Month: April 2021

The NBA has insisted it doesn’t have an injury problem this season, but it’s hard not to look at the condensed second half schedule many teams are playing in which there are far more back-to-backs and three games in four night stretches than there have been in recent years and not at least wonder if it’s contributing to the soft tissue injuries we’ve been seeing.

The league has been combatting sports science in recent years as they’ve instituted fines for resting players, particularly for road games and national TV games, as teams and players take a much longer view towards health and have recognized that punting on a few games in the regular season is worth it if it means players are in better shape for the playoffs. This season, even teams without title hopes are taking a long view and recognizing that this season isn’t worth running players into the ground, and are trying to rest guys on back-to-backs and balance the workload being asked of them.

This weekend, the Spurs had a Portland to Phoenix road back-to-back and after losing a heartbreaker to the Blazers they arrived to face the red-hot, full strength Suns and put DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and Patty Mills on the sidelines. That didn’t matter as they blew out the Suns, 111-85, in a rather stunning performance as youngsters like Devin Vassell and Drew Eubanks had big games. Still, despite dominating one of the league’s best teams, the Spurs still got slapped with a $25,000 fine for resting players on Sunday.

Now, $25,000 for an NBA franchise is nothing, but it seems like the league should institute some kind of policy where they don’t fine teams who rest players and win. If you can sit three of your top guys and still win, that feels deserving of, at the very least, a reward in not getting fined. The alternative is, if you must fine them, also fine the team that loses to them out of principle.

The real answer is, at the very least in this crazy, condensed season, the NBA probably should’ve just gotten rid of their resting policies and let teams do what they feel is best for the health of their players. The optics are pretty terrible in the midst of a number of top players already being out with real injuries, and the league could’ve salvaged a little positive PR by just not fining teams for trying to keep players healthy.

The era of Taylor Swift’s re-recorded albums began earlier this month with the release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The new version is one of six that the singer will drop after she failed to regain the rights to her first six albums. With fans already anticipating the next album she’ll re-record, Swift sat down for an interview with Audacy (previously Radio.com) to speak about Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and more specifically, which “From The Vault” track she believes signaled her transition to pop.

“‘Mr. Perfectly Fine’ is a song that I wrote alone,” she says of the track, which she wrote back in the Fearless and co-produced with Jack Antonoff. “It was definitely an early indicator of me creeping toward a pop sensibility. I’ve always listened to every type of music, and even though Fearless is a country album, there were always these pop melodies creeping in.” She added, “I think the lyrics are just wonderfully scathing and full of the teen angst that you would hope to hear on an album that I wrote when I was 17 or 18 or on that cusp.”

After the song’s release, it garnered plenty of attention as some fans believed it was targeted at Joe Jonas as it was written around the time of their messy breakup back in 2008.

For those unaware, “Herogasm” is a miniseries from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys’ comics, and was designed as a parody of The Avengers and The Justice League, where a lot of different superheroes gather together to take on a huge supervillain. In The Boys, it appears as though all the world’s superheroes are getting together to orchestrate a plan to head into space and fight aliens. In reality, however, all the world’s superheroes are gathering on a remote island to have a Vought-sponsored wild orgy fueled by copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.

It took some time for showrunner Erik Kripke to figure out how to work it into the Amazon Prime series, although he said in season one that it was likely to arrive in Season Three if the show stayed on the air that long. “I’ve really wanted to do it,” Kripke told Reddit in 2019, “but needed to figure out our twist on it, so it’s not just an hour of hardcore p0rn. But I think we got it!! Super excited about that.”

Season Three has arrived, and the superhero orgy festival is a go.

This week, Kripke also revealed his reaction to the first production meeting, and “scandalized” is probably the best way to describe it.

One scene from the Herogasm that will not be in the series, however, is a sex scene between Homeland (Antony Starr) and a new character in Season Three, Soldier Boy, played by Jenson Ackles, who currently looks unrecognizable as he prepares for the role. That controversial scene, in which Homelander takes advantage of Soldier Boys’ naivete, is too much even for a show that once blew up a whale. It sounds like this was Kripke’s decision. Amazon, meanwhile, has been very liberal about what they’d allow, but they have cut at least one other scene that went too far (although it later appeared in a different context).

