Earlier this month at a residence in Itaperuna, a city north of Rio de Janeiro, Henrique, the three-year-old child of a worker on the property, snuck away form his parents’ supervision and wandered over to the pool.
Security camera footage shows the young boy and fellow three-year-old, Arthur de Oliveira, sitting next to the pool when Henrique reaches for an inflatable pool and falls in to the water.
A frantic Arthur looks around for help, but there is no one to be found.
For ten seconds, Henqriue struggles to keep his head above water, until Arthur bravely extends his hand and pulls the boy up. If Arthur didn’t have the strength, he could have fallen in the pool and both boys could have died.
Luckily, Arthur’s strength held up and he pulled the boy to safety.
“This video serves as an alert for those who have a pool at home and children,” wrote Arthur’s mom, Poliana Console de Oliveira on her Facebook page.
“Thank God the ending is happy, because God sent the land under my care, my son, my little Arthur, a true hero! Real life hero, my pride.”
“Arthur saved his friend’s life,” she added.
Arthur hopes to be a police officer one day, so after the local police department learned of his bravery, it sent him a new basketball and a whole lot of candy.
Tenet is finally heading to theaters early next month, but the question of which theaters and where is still very much up for interpretation as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to complicate things in the entertainment industry. Christopher Nolan’s secretive sci-fi thriller has obfuscated and confused since its (sorry) inception, and the filmmaker believes that the movie is meant to be seen in theaters. As such, it’s been delayed a number of times as theaters have remained closed.
Many states have allowed theaters to reopen, though at limited capacity, and so Tenet‘s September 3 in the United States will come after it’s been screened in less disease-riddled nations across the globe. But the matter or whether it will be viewed in theaters in certain parts of the country is still unclear as mid-August becomes late. And that includes whether the few remaining drive-in theaters — which have seen a revival of sorts amid the pandemic — will be allowed to show the film next month.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. has offered “strict guidelines” to drive-in movie operators, including an interesting caveat: drive-ins in areas where theaters are currently closed aren’t allowed to screen the movie at all:
But two weeks ahead of its domestic debut, scheduled for Sept. 3, Warner Bros. offered some clarity to exhibitors about its plans for Nolan’s latest. The studio issued strict guidelines to drive-in operators across the country, mandating that “Tenet” can only play in outdoor venues if indoor theaters in that particular market are open.
Since traditional brick-and-mortar theaters have reopened in Chicago, for example, drive-in locations in the Windy City will be permitted to play the film. But in New York City and Los Angeles, where hardtop cinemas are still closed, drive-in exhibitors won’t have access to “Tenet.”
It’s an odd situation, but guidelines for opening theaters are about the health and safety of its patrons first and foremost. This could, conceivably, keep the movie from a wide audience of people who either are unable by law to see a movie in an enclosed theater or feel it’s safe to do so. Still, it’s entirely possible things change in the scant few weeks before the movie officially hits theaters in the United States:
However, given the rapidly changing nature of the pandemic, sources familiar with the situation stress these plans could be flexible. It’s possible the studio’s posture on drive-in theaters could soften in the coming weeks and that the film could screen on outdoor venues, even where indoor theaters are closed.
Regardless, the thickening red tape around actually seeing Tenet in theaters is beginning to resemble the confusion others have expressed about the actual plot of the film itself. The latter, however, is a problem likely to remain long after people actually see the movie in its unprecedented theatrical run in the coming weeks.
The legal rights to music have been a hot button topic this past year due to Taylor Swift’s headline-making quarrel with Big Machine Records and Megan Thee Stallion’s label refusing to release her music. While some artists take issue with labels and companies owning the rights to their music, others actually seek out the opportunity. Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA has done just that, selling half of his music to the company Hipgnosis Songs.
According to Variety, Hipgnosis Songs acquired 50 percent of the musician’s catalog in the deal, about 407 tracks in total. The new partnership with RZA isn’t the first collection of music Hipgnosis Songs has bought the rights to. Before securing the deal, the firm also scooped up the rights to music from Jack Antonoff, Timbaland, and No I.D.
In a statement, RZA said he is excited about the new partnership: “I wear various hats in my artistic expressions but the one that has been so deeply reflective of my life’s journey is my songwriting. I’m honored to partner up with Merck and the Hipgnosis team to usher my songs into an exciting future.”
Hipgnosis Songs founder Merck Mercuriadis echoed RZA’s anticipation and praised the musician as a trailblazer in hip-hop: “RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan did not invent hip-hop but they took it from being fun to something that represented a true reflection of what the streets and being Black in America was really like. They were and are the most authentic band and brand in hip-hop and it all starts with RZA’s vision, his songs and his struggle, manifested in music, that could show the entire world what was really going on. He is now globally recognized as a true renaissance man of hip-hop and most would argue that he is the G.O.A.T.”
In other RZA news, the rapper teamed up with Good Humor to pen a new ice cream truck jingle because the old one had a racist history. The current jingle is the song “Turkey In The Straw,” which originally didn’t have problematic connotations until blackface-wearing minstrel show performers adopted the tune and set it to racist lyrics in the late early 20th century. But with his new jingle, RZA aims to “make a new ice cream jingle for a new era,” saying he wants “to make a melody that includes all communities that’s good for every driver, every kid.”
Despite the fact that we miss being able to travel the world during what is arguably the best season for travel, we don’t envy anyone who has to jump on a plane in the near future. Right now both domestic and international travel are an absolute headache. If you’re from the United States, it’s just a lot easier to not travel than attempt to navigate all of the different rules and safety measures for the countries that are still accepting American travelers, of which there aren’t too many.
