Month: March 2021

Bleacher Report joined forces with Modelo to put on a two-on-two game that would benefit Black colleges and universities on Saturday. Dubbed the Open Run, the matchup for the night was set to be Jack Harlow and Quavo vs. 2 Chainz and Lil Baby. After a week of promotion, the pairs finally battled it out with the winner being the first team to 21 points, Harlow and Quavo took home the win with a score of 21-7. The Migos rapper was undoubtedly the star of the show as he put up 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 blocks. It was just two years ago that he took home the MVP trophy at the 2018 Celebrity All-Star Game, and it’s clear a few years later he still has what it takes to dominate.

In an interview with Uproxx last week, Harlow shared his excitement about playing alongside Quavo.

“I’m very happy with who I got,” he said. “Out of the three other players, that would be my number one choice because he brings something to the game, based on everything I’ve seen on YouTube, that I don’t bring to the game.”

As a result of winning the came, Harlow and Quavo each received a cash prize of $500,000 while Bleacher Report pledged to donate $500,000 to HBCUs that the rappers chose. Harlow picked Simmons College of Kentucky and Kentucky State while Quavo went with Clark Atlanta University and Spellman College.

From Quavo’s stellar game to a pretty bad free throw attempt from Lil Baby, viewers seemed to be fairly entertained by the matchup and they took to Twitter to share their thoughts.

You can read the reactions below.

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

The NBA has already extended one late invite to a player to the NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta due to an injury, but some very late changes may also be in store due to contact tracing. According to reports on Sunday morning, Philadelphia 76ers stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid may miss the mid-season showcase due to contact tracing efforts after a trip to a barber shop.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on the situation, which stemmed from a trip for one of the players to get a haircut. The barber who did the trim, however, later had an inconclusive COVID-19 test result, which puts the two stars at potential risk to not only have contracted the virus, but also expose others to it while on the court and at other abridged All-Star festivities.

The reporting, both from Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, makes it clear that the Sixers players didn’t appear to have broken any of the various protocols the NBA put in place for contact tracing and restrictions for travel for the All-Star Game itself.

As Wojnarowski reported, both are still expected to do media sessions later in the day, and a ruling on whether they can play will come soon. But it wasn’t looking good as of Sunday morning.

Later Sunday, reports indicated the barber in question did, indeed, test positive to further put their status in doubt.

It’s another reminder of just how prevalent coronavirus still remains in America, even as vaccines continue to help the population and case counts in some places diminish. Despite all the protocols and plans and sequestering a league can do, things can still go wrong and put people at risk for exposure.

UPDATE: Simmons and Embiid were both officially ruled out of the All-Star Game by the NBA on Sunday morning, and the NBA will not be replacing them given it is the day of the game, per Woj.

The only options would have likely been Trae Young and John Collins if both still happened to be in Atlanta, but given that Embiid and Simmons were each on different rosters, it’s no surprise they will move forward with 11 players each.

The weekend box office went on hiatus a few weeks after Tenet faltered at the box office, but with theaters re-opening (with capacity restrictions) in New York, and likely to be reopening in Los Angeles soon, the box-office is slowly returning to life. In fact, last weekend, Tom and Jerry had the biggest opening weekend of 2021 — and one of the biggest of the pandemic — with $14.1 million, despite also being offered for free to HBO Max subscribers and getting terrible reviews.

Meanwhile, Disney has re-released a number of films since the beginning of the pandemic (Guardians of the Galaxy, Toy Story, etc.), and they have moved a few films to Disney+ (Soul, Artemis Fowl), and they have even offered one film at premium pricing (Mulan). However, this weekend, Disney released its first new film into theaters since Onward, although Raya and the Last Dragon was also offered on Disney+ for $30.

So how’d it go? It’s a mixed bag. It earned a decent $8.3 million in theaters, although I suspect that the film did considerably better on Disney+, since it was being promoted to the streamers’ roughly 100 million subscribers (HBO Max, meanwhile, has only 37 million subs). That’s slightly less than expectations, which was a $9 million opening weekend. There were a number of factors in play, however, that would have made it more difficult to beat Tom and Jerry — aside from the fact that the premium cost was heavily promoted — namely the fact that Disney made no deals with Cinemark, the #3 chain in America and that it’s not based on a familiar property.

The mediocre box-office numbers are less a worry for Disney, however, than they are for movie theaters. That’s because Disney has to share the $8.3 million it earned in theaters with the exhibitors. It does not, however, have to share the $30 it earned for each Disney+ purchase. On a family film like Raya, the economics work out well for consumers and for the studio, but not necessarily for theaters. To wit: I have a family of five. We paid $30 for Raya (and enjoyed it very much). It would’ve cost at least $45 for the same six of us to see it in theaters (plus expensive concessions), and Disney would have had to split the $45 with theater chains, which is to say: in my situation, Disney earned more and consumers paid less. Theaters, however, got the squeeze.