The Boys Season Three continues to shoot, although Amazon has not yet announced a release date.

SPOILERS for Fear the Walking Dead will be found below.

When an actor as popular as longtime character actor Garret Dillahunt is killed off of a television series, there’s a pretty good chance that it was his decision and not necessarily the showrunners’ idea. That was exactly the case with Dillahunt, whose character, John Dorie, was killed off of Fear The Walking Dead in last week’s midseason premiere, one of the most devastating episodes ever in The Walking Dead universe.

In fact, the timing of the pandemic was unfortunate for Dillahunt, who had shot everything in his final episode except for his death scene before the pandemic shut down production. After being home for months for the pandemic, Dillahunt was glad to be back on set to see his old friends, but he was only there for a few days before he had to leave again. “And then you’re gone,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “And it’s COVID conditions on a set, so you can’t really go hug everybody, or give everybody smooches, and squeezes, and wish them well properly.”

Dillahunt also admitted that they’d been talking about his exit since Season Five. Ultimately, however, it was Dillahunt’s decision to leave the series. “I loved my time on this show and will always cherish it,” he told EW. “I get a little antsy after a while, and I’m not a kid anymore, and I have some things I wanted to do. And I’m just fortunate it worked out.”

Dillahunt was also grateful that they were willing to give him a proper exit. “I just feel very fortunate that they were willing to hear it, and consider it, and then come up with a great idea that made everybody happy,” he said.

The Deadwood actor has plenty on his plate, too, in a number or projects he was attached to before the pandemic that, like Fear, were delayed. Next month, he’ll be in another zombie project, Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead for Netflix. He’s also set to star in James Franco’s The Long Home; Blonde, an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe’s life; and Michael Bay’s Ambulance. He also recently signed on as one of the leads in the adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing.

Dillahunt, however, had nothing but fond things to say about his stint on Fear. “Even if you want off a show, it’s never easy to leave one. There’s seldom real bad blood or something like that. It’s often just time. And in this case, I like everyone so much,” he told EW. He described his ending as “beautiful,” and “sweet and sad, the bittersweet,” and promised to stay in touch with the fanbase. “I’m real excited for what the future holds, and I’m real happy. And I’m really excited to stay in touch with the fans. I’ll see you on the circuit, and John exists, and Garret’s still alive. John will always exist. And he was a great character. I was honored to play him.”

Viewers of Fear, meanwhile, were honored to see him and appreciate the role he played in creatively resurrecting the series. As fans will see in this week’s episode, however, the show is clearly able to keep up the momentum even without the beloved John Dorie.

(Via EW)

DMX has received a number of tributes from fans and celebrities — both in and outside the music world — from all corners since his unfortunate death on April 9. Some members of his family, including his daughter and ex-wife, have also shared individual messages and tributes to the late rapper and the latest one arrives from his fiancé Desiree Lindstorm. In a post on Instagram, she reflected on the first night they met and how their love grew from there.

“The first night we met and you held me close,” she said. “I knew I would never let go. I was lost in you and nothing else mattered. My best friend, my baby, my love…truly my everything.” She added, “Thank you for us. Thank you for Exodus. Thank you God for Earl Simmons…forever X.” DMX and Lindstorm had one child together, their 4-year-old son Exodus. The rapper proposed to her back in 2019 during their son’s third birthday party in what was an extremely sweet moment.

The news comes after the rapper’s family announced that a public memorial would be held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on April 24. Unfortunately for those who hoped to attend the service, DMX’s family has chosen to limit the event to only close friends and family. Despite this, the memorial will be livestreamed for people to watch.

You can view the post from Lindstorm above.

The latest example of boxing being used as a spectacle over a sport occurred on Saturday night when Triller put on an event headlined by a bout between internet personality Jake Paul and decorated wrestler/mixed martial artist Ben Askren. In what could only have been described as an event that tried to be more than a boxing card, Paul ended the evening quickly, picking up a victory over Askren via TKO in round one.

