Month: November 2020

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul currently serving a 23-year sentence for sexual misconduct, is reportedly very sick. According to USA Today, he has come down with a fever and, as per his rep, Judith Engelmayer, is “being closely monitored.” Engelmayer would “neither confirm nor deny” that he has contracted the novel coronavirus.

If Weinstein did test positive, it reportedly wouldn’t be his first time. In March, during the early days of the pandemic’s march across America, word spread that he tested positive for COVID-19, which resulted in him being isolated. At the time prisons were hotbeds for the highly contagious virus, with a number of prisoners across the nation contracting it.

Weinstein is highly immunocompromised. Engelmayer pointed out that he has “numerous maladies and conditions,” including “a heart condition, high blood pressure and spinal stenosis.” Back in February, a month before his brush with COVID, he was rushed to the hospital with high blood pressure.

Weinstein is 68, and since his sentence began in February of this year, that would mean he wouldn’t be released until he was 91. He was found guilty one two sex crime felony charges, out of five with which he was charged, and is serving his sentence in Wende Correctional Facility in Erie County, New York. He was accused of misconduct by many, many more than five.

With the 2020 NBA Draft arriving on Wednesday and the league producing a flurry of transactions, there is real buzz for the 2020-21 season. Much of the attention, at least for now, is paid to how teams will be shaping their rosters in the coming days but, on Tuesday evening, the NBA made a formal announcement concerning the schedule and dates for the upcoming campaign.

As part of the release, the league announced that each team will play three games against conference opponents and two games against cross-conference foes, allowing teams to compile 72 games each. From there, the NBA will be releasing the schedule in two distinct parts, with the first half of the season outlined near the start of training camp in early December, with the second arriving during the “latter part of the first half portion of the schedule,” allowing them to reschedule some games that may need to be made up should teams deal with COVID-19 outbreaks.

The NBA also released a matrix outlining the home/away splits for every head-to-head matchup, which could be quite interesting when it comes to heavyweights squaring off within each conference.

From there, the league made official that a four-team play-in tournament will be utilized in both conferences, with No. 7 through No. 10 jockeying for position in advance of the playoffs. That will take place from May 18-21, with the first half of the season scheduled for Dec. 22 through March 4 and the second half set for March 11 through May 16. In between, the league will have a six-day All-Star break from March 5-10 and, at the end, the playoffs are scheduled for May 22 through July 22.

Because the league exercised its discretion on scheduling, it is a safe bet that certain teams will feel aggrieved with their home schedules compared to others. Still, a 72-game season makes things less simple than usual, and it will be interesting to see how the campaign play outs when it (finally) arrives.

Nipsey Hussle’s Marathon Clothing Store in South Central Los Angeles was one of the biggest accomplishments in the late rapper’s career; it established a business in his hometown and grew into a million-dollar endeavor. The store, which he opened up back in 2017, would also be where the Victory Lap rapper was tragically shot and killed in March 2019. Now, according to a report from The Blast, the Marathon Clothing Store has been vandalized and looted.

A video recorded by a bystander reveals severe damage to the store, which was reportedly looted, its windows smashed, and graffiti tagged on the walls. The person who recorded the video makes their anger known, saying, “Whoever did this sh*t — if we ever find out who did this, it’s ugly for you cuz.” They add, “I swear to God. We gon hurt somebody cuz. You n****s some f*cking haters. This sh*t is fucked up. Bitch ass n****s.”

Unfortunately, Nipsey’s store was not the only one damaged in the incident. The surrounding outlets in the plaza were also victims of vandalism. Thankfully, some members of the community have already joined together to begin the cleanup process.

Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Forgiveness is hard for most of us, but it’s harder for some than others. When we’ve been harmed in some way—physically, emotionally, or both—we tend to carry the pain around with us. Anger and resentment are natural responses to being hurt, of course, and the longer or more severe the wounding, the more likely we are to feel those feelings long-term.

What we usually want—or think we want—is for the person who did the hurting to acknowledge our pain. We want them to fully understand what we feel, to know the impact of their words or actions. And we want an apology as proof that the person not only get, but also regrets, what they’ve said or done to us.

Some of us will hold onto our anger and resentment indefinitely, waiting for that all-important apology to come before we even consider the idea of forgiveness. But if we value our own well-being, we may want to rethink that order.

You don’t have to wait for an apology—or even an acknowledgement—in order to forgive. And in fact, we shouldn’t.

To fully understand why that is, we need to understand what forgiveness actually is. And in order to understand what forgiveness is, it’s helpful to clarify what it isn’t. Forgiving someone is not the same as making up with them. Forgiveness is not reconciliation. Forgiveness doesn’t require justice to be done or apologies to be offered.

Forgiveness isn’t an external action, but rather an internal state of letting go of anger and resentment. It’s saying, “I’m no longer going to allow you and the hurt you’ve caused me keep me in a state of unhappiness.” It’s something you do for yourself, not for the person who hurt you.

Think about it. Who is that anger and resentment hurting the most? Who is having their life disrupted by it? Who is having to deal with it day in and day out? You, right? Not the person who hurt you. You.

