Month: August 2020

First it was banana bread and draft-day memories, then it was an honest interview with Kevin Durant. The new podcast from A’ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier, Tea with A & Phee, has already shown it can be silly, brutally honest, and juicy. While Wilson and Collier, the last two WNBA Rookies of the Year, have a plan for what they want the show to be, they also want to create a comfortable atmosphere for themselves to give fans an inside look into their lives, careers, and time in the WNBA’s bubble this summer.

The WNBA is full of legends, and even as the media environment around the league has grown, a lot of the coverage is still geared toward veterans like Maya Moore, Sue Bird, and Nneka Ogwumike. Rarely is attention turned toward the young stars who will soon take the mantle. That’s the hole the pair — who both already are All-Stars in their own right as well — hope to fill.

“We kind of get over-shadowed in a way, because of course we’re surrounded by so many great women that are so good at basketball,” Wilson told Dime over the phone. “For Phee and I, we’re fairly new in this league, so it’s like we’re trying to speed up the process to be talked about. This is a perfect exposure for the younger generation in the bubble.”

Wilson and Collier met in 2015 when they played on the USA Basketball U19 women’s team under head coach Dawn Staley, who would go on to recruit Wilson to South Carolina. Fans have already taken to the easy chemistry between the two, who are both repped by Octagon, but they didn’t have much of a relationship before starting the show.

In just two episodes, they’ve already bonded over the shared pressure they felt as young players — Wilson as the leader of a budding dynasty at South Carolina, Collier upholding the longstanding tradition of dominance at UConn — and the challenges of acclimating to the WNBA.

Collier admitted to believing she should have been the first overall pick in 2019, when she went sixth, and the pride she felt being vindicated with the Rookie of the Year trophy after an All-Star campaign and playoff berth with the Minnesota Lynx. While Wilson is a more heralded and well-known name in the hoops world, getting a SLAM magazine cover in her second season as she’s put Las Vegas on the WNBA map with the Aces, she bonded with Collier over also feeling self-doubt on draft night, up until the moment her name was called, a feeling athletes are not often free to share.

“People like to see behind the scenes for whoever it may be,” Collier told Dime. “Whether it’s athletes or actors or whatever it might be, people really like to see what goes on when we’re not watching them in their element or on TV. I like to see that too, so diving behind the scenes and talking about what goes on in our personal lives and not just on the court, we both thought it would be a really cool idea.”

Yet even as more athlete-driven media has popped up, few of these endeavors center women. Athletes from J.J. Redick, to Vince Carter, to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson have made news on their own podcasts, and created an environment in which fans get an unfiltered perspective. Collier’s boyfriend’s, basketball trainer Alex Bazzell, had the idea for Wilson and Collier to specifically try out a podcast, and the pair has taken to the format instantly.

They’ve also gone viral as listeners have realized no one is off limits on the show. The duo went viral for a hilarious moment comparing Kendrick Perkins’ scoring to a solid GPA…

…and for comparing Aces coach Bill Laimbeer’s quarantine haircut to Johnny Lawrence’s look from The Karate Kid.

As opponents on the court, they also appreciate the chance to have fun with listeners’ expectations, even down to the idea that they would even pair up for the show in the first place.

“These are two people that you probably never thought would come together because we’re not teammates and it’s a nice point of view that you normally wouldn’t see,” Wilson says. “You’re opening up another channel for our fans, for our platforms and everything, so I think that’s the beauty of our podcast is we don’t feel that pressure because we talk freely.”

“Even if a reporter had asked me now how I felt (about the draft and rookie season), I probably wouldn’t have said what I said on the podcast,” Collier adds. “It definitely gives us the freedom to give that inside look and just be our unfiltered self, which is what I love about the podcast.”

With record ratings and constant headlines about WNBA players’ work on and off the court this summer, the moment is ripe for more voices. The hosts aren’t sure if the social justice movement will come up on the show, or how much they will dive into politics and social issues versus just providing fans fun, insightful basketball conversation, but they want the podcast to highlight their true selves.

In 2020, that means a lot of things for two Black female athletes.

“It’s hard out here being a Black girl, and people can connect to us on that level,” says Wilson, who recently made waves for an article in The Players’ Tribune about growing up in suburban South Carolina.

The history of WNBA activism connects squarely with Collier as well, who came to the three-time champion Lynx the same season legends like Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson, and Lindsay Whalen left the team. But just as Collier filled those shoes capably, she and Wilson believe the WNBA’s youngest players are ready to start bridging the gap with their voices, too.

“With everything — social justice, pride, everything — I think our generation has grown up in a world where it’s OK to push the boundaries on those things and to go after what you think is right,” Collier says.

