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Scottie Pippen's REAL Opinion of MJ

AI will be judging corkscrew 1080's this year

Author

Andrew Safranko
January 24, 2025

This Week in Dulture…

Approx 3 minute read:

🏀 The 90’s Chicago Bulls

🏂️ X-Games getting techy

👟 This year’s suggested sneakers

🧳 TripAdvisor’s advice for 2025

When I was a kid we had two of these in our basement:

Except they were green and black

Before you get any grandiose ideas, our basement was not very big at all - in part of the basement I could take 3 giant kid steps and be from one wall to another.

That all said, we had this mini basketball court down there where I used to spend hours copying moves I saw on NBA Inside Stuff Saturday mornings. And then later on in the afternoon MJ and the Bulls would be on NBC.

A spectacular move by Michael Jordan.

If you just heard Marv Albert’s voice, we already know what MJ just did in your mind. And yes, I did that move over and over again on the mini hoops. Technically I still do it in my kid’s bedroom on their mini hoops now 😅 

Before we had the Raptors in Toronto, we had the Chicago Bulls. At one point American television to all of Toronto was just “Western New York”, which meant we got a lot of Buffalo Sabre games and a lot of New York Knick and Chicago Bulls games. This also meant we got a lot of Michael Jordan.

It was hard not to fall in love with the Chicago Bulls in the 90’s.

This jacket or a variation of it was everywhere in the 90’s

MJ naturally became everyone’s GOAT and Scottie Pippen was like the #2 sidekick. Us millennials have a bit harder of a time remembering the first three Bulls championships but we definitely remember the second three peat, including the “push off” shot to seal the 6th championship.

MJ and Scottie were like Batman and Robin. So naturally you would think they were the best of friends too. HOWEVER…

  • They never had a meal together just the two of them, ever

  • Scottie only hung out with Michael when they were training together in the final years together on the Bulls.

  • Scottie hasn’t spoken to Michael since 2020 when The Last Dance came out and Scottie saw Michael’s comments about the team and Scottie. Although MJ had a lot of praise for Scottie as his greatest teammate, Scottie has a bit of an ego and thinks he’s the greatest player to ever play basketball…so it’s all a little weird.

You can catch the full summary of Scottie’s comments in an interview that aired on the PBD Podcast earlier this week - for those of you who grew up with 90’s basketball, you’re gonna like this…and also think Scottie’s a bit of an oddball.

I get Khawi Leonard vibes from him.

AI Shredding the Gnar

Dude, Google is getting totally tubular this weekend. In partnership with Google, the winter X-Games will feature an AI judge for the ski and snowboard SuperPipe events. A computer is going to provide scoring for athletes that compete in the popular halfpipe events this weekend.

The AI itself was trained on hours of ski and snowboard footage. I wouldn’t be surprised if it just sat in its parent’s basement watching old Burton snowboard films for days on end. (c’mon, its funny)

Google’s Vertex large language model (LLM) is designed to provide a deeper analysis of each run, scoring athletes on airtime, trick difficulty, and execution. From the hours of footage the LLM has ingested, it now apparently understands things like what a “good” landing is versus an “excellent” landing. It will also provide commentary on the riders, their history, and pull up facts on the fly, all while translating in other languages like Japanese.

This is just a pilot so the AI’s scores won’t actually count but the X-Games hopes this system becomes the norm, adding further objectivity to the human judges, but not replacing them…you still think humans are all getting replaced by AI?

Personally I don’t know why they didn’t just use 1080 Snowboarding’s scoring system 🤷 

Sneakers in 2025

What’s going on with shoes for the new year? Here are the trends that a few celebrity stylists are seeing (apparently).

I take this all with a grain of salt, as should you.

Gum-Soled Shoes

I don’t know why they didn’t just say Adidas Sambas. I can’t really think of any other gum soled shoe outside of skate shoes that one would wear and be fashionable in?

Runners & Fashion Fits

During Covid everyone realized they don’t need to be dressed up all the time and running shoes became a very popular thing. I can’t tell you how many of the same New Balance 1906’s I saw everywhere in Tokyo and Hong Kong a couple years back that are now everywhere, well, everywhere.

ON is Everywhere

Seeing growth rates of 70-80% per year for the past seven years, ON is one of the fastest growing shoe brands in the world right now. I don’t know about you but with the new people who have joined the gym in January, I’m seeing either ON shoes or those thick-soled Hoka’s. NGL, these look very sleek and comfortable and definitely give Nike running shoes a run for their money.

Ontisuka Tiger

I’ve had a few pairs of these now and I love these shoes. You don’t see a lot of people wearing them out in the wild, partially because they aren’t sold everywhere, which is more the reason to get a pair. They’re just a classic shoe that can be worn with anything and they come in so many colours that you’re bound to find something you like. That all said, they’re not a shoe that I’d want to walk in for 8 hours straight, but definitely a stylish option that you can rock no matter what you’re doing.

The Hard ‘No’s’

Shoes with prints on them 

Let’s be honest, who’s actually really wearing these?


Chunky shoes

Finally the world is waking up and seeing the light. How were these ever a shoe people thought looked good?


Wedge shoes for the ladies

Are these actually comfortable?

Chat, Where We Going This Year?

Tripadvisor has come out with their top destinations for 2025 based on “above and beyond opinions and reviews” from the Tripadvisor community. Their list consists of 25 but let’s be honest, you probably only really care about the top 5 so here they are…

Sidenote: I’m a little surprised with #1 but I’ve always wanted to go so I don’t mind

#5 Paris

In all truth, is Paris ever NOT a top destination to visit in the world? Food, fashion, site seeing, food - I’d just be walking around with a big baguette all day. That’s what they do there, isn’t it?

#4 Sicily

OK incoming stereotype…from the Italian friends I’ve had throughout my life, they’ve all at some point or another mentioned how hot-headed Sicilians can be. I suppose they’re seen as a different kind of Italian because it’s an island off the coast of Italy? Either way this place is beautiful, full of beaches, tons of historic landmarks and castles, and cannoli’s for days.

Fun fact: When I was the chief of staff to the (italian) CEO of IBM Canada, I went on a cannoli run for him once, brought them back to the office, gave him one and then ate the rest of the box at my desk. When he asked why tf was there none left I blamed it on his VP of ops 🤣 

#3 Dubai

I keep hearing how nice Dubai is. The shopping, the beaches, the accommodations, the continuous flow of Rolls Royces…yes, I hear it is a paradise in the middle of the desert…what are those called again? Anyway. Dubai has very quickly become a world class destination on par with any other city in the world. Who said money can’t buy happiness?

#2 Bali

I’ve had too many friends go to Bali in the past 18 months - most of which went to work and then got completely distracted by the beaches, parties, and general mellow living. Bali is one of the top destination for digital nomads so its no wonder it ranked so high on TripAdvisor’s list.

#1 London

I know right? I’m surprised a Japanese city didn’t crack the top five given the constant hype around travelling to Japan these days. But London is a fantastic pick for #1 if you ask me. Except when it’s raining or snowing - this is all I hear from folks from London. When the sun is out, it’s the most beautiful city in the world. But when it rains, it sucks.

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