And there are real physical effects of holding onto those emotions. “There is an enormous physical burden to being hurt and disappointed,” says Karen Swartz, M.D., director of the Mood Disorders Adult Consultation Clinic at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Chronic anger impacts your heart rate, blood pressure, and immune system, which increases your risk of chronic disease. Forgiveness has the opposite effect.

And it doesn’t mean just saying that you forgive the person. Again, forgiveness is an internal act of releasing anger, frustration, disappointment, and resentment. “It is an active process in which you make a conscious decision to let go of negative feelings whether the person deserves it or not,” Swartz says.

That’s why an apology isn’t necessary in order to practice forgiveness. We have to let go of the idea that forgiveness means telling someone what they did is okay or that they are somehow being let off the hook. It doesn’t. It means telling yourself that whatever the person did to you isn’t going to keep you in a state of bitterness. It’s making the choice to stop allowing your own anger to keep hurting you.

Sometimes forgiveness can lead to empathy and compassion for the person who hurt you, but it doesn’t have to. Some kinds of harm are impossible to empathize with, but that doesn’t mean they make forgiveness impossible. There are some incredible stories of people forgiving perpetrators of terrible atrocities, like the genocide in Rwanda, not because those things were forgotten or justified but because holding onto resentment and anger only punishes the victim of harm, not the perpetrator.

So if you’ve been waiting on an apology, try forgiveness first. While it’s easier said than done, letting go can be incredibly freeing, and good for both your mental and physical health.

Nobody expected much out of the Thunder last season. Oklahoma City was able to land a load of assets in the deal that swapped Russell Westbrook for Chris Paul, with Paul’s future with the team uncertain given that his championship aspirations put the on two very different time lines.

But after a stunning run to the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and a thrilling seven-game grudge match against the Rockets in Orlando, it became very clear that Paul was still operating an elite level. As a result, he quickly became one of the hottest commodities on the market this offseason.

Several teams expressed interest, with the Phoenix Suns eventually winning the sweepstakes and setting themselves up for a return to relevance after years of futility. It’s hard to gauge just how close he was to ending up elsewhere, but one hypothetical scenario had Carmelo Anthony reuniting with the Knicks and teaming up with Paul there.

On a recent appearance on SeriousXM NBA Radio, former teammate Matt Barnes claims that Paul told him he was actually considering New York, although he was ultimately turned off by the prospect of playing at an empty Madison Square Garden.

Did the pandemic keep the #Knicks from trading for Chris Paul?

Former teammate @Matt_Barnes22 tells @EvCoRadio, @LegsESPN, & Brad Daugherty what might have kept CP3 from New York and why he’ll do great with the Suns pic.twitter.com/gy9DfwYUB2

— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) November 17, 2020

“He was saying the Knicks were an option but, you know, if he was going to New York he wanted the full Knick experience, meaning he wanted the fans, he wanted the essence, he wanted the ambiance of that Madison Square Garden crowd. And going there now, you know, we don’t know if that crowd will ever be back,” Barnes said.

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s unclear when fans might be able to return to arenas. The Lakers have indicated that they won’t allow fans at Staples to start the season, while the Warriors have submitted an ambitious plan that includes rapid testing and would ostensibly permit 50 percent capacity at Chase Center.

Read another way, Barnes didn’t actually clarify that he was referring to the lack of fans because of the pandemic. Attendance at MSG has been down in recent years as the Knicks have struggled to gain much traction and have been left spinning their wheels in a perpetual rebuild.

The Knicks reportedly had some interest in acquiring Paul but ultimately were reluctant to give up too many of the assets that would’ve been required to swing a deal. So now we can go ahead and add this to the never-ending list of the Knicks’ near-misses in the free agent frenzy.

The Atlanta Hawks are armed with a whole lot of cap space in an offseason where the pool of available free agents isn’t particularly robust. As a result, if they want to spend big, they might need to look into some other avenues, and a report by Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports indicates that they might turn to the trade market to acquire talent.

Haynes brings word that the Hawks have some amount of interest in Gordon Hayward of the Boston Celtics. Word dropped earlier in the day, via Zach Lowe of ESPN, that Hayward and the Celtics extended the deadline for him to decide on his $34.2 million player option. Now, Haynes reports that the Hawks have a few potential avenues to explore a move for Hayward.

The Atlanta Hawks are in play in an attempt to acquire Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.

A sign-and-trade deal is a possible route, but Atlanta is equipped with the most cap space in the league at around $44 million and can simply sign Hayward to a hefty multi-year deal if he decided to decline his option.

Haynes went on to report that Hayward is interested in the Hawks as well, and that the team believes he could be another playmaker alongside Trae Young on the team’s offense. Hayward signed a big money deal to join the Celtics from the Utah Jazz during the 2017 offseason, but has struggled to consistently stay on the floor due to injuries. Last season, Hayward averaged 17.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 33.5 minutes per game for the Celtics.

In 2019, Lizzo shot to stardom thanks to her breakout single “Truth Hurts.” The track helped her gain two of her three Grammy awards, as the song won in both the Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Pop Solo Performance categories. Nowadays, she continues to work on her upcoming project, which will be her first body of work since her breakthrough. Successful though she is, the singer hopped on TikTok to make it clear that fame has plenty of downsides.