In 2019, the U.S. passport granted access to 116 countries without a visa. Today there are only 39. The U.S. State Department is under a global Level 4 Health Advisory — which strongly discourages international travel of any kind. Aside from that, most countries just straight up don’t want us around, considering the U.S. is the current epicenter of the coronavirus worldwide. Sure, lots of countries get significant economic support from our tourist dollars, but they’re not about to put their population’s health at risk in the name of making some money off of Americans.
Even the countries that are currently accepting American travelers aren’t doing so blindly. Many of them have very specific rules and precautionary measures that you’ll want to be aware of if you do happen to be traveling, for whatever reason (remember that a panel of epidemiologists we assembled strongly discouraged this). For information, edification, and context, we’ve created a list of all the countries that are still accepting your passport and all the information you’ll need before boarding an international flight (for whatever reason) to visit them.
Albania’s borders are now opened to international travel, including from the United States. U.S citizens returning to the United States are only allowed to transit into a Schengen country on their journey home, and additional health screening procedures are in place at airports and all points of entry for both arriving and departing travelers.
You do not need a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country.
Antigua and Barbuda’s border is now open to international travel though all passengers arriving by air must have a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result that has been taken within seven days of their flight.
If arriving by sea, all travelers will be subject to quarantine and are subject to assessment by the Port Health Authorities for signs and symptoms.
Upon arrival, passengers will have to take a COVID-19 test at the cost of $100.
Armenia’s borders reopened to American travelers on August 12th. Visitors will be subject to a 14-day quarantine but will be allowed to leave as soon as a negative test result is returned to them. Travelers may request a PCR test at their hotel, where they will self isolate while waiting for the results.
Prospective travelers from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming must first take a PCR Test and upload their results prior to departure.
All passengers must be tested 72 hours prior to their departure time and the results must be submitted 12-hours before the departure time for processing.
Visitors from other states are encouraged to take the COVID-19 PCR test but must do so at their own expense.
All visitors are encouraged to bring masks and must wear them on the flight and while in the Queen Beatrix International Airport.
The Bahamas are finally open to American travelers, sort of. All Americans entering the Bahamas must have a negative COVID-19 PCR test result taken no more than ten days prior to the date of travel and will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.
Commercial flights to Barbados from the United States resumed via JetBlue on July 25th, Virgin Atlantic on August 1st, and American Airlines on October 5th. As of July, beaches and parks in the country are no longer under limited hours and social gatherings of up to 500 people are permitted.
All travelers will need a negative COVID-19 test result for entry and will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.
Travelers entering Belarus from the US are no longer required to self-quarantine upon arrival, though temperature screenings will be issued once arriving at the Minsk National Airport. Social distancing measures in the country are on a city-specific basis, with Minsk containing the majority of restrictions.
Belize opened to international travel beginning on August 15th but travelers will be subject to additional safety precautions. Travelers must register on the Belize health app, receive a negative COVID-19 PCR test result within 72 hours of travel, maintain social distance in the country, and wear face masks at the airport, where they will encounter additional screening processes.
Once in the country, visitors must regularly record their symptoms on the Belize Health app until the day of their departure.
All travelers must complete the Bermuda travel authorization process online within 48 hours of their departure. A $75 fee will cover the cost of COVID-19 testing in Bermuda, but travelers are encouraged to take a PCR Covid-19 test up to 72 hours before their departure.
Face masks are required in all public spaces on the island, and travelers must report their temperatures twice per day.
Brazil is now open to American travelers with virtually no travel restrictions. The country advises that all travelers have valid insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment, which is kind of a scary way of suggesting that if you travel to Brazil, you’re probably going to get COVID-19.
Travelers hoping to fly to Cambodia will have to make a deposit of $3,000 at the Phnom Penh International Airport to cover any virus prevention services. Visitors will also be required to take a COVID-19 test and will have the funds returned to them, minus the $160 it costs to take the test. On the bright side, meals will be provided while you wait for your results. Meals that you pay for.
Beginning on September 1st, travelers from New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut may enter the country with a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken at least 48 hours before their arrival.
Dominica opened its borders to American travelers on August 7th. All arriving passengers will need to bring a negative COVID-19 PCR test result taken no later than 72 hours before boarding, fill out an online questionnaire, and will be subjected to additional rapid testing upon arrival.
All passengers flying into the Dominican Republic will have their temperatures checked as they disembark. Anyone registering a temperature above 100.6 degrees or any symptoms related to COVID-19 will be given a rapid COVID-19 test and necessary protocols for isolation and treatment will be administered.
Travelers will also have to fill out and submit a Traveler’s Health Affidavit. Social distancing measures are in place at most hotels, bars, restaurants, and transportation services in the Dominican Republic.
Travelers arriving in Ecuador must have a negative PCR COVID-19 test result issued within ten days of their arrival. As of August 16th, the country has ended its mandatory quarantine.
Officially, all travelers landing in Egypt will be subject to a 14-day quarantine in all cases, though Travel Off Path has some anecdotal evidence that this restriction is no longer in place.
Travelers must submit proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of their departure date. Arriving passengers must self-test for days after their arrival to Tahiti.
Grenada is now open to American travelers but requires quite a bit of hoop-jumping if you want to enter. American travelers must have two negative COVID-19 PCR tests, agree to contact tracing, and sign a lengthy health declaration.
