Month: February 2021

James Harden left Houston this season after eight leading the Rockets franchise, and while it ended in a way few hoped with a disgruntled Harden pushing his way to Brooklyn, he still has a tremendous amount of love for the city and its people.

This past week, Houston was among the Texas cities hit the hardest by the worst winter storm in recent memory in Texas, as millions were left without electricity for days on end. Water services halted in some areas and boil advisories were widespread across the state, and as electricity has returned, there is a massive problem of pipes bursting and damage being done to homes all over. Harden, who has a restaurant set to open in Houston, had 3,000 meals prepared and given out by his restaurant over the weekend, but is working to do more.

After the Nets win over the Clippers on Sunday night, Harden was asked about his relief efforts and detailed the calls he’s been on with the Houston mayor, plumbing companies, BodyArmor to provide water shipments to the city, and more.

As Harden notes, he feels a responsibility to give back to the people of Houston who showed him so much “love and respect” even as he’s moved on to Brooklyn, and it’s great to see him stepping up in this way. There are millions that have been impacted and, as he noted, what makes recovering from this storm different from even the disastrous Hurricane Harvey is that it’s not known who all has been impacted and the issues are so widespread. Kudos to Harden for putting in this effort and trying to help the people of Houston recover from a horrific week.

The Minnesota Timberwolves made a coaching change on Sunday night after losing to the Knicks, 103-99, firing Ryan Saunders after two-plus seasons with the organization. That decision didn’t come as a major surprise, given the Wolves struggles since he took over, but what came as a shock was that they already had a deal lined up with Toronto Raptors assistant Chris Finch, who goes way back with Wolves president Gersson Rosas, to be their new head coach.

It’s a rarity for a team to make an in-season hire from outside the organization, and even rare to hire a coach who is employed by another team. Typically, teams opt for an in-house promotion to interim head coach and give them at least a chance to show what they can do with the team. On this Wolves staff, the widely anticipated selection for that role would have been David Vanterpool, a longtime Blazers assistant from 2012-2019 who joined Ryan Saunders’ staff as associate head coach in 2019.

Vanterpool has been long spoken about as a potential candidate for head coach openings but has yet to be provided that opportunity, and given the Wolves had him in-house already, it made a ton of sense to provide him a chance. That the NBA has been criticized for a lack of Black head coaches hired — particularly first-time head coaches given chances — in a predominantly Black league only further raises questions about Vanterpool being passed over for Finch.

Among those asking the questions was Damian Lillard, who played most of his career under Vanterpool’s tutelage in Portland and took to Twitter after word broke of the Wolves going with Finch to point out why he feels they made a mistake.

Lillard’s teammates CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic co-signed Dame’s belief that Vanterpool should’ve been given a chance.

Others from around the league had similar questions.

It is, at best, poor optics by the Wolves, both in passing over a highly regarded and well qualified Black assistant on staff and in firing their coach and already having a replacement lined up from the outside in the season, and at worst is illustrative of the continued issues of hiring inequalities in the NBA. Lillard and others from Portland pointed those out starkly, while also making clear just how liked Vanterpool has been in the locker rooms he’s coached.

The Minnesota Timberwolves currently have the worst record in the NBA at 7-24, a combination of youth, injuries, and the extended absence of superstar Karl-Anthony Towns with both injury and a serious battle with COVID-19. Still, for a team that entered the season at least hopeful to be a part of the play-in picture in the Western Conference, it has been a disappointing start to the season.

On Sunday, the Wolves were unable to complete a comeback against the New York Knicks, dropping their fourth straight game and, after the 103-99 loss, the team apparently decided that would be the end of Ryan Saunders’ coaching tenure.

Saunders, the son of legendary former Wolves coach Flip Saunders, went 43-94 in his three seasons with the Timberwolves (none of which were complete seasons for various reasons), as he took over when Tom Thibodeau was fired in January of 2019. The 34-year-old Saunders was the NBA’s youngest coach and while he had a strong connection with his star in Karl-Anthony Towns, the Wolves were never able to put it all together under his guidance.

This was apparently not a decision the Timberwolves made suddenly, as word emerged shortly after reports of Saunders’ firing that they would be hiring Raptors assistant Chris Finch, not as an interim head coach, but as their full-time coach on a long-term deal.