“Fame only puts a magnifying glass on the sh*t that you already have,” Lizzo said in the video. “If that sh*t is f*cked up, you’re just going to have even more magnified f*cked up sh*t situations where it doesn’t even seem valid or like you’re even like supposed to feel that way so it f*cks you up even more because you feel super f*cking ungrateful.” She then shifted her attention from herself to her listeners, sharing an important message.

“So, I’m just telling everyone now, anyone who has internal issues or has like any type of self problems that they need to work out, work out now,” Lizzo said. “Because money, fame, or success or even getting older doesn’t really fix that sh*t. Do the inner work, because if you don’t, it’s going to haunt you like a f*cking ghost.”

You can watch Lizzo’s TikTok in the video above.

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

Young Trump superfan Charlie Kirk is not a household name like Jacob Wohl. He rarely goes viral whenever he says something moronic, like Ben Shapiro. But the founder of the far right scholastic whistleblower Turning Point USA is still well-known enough that when he steps on it, people on social media delight in his misfortune. On Tuesday, Kirk did a live-stream video in which he railed against lefties for allegedly not liking Thanksgiving (or something). And not only did he say idiotic things, but he did so while looking like total crap.

His hair unkempt, his face unshaven and unwashed, his sweater hanging too loosely around his too visible neck, his demeanor very “divorced dad after a late night Wild Turkey session,” Kirk railed on liberals for not being more traditionally conservative. “The left has always hated Thanksgiving,” he began, and you don’t need to listen much further. Kirk is apparently mad that many are suggesting refraining from large — or even small — gatherings during the holiday, not because of a wildly out-of-control pandemic that is now worse than it’s ever been, but because they just hate America, or whatever.

Luckily, very few people listened to Kirk’s words. They couldn’t get past how pathetic he looked. Instead of pointlessly debating him on his weak arguments, people chose a more productive path: They mocked how sad and gross he looked, even with full knowledge that a camera was on.

Some compared Kirk to other, much more (in)famous young conservatives.

And some did — god bless them — take umbrage with the content of his speech.

As of this writing, Thanksgiving is just over a week away, and cases are skyrocketing all over — thanks in part to an outgoing president who not only has done little to stop it, but also held lots of rallies all over parts of the nation that are now seeing record cases and deaths. It’s not worth engaging people like Kirk, who hatch conspiracy theories rather than deal with facts that may make them and those they worship look bad. But it is worth reading up on safety protocols so you don’t recklessly endanger those you love, to make sure there’s actually another Thanksgiving next year.

Perhaps you’ve noticed, but 2020 has been a year. It’s been such a year that the only good thing that’s happened to humanity — Joe Biden winning the presidential election — is tainted by the fact that outgoing commander-in-chief Donald J. Trump refuses to concede, wasting everyone’s time with frivolous lawsuits over non-existent voter fraud. As a sign that everything has gone wrong, even the one of America’s most iconic Christmas tree kind of looks like butt this year.

On Tuesday, Rockefeller Center began installing their annual Norway spruce, which, for most years since 1931, has stood around 78 feet tall, looming over the famous Prometheus statue (and itself being dwarfed by the towering 30 Rock building). It’s a destination tradition for tourists and locals alike. Only problem: As the tree was being unloaded, it looked sad. To be exact, it looked 2020 sad — the kind of rank disappointment many of us have gotten depressingly used to during one of the most inventively awful and tragic years on record.

With its sparse and weak-looking branches, the Rock tree reminded a lot of people over social media about the same seasonal cultural artifact: the sad tree Charlie Brown nabs in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Of course, in the classic special, the tree’s crappiness reminds everyone to be grateful for what they got, and to remember to look out for those in need of some TLC. In real life, in the year 2020, a lamentable spruce only underscores that we’re trapped in hell — until, possibly, January 20.

In any case, a lot of people agreed that we’re all Charlie Brown now.

Although maybe it’ll look better once it has some lights! And a billion decorations to obscure its paltry branches! Then again, 2020 is not exactly a year for optimism. Good grief, indeed.

The Houston Rockets have reportedly been looking to find a new home for Russell Westbrook ever since he expressed his desire for a move. The issue is that Westbrook makes a ton of money, and even before you get to the fact that he’s getting older, finding a new home for him is tough financially.

Teams like the Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks have been mentioned as potential destinations, but on Tuesday evening, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Washington Wizards could enter the fray. Charania brought word of conversations between Houston and Washington about a potential deal that could see Westbrook flipped for another point guard on a gigantic contract, John Wall.

Mentioning that the Rockets want more makes sense — trading Westbrook and, potentially, James Harden would signal that the team is on its way to a big rebuild, and getting Wall back does not help in that regard, even beyond the fact that he’s a massively unknown commodity right now due to the fact he hasn’t played since 2018 as he’s battled injuries. Washington could, theoretically, throw in young players like Troy Brown and Rui Hachimura if they really want this to happen, and if they would be willing to move on from their current pick, the team is slated to select ninth in Wednesday’s NBA Draft.