Honduras is now opened to American travelers, though all arriving travelers must bring proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken at most 72 hours prior to arrival.
The Republic of Ireland strongly advises against non-essential travel into Ireland, and all arriving visitors must self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
Travelers from the United States must obtain a negative COVID-19 PCR test result at least 10 days prior to their departure date for Jamaica. All travelers must also fill out an application to obtain official travel authorization from Jamaica.
The Pristina International Airport is open to all travelers, though the U.S. Embassy to Kosovo reports that U.S. citizens continue to be denied boarding if they cannot prove they are a resident or citizen of Kosovo. The embassy suggests you contact your airline before your trip.
Lebanon’s borders are open to international travel but visitors must show a negative test result for COVID-19 taken within four days of their arrival. Passengers staying for over seven days must submit another test, which will be given at the airport. Passengers must self-quarantine while waiting for results.
As of July 15th, the Maldives is opened to tourists of all nationalities with no incoming travel restrictions, though some restrictive measures are in place at hotels, resorts, and public spaces.
Mexico’s border with the United States is still closed but travelers may fly into the country with little restrictions. Travelers may be subject to temperature checks, health screenings, and are advised to self-quarantine on a state by state basis.
Montenegro’s borders are now open to American tourists but all arriving travelers must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken 72 hours prior to their departure.
International travel is now open to the island of St. Barts but all visitors must provide a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours of arrival. Visitors staying in excess of seven days must take an additional test on their eighth day.
Saint Lucia is currently in its phase one of reopening, which requires the use of face masks on all island transportation and public areas. All arriving passengers must have a negative COVID-19 PCR test result taken within 7 days of their departure date.
Prior to travel, passengers must receive a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before their departure and will be subjected to additional health screenings upon arrival. Travelers must also complete a self-health declaration online.
All travelers arriving in St. Vincent and the Grenadines must take a COVID-19 PCR test if they don’t arrive with a negative COVID-19 antigen test or negative PCR test result. Travelers who arrive without the negative test results will be required to quarantine and monitor their temperature for 14 days, reporting any changes to local health authorities.
Those who arrive with positive test results will be isolated at a facility at the cost of the traveler.
Serbia has no COVID-19 related restrictions for travelers, though U.S. travelers are advised to enroll in the country’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive alerts and updates related to COVID-19.
Tanzania has no additional requirements for international travelers, though travelers may be subjected to additional health screenings once landing in the country.
Turkey currently has no travel restrictions for international travelers, though passengers will be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival. Travelers who test positive will be referred to a private hospital by the Ministry of Health Border Unit if they aren’t Turkish citizens.
Passengers must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test result within five days of travel. All travelers must have medical/travel insurance that covers medevac, complete a health screening, and agree to a privacy policy prior to arrival.
U.S. travelers are only allowed to enter Ukraine if they can prove they have medical insurance that can cover all possible expenses related to COVID-19 treatment. Ukraine also advises travelers to be prepared to self-quarantine at their own expense, though a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken 48 hours upon arrival will exempt travelers from the self-quarantine and insurance requirement.
Travelers flying into the United Arab Emirates must be tested for coronavirus upon their arrival and will be subjected to a 14-day quarantine at their own expense, regardless of the test result.
Travelers flying to the United Kingdom won’t have to provide a negative COVID-19 test but must self-quarantine for 14-days, though the country seems pretty lax about this requirement.
The last NBA game I attended in a non-media capacity took place on April 5, 2016. The Philadelphia 76ers picked up their 10th and final win of the season, a 107-93 win over the lowly New Orleans Pelicans. Carl Landry, and I swear I am not making this up, got MVP chants because he was the team’s best player that night — I beg you, please look at this box score, which includes a host of players you have not thought about in a minute.
The following day, Sam Hinkie resigned from his job as the team’s general manager. It had been a long time coming, as the team had hired basketball executive Jerry Colangelo as its chairman of basketball operations, reportedly thanks in part to an extremely persuasive nudge from the league itself. He wrote a long, strange letter that is funny to read in retrospect, one that included this passage:
The NBA can be a league of desperation, those that are in it and those that can avoid it. So many find themselves caught in the zugzwang, the point in the game where all possible moves make you worse off. Your positioning is now the opposite of that.
Plenty of people dislike Hinkie for justifiable reasons, and The Process rubbed a whole lot of people the wrong way for justifiable (and, in plenty of ways, correct) reasons, but having a plan — even a flawed one — that places an emphasis on never being in a position of desperation is sound. At the time that Hinkie left, Philadelphia had Joel Embiid, would go on to draft Ben Simmons a few months later, and boasted enough future draft capital and cap space that they were well-positioned to add at least one superstar to that 1-2 punch at some point — following Simmons’ rookie campaign, ESPN did future power rankings and put the franchise in sixth, with particularly high marks in “Money” and “Draft.”
Even if that optimism was 110 percent warranted at the time, it’s strange to look back on in retrospect. Because after Sunday afternoon, when the Sixers lost to the Boston Celtics and saw a season that had such high hopes end with a sweep in the first round of the playoffs to a division rival that is well-positioned to compete for championships going forward, Philly feels like a team that needs to do something desperate, only the sort of flexibility that existed in the past is gone.
The exact moment it happened is up for debate, but The Process in Philly is very much dead — perhaps it happened the moment Hinkie resigned or at some other point in the last few years. Whatever the case, now the Sixers face an offseason in which there are more questions than answers and no concrete plan in place guiding them to what’s next.
