a Game 5, it will play for the franchise’s elusive, first-ever title.“You’ve got to be back Wednesday!” a fan told Jett as the clock wound down. “You’re clearly the good luck charm.”But Jett is prepared for any outcome. “That’s the nature of being a sports fan,” she said. “To be there through the tough times and the good times.” More

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      The Knicks Are Like Blink-182. Let Us Explain.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyon pro basketballThe Knicks Are Like Blink-182. Let Us Explain.Hot in the 1990s and early ’00s. A source of joy and pain for a wildly devoted fan base. An unexpected resurgence. Yep, the parallels are there.“As a team, we all really support each other,” Knicks guard RJ Barrett, left, said.Credit…Pool photo by Sarah StierMarch 5, 2021, 5:35 p.m. ETIn the 1990s and early 2000s, Blink-182 was huge. With songs like “What’s My Age Again?” and “All the Small Things,” the rock trio’s blend of pop punk and unapologetic juvenility propelled them to an influential stature in American culture, with a loud, dedicated fan base.Hang with us for a second. We know you’re here to read about basketball.Then, in 2005, the band disappeared for a while, returning in 2011 with its first album since 2003. It was a flop; internal acrimony hurt the recording process. Next came “California,” in 2016, an album met with low expectations because of the past acrimony and the likelihood that this band, like many before, would struggle to regain its mojo after so many years away.Except the album turned out to be great, a success that fired up the fan base. The music felt fresh while still offering enough of what made the band so popular in the first place.The cover for the Blink-182 album “California,” which was released in 2016.If that sounds familiar, and not just because you learned to play the guitar riff in “Dammit,” you just might be a Knicks fan watching the team make a serious run this year for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.The Knicks are Blink-182.They are 19-18, a half-game behind the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. And fans are optimistic. “Yelling outside Madison Square Garden” optimistic. “Spending a bunch of money on coronavirus tests just to attend a game” optimistic. It seems like ages since the Knicks have had this much excitement. Except we must now remind you that the Knicks were 18-18 not so long ago, in the 2017-18 season, and then the wheels fell off.That can happen this season, too. But the feeling around these Knicks is different.“As a team, we all really support each other,” said RJ Barrett, the team’s starting guard. “Always happy for each other. Whoever’s night it is, we’re always cheering. We really like each other off the court.”So midway through the season, is this team for real? Enough to make the playoffs? Or will this season go the way of 2017-18, when they won only about a quarter of their games after the All-Star break?Here’s a look at what to expect from the Knicks in the second half of the season.A Tougher ScheduleThe Knicks have had one of the easiest schedules. They are last in strength of schedule, a measure of the difficulty of a team’s opponents, but the second half stands to be harder. Coming out of the All-Star break, three of the Knicks’ next four games will be against finals contenders: the Nets, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers. When only a handful of games are separating the fourth seed from the 11th seed, those games are crucial. There’s also a brutal road trip in May that will take the team to Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles, where they will play the Lakers and the Clippers.Julius Randle’s DominanceJulius Randle is leading the Knicks in total points, rebounds and assists. The only other players doing that for their teams are Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks), Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) and Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks).Forward Julius Randle is leading the Knicks in points, rebounds and assists.Credit…Craig Mitchelldyer/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThat’s a heavy load that Randle has to carry night in and night out. He’s also top-three in the league in minutes played. Randle is only 26, but you have to wonder if fatigue will become a factor in the second half.RJ Barrett’s Stephen Curry ImpersonationRJ Barrett is undoubtedly having a better year than he did his rookie season, but it has still been a strange one. In December, he shot a terrible 12.5 percent from 3, including an 0-for-8 performance against the Toronto Raptors. The next month, Barrett raised his percentage to a passable 35.1 percent. In February, though, Barrett turned into an elite shooter at 47.4 percent from outside. Oddly, it’s inside where Barrett struggles the most, sometimes forcing midrange shots.He doesn’t take many 3-pointers — only 3.3 a game — but if Barrett remains a legitimate weapon out there, it will help the Knicks