It’s extremely rare for a coach to be fired midseason and for a hire to be lined up already from a different team, as that indicates the wheels have been in motion on this for some time. Finch is the second Nick Nurse assistant to be hired for a head coaching job, joining Nate Bjorkgren of the Pacers, as the Raptors bench has quickly become one of the most coveted in the NBA.

It’s been seven-and-a-half years since we lost actress Marcia Wallace, best known as the voice of Edna Krabappel, the cynical, chain-smoking elementary school teacher on The Simpsons. The show bid farewell to the character two years later, during its 25th season, but on Sunday night — during its 32nd season — they brought her back. Or at least her voice.

In the latest episode, entitled “Dairy Queen,” Bart happens upon Mrs. Krabappel’s old diary, found amongst a yard sale put on by Ned Flanders. (As you may recall, she later became Flanders’ second wife, leaving him widowed twice, though her character’s death was never explicitly mentioned on the show.)

Therein Bart finds some unexpectedly encouraging from the ever-flustered teacher, which are read aloud, from old recordings made by Wallace before her passing. It’s a bittersweet callback to one of the show’s great supporting characters, whose love life was too few hills and lots of valleys.

Wallace, who was a cancer survivor and activist, died from pneumonia and sepsis. She won an Emmy for voicing Mrs. Krabappel back in 1992, though she had already been a well-loved talent thanks to her role as the receptionist on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s.

You can watch a clip from the episode, featuring Wallace’s voice, in the video above.

(Via Deadline)

Donald Trump has been out of office for just over a month, but though he’s no longer around to generate headlines, he should be pleased to know his minions have picked up the slack. Of these, the most prolific news magnet has been, and by a country mile, Ted Cruz. The Texas senator has always been a fixture of fun on social media, but in the last few days he’s amped that up severalfold. And for good reason: While his state was engulfed in a freak winter storm, which left millions without power, he was caught gallivanting off to Cancún for a swanky family vacation.

The fallout was quick and painful — so severe that he was forced to return almost as soon as he landed. Even when he returned, tail between legs, he wasn’t off the hook: People camped outside his home, mocked his attempts at sincerity, even discovered that he has a poodle that’s actually named “Snowflake.” Now even his attempts to right the wrong by delivering water to fellow Texans isn’t going well.

On Sunday, on day four of the debacle, Cruz posted a series of pictures of him doing the thing that folks like Beto O’Rourke have been doing since day one: helping people out on the ground. The photos show him handing out cases of water, as clean H2O is something many in the state don’t currently have. But though Cruz was seeking a pat on the back, not everyone felt like congratulating him for (finally) doing the right thing.

Some pointed out that it was someone else who helped raise the money to pay for that water Cruz for which he’s taking credit.

Others called out what they saw as his fake compassion.

Or called BS.

Many said it was just a photo opp.

Others pointed this out: Someone who’s just flown out of the country really should be quarantining, not getting close to strangers.

And there were other jokes.

Meanwhile, back at the Cruz home, protesters up and brought out a mariachi band.

Meanwhile, this isn’t the only scandal plaguing Cruz. He’s also still under fire for helping foment the failed MAGA coup of January 6 — another violent event for which he has yet to apologize or atone.

Some people were busy during the pandemic. One of them was Zack Snyder. Not only was he cobbling together his epic “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, he had a whole other, entirely original film to edit: Army of the Dead, an already franchise-expanding number in which a group of mercenaries won’t let a zombie outbreak stop them from pulling of a heist. Looks like we’ll be seeing the fruits of those considerable labors sooner rather than later.

As per Variety, Army of the Dead is set to drop on Netflix on May 21 — just over two months after the world has plowed through all four or so hours of that long-threatened “Snyder Cut.” It’s a project that’s been around about as long as Justice League, which was first floated in 2007. One year after that Snyder floated the idea for a direct sequel to Dawn of the Dead, his 2004 remake of the George A. Romero classic. That never got off the ground, and not just because that one had a pretty perfect ending.

Enter, eventually, Netflix, who picked it up, with no one from the Dawn cast. The ensemble cast includes Dave Bautista, Garret Dillahunt, Raúl Castillo, Omari Hardwick, Tig Notaro, and many more potential zombie chow. Snyder filmed it back in 2019, and surely he’s had plenty of time to piece together both it and a superhero epic.

Army of the Dead lands on May 21 while Justice League hits HBO Max on March 18.