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There are three ways to acquire talent: drafting players, signing free agents, and making trades. For years, the Sixers have failed to one extent or another at all of these, showing off startling roster mismanagement around their homegrown stars of Embiid and Simmons.
No team is going to hit on every single decision it makes. Plenty will miss more than they hit. And of course, the entire idea behind stockpiling so much young talent and so many picks for any team is that they are chips that can be cashed in when a disgruntled superstar asked for a change in scenery. In theory, it takes just one good swing to hit a home run, so giving yourselves as many cuts as possible is simply good math. The Sixers were more blatant with The Process than most other teams are when they decide to go through a rebuild, but some combination of those three paths get traversed by teams that win.
What makes Philadelphia’s run of late so infuriating for fans isn’t that they swung and missed, but that they had some hits and gave them away in the misses.
If the Sixers didn’t trade Bridges and then did literally nothing but retain their guys after draft night 2018:
Embiid Simmons JJ Covington Bridges Shamet Shake Dario Furk Holmes TLC Fultz ~$18m unused cap for this yr All their own picks, including the one(s) that became Tisse
Hindsight is 20/20 but it is pretty wild to think about how the Sixers went from that group to the one that just got swept out of the playoffs unceremoniously. Bryan Colangelo, the sport’s all-time greatest poster, was someone who, as my pal Yaron Weitzman laid out in his book Tanking to the Top, felt he needed to make his imprint felt on the team while simultaneously trying to get past the reputation that formed after he drafted Andrea Bargnani in Toronto. So he burned draft capital to move up two spots and select Markelle Fultz at No. 1 overall, whose … whatever happened with him meant that he went from the theoretical perfect fit next to Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to someone who was traded for Jonathon Simmons, a 2019 second-round pick that ended up getting flipped to Boston on draft night, and the 21st pick in the 2020 Draft.
They turned Mikal Bridges into Zhaire Smith and a pick, then turned that pick and other pieces (including Landry Shamet, who would have given them a seemingly snug replacement for sharpshooter J.J. Redick, who left in free agency last summer) into Tobias Harris. They turned two good contributors in Dario Saric and Robert Covington into Jimmy Butler, who was very good in his brief time in Philly but would leave after half of a season for a variety of reasons, depending on who you ask. With the exception of trading Bridges, which was done by Brett Brown in his role as interim GM, those trades were executed by a first-time general manager in Elton Brand.
That group came four bounces away from forcing overtime in Game 7 against the eventual champion Toronto Raptors and entered the offseason with some serious decisions facing them with Butler and Harris entering free agency. They chose to give Harris (a good player, albeit not a superstar) a near-max deal, executed a sign-and-trade to send Butler to the Heat for Josh Richardson (a good shooting guard whose biggest weakness is perimeter shooting), and gave a lot of money to Horford instead, who in addition to bolstering their concept of playing Bully Ball, weakened the Celtics (or so they thought) and was a nine-figure insurance policy for when Embiid would miss a few regular season games.
Even factoring in questions about fit and shooting, the most pessimistic prediction about the Sixers before this season tipped off would have guessed that this team would at least be a tough out in the Eastern Conference playoffs. In retrospect, there was much further down they could go. Philadelphia built a roster with an eye on a seven-game playoff series against the Bucks that would require battling against Giannis Antetokounmpo. Perhaps they thought losing Al Horford and Kyrie Irving would cause the Celtics’ chances to crater, even if only for a season. Perhaps they thought losing Kawhi Leonard would do the same to Toronto. And perhaps they assumed that teams like the Heat and Pacers just wouldn’t have the firepower — at least not yet — to realistically compete.
All of those teams finished with better records than Philly. The gambit made by the Sixers front office was that their size could overwhelm everyone else, particularly when games slow down in the playoffs. They did this by sacrificing ball-handling, shot-making, and playmaking, and despite the fact that they were a gigantic basketball team, this did not translate into the kind of indomitable defense (eighth in defensive rating) or unstoppable interior offense (16th in two-point field goal percentage, 22nd in free throw rate) that has to happen for this approach to work.
Their roster imbalance reared its ugly head consistently throughout the year, as, generally, the team’s best defensive lineups couldn’t score, while it’s best offensive lineups couldn’t get stops. Lineups that featured the four players that made the most money — Embiid, Horford, Simmons, Tobias Harris — were not good enough. When Simmons was out during the postseason, things got even worse. Playing Embiid and Horford together went so poorly that Horford’s own sister correctly pointed out that it just doesn’t work, which is not really the fault of these two, but rather, those who made the decision to pair a 7-foot center and a 34-year-old big man together at the same time, particularly when a 6’11 point guard who is a non-shooter is crucial to making everything work.
Their grand experiment of the Jumbo Sixers went horribly. Now Brown has been fired, some sort of big front office shakeup would be justifiable, and the Sixers will enter next season with a jaw-dropping bill to foot. They’re paying $119 million to four players on a team that just got swept in the first round of the playoffs, and even if one of those players didn’t suit up in the series, there should be three others who could have picked up the slack. Some fans would probably be pretty happy if the ownership group, which wasn’t particularly popular even before its recent self-inflicted wound in which it announced a salary reduction for employees amid a global pandemic that got overturned when fans expressed their fury and Embiid offered to foot the bill, sold the team. Things could, certainly, be going better.
