Month: August 2020

Game 5 of the Thunder-Rockets series was all Houston, as the Rockets ran away with a 114-80 win to take a 3-2 series lead on OKC after having dropped back-to-back games.

While it was a blowout that was never really close in the second half, it wasn’t without a moment of controversy. P.J. Tucker and Dennis Schröder were both tossed from the game in the third quarter after an incident that saw Schröder run into a Tucker screen and hit him with a low blow that infuriated Tucker and led the forward to headbutt Schröder from behind in frustration. Schröder was assessed a Flagrant 2 and tossed, while Tucker earned his second technical and likewise was sent to the showers early.

On Sunday, Schröder addressed the incident, calling it “unfortunate” and insisting it wasn’t intentional, while admitting he understood why it looked bad.

The way Schröder reacted in shock to Tucker’s response indicates he is either an exceptionally good actor or that he is telling the truth, because he was stunned when Tucker approached him from behind in anger. At the same time, the Thunder don’t get much of anything in the way of benefit of the doubt for such antics, given the Rockets were already mad about the lack of investigation by the league into a Chris Paul low blow from Game 3. As such, Schröder was tossed and a testy series between two very familiar rivals only gets more tense going into a potentially decisive Game 6.

MLS commissioner Don Gerber revealed Sunday that mounting criticism of Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen’s statements about his players protesting the police shooting of a Black man will see him sell his control of the team. Real Salt Lake was one of several MLS teams to refuse play last week after the Milwaukee Bucks sparked direct action among major sports in North America when they protested play following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Washington.

According to The Athletic, Hansen then appeared on a radio program and criticized his players and their decision to protest, drawing immediate fire from fans across MLS and the players themselves.

Speaking to Salt Lake City radio station X96, one of several Utah radio stations that Hansen owns, the real estate magnate described the players’ decision not to play as feeling “like somebody stabbed you and you’re trying to figure out a way to pull the knife out and move forward. … The disrespect is profound to me personally.”

“We’re all sitting here at an organization trying to build support and love around a team that supports the city. All I can say is they supported other issues nationally,” said Hansen. “They clearly did not support our city or organization. That’s fairly clear.”

Outrage quickly followed the comments, which were deleted from the station’s YouTube page but quickly spread among soccer fans. The team’s account on social media continued to show support to players and issued statements of diversity and inclusion despite its owners comments.

Real Salt Lake issued a statement about the MLS investigation, and Hansen took a leave of absence from the team as more reports of his past racist statements and behavior were reported out.

On Sunday, Gerber told reporters that Hansen would sell Real Salt Lake, with the MLS issuing a statement shortly thereafter.

Hansen was one of the rare owners who spoke publicly to criticize players as they took direct action last week. Most other teams, at least publicly, have shown support for players who have taken action in an unprecedented way across pro sports. It seems clear that Hansen’s dissent cost him control of his team, but judging how swift players were to criticize him in the wake of his own comments, perhaps it’s best for everyone that he move on to other ventures.

Actress Bella Thorne issued an apology with a Twitter thread on Saturday after her OnlyFans success sparked controversy, subscriber backlash and some changes to the website’s policies that many in the sex industry have criticized as harmful to sex workers.

The move to join the site earlier this month was the latest instance of a celebrity joining the site used by sex workers to monetize their photos and videos. In Thorne’s case, she claimed joining was in part research for a project with Sean Barker.

As controversy grew over her wild success on the site — generating more than $1 million in 24 hours — Barker disavowed the project altogether, saying they had little more than a meeting around the concept before Thorne joined the site to much fanfare. As many prominent voices in the sex worker community laid out their issues with Thorne joining the platform and making such a big splash — to the tune of allegations of asking $200 for a photo — Thorne pointed out on Twitter that she wouldn’t appear nude on the site.