(Via Variety)

Cam Newton had a tough 2020 season with the New England Patriots, but at his peak was a truly one of a kind athlete at the quarterback position. His combination of size, speed, arm strength, and accuracy made him one of the most dominant college football players ever in his 2010 season at Auburn, and when he was at his best with the Carolina Panthers, he earned NFL MVP honors and led the Panthers to a Super Bowl.

For some of a certain age, Newton’s peak maybe came too early for them to recognize the greatness he once possessed. On Sunday, a video went viral of a kid at a football camp where Newton was coaching his 7-on-7 team heckling Cam, who responded about as well as one could, simply saying “I’m rich” and asking for the kid’s father.

It became the topic of conversation across social media, and as such Newton posted a longer video of him trying to talk with the young man later on, asking him what he had done that day and how good of a player he was. In the caption, Newton, using his own unique alphabet, explained his side of what happened, saying he didn’t want to get into it with a kid because “that does me no good,” which is correct.

It’s a weird situation and the kid gets very defensive as Newton tries to talk to him in the video Cam posted to his Instagram page before his coach comes over and tries to end everything.

Deion Sanders’ tenure as Jackson State University’s head football coach got off to a strong start on Sunday when his Tigers picked up a 53-0 win over Edward Waters College in their first game of the FCS spring football season.

However, after the game, Sanders had “mixed emotions” because during the game he once again was the target of a robbery. Sanders sat down for his postgame press conference, saying he was “pissed off” and went on to explain that everything from credit cards to watches was taken from his office and saying that when he talks about raising the standards at Jackson State he wants to see that go for everyone at the university.

It is the second time that Sanders has had something stolen in his less than a year in Jackson, as earlier in the year he had his truck broken into and a boombox with sentimental value was stolen, among other things, that he put out a call for folks to find it and return it to him. It’s an unfortunate situation and certainly put a damper on the day for Sanders, who called getting the game ball from his players a high point in his career as a professional athlete, which given his Hall of Fame career is certainly saying something. Hopefully Sanders can get his belongings back or at least replaced, and moving forward there won’t be anymore incidents.

UPDATE: All of Sanders’ belongings were found in his office and it appears they had just been misplaced and not stolen.

Tyler The Creator’s has been quiet since he took home a Grammy award for Best Rap Album last year. It’s not clear when he’ll release new music, though the rapper did land a pretty sweet gig with Coca-Cola recently. The beverage company shared an ad on Sunday that featured music by Tyler himself, in which a number of people are shown cracking open a bottle of Coca-Cola to drink. The first sip from the bottle causes them to dance uncontrollably and flaunt their moves in various locations, including a corner store and a soccer game.

Tyler took to Twitter to share the news. “Drums are f*cking hard the low end is shaking,” he wrote. He added, “Thats me playing the flute at the beginning,” revealing that his talents span multiple instruments. In addition to the production, Tyler’s vocals can also be heard in the ad. While the commercial is certainly a great moment for Tyler, he wasn’t all for it at first.

“Mannnn thanks coca cola for reallll big love for the opportunity,” he wrote. “I was like ehh idk but then i f*cking ran with it. commercials need sounds like this, thanksssss.”

You can watch the Coca-Cola ad above.

How do you feel about watching yourself as a teenager? Probably not that great! Now imagine if motion pictures of you when you were young were not only widely available but shaped a generation’s childhood? That’s the pickle Daniel Radcliffe finds himself in. The actor was discussing the Harry Potter films, the last of which was released a decade ago this July, and which made him a star. And he couldn’t help but acknowledge he has some difficulty looking at his younger self.

“I’m intensely embarrassed by some of my acting, obviously,” Radcliffe told Digital Spy, with a self-deprecating laugh. “But yeah, it’s like asking, ‘How do you feel about your teenage years?’ There’s so much in there that it’s almost impossible to single out one feeling.”

But though he admits it’s “hard to separate my relationship with Harry from my relationship with the films as a whole,” he did demonstrate that he has a mature perspective on it. “I’m incredibly grateful for the experience. It showed me what I want to do with the rest of my life. To find out early on what you love is really lucky.”

Celebrities: They’re just like us! Which is to say they also can only look at their past selves through their fingers. Meanwhile, Radcliffe has eked out a pretty unpredictable career for someone who shot to superstardom at such a young age, and who will forever be associated with a franchise he started shooting as a tween. Not every child star goes on to play a talking, farting corpse or gets to do a TV show where he and Steve Buscemi jump through time, and not every Simpsons super fan gets to do the show not once but twice.

(Via Digital Spy and ComicBook.com)