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Mapping out Philadelphia’s future is hard. It’s ironic, in a way, that a team that once had so much possibility — money to spend, picks to make, two young pillars to build around — seems stuck, to an extent. Embiid and Simmons being in town means the floor will never get too low, and the job for now is to figure out what needs to happen to raise the ceiling. Even then, Philly went 31-4 at home this year. There is a dominant team within them. The goal, then, is to make sure that dominant team shows up on a nightly basis.
With Brown officially out, a new coaching hire that is more in the mold of the Lakers hiring Frank Vogel than the Raptors hiring Nick Nurse makes sense. Philly isn’t a team that needs a young, innovative head coach as much as it needs someone who can step in there and be the adult in the room, particularly after Josh Richardson lamented after the Celtics sweep that “I don’t think there was much accountability this season, and I think that was part of our problem.” That could mean former Cavs coach Tyronn Lue or ex-Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, or convincing Stan Van Gundy to come back to coaching, or keeping an eye on the soon-to-be out of contract Mike D’Antoni. Whatever the case, look for them to go the route of experience, particularly working with superstars.
The front office could use something, although as Shams Charania of The Athletic noted, it seems unlikely that that’s coming. Still, around the time Brand was promoted from the front office of the team’s G League affiliate, three individuals from the previous front office received promotions, with two of them still in town (the third, Marc Eversley, is now the GM of the Bulls). At the very least, bringing in a new voice and a different perspective on things would be wise, although as the Hinkie/Colangelo experiment showed, the balance needs to be struck between that and undermining a person’s authority.
All of this has to get sorted out before getting to the roster, something Philly hasn’t always been great with. Consider the 2018 offseason, when among other things, the team was rumored to be one of three franchises that piqued LeBron James’ interest. At the time, Brown served as interim general manager. Considering they had 3.5 weeks to hire someone after Colangelo resigned in early-June, it makes sense that they couldn’t get someone in right away, although it’s strange that it took them until mid-September to eventually give someone the job.
Regardless, the Sixers need to sit down and figure out their roster, with Weitzman reporting that the expectation are that major changes are coming. Embiid and Simmons should be untouchable. Even if their fit next to one another isn’t perfect, they are two uniquely talented All-Stars who can become top-10 players in the league. Unless you are able to acquire another top-10 player, breaking up that duo would be short-sighted. And even then, Embiid is 26 and Simmons is 24. The window to win with them is longer than it would be for most other teams if everything else around them works.
The issue, of course, is the “everything else.” Horford is a good player, and it might be reasonable to think he can look like himself in a different situation, one where he is surrounded by four players who can shoot and constantly move. Figuring out a trade for him is tricky — let me be the 10,000th person to suggest Sacramento, which wanted to give him big money last offseason and can make something work with disgruntled guard Buddy Hield‘s upcoming extension kicking in — but as long as the team isn’t giving him up for pennies on the dollar and can figure out a way to use Horford (along with whatever additional players/picks they would need to give up) as a way to get players that complement their two standouts, moving him wouldn’t be the worst idea.
Things might be a little trickier with Harris. He is a good (albeit inconsistent) player, but he is owed a shocking amount of money going forward. As of now, the only people in the NBA who have more guaranteed money coming their way are Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson. Is there a team that would be willing to take on this money? Is there a way for the Sixers to do a trade without giving up everything they have and/or taking back gobs of bad contracts? Or is the most likely outcome that Philly is in a position where it has to hold onto Harris and turn him into a more expensive version of Harrison Barnes on the 2015 Warriors as a fourth option on offense who lets catch-and-shoot threes fly while occasionally giving them something off the bounce?
On top of all of that, we’re entering an offseason in which no one, not even the NBA, knows what the full financial ramifications of the pandemic will be on their business and what that means for potentially plummeting salary cap figures. That may make it even more difficult to find bidders for blockbuster type deals, as cap uncertainty might push front offices towards keeping big, longterm deals off of the books until things are sorted out.
Should they get some traction in trade talks, there are players who can help sweeten the pot in deals — Thybulle looks like a potential defensive stud, Milton has shown flashes of being a dynamic combo guard who can hit threes, and they do have a few picks they can move. Richardson is on an expiring deal and was inconsistent this year, but we have enough evidence to say he’s a solid player, and while it might be wise for Philly to keep him, it’s not hard to see why someone would want to bring him on board. And if the team can figure out how to make stuff happen while retaining all of them, even better.
In the past, it hasn’t always seemed like Philadelphia’s plan has been to build the best team around Embiid and Simmons. Signing Horford was, in part, a move to give them insurance for when Embiid got hurt. Trading for Butler was, in part, a move to get someone to initiate the team’s offense when Simmons could not. Getting Harris was, in part, a move to get someone who could take the ball and hit a shot off the bounce. This offseason, priority No. 1 absolutely needs to be to view every single thing that happens in relation to those two. If the plan is anything other than to build a team — hell, an organization — around them, then this offseason is a failure before it even begins.
“I just feel like, a couple years ago, when we made the playoffs for the first time, we had a bunch of great players that were drafted here or either formed in Philly and we had a bunch of guys especially that were in a great situation,” Embiid said after Sunday’s loss. “And then we, as you know, we decided to trade a lot of it with the picks and stuff for Jimmy, Tobias, and we got a bunch of great players in return. Like I said, it just didn’t happen. We could never find a rhythm this year. It is disappointing. There’s a lot of regrets. I felt like the focus was not always there. And we got to do better; we just got to look at ourselves in the mirror and just do better.”