Though the severity of those price points hasn’t been verified, the payday has: Thorne has reportedly pulled in more than $2 million on OnlyFans and further sparked outrage as the days go by. On Saturday night, Thorne issued a series of tweets explaining why she joined OnlyFans, directly speaking to sex workers and admitting that “I hurt you.”

Thorne said she was “truly sorry” and acknowledged her attempt to normalize sex work online further marginalized those who rely on the site full-time.

The apology comes amid reports of changes limiting content creators as well as that OnlyFans saw a rise in requests for refunds from some in the huge number of people who subscribed to Thorne’s page not realizing she would not appear nude. According to EJ Dickson’s report for Rolling Stone, sex workers noticed the changes to the platform, which placed limits on the amount of money people can earn for certain activities.

According to multiple content creators who spoke to Rolling Stone, OnlyFans quietly issued a $50 cap on pay-per-view messages (essentially, exclusive content sent to paying subscribers), and a $100 cap on tips, without warning or announcing any policy changes. “There was no notification,” says Savannah Solo, a sex worker and content creator who was one of the many to tweet about their outrage over the change. “We are now just suddenly unable to [receive a] tip over $100 and price a PPV over $50.” OnlyFans also reportedly extended the timeline for payouts from seven days to 30 days, though it later clarified this change would only affect creators in specific countries.

OnlyFans admitted it is changing its policies but didn’t directly tie it to Thorne’s massive influx of subscribers and the backlash to her presence on the platform.

Thorne added on Saturday that she was in talks with OnlyFans about these changes and hopes to advocate for the concerns of those on the platform, offering to amplify their presence in the future rather than promote her own.

It doesn’t appear a movie will come of Thorne’s turn on OnlyFans, and the consequences of her huge splash may only really hamper those who use the platform full-time.

The box office is not roaring back to life this weekend so much as it has gone from a limp to a hobble in the midst of a pandemic. Theaters continue to reopen around the country, but they are far from back to full steam. Less than 50 percent of AMC theaters are open around the country, while only 55 percent of Regal theaters are back in business, and even in the theaters where the doors have been unlocked, capacity is only around 30 percent. Moreover, theaters have not reopened in the two biggest markets, Los Angeles and New York City.

With all that said, it appears that Disney’s New Mutants will earn around $7 million this weekend. It’s hard to put that into perspective because we don’t have much to which to compare (because we’ve never before dealt with a pandemic at the box office). Moreover, New Mutants, which comes from director Josh Boone (Fault in Our Stars), has been delayed several times, and Disney all but dumped it after inheriting it in the acquisition of 20th Century Fox (thereby reverting the characters back to Marvel). Because streaming rights had already been licensed away, and because they were contractually required to give it a theatrical release, Disney couldn’t even release it on Disney+ or Hulu, so the studio basically dumped it in the middle of a pandemic and hoped for the best.

Honestly, I’m not sure that New Mutants would have made that much more in normal times against heavier competition. Reviews have not been great (29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), and audiences who braved a pandemic haven’t been particularly impressed, either (it has a 52 percent RT audience score). Maybe $7 million is as good as one might expect from a $67 million film with poor reviews that was delayed over two years and given a half-hearted release by a studio that didn’t produce it. It’s hard to say how much the film will ultimately make in the end. Will it be cast out of theaters to make way for Tenet, or with nothing else out, will it continue to hang on to screens and scrape together several more million dollars?

It’s almost impossible to predict.

That goes for the rest of the box office, too. Russell Crowe’s Unhinged, for instance, continues to do OK during a pandemic with $2.6 million for a total of $8.8million, although it appears that most of its grosses are coming from drive-in theaters. That makes perfect sense for a film about road rage.

Bill & Ted Face the Music, meanwhile, strolls in with $1 million, and while that doesn’t sound particularly impressive — even in a pandemic — it was also released on PVOD, and we honestly have no idea how much it has earned in that format. It’s the top film on iTunes, and it is doing very well with both critics (81 percent on RT) and audiences (82 percent on RT), so hopefully the long-awaited sequel will translate into a tidy profit for Orion Pictures.