Will that matter in the long term? That remains unclear. A lot of films that used to open in theaters will obviously move to streaming networks post-pandemic, and it remains to be seen whether moviegoers will flock to theaters in the same numbers after having gotten used to watching movies in their living rooms. It looks like Black Widow, which is still tentatively scheduled for a May 7 release date, will be the big test. Will Disney keep that release date and take their chances even though the pandemic will still be ongoing? Will they move it until late summer, after everyone is expected to have been vaccinated? Or will they try and release it in theaters and at home and see what happens?

Those are the big questions heading into the next few weeks, and the decision will be based on numbers with which we aren’t privy. It is worth noting, however, that if just 10 percent of Disney+ subscribers purchase Raya and the Last Dragon, that is $300 million pure Disney profit that it doesn’t have to share with theaters. Domestically, that’s $90 million more than the $210 million that Coco earned, which Disney then had to split with theaters.

Elsewhere, in its second weekend, Tom and Jerry looks to be landing with about $6.7 million, which is not that far from Raya‘s opening weekend gross. It’s earned $23 million in theaters after 10 days, which is a mystery to me, since it’s cheaper to subscribe to HBO Max for a month ($15) than it is to pay for Raya with a Disney+ subscription, and yet families continue to take their kids to theaters to see Tom and Jerry with its 25 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.

Lionsgate spent $100 million on Chaos Walking, featuring the star of the Star Wars franchise (Daisy Ridley) and the star of the Spider-Man franchise (Tom Holland), but they could still only muster $3.7 million in theaters. Chaos Walking, by the way, is not available yet anywhere except theaters. It’s also worth noting that, despite the star power behind it (and Doug Liman in the director’s chair), the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score is lower even than that of Tom and Jerry with a 23 percent.

The other new release this weekend was Eddie Huang’s Boogie, which earned $1.26 million. One of the biggest hits of the pandemic, Croods: New Age, rounds out the top five with $890,000 and $53.7 million, so far.

I get the sense that this was another of those test weekends, where the studios dipped their toes in to see what would happen. The box-office report here will likely go back into hiatus until later this month, if Bob Odenkirk’s Nobody breaks out on the 26th or when Godzilla vs. Kong opens on March 31st.

Source: Deadline, Box Office Mojo

Jan Blachowicz (28-8) earned a decision victory over Israel Adesanya (20-1) to retain the light heavyweight title at UFC 259 from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Adesanya and Blachowicz spent much of the first round testing each other’s range, trading the occasional shot with a more tentative approach. Blachowicz the power striker was a bit on his back foot as Adesanya’s technical prowess was on full display. Adesanya kept Blachowicz at range, chipping front kicks and tossing feigns to keep the champ out of rhythm.

After a fairly uneventful first round, Blachowicz began to walk down Adesanya with a flurry of jabs. The chess match continued through much of the second, as Blachowicz found openings here and there, but Adesanya escaped without much damage. Adesanya connected on his fair share of shots, opening up stinging leg kicks on the champ.

Blachowicz again opened the third with a handful of overhand shots. The champ got Adesanya on the ground and took his back, but the challenger found his way back his feet and hurt Blachowicz with a nice combination against the cage. Blachowicz looked to slow the challenger with his clinch game, pushing Adesanya against the cage. Adesanya again escaped, showing off his head movement before going on the offensive to finish the round.

To open the championship round, Blachowicz began to chip away with heavy-handed jabs and nice, counter left hand hooks. Two minutes into the round, Blachowicz got his first takedown of the fight and controlled his positioning in what would be a crucial fourth round for the champ.

In the final round, Adesanya took a more measured approach, keeping his distance while attacking with leg kicks and step jabs. Breathing heavy and keeping his hands low, Blachowicz struggled with the pace of Adesanya early in the fifth. Midway through the round, though, Blachowicz shot and got Adesanya onto the ground with a massive double leg takedown. Blachowicz moved into the half guard and worked just enough to close the round on top.

Adesanya came into Saturday night’s main event looking to become just the fifth UFC fighter in the organization’s history to hold belts in two weight divisions at the same time. Adesanya has spent the last two years rolling through the middleweight division, handing losses to Kevin Gastelum, Robert Whittaker, Yoel Romero, and Paulo Costa losses. But in the main event, he got his first taste of light heavyweight power against the heavy-handed Blachowicz.

Blachowicz hasn’t lost since 2019, dropping a knockout loss to light heavyweight contender Thiago Santos. Since then, Blachowicz has blown through the division, knocking out Luke Rockhold, Corey Anderson and Dominick Reyes en route to the division crown.

After the fight, Adesanya said he’s going back to 185 pounds after coming up short at UFC 259. For Blachowicz, a showdown with Glover Teixeira seems in the cards for his next title defense.