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A weird little quirk about The Process was the level of hope that it instilled in a not insignificant pocket of Sixers fans. Calling it polarizing was an understatement — a whole lot of people, both in Philly and beyond, weren’t fans of how brazen the entire experiment was. It’s perpetually fascinating to me, an idiot who knows a disproportionate amount of Sixers fans compared to every other NBA fanbase solely based on where I went to college, about the extent that being loud impacted views on the whole experiment, especially compared to teams that aren’t actively trying to miss out on the playoffs year after year but do.
But boy, were those people who believed (and, to be fair, still believe) in The Process loud, in large part because they were fine with not being stuck in the NBA’s version of purgatory — somewhere between the 5 and the 10 seed every year, losing in the first (or, if they got lucky, second) round; lather, rinse, repeat — if it meant there was something on the other side. This is where hope came into play. Rejecting The Process, to those fans, meant rejecting hope. And for some time, that inherent hope looked like it was paying off in a big way. The 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons were the first two times since the mid-80s that Philadelphia won 50+ games in back-to-back seasons.
In terms of how this season went, the Sixers are back in purgatory, stuck in the morass and surrounded by other teams that can win, but not compete. The good news, relatively speaking, is that a path out of this does not involve embarking on a years-long project that leads to things like Carl Landry getting MVP chants in the team’s 10th and final win of the season and the objectively pretty crappy approach of alienating agents by viewing every player as nothing more than things that exist as assets and numbers in a spreadsheet. There will not be another capital P “Process” this time, but there must be a plan put in place with Embiid and Simmons’ input that is more in-line with how you win basketball games in the NBA right now.
Hinkie’s plan was always to have the longest view in the room. That, more than anything, is why The Process, as it has been defined, is dead — Philadelphia is not in a position to look 5-10 years down the road, because Embiid and Simmons are entering their primes. Still, not making hyper-reactionary moves driven by fear of what happens if next season is a repeat of this one is going to be a challenge. It’s one that they need to face head-on, and funny enough, it was something that was addressed in the strangest resignation letter in NBA history.
“It’s clear now that I won’t see the harvest of the seeds we planted,” Hinkie wrote. “That’s OK. Life’s like that. Many of my NBA friends cautioned me against the kind of seed sowing that felt appropriate given the circumstances for exactly this reason. But this particular situation made it all the more necessary, though. Part of the reason to reject fear and plow on was exactly because fear had been the dominant motivator of the actions of too many for too long.”
While The Process is over, the potential for a new era in Philadelphia is on the horizon. Embiid and Simmons will always serve as a link to the past just as much as they are the bridge to the future. That future is incumbent on soul-searching occurring across all levels of the organization, accepting that this season was a catastrophic failure and getting to work. Whether or not this happens is a completely different story, but having the right people put together a sound plan together is huge. If it’s a good one, trusting that process is, ironically enough, the best path forward.
If you ever wondered to yourself what the Powerpuff Girls would be up in These Trying Times, the CW and Diablo Cody are apparently ready to answer that question for you. Variety reported on Monday that CW is looking to add to its live-action superhero arsenal with a bit of Cartoon Network nostalgia, working on a Powerpuff Girls show that continues where the beloved Craig McCracken show essentially left off.
According to Variety, the show would focus on the now-adult Girls as they come to grips with a violent and uneven childhood that results from a professor pouring sugar, spice, and everything nice into a volatile mix of probably illegal chemicals.
In the updated version of the series, the titular superheroes are now disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?
If this sounds a bit like The Umbrella Academy, well, that’s very astute of you. But it is at least a more realistic way to do a live-action Powerpuff Girls show than, say, having child actors play Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles and try to fight crime as elementary school-age heroes.
The original Cartoon Network show ran for six seasons from 1998 to 2005, though it was rebooted on Cartoon Network again in 2016. That run has lasted three seasons, while The Powerpuff Girls Movie was also released in 2002. According to Variety, the in-development show is led by writers and executive producers Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body, Young Adult) and Heather Regnier, whose writing credits include the Veronica Mars revival, SMILF, and iZombie.
It’s unclear if the rest of the show’s cast like Mojo Jojo, HIM, or the RowdyRuff Boys will appear, but we hope they’re all doing well and have gracefully aged into early adulthood, too.
Hulu must’ve clued into the fact that we’re all depressed, isolated potato sacks right now because the streaming platform is giving us plenty to laugh at this month.
Lamorne Morris’ Woke arrives early to give us a fresh and timely twist on the Black Lives Matter moment that we’re living in before PEN15 debuts its second season filled with more pre-pubescent cringe-comedy that we can’t help but relate to. Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Hulu this September.
Woke (Hulu series streaming 9/9)
New Girl’s Lamorne Morris stars in this imaginative comedy series about a Black cartoonist on the rise who suddenly has his eyes opened to the injustice and inequality surrounding him. Morris plays Keef, a talented artist keeping things light with his work — which is set to go mainstream — until a violent run-in with the police leaves him questioning his reality. It’s timely for sure, taking an inventive approach to the Black Lives Matter moment, but there’s still plenty of humor to keep it all grounded.
Pen15: Season 2 (Hulu series streaming 9/18)
The second season of Hulu’s breakout comedy lands on the streaming platform this month as Maya (Maya Erskine) and Anna (Anna Konkle) navigate the end of summer and the start of a new school year. The girls flit between awkward pool parties, school plays, weird break-ups, and bloody sleepovers while trying to maintain their close friendship and rise in the popularity ranks. It’s the best kind of cringe-worthy comedy.