The WNBA has consistently proven that discourse can capture many things at once. Just as they got Durant to discuss the challenges of playing out of position as a rookie and spill the “tea” on his laid-back form of romance, the pair also expect the podcast to highlight the persona of the 20-somethings in the WNBA who are already filling up All-Star rosters and highlight reels.

Wilson and Collier already notice a generation demonstrating confidence on and off the court. While we spoke, Atlanta Dream rookie Chennedy Carter was piling in 35 points on the championship favorite Seattle Storm, a testament to the “swagger” Collier sees developing on players’ online presence and their hardwood style.

“We’re very outspoken, and we’re going to say whatever’s on our mind,” Wilson says. “But at the same time, we can get buckets.”

And if that’s not the fun of basketball, what is? Now, the WNBA has a podcast that can bring both together, with two unflappable personalities who are on their way to dominating the league.

Toronto-bred singer Kai has been writing songs since she picked up her first acoustic guitar at the age of 16 even earned a Grammy nomination for her Flume collaboration “Never Be Like You.” Now, the singer making a name for herself with her shimmering debut solo single, “In The Now.”

The hypnotic “In The Now” features lush production and a showcase of Kai’s room-filling vocals. “I wanna be in the now with you,” she croons over a slow-burning beat. The single’s accompanying video sees the singer exploring her sensual fantasies and looks as though it’s straight out of a glitter-soaked scene from HBO’s Euphoria.

“‘In The Now’ is about self-sabotage and the fear of intimacy,” Kai explained in a statement. “It’s about the desire to be truly present with someone, instead of fearing the end and wondering, ‘What if I hurt you?’ or ‘What if you hurt me?’” Of her sound in general, Kai said she sticks to what “feels good” to her in the present moment: “I follow what feels good to me and because of that, the music is a greater source of joy than it has ever been before. I’m finally making music I’m extremely proud of and truly want to share.”

Watch Kai’s “In The Now” video above.

Back in January, Under Armour had Joel Embiid come down to Baltimore to announce his upcoming signature sneaker, unveiling it to a select group of media with no photos or videos allowed to come out. Embiid, understandably, was excited for his first signature shoe, and harped on his desire to create a shoe that wasn’t just for big men but was something that could be worn by anyone.

The result is the UA Embiid 1, a midtop sneaker with a lightweight mesh upper and a combination of Under Armour’s two most advanced cushioning elements — HOVR in the heel and MicroG in the forefoot — to offer a balance of comfort and reactive performance. On Friday, Embiid debuted the sneaker officially in the NBA bubble, posting the first official images of it to his Twitter account.

The first colorway will be this black, gray, and fiery red/orange/yellow look, which will release on Sept. 18. As Embiid noted back in January, his goal was to create a shoe as versatile as he was, with stability for a 7-footer, but light enough and mobile enough to be worn by perimeter players too.

There are also details in the story-telling, with a cutout of the African continent on the heel of the outsole, with the red, yellow, and green (only visible in bits on the bottom of the shoe) representing his Cameroonian heritage. More colorways are set to come, and knowing Embiid some will surely be quite colorful, and those will be announced in coming weeks.

Jamie Foxx’s long-in-the-works Mike Tyson biopic is finally happening, and the Oscar winner has the ripped physique to prove it. Getting in shape to portray the legendary boxer isn’t the thing he’s most dedicated in getting right, however. When asked about his preparation to play Tyson, Foxx told CinemaBlend, “Obviously, the training is different. We’re doing weighted pull ups to sort of make the back look the right way, and make the arm look a certain way. But it is, to me, I guarantee you, it’s the most dedicated I’ve been to making sure that this story gets told, and gets told in the right way.”

Foxx wants to be so believable, in fact, that he hopes to fool Tyson’s own kids:

“And I joke with Mike. I said, ‘When I get dressed up as you, I’m going to walk into your house, and your kids are going to say daddy’s home.’”

Maybe they mean they want to watch Daddy’s Home on DVD?

Either way, the biopic will show the “different lives” of the iconic boxer (Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and served three years in prison), according to Foxx. “We want to show everybody evolves. I think when we lay the layer of Mike Tyson in this story, I think everybody from young and old will be able to understand this man’s journey.”

(Via CinemaBlend)

Selena Gomez established herself as a public figure of note with her starring role in the Disney Channel series Wizards Of Waverly Place, and the show was the last time Gomez had a regular acting role on TV. The program ended in 2012, and now, almost a decade later, Gomez is returning to television. It was announced today that she is starring alongside comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short in Only Murders In The Building, a new comedy series from Hulu.

Deadline notes the show was co-created and written by Martin and John Hoffman based on an idea from Martin, and that the show “follows three strangers (Martin, Short, and Gomez) who share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one.”