offense, which is below average.Frank Ntilikina Is Coming in From the ColdFrank Ntilikina, who the Knicks drafted eighth over all in 2017, hasn’t worked out as expected. His minutes have waned, and he hasn’t shown he can be a consistent scorer. But on Tuesday night, in his first start of the season, Ntilikina broke out for 13 points. New York Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina has played in only nine games this season.Credit…Daniel Dunn/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe performance inspired euphoria among Knicks fans. It spurred several memes and a donation to charity from overjoyed devotees on Reddit.File this under “Possible Correlation, Not Causation”: Ntilikina has played in only nine games this season. In two of them, he entered in garbage time when the Knicks were well on the way to losing. But in the other seven, all of which Ntilikina played at least 11 minutes, the Knicks are 6-1. This includes the game on Thursday night against the Detroit Pistons, when he scored 9 points in 13 minutes.It’s a limited sample size, but Ntilikina might be earning himself more playing time in the second half of the season. He’s hitting his shots (61.9 percent from 3) and has always been a tough defender. He even had a game-sealing steal against the Indiana Pacers at the end of February.Alec Burks and Julius Randle of the New York Knicks fight Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic for a rebound at Amway Center in February.Credit…Alex Menendez/Getty ImagesDE-FENSE! [Clap, Clap] DE-FENSE!The Knicks are the second-best defensive team in the league, which isn’t surprising, because Coach Tom Thibodeau has long been known as a defensive wizard. The last time the Knicks had a top-five defense was in the 2011-12 season. Incidentally, the team made the playoffs that year in another shortened season.To give you an idea of how much more offensive-minded the N.B.A. is today: In 2015-16, the Knicks had a better defensive efficiency than they do this year, but they were just the league’s 18th-best defense. It’s not a question of teams simply playing faster and scoring more points either, since efficiency factors in pace. Offenses are just better now, especially with the focus on the 3.Can Immanuel Quickley Start? Please?The Knicks often struggle offensively, yet one of their best offensive players doesn’t get much playing time.An early victory of the Leon Rose-era Knicks is the play of Immanuel Quickley, who was selected 25th in the draft last year. He is having an impressive rookie season, averaging 12.2 points, while shooting 38.1 percent from 3. His floaters are a thing of beauty. He’s one of the few players on the Knicks, outside of Randle, Barrett and Derrick Rose, who can break down a defense. On top of that, he is automatic from the free-throw line, shooting better than 94 percent.Immanuel Quickley is an active defender and automatic from the free-throw line.Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesQuickley plays less than 20 minutes a game, and it’s high time for that to be increased for a team as offensively challenged as the Knicks. He’s also an active defender and a strong communicator. He’s undersized and is still learning, but he has a better defensive rating than Barrett and Mitchell Robinson — two players who have been lauded for their defense. (Defensive rating is a measure of how many points the team gives up with you on the floor, extrapolated for 100 possessions. It’s an imprecise measure, and is affected by who is also on the floor with you.)Elfrid Payton has been the starting point guard for most of the year. But his poor shooting causes spacing issues, particularly for Randle. Quickley is arguably the team’s second-best offensive player. It’s worth giving him more time.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Weeknd Emerges From the Shadows at the Super Bowl Halftime Show

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021liveGame UpdatesThe CommercialsHalftime ShowTom Brady Endures at 43Fans Still Traveled for the GameAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Weeknd Emerges From the Shadows at the Super Bowl Halftime ShowThe singer’s spectacle featured a hall of mirrors and bandaged dancers as he performed before a cityscape carved into the stadium’s stands.The Weeknd performed a career-spanning set at the Super Bowl halftime show, but was mostly confined to the stands.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 7, 2021, 8:57 p.m. ETWhen the Weeknd put out his first mixtape “House of Balloons” in 2011, his identity was largely shrouded in mystery. On Sunday, he took one of the biggest stages in pop, the halftime of Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.The Weeknd (a.k.a. the 30-year-old Toronto singer and songwriter Abel Tesfaye) began his set in the stands, emerging in front of rows of lights to perform “Starboy” and “The Hills” with a choir, then he relocated into a hallway of lights and mirrors for “Can’t Feel My Face” as dancers with bandaged faces swarmed him. With fireworks lighting up the sky, he returned to the open air for “I Feel It Coming,” a large moon rising over the cityscape projected behind him.While a musician in a glittery mask strummed a guitar, the Weeknd turned toward the more optimistic “Save Your Tears” and “Earned It,” accompanied by strings and ending on a long, triumphant note. An army of performers outfitted like the Weeknd dance-marched down the field and the singer energetically sprinted beside them to herald his grand finale: his recent hit “Blinding Lights,” an ecstatic, driving disco-pop song.The Weeknd took the field only for the finale, “Blinding Lights.”Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesThe Weeknd has released four albums since 2013, including his breakthrough, “Beauty Behind the Madness” in 2015. While promoting his latest LP, “After Hours,” he has dressed in a black shirt and red jacket and sported an increasingly banged-up and bandaged face while spinning a narrative in appearances at the MTV Video Music Awards and the American Music Awards, as well as late-night shows and in music videos. (He has said the character he’s portraying “is having a really bad night,” and in music videos the plot involves possibly being overtaken by an evil spirit and committing murder.)“After Hours,” which was released in March after the pandemic lockdown paused live touring, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the equivalent of 440,000 sales in the United States. After the demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd, the Weeknd donated $500,000 to nonprofit organizations focused on racial equality and used his acceptance speeches at the V.M.A.s to say “justice for Jacob Blake and justice for Breonna Taylor.” But in what is seen a major snub, the Weeknd received no nominations for the Grammy Awards, which were to take place on Jan. 31, a week before the Super Bowl; the awards were later moved back to March 14 as Covid-19 raged in Los Angeles, where the ceremony will be held.When the nominations were announced in November, the Weeknd spoke out on social media, writing, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency …” Harvey Mason Jr., the chairman and interim chief executive of the Recording Academy, denied that the Weeknd’s lack of nominations was retaliation for performing at the Super Bowl, as some suggested in theories online.The Weeknd’s halftime show faced a unique set of challenges because of the pandemic. About 1,050 people worked on the show, a much smaller group than most years, and preparations included frequent Covid-19 testing and social distancing in production trailers. This is the second Super Bowl halftime show produced in part by Jay-Z and Roc Nation: Last year, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira performed sets heavy on dancing and Latin pride for fans jammed elbow to elbow on the field — a scenario that was impossible in 2021.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Behind the Scenes at the Super Bowl Halftime Show

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021Why the Chiefs Will WinTom Brady vs. Patrick MahomesA Super Bowl Trip Is Worth the Risk to Some Fans17 Recipes for Tiny TailgatesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBehind the Weeknd’s Halftime Show: Nasal Swabs and Backup PlansPutting on a Super Bowl halftime show is always a mammoth undertaking. The pandemic introduces many more logistical puzzles.The Weeknd is headlining this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, which has had to adapt to the challenges of mounting a live performance during a pandemic.Credit…Isaac Brekken/Getty ImagesFeb. 5, 2021Updated 2:19 p.m. ETWhen the Weeknd headlines the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, the stage will be in the stands, not on the field, to simplify the transition from game to performance. In the days leading up to the event, workers have visited a tent outside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., to receive nasal swabs for Covid-19 tests. And though a smaller crew is putting on the show this year, the bathroom trailers have been going through three times as much water as usual — because of all that hand-washing.Amid a global pandemic, the gargantuan logistical undertaking that is the halftime show has gotten even more complicated.In a typical year, a massive stage is rolled out in pieces onto the football field, sound and lighting equipment is swiftly set up by hundreds of stagehands working shoulder to shoulder, and fans stream onto the turf to watch the extravaganza. This year, there is a cap on how many people can participate in the production, dense crowds of cheering fans are out of the question. And only about 1,050 people are expected to work to put on the show, a fraction of the work force in most years.The pandemic has halted live performances in much of the country, and many televised spectacles have resorted to pretaped segments to ensure the safety of performers and audiences. The halftime show’s production team, however, was intent on mounting a live performance in the stadium that they hoped would wow television audiences. To fulfill that dream, they would need contingency plans, thousands of KN95 masks and a willingness to break from decades of halftime-show tradition.