Here’s the full list of titles coming to Hulu in September:
Avail. 9/1 Mike Tyson Mysteries: Complete Season 4 Jeopardy!: Episode Refresh 50 First Dates (2004) Absolute Power (1997) Aeon Flux (2005) American Dragons (1998) An American Haunting (2006) Any Given Sunday (1999) Anywhere but Here (1999) Back to School (1986) Bad Girls from Mars (1991) The Bank Job (2008) Because I Said So (2007) The Birdcage (1997) Broken Lizard’s Club Dread (2004) Call Me (1988) Carrington (1995) The Cold Light Of Day (2012) Cool Blue (1990) Criminal Law (1989) The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) De-Lovely (2004) Demolition Man (1993) Desperate Hours (1990) Deuces Wild (2002) Employee of the Month (2006) The End of Violence (1997) Evil Dead II (1987) Extreme Justice (1993) The Festival (2019) Hanoi Hilton (1987) Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle (2004) Hoosiers (1986) The House on Carroll Street (1988) I Feel Pretty (2018) The Impossible (2012) Invasion U.S.A. (1985) Jessabelle (2014) Julia (1977) The Last Boy Scout (1991) The Last House on the Left (1972) The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) Love Is All There Is (1996) Mad Money (2008) Man of La Mancha (1972) The Mechanic (1972) Mississippi Burning (1988) Mr. North (1988) Music Within (2007) Not Another Teen Movie (2001) Notorious (2009) The Omen (2006) Outbreak (1995) Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) Pieces of April (2003) Practical Magic (1998) Rambo (2008) Reasonable Doubt (2014) Religulous (2008) Slow Burn (2007) Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) Stargate (1994) The Terminator (1984) Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her (2001) This World, Then the Fireworks (1997) Top Gun (1986) Trolls World Tour (2020) Turkey Bowl (2019) Twilight (2008) The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls (2007) The Weight of Water (2002) Wanted (2008) The Woods (2006)
Avail. 9/2 Hell on the Border (2019)
Avail. 9/3 Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016)
Avail. 9/6 Awoken (2019)
Avail. 9/7 Madagascar: A Little Wild: Complete Season 1A (Hulu Original)
Avail. 9/8 American Ninja Warrior: Season 12 Premiere Brother vs. Brother: Season 7 Premiere
Avail. 9/9 Woke: Complete Season 1 (Hulu Original)
Avail. 9/10 Prisoners (2013)
Avail. 9/11 My Hero Academia: Episodes 64 – 76
Avail. 9/16 Archer: Season 11 Premiere
Avail. 17 The Good Shepherd (2006)
Avail. 9/18 Pen15: Complete Season 2 Sherman’s Showcase: Black History Month Special Babyteeth (2019) The Fight (2020) Gemini Man (2019) StarDog and TurboCat (2020)
Avail. 9/20 The Haunted (2020)
Avail. 9/21 The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards: Special
Avail. 9/22 Filthy Rich: Series Premiere The Addams Family (2019)
Avail. 9/23 Cosmos: Possible Worlds: Special If Loving You Is Wrong: Complete Season 5
Avail. 9/24 Teen Titans Go! Vs Teen Titans (2019)
Avail. 9/25 Judy (2019)
Avail. 9/26 The Wilderness of Error: Series Premiere
Avail. 9/28 Bless the Harts: Season 2 Premiere Bob’s Burgers: Season 11 Premiere Family Guy: Season 19 Premiere Fargo: Season 4 Premiere The Simpsons: Season 32 Premiere
Avail. 9/29 Inherit the Viper (2020) Trauma Center (2019)
Avail. 9/30 Southbound (2015)
Here’s what’s leaving Hulu in September:
Leaving 9/30 2001 Maniacs (2005) 50 First Dates (2004) A Bridge Too Far (1977) A Mighty Wind (2003) A Perfect Murder (1998) Best In Show (2000) Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) Brick Mansions (2014) Brokedown Palace (1998) Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (1992) Buried (2010) Cats & Dogs (2001) City Slickers (1991) City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold (1994) Cold War (2012) Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Employee of the Month (2006) Escape from Alcatraz (1979) For Your Consideration (2006) Friday the 13th – Part III (1982) Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984) From Paris with Love (2010) Futureworld (1976) Hoosiers (1986) House of 1000 Corpses (2003) Iron Eagle IV: On the Attack (1999) Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002) Larry Crowne (2011) Mississippi Burning (1988) My Cousin Vinny (1992) Nate and Hayes (1983) Norma Rae (1979) Pathology (2008) Poseidon (2006) Post Grad (2007) Practical Magic (1998) Rabbit Hole (2011) Rambo (2008) Right at Your Door (2007) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) Sands of Iwo Jima (1950) Some Kind of Hero (1982) Speed 2: Cruise Control (1996) Spider-Man 3 (2007) Stargate (1994) Strategic Air Command (1955) Sugar Hill (1994) Sunset Strip (1999) The Birdcage (1997) The Client (1994) The Color Purple (1985) The Devil’s Rejects (2005) The Eye (2008) The Eye 2 (2005) The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete (2014) The Mask (1994) The Ninth Gate (2000) The Sender (1982) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006) Three Musketeers (2011) Top Gun (1986) Undertow (2004) Unlocked (2017) Waiting for Guffman (1997) Wanted (2008) West Side Story (1961)
The Philadelphia 76ers will begin searching for a new head coach after firing Brett Brown after seven seasons as head coach. The news came via Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and was confirmed by Kyle Neubeck of Philly Voice.