One pic we know for sure did poorly is Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield . The Fox Searchlight period comedy only earned $170,000 in 1,360 cinemas. The film has gotten spectacular reviews (93 percent on RT), but the audience for this is probably one of the least likely of the demographics to attend theaters in person. I’m not sure why Fox Searchlight did not release it simultaneously on PVOD, but hopefully, that will follow soon behind, because there’s a lot of folks who would love to see the Dev Patel film but are not keen to do so in a theater.

Next weekend we’ll get a much better idea about whether it’s financially worth it to keep theaters open through the fall, as Christopher Nolan’s Tenet finally opens in the United States. It’s doing very well overseas, so far, as it’s done approximately $40 million in business this weekend in the countries in which it has opened. Given the state of the world, that’s a pretty solid number. We’ll see if it can duplicate it stateside.

Source: Deadline, Exhibitor Relations

The entertainment world is still reeling from the death of Chadwick Boseman. Many spent Saturday night watching Black Panther or some of the actor’s other works after his death and struggle with cancer was revealed to the world on Friday night. But those that didn’t take the opportunity to watch Boseman’s historic turn as T’Challa will get the chance to watch it on network television on Sunday night.

On Sunday morning ABC announced a celebration of Boseman’s life during its Sunday night broadcast, airing the film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe commercial-free and then show a retrospective tribute about Boseman after the movie’s completion. The special is meant to remember the “life and strength” of Boseman with one of his most famous roles and an

Black Panther will air from 8 p.m. to 10:20 p.m. EST on ABC, the first time the movie has played on the network. The program will then change to “Chadwick Boseman – A Tribute for a King,” a 40-minute retrospective on the actor’s life that was executive produced by Steven Baker. According to ABC, the program will celebrate Boseman’s life and his impact on the Black community and feature tributes from celebrities, political figures and fans around the world. The release previewing the event also hints at revealing more about his private battle with cancer and the difficulties he had in working through his diagnosis.

Ardbeg is no stranger to awards. The Islay peaty whisky is a classic bottle that has come to define the smoky whisky side of Scotland’s single malts. So, when the New York International Spirits Competition — an awards group judged by industry traders — dropped their medals this week, it was no surprise to see Ardbeg Uigeadail in the Double Gold category.

Ardbeg is basically synonymous with smoky scotch these days. The distillery is perched right on the craggy beach on the southern shores of Islay island off the southwestern coast of Scotland. The distillery draws its peated malt and water locally. In fact, Ardbeg Uigeadail (pronounced “Oog-A-Dal”) is named after the inky lake where the distillery pulls its water to distill with. The name is Scottish Gaelic, meaning “dark and mysterious.” And that is a good way to describe this wonderfully smoky expression.

Luckily, we were able to taste Ardbeg Uigeadail recently for an Expression Session on UPROXX Life’s IGTV. The dram ended up being our favorite from the five Ardbeg’s we tasted that day. So, let’s dive back into what makes this one so special.

Ardbeg Uigeadail

ABV: 54.2%
Distillery: Ardbeg Distillery, Ardbeg, Islay, UK
Average Price: $80

The Whisky:

The mix of peated malts, yeast, and that inky lake water create a spirit that’s already full of flavors. That hot juice is then aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. When the whisky in the barrels are just right, they’re blending into this single malt expression and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Smoky plums in a Christmas cake mingle with a very distinct sense of dried flowers and a sugary banana. The star of this show is the balance between the sweet fruits and smoky malts as the spices fade in to accentuate, not overpower. The sip slows down when you add a few drops of water and really lets the smoke, spice, and fruit work together. The end is soft with a sense of urgency, driving you towards your next sip.

Bottom Line:

This is a classic sipping dram that really shines with a single rock, or at least that’s how I polished this bottle off.

Check out our full tasting below!