“It’s going to be a different looking show, but it’s still going to be a live show,” said Jana Fleishman, an executive vice president at Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z that was tapped by the N.F.L. in 2019 to create performances for marquee games like the Super Bowl. “It’s a whole new way of doing everything.”Last year’s halftime show, starring Jennifer Lopez, above, and Shakira, felt like an exultant, glittery party.Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesOne of the first logistical puzzles was figuring out how to pick staff members up from the airport and transport them to and from the hotel, said Dave Meyers, the show’s executive in charge of production and the chief operating officer at Diversified Production Services, an event production company based in New Jersey that is working on the halftime show.“Usually you pack everyone into a van, throw the bags into the back, everyone is sitting on each other’s laps,” Meyers said. “That can’t happen.”Instead, they rented more than 300 cars to transport everyone safely.Many of the company’s workers have been in Tampa for weeks, operating out of what they call a “compound” outside of Raymond James Stadium, the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The compound includes 50-foot-long office trailers, which used to fit about 20 employees each but now are limited to six. There are socially distant dining tents where people eat prepackaged food, and a signal for which tables have been sanitized: the ones with chairs tilted against them.Outside the perimeter of the event, there is a tent where halftime-show workers have been getting Covid-19 tests. Staff members have been getting tested every 48 hours, but now that game day is close, key employees, including those who are in proximity to the performers, are getting tested every day, Meyers said. Each day, workers fill out a health screening on their smartphones, and if they’re cleared, they get a color-coded wristband, with a new color each day so no one can wear yesterday’s undetected.It is unclear if this year’s show will mimic the high-budget elements of years past, like Katy Perry riding an animatronic lion.Credit…Christopher Polk/Getty ImagesEach time workers enter the stadium or a new area of the grounds, they scan a credential that hangs from around their necks so that in the event that someone tests positive for Covid-19 or needs to go into quarantine, the N.F.L. will know who else was in their vicinity. And there are contingency plans if workers have to quarantine: crucial employees, including Meyers, have understudies who stand ready to take their places.All of those measures are taken so that the Weeknd can step out onstage Sunday for a 12-minute act that aims to rival years past, when the country was not in the midst of a global health crisis.“Our biggest challenge is to make this show look like it’s not affected by Covid,” Meyers said.The challenge was apparent on Thursday at a news conference about the halftime show. When the Weeknd strode to the microphone, he took in the room and noted, “It’s kind of empty.” His words were perhaps a preview of how the stadium might look to people watching from home. (About 25,000 fans will be present — a little more than a third of its capacity — and they will be joined by thousands of cardboard cutouts.)During the 2017 halftime show, Lady Gaga clasped fans’ hands and embraced one of them, but the Weeknd is performing in an age of social distancing.Credit…Dave Clements/Sipa, via Associated PressBut the Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), a 30-year-old Canadian pop star who has hits including “Can’t Feel My Face” and “Starboy,” is known for his theatrical flair. His work often has a brooding feel, an avant-garde edge, and even some blood and gore (he promised he would keep the halftime show “PG”).This will be the second Super Bowl halftime show produced in part by Jay-Z and Roc Nation, who were recruited by the N.F.L. at a time when performers were refusing to work with the league, in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.The N.F.L. and Roc Nation are keeping quiet about the details of the program to build anticipation, so it is unclear whether it will have the usual big-budget effects of halftime shows past, which have featured Jennifer Lopez dancing on a giant revolving pole, Katy Perry riding an animatronic lion and Diana Ross memorably exiting by helicopter.What is clear is that there is unlikely to be anything like the intimate moment Lady Gaga had with a few of her fans during her 2017 performance, when she clasped their hands and embraced one of them before going back onstage for “Bad Romance.” The Weeknd is taking the stage in a much more distanced world.Ken Belson contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More