Amanda Nunes (21-4) submitted Megan Anderson (11-5) two minutes into the first round to retain the featherweight belt at UFC 259 from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas Saturday night.

Nunes hurt Anderson bad minutes into the round with a slew of overhand rights that had the challenger rocked. The champ took her to the ground, took her back and tapped Anderson with an armbar.

Untested in seven years, Nunes came into Saturday’s main event as the most dominant women’s competitor and in the running for the best all-time, bar-none. The two-division champ, Nunes has knocked off Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, and Germaine de Randamie, leaving Anderson the most recent woman to come across her path. Nunes hadn’t competed since June 2020, and remains virtually unchallenged with her dominant effort Saturday night.

Anderson came into her title shot with two consecutive wins, earning a submission victory over Zarah Fairn, then a knockout over Norma Dumont in February 2020. But Anderson’s prior success didn’t carry over into her title opportunity.

After the bout, Nunes celebrated with her daughter Raegan, who she’s recently called a new source of motivation.

In her post-fight interview, Nunes explained to Joe Rogan she’s “here” with no real competitor in sight. She added that a lion is dangerous, but once she has a baby, “no one can stop me.”

Aljamain Sterling (20-3) won the UFC bantamweight title via disqualification after Petr Yan (15-2) landed an illegal knee strike at UFC APEX in Las Vegas Saturday night.

Sterling came firing out of the gate, pushing back Yan and putting the pressure on with a mix of punches, kicks, and a flying knee for good measure. After trading takedowns, Yan sent Sterling sprawling back with a big right hand. The challenger got back to his feet and the champ sent him back down with a sweeping leg kick. Sterling earned a scissor takedown looking for a leg lock, but Yan made his way back to his feet. Yan took Sterling’s back, tossed him to the ground and looked fro a rear-choke before he bell sounded.

To open the second, Sterling settled into a more realistic championship-fight pace. Two slips early in the round gave Yan the advantage, but Sterling returned to his feet both times and kept pushing forward. Sterling spent much of the round looking for a takedown, but couldn’t capitalize before the end of the round.

In the third, it was Yan the aggressor, walking the challenger down with his own mix of shots. Yan sent Sterling to the ground with another back trip before allowing him back to his feet yet again. Yan threw the challenger to the ground another time late in the round, clearly fatigued from the pace of the first two rounds. Sterling opened up toward the end of the round, tossing an overhand left followed by snapping leg kicks.

The fourth was much of the same for Yan, picking apart Sterling with precision and power. Late in the round, Yan dropped Sterling while he was downed for an illegal knee strike.

After the fight, Sterling was emotional in an interview with Joe Rogan saying it wasn’t the way he wanted to win.

“I was in bad shape,” Sterling said. “The ref told me I was down. It’s f***ing bulls**t.”

Rogan went on to tell Sterling that Yan’s camp told him to strike, and that it was totally illegal. Sterling signed off with an apology to the fans with hopes of running it back in the future.

Yan’s first title defense came after handling devastating knockouts to UFC legends Uriah Faber and Jose Aldo in back-to-back tilts. Sterling earned his shot at UFC gold following five consecutive wins, including a submission in June 2020 over Corey Sandhagen.

Congress finally passed a $1.9 trillion plan to bring financial relief to people impacted by the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic on Saturday, a big step in Joe Biden fulfilling campaign promises despite not a single Republican voting for the bill to make it happen.

One person who did vote in order to get it passed was Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat who drew the ire of progressives on Friday when she vehemently voted against one measure, which would include in the bill a measure to effectively raise the minimum wage in America to $15 an hour for millions of workers. It wasn’t just that the Democrat didn’t support a very popular measure that could lift many Americans out of poverty, but in that she performatively voted no by striking a pose while giving a thumbs down.

The move, along with bringing cake to the Senate floor, drew plenty of outrage against the senator. And that carried into the weekend when she tweeted about frontline workers on Saturday. Sharing a New York Times video about the dangerous and tiring jobs many frontline workers have had during the pandemic, Sinema saw thousands of negative replies and quote tweets pointing out that she had just voted against actually compensating millions of those same workers.

“Wow. Incredibly grateful for Arizona’s frontline workers caring for our loved ones during the pandemic,” she wrote on Twitter. The message was immediately seized upon, with basically everyone making the same point: if she wanted to thank employees like that, she could have helped get them paid.

As several pointed out, many of those same frontline employees make minimum wage, and after a year of work in a pandemic, paying them a living wage is the least you could do as someone in power.

A lot of people shared a stylized image of her voting no for the measure on Friday.

Some shared images of her cheering for Donald Trump at a State of the Union address.

It’s unlikely to change her mind, and the more important news is that many Americans did get relief from Congress on Saturday. But it wasn’t a very sharp moment for Sinema on social media, making an already bad week for the Arizona politician just a little bit worse.