The Lakers put the finishing touches on a series win over the Blazers on Saturday night, rattling off their fourth straight win over Portland after dropping the opener of the series to advance to the second round.

After the game, the Inside the NBA crew continued to poke fun at Charles Barkley’s proclamation that the Blazers would sweep L.A. from the beginning of the series. Last week, after the Lakers picked up a win, Shaq snapped a broom in half over his knee, leading to accusations from his colleagues of breaking a “tampered with” broom. The result on Saturday night was Shaq breaking multiple brooms to prove it’s just a thing he can do — including one over his head — and even goading Barkley into breaking a broom.

By the end of the night, Shaq had enough of broom breaking and wanted a bigger challenge, so they found a 2×4 somewhere in the studio and set it up for him to karate kick (well, really stomp) in half.

I hope this continues as an every night thing, where Shaq just takes on increasingly greater challenges to break stuff, but it also begs the question of why are there so many brooms in the TNT studio. They broke three brooms on Saturday, after breaking one last week as well. Some poor custodian is going to come into work in the morning and be absolutely furious.

The Lakers, like their top-seeded counterparts in Milwaukee, rattled off their fourth straight win on Saturday to close out their first round series with the Blazers in 4-1 fashion, beating a very scrappy but undermanned Portland team 131-122 in Game 5.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis were spectacular, with Davis posting 43 points and nine rebounds, while James racked up a 36-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double. The rest of the Lakers struggled to regain the form they’d found in games 2-4 in this series, and the outcome of this one was in doubt until the final minutes when James and Davis pulled the Lakers well in front.

For Portland, it puts an end to a strange season, as they stumbled early, caught fire to play their way into the playoffs in the Bubble, and then saw their hopes against the Lakers go down with the knee injury to Damian Lillard in Game 4 after L.A. had asserted itself. Now, the Blazers enter the offseason while L.A. looks ahead to a showdown with the Rockets, should they be able to put away the Thunder in Game 6 (or 7) of that series on Monday.

Here are our takeaways from a first round series that looked initially to be competitive, but ultimately saw the Lakers run away with it.

Anthony Davis and LeBron James are peaking at the right time

We’ll get to the things about this Lakers team that concern you moving forward in the postseason, but we’ll start with the positives in that their two superstars are playing at an unbelievable level right now. Combining for 79 points, the two stars put on quite the spectacle in Game 5, inside and out, as they lit up a Blazers defense that, quite simply, had no answers for L.A. all series.

If they do face the Rockets, they’ll face a defense with weaknesses they can take at times take advantage of inside, but that will throw a variety of looks and wing defenders at them in what is almost a polar opposite team to the Blazers, who have few wings and a lot of traditional bigs in the rotation. That adjustment could be fascinating — OKC also has a bevy of wing defenders should they run off two straight wins — but the level of play from L.A.’s top stars will make them very, very difficult to beat.

L.A.’s role players have to find some consistency on offense

On the concerning side for the Lakers is seeing another game in the Bubble in which Davis and James weren’t given a ton of support in the form of a clear third option. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit some timely threes as he had 14 points, but Dwight Howard was the only other Laker in double figures with 11. While no one would confuse the Rockets with a great defensive team, they do put a lot of stress and pressure on the ball-handler, which is the most glaring weakness of this Lakers offense beyond LeBron. In games where the Lakers others have hit shots, they’ve looked the part of a dominant team, but in those where they’ve struggled shooting from distance, it can get dicey.

That’s not exactly unique to the Lakers — it’s especially true of the Rockets as well — but it is an interesting dynamic to this year’s playoffs that even the top teams feel more vulnerable to cold shooting nights that we’ve seen in recent years. Against Houston’s ultra-switching, havoc defense, L.A. is going to need their role players to knock down shots when they send help at LeBron and Davis. The Rockets have shown a willingness to abandon a cold shooter in the Thunder series, as they no longer even defend Luguentz Dort, and the same fate could come to Alex Caruso should his struggles from the outside continue.