Craig Erwich, Hulu’s head of originals, is enthusiastic about the show, as he told Deadline, “I heard the pitch on Wednesday, and it was the best hour I had all week. It’s really special, surprisingly emotional. It’s really modern and self-referential about podcasts and murders, it’s got some great surprises. When they pull this off, it’s going to be really special.”

Although this is Gomez’s first TV gig in a while, she hasn’t shied away from acting completely. She has a voice role in the Hotel Transylvania franchise, and she has starred in films like Spring Breakers and 2019’s A Rainy Day In New York. She also has a cooking show on the way, Selena + Chef.

When DC FanDome dropped its massive list of stars that will be attending the virtual event at the end of August, you’d think it’d be hard to pick just one name that stood out above the rest. But apparently DC Comics fans are flocking to social media to go absolutely wild about one name and one name only: Val Kilmer.

Kilmer’s presence at the fan event is surprising for a variety of reasons. The actor has never spoken fondly of his time making Batman Forever, which saw him play the Caped Crusader just once before being replaced by George Clooney. There’s also the small issue of director Joel Schumacher repeatedly referring to Kilmer as “psychotic” and vowing never to work with the actor again.

However, Kilmer recently waxed philosophical about his short time as Batman during a recent interview with The New York Times. While recounting a set visit from Warren Buffet and his grandchildren, the actor noticed that the kids didn’t care about meeting Batman, they wanted to try on the Batsuit and sit in the Batmobile. The revelation caused Kilmer to realize that Batman is meant to be “so anonymous” that anyone can see themselves as the hero. “That’s why it’s so easy to have five or six Batmans,” Kilmer told the Times. “It’s not about Batman. There is no Batman.”

There’s also the matter of Schumacher’s death. The director passed away in early June, not long after Kilmer’s interview with the Times, and with his death came rumors of a “Schumacher Cut” of Batman Forever that Warner Bros. might be sitting on. With Kilmer now added to the DC FanDome roster, it didn’t take long for fans to start raising their eyebrows.

As Twitter is going to do, it didn’t take long for a hashtag to start forming:

And then there this was interesting theory that suggests maybe Michael Keaton passed on The Flash, or he won’t be the only Batman to show up…

Whatever Kilmer’s reason for attending DC FanDome might be, if this anecdote is anything go by, it should be an interesting experience:

One word you hear a whole lot whenever anyone from adidas discusses their products: fast. Everything that the company tries is done with speed in mind, something that is understandable as the world’s best athletes are getting bigger, stronger, and faster with each passing year. This sentiment applies to innovation, too: have the speed to keep up or blow past the competition or watch yourself get left behind.

That was a focal point during the development of adidas’ latest soccer cleat, the all new X Ghosted. They were designed with speed in mind, in more ways than one.

“The product needs to look fast, feel fast, consumers are actually asking for some sort of element of innovation that helps them in their goal to become the fastest version of themselves,” senior product manager Philipp Hagel said during the unveiling of the new boots.

The result is the lightest laceless boot that adidas has ever released, coming in at 189 grams. For Daniel James, a Manchester United winger and one of the fastest athletes on the adidas’ roster of athletes across all sports, the feeling of almost being barefoot is something that he wants when he takes the pitch. As he told Uproxx Sports, the X Ghosted manages to achieve this.

“As time’s kinda gone on, the boots have gotten lighter and lighter,” James said. “They’re thinking of new things all the time with the next boots, and these ones are obviously a lot different. As I said, they look light on your feet, you don’t feel like you’ve got anything on ’em. It’s so important to be that, but as I said, it’s gotta be comfy as well, it’s not just about speed, it’s about being able to stop and go off the turn, but they’ve got all those aspects of it as well.”

James — who joined United last summer from Swansea City and signed with adidas, the brand whose boots he wore as a youngster, “maybe a month later” — is the exact kind of player who needs a boot that lets you start, stop, and take off in the blink of an eye. A pacy, hard-working winger who is among the fastest players in all of England, James thinks that the boot feels like it could have been more applicable in another sport.

“You can feel it, it’s kind of a sprinter’s boot made for football, really,” James said. “I think when you make them, you can maybe go overboard with how light you want to be, and then not be comfy, and then not be able to move around in them. But both aspects of them are so well put together that they’re perfect for a player like me.”

It’s very, very hard to make a player like James feel any faster than he already is, but he believes that wearing the new X Ghosteds help him achieve that. He’s an especially big fan of the carbon fiber plate, which adidas calls the “CARBITEX SPEEDFRAME,” and how it supports his feet as he plants his foot and goes — while the cleats need to be light, they of course need to provide the stability that makes it so elite athletes can push off and not worry about any sort of pain or injury.