The Philadelphia 76ers fired coach Brett Brown, sources tell ESPN.
Brown guided Philly through the extremely lean Process years before making the leap to a perennial playoff team (overall a 221-344 record), but one that never capitalized fully on the promise of its young stars.
The final straw was a rather humiliating playoff sweep in the Orlando Bubble at the hands of the rival Boston Celtics, in which Philadelphia’s roster outside of Joel Embiid underperformed and the team struggled to find consistency on either end of the floor — even moreso than was to be expected without Ben Simmons. The question in Philly is whether this is just the beginning of organizational changes for the Sixers, because their issues are far from just the fault of the coach.
While Brown’s questionable lineups and rotations played a role — and there are grumblings of his influence in personnel decisions like moving on from Jimmy Butler — there is plenty of blame to go around in Philadelphia’s front office for constructing a roster that lacks balance. If those problems aren’t addressed this offseason as well, whoever comes in to coach the Sixers next will have their hands full trying to figure out the right combinations to try and unlock the potential of the Simmons-Embiid combo, without having the desired personnel to do so.
Even with a roster that has clear flaws in its construction and a pair of highly paid players in Al Horford and Tobias Harris who didn’t come close to living up to their contracts this season, the presence of Embiid and Simmons figures to make the Sixers coaching job a highly coveted one. The question is what kind of coach Philadelphia will be looking for, with my money on them seeking out a coach with an offensive track record in hopes of unlocking something more on that end — in expectation of them still being a quality defensive team given their pieces.
MTV’s Video Music Awards kicks off this Sunday and the awards show is known for memorable moments in pop culture. How could anyone forget the time Lady Gaga showed up on the red carpet sporting a dress made of raw flank steak? Or when Kanye West infamously took the microphone away from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech? Though the show will have limited live attendance due to the pandemic, MTV hopes to make this year’s event just as memorable with a line-up of big-name performers. The VMAs just unveiled the musicians who are playing sets during the pre-show, and fans aren’t too happy about some of the picks.
VMAs shared their pre-show lineup Monday, which boasts performances by Chloe x Halle, recent XXL Freshman Jack Harlow, Lewis Capaldi, Tate McRae, and Machine Gun Kelly featuring Travis Barker and Blackbear. As soon as the full bill was announced, fans instantly took to social media to express their disappointment that Chloe x Halle weren’t booked for a main show set.
One fan said MTV was showing the duo “disrespect” for their pre-show placement, while others were simply upset.
Chloe x Halle have been ripping up that tennis court all of this pandemic outperforming artists YEARS their senior and the VMAs put them on the pre-show. Leave me alone I’m irritated.
While the sister duo didn’t make the main show cut, Chloe x Halle are still nominated for a couple awards on the night. Their track “Do It” from their recently-released record Ungodly Hour is nominated for Best R&B and their MTV Prom-A-Thon performance of the track is nominated for Best Quarantine Performance, a new category for the awards show.
Ungodly Hour is out now via Parkwood Entertainment. Get it here.
The MTV VMAs pre-show premieres 8/30 at 6:30 pm EDT. Watch it here.
“I mean, it’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, ten dollars?”
That line, spoken by Lucille Bluth during season one of Arrested Development, has become a catch-all reference for any time a rich person has no idea how much a basic item costs. Like on Monday, when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was asked by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) about the price to mail a postcard. “I don’t know, he said.” Now, I’m not a fancy, big-city blogger, but it doesn’t seem great that the guy in charge of the United States Postal Service doesn’t know how much it costs to mail something. imo.
DeJoy, who was selected by President Trump as postmaster general in May (it probably has nothing to do with that “since 2016, Mr. DeJoy has donated $1.2 million to President Trump’s campaign coffers and nearly $1.3 million to the Republican Party”), was testifying before the House Oversight Committee when he failed to answer that postcards cost 35 cents. He added that he knows “very little about postage stamps.”
Porter then quizzed DeJoy on the weight limit for priority mail, which he correctly said was 70 lbs. He was unable to tell Porter the starting rate for priority mail. DeJoy also said he was unable to say how many people voted by mail in the last election.
“I’m glad you know the price of a stamp, but I’m concerned about your understanding of this agency,” Porter said. “I’m concerned about it because you started taking very decisive action when you became postmaster general.”
DeJoy was also grilled on the Postal Service’s “cost-cutting moves” ahead of a presidential election that requires unprecedented mail-in voting due to the pandemic, but it’s that “I don’t know” that’s going to stick with him. It’s his “it’s one banana, Michael” moment, or in this case, you can’t mail a postcard without spending… ten dollars?
BREAKING: Rep. Katie Porter just got Postmaster General DeJoy to admit he doesn’t know the cost of priority mail or mailing a postcard. This is who Trump has in charge of the Postal Service. DeJoy needs to resign immediately.
Katie Porter just asked DeJoy the most basic questions about the post office and he flunked most of them. Has no idea how much it costs to mail a postcard, how many people vote by mail, literally knows nothing about his job. Wish someone would ask Trump questions like this.
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, weakened the Celtics (or so they thought) and was a nine-figure insurance policy for when Embiid would miss a few regular season games.
(@legallypierre) 
(@ungodlynormani) 