Portland needs to make some tweaks

The injury to Lillard put a damper on the end to this series, but really it felt over before he hurt his knee in what had become a blowout in Game 4. Portland played unbelievable basketball to get into the playoffs, but the toll of that effort was apparent by the second game of the Lakers series and the level they had to play at offensively, given their defensive struggles, seems unsustainable for real success in the regular season. It’s possible that Trevor Ariza’s presence would’ve made a huge difference for their success defending on the wing, but they simply can’t be needing to play Mario Hezonja real minutes if they want to compete. They have to upgrade the wing rotation in some way this offseason beyond Ariza to be a team that can win even on the nights in which the offense isn’t scalding hot, as it was during the seeding round. Every game was a grind and required everything Lillard, McCollum, Nurkic, and Anthony had. They went down swinging, which was great to see, but if they want to regain the form that made them a conference finalists two seasons ago, they have to find a way to bolster that rotation.

With that said, C.J. McCollum and Carmelo Anthony were spectacular in Game 5, combining for 63 points in Lillard’s absence and it was great to see Anthony continue to prove he has plenty left to give to a good team. They certainly need to bolster their rotation on the wing, but a fully healthy Blazers team can absolutely contend for a mid-seed in the West again and they’ve proven that if they get hot at the right time they can be an absolute nightmare to face.

Game 5 of the Thunder-Rockets series was not the most competitive affair in the third quarter, as the Rockets had opened up a 67-50 lead in the pivotal matchup with the series tied 2-2. However, things picked up between the two rivals when Dennis Schröder and P.J. Tucker got involved in an altercation after colliding on a screen.

Schröder hit Tucker with a low blow that would make his teammate Chris Paul (or even Ric Flair) blush, and Tucker, who had been frustrated with foul trouble all night and already had a technical foul, picked up his second when he headbutted Schröder from behind while the latter was arguing with an official. Schröder would be assessed a Flagrant 2 and tossed, while Tucker’s accumulation of technicals got him an ejection, too.

It wasn’t a lengthy altercation and Schröder seemed surprised by Tucker’s reaction, but after seeing the video from a different angle it was pretty clear that, at best, it was a very bad accident but more likely seemed like an intentional low blow. Still, a headbutt is always an automatic technical and Tucker’s night ended as well.

On the whole, it seemed to be a double ejection that would benefit the Rockets, with Tucker having a tough night and Schröder leading the team in scoring with 19 points on the night.

The NBA playoffs resumed on Saturday following a stoppage forced by players as a response to yet another shooting of a Black man by police, this time in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Bucks started the movement in the NBA by refusing to play, with George Hill among the leading voices in the players taking direct action by withholding their labor even while in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble.

Hill had been very vocal about his part in the direct action that took over the NBA and spread to other major sports organizations, with teammates confirming he was the first to say he wasn’t playing on Wednesday. And as the games came back into focus in the NBA there was some question about what the Bucks would do during the national anthem. When that time came, though, Hill was nowhere to be found.

While both teams knelt during the anthem, Hill was not on the floor. Milwaukee won, moving them on to the next round and a showdown against another Florida team in the Miami Heat. But Hill was asked in postgame about his absence and had a very blunt answer: he had to go.

“You want the honest truth?” Hill asked Yahoo Sports reporter Seerat Sohi, who said yes. “I take a sh*t every time before the game. I’ve been doing it for the last four years.”

Hill was extremely thorough in this answer, and even blamed reporters for “snooping” into his habits and catching him taking a very different kind of direct action.

“If you go back and look at any footage before our previous games before we came here into this bubble, that’s what I do before every game. And it just so happened that you guys were snooping in the hallways and caught me coming back from my pregame ritual,” Hill said. “That’s what I always do. It’s the honest truth.”

It’s a pretty clear answer about what some speculated was a form of protest. Instead, Hill was honest in saying he simply had to go.