And of course, there’s the matter of how they look. “Look fast” is hard to define and varies from person-to-person, but adidas banked on a sleek, white color and a nearly see-through outer skin called “TRANSLUCENT MIRAGESKIN.” As someone who tends to like white boots — he believes they make him look faster — James is a fan of the X Ghosted’s appearance.

“I think just the style, they’re actually a tiny bit see through as well,” James said. I think if you see them on your feet, you can actually see your feet inside. I think they’re a bit, not thinner, but for them to be comfy as well, I think the top bit’s a tiny bit lower, and they just fit on really easy.”

The new X Ghosted boots are available starting on Sept. 1 at €280. But for football fans who are interested in checking them out prior to the day they hit shelves, adidas athletes will have them on their feet during Champions League and Europa League matches that will occur in the coming weeks. James started and rocked them during Manchester United’s 2-1 Europa League win over LASK on Wednesday — United went through, 7-1, on aggregate to earn a spot in the quarterfinals against Sevilla.

Following a handful of recent EPs, up-and-comer Omar Apollo is gearing up for his debut album. Following his first single of 2020, “Imagine U,” Apollo returns for the lush number “Stayback.”

The video accompanying “Stayback” pays homage to those carefree summer nights driving around with friends. Omar and his crew arrive at a pool party and things go off without a hitch until the singer notices his crush has found another lover.

The song itself features a wonky bass and layered production over lyrics that detail the aftermath of unrequited love. “You know I been feeling you since way back / But I couldn’t even make the words to say that, say that / If I could switch bodies you know I’d change that, change that / But you could never love me so stay back, stay back,” Apollo sings.

In a statement about the single, Apollo says he penned the song as a reflection on healing after a particularly painful breakup: “Stayback is a song about being in love for a long period of time. After years of being hurt emotionally, I moved on and decided to treat the relationship as a memory instead of fantasizing it and trying to make it work. When I finished the production, I realized this was the song that I’ve been wanting to make my entire career. My guitar player Oscar killed the solo on it and really brought the whole thing together.”

Listen to “Stayback” above.

Omar Apollo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Finneas dropped his Blood Harmony EP back in October, and now he has refreshed the release with a new deluxe edition. This version of the albums adds a pair of new tracks, “Break My Heart Again” and “Let’s Fall In Love For The Night (1964)”

The new version of “Let’s Fall In Love For The Night” is clearly and directly inspired by Frank Sinatra and similar vocal jazz of the era. Finneas says of the track:

“When I was originally producing this song, It took me down two different directions. One inspired by the rhythms I loved in outkast and gorillaz songs which became the original production and the other, which became this. A production inspired by the vinyl I loved and listened to throughout my childhood. I wanted to make a lullaby version and give it to the people.”

He also said of the EP overall, “I would love for this title to remain ambiguous to listeners and for everyone to be able to imbue it with their own meaning and justification. The most common use of the term blood harmony is an English expression for what it sounds like when siblings sing together, that biologic chemistry — I think that speaks for itself.”

Listen to “Let’s Fall In Love For The Night (1964)” and check out the Blood Harmony deluxe art and tracklist below.

1. “I Lost A Friend”
2. “Shelter”
3. “Lost My Mind”
4. “I Don’t Miss You At All”
5. “Partners In Crime”
6. “Let’s Fall In Love For The Night”
7. “Die Alone”
8. “Break My Heart Again”
9. “Let’s Fall In Love For The Night (1964)”

Blood Harmony (Deluxe) is out now via OWOW. Get it here.

Things haven’t gone exactly as planned for Zion Williamson or the Pelicans so far in the bubble. Going into the restart in Orlando, New Orleans was afforded just as good an opportunity as any to make the postseason, with a favorable format that would allow them to make up some ground and potentially land in a play-in game for the last remaining playoff spot in the West.

Instead, the Pelicans have stumbled, and Zion has found his playing time limited, a development he hasn’t exactly been thrilled about so far. He was reportedly “pissed” last week after logging just 15 minutes in a loss to the Jazz, during which he had a solid 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

Now, it appears Zion will be subject to even more rest, as he is slated to sit out New Orleans’ Friday night game against the Washington Wizards, which is the second night of a back-to-back, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Zion initially was forced to leave the bubble to attend to a family emergency, but eventually returned for his team’s opener. The Pelicans have not fared well so far in their quest to secure the final playoff spot, losing three out of their first four games in Orlando. Still, they remain just 2.5 games out of the eighth spot with four contests remaining, and should they get past the Wizards — which they should be able to do without Williamson — things shape up nicely for them to make a run at the 8-seed.