One of the best mid-major programs in college basketball this season has been the mighty Bonnies of St. Bonaventure. The team sits at 15-4 on the season and are No. 27 in KenPom, which bodes pretty well for them once Selection Sunday rolls around if they are not able to win the Atlantic 10 conference tournament.

The thing with this Bonnies program, though, is that they are really good, and should end up being the favorites in next Sunday’s conference title game. They punched their ticket to that on Saturday with a 71-53 thrashing of St. Louis, and in response, St. Bonaventure’s most famous alumnus had some fun on Twitter.

As anyone who has his push notifications on for tweets about trades and free agency, Adrian Wojnarowski loves his alma mater. Following their win over the Billikens, Woj was in a celebratory mood.

And then, the following quote came out from St. Louis coach Travis Ford.

Quick context: St. Bonaventure, as the conference’s 1-seed, played its quarterfinal game at the Siegel Center in Richmond, Va., while St. Louis played its quarterfinal tilt at the Robins Center in Dayton, Ohio. Immediately after that, the Billikens had to get to Virginia for a game the following day at the Siegel Center, and they did not have the horses to keep up with the Bonnies.

Woj, however, was not hearing this, and shot back at Ford, sarcastically raising a (correct!) point that St. Bonaventure isn’t exactly a hoops hotbed.

A St. Louis fan named Justin then decided to talk junk after his team just got rinsed to the most famous NBA reporter in the world. He made an incredibly off-color remark about NBA players, so Woj went off.

After Justin decided to say he has “a job that actually matters” to a person that he follows on Twitter, Woj had some more fun.

St. Bonaventure will either place VCU or Davidson in the A-10 finals, so if you’re an alum of either school, be warned that Woj does not play around.

There’s something to be said for the hot streak Lil Durk is currently working on right now. It dates back to his May 2020 album, Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 and thanks to his succeeding releases, the Chicago rapper recently earned a chance to perform on a recent episode of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. On his appearance, he performed a medley of “Stay Down” and “Still Trappin,” which can both be found on the deluxe release of The Voice.

Beginning with “Stay Down,” Durk delivers his verse on the song before 6lack steps on stage to sing the song’s hook as well as his verse. Once he finishes, Durk returns to centerstage and transitions into a performance of “Still Trappin.” The song features a guest verse from King Von, recorded before he was tragically killed in an Atlanta shooting back in November. Continuing to honor the rapper who he referred to as his “twin,” Durk performed the song and let Von’s verse play.

The performance after Durk released his Loyal Bros compilation with his Only The Family crew. The 23-track effort includes features from Tee Grizzley, EST Gee, Foogiano, Booka600, Memo600, and others. It also comes after he joined Coi Leray for a “No More Parties” remix and hinted at a possible joint album with Lil Baby.

You can watch the performance above.

City Girls’ JT hasn’t had the best of experiences on Twitter over the past few months. On Saturday, she once again found herself in some controversy on the social media app. It came as a result of an interaction with a fan, Shaddai Randolph, who reach out to the rapper in hopes of speaking with her as she continues her fight against cancer.

“Hey JT sorry to bother u I know I’ve said this b4 but I’m a fan of urs & I think ur amazing & funny,” Randolph said. “Seeing u help me keeps my spirits up when I’m in pain. Im dying & have cancer. You said u would DM me but never did. I still would like facetime u for 5mins if possible Luv u.”

Some people on Twitter caught wind of Randolph’s tweet and tried to boost it in hopes that it would catch JT’s attention. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The fan revealed soon after that the City Girls rapper had blocked her instead. “She blocked me y’all won,” she said. “Y’all [keep sending] me death messages and [sending] me emails to die on my go fund me or to my mother. Y’all won I get it.”

Afterward, many began to question JT’s decision to block Randolph, but according to the rapper, it was all a misunderstanding.

“Omg y’all lie too bad on here & it gotta be a spam account,” she said to begin a string of now-deleted tweets. “ima call now to really find out cause ughn ughn.” After one of her followers said they also believed Randolph was a bot, JT added, “Me too. Ima just pray for her that’s stronger than a phone call.” Despite this, the attacks against her continued to rain in, causing her to return shots against her critics in a string of tweets before deciding to delete her Twitter page.

“THAT WAS A MISUNDERSTANDING BUT FOREAL NOW ITS F*CK YALL,” she said. “I almost went live to explain myself & I remembered I don’t owe y’all sh*t I didn’t even do sh*t just making up sh*t Go ahead. I followed her back & everything wtf …. before I could actually get to call she was spamming me I went through her page & thought it was fake!” She added, I gotta be getting bigger the hate coming from all angles no matter how it all goes down I’ll always win!!!!!”

You can check out screenshots of the tweets above.