Askren, a former Olympic wrestler who has accrued a 19-2 career in the UFC, did not look to be expecting anything other than a slow, calculated flight. So as Paul came out and threw haymakers, obviously looking for a first round knockout, he was unable to do much of anything, and with one right hook, the fight came to an end.

The fight caught the eye of the Twitterverse, in part because plenty of folks looked back on one particular fight in Askren’s UFC career and believed something weird was going on here.

Askren was all smiles walking out of the ring, leading to further questions about his priorities.

https://twitter.com/Prime_VC/status/1383648502178140167

But otherwise, the Twitterverse came together to get a bunch of jokes off over the entire thing, with a special shout out to the last guy to fight Paul, Nate Robinson.

Even Stephen A. Smith, who I do not think sleeps, got in on the fun.

It stands to reason Paul will keep getting fights after this. As for Askren, well, let’s just say if we see him fight again, we expect that it’ll be in the Octagon and not in the ring.

Jake Paul fought Ben Askren on Saturday night in the Internet famous MMA fighter’s latest attempt at relevancy in combat sports. But before that happened, Pete Davidson stole the show in the pre-fight leadup and had some pretty biting commentary about the spectacle that followed.

With Saturday Night Live off for a few weeks, Davidson was at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the big fight. He first showed up hanging out with Snoop Dogg, but later served as what essentially was a backstage reporter for the fight.

And while he didn’t have much insight or show many things behind the scenes of the venue, he sure had plenty to say. Including that both fighters “suck” and a very bleak summation of Paul’s fighting career in general.

“You can tell how professional this event is by them having me here,” Davidson said, walking through the bowels of the football stadium while a camera followed. “We are backstage at Jake Paul’s dressing room. Locker room, if you wanna call it that.

“Today is a wild day for boxing because it shows how low it truly sunk,” Davidson continued. “I think today proves the fact that if you have enough followers, you can truly f*cking do whatever you want. Maybe PewDiePie will cure cancer and Charli D’Amelio will become a surgeon.”

Davidson was referencing some other internet famous celebrities presumably doing something more constructive with their fame, essentially taking another swipe at the SNL star for deciding on this career pivot. He then broke down the fight, which he framed as a battle between two bad fighters, one of which is famous and the other he called anonymous in several ways.

“Tonight we have a fight between Ben Askren, who I don’t even know who that is, still, and I’ve been reading up on him all week,” Davidson said. “And, you know, they both suck but, you know, at least somebody’s gonna get hurt.”

It’s a pretty blunt assessment for a fight that people paid to watch, and aside from the video that circulated online basically anyone hearing Davidson’s words spent good money to see it. But whoever decided to put him on camera for this had to know what was coming here, asking a comedian to play sideline reporter.

“And now back to you guys in the booth, some real announcers over there,” Davidson concluded.

Juan Toscano-Anderson has turned into a favorite among Golden State Warriors fans during his time with the organization by nailing his role as a bench player who always turns it up to 11. Toscano-Anderson’s high-energy style led to him making a sensational play during the team’s tilt against the Boston Celtics on Saturday night, but it also caused him to leave the game with an injury.

Steph Curry hoisted a deep three that hit off the rim. As he is wont to do, Draymond Green found himself in position to make something happen, so he attempted to tip the ball out to Toscano-Anderson. It didn’t quite work — the tip was careening out of bounds right up until the point that Toscano-Anderson flew into the front row to make the save. While he accomplished this and the ball eventually found Curry, it came at quite the price.

Toscano-Anderson is a pretty tough dude, though, so after taking some time to compose himself and get tended to, he got up and walked to the locker room, all while giving out high fives to his teammates.

Rachel Nichols of ESPN reported that Toscano-Anderson had a laceration on his head and was in the midst of a concussion test with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. A key contributor off of the Warriors’ bench this season, Toscano-Anderson is still technically on a two-way contract, although after this, the least the organization can do is convert that bad boy to a full-time deal.

The Indiana Hoosiers hired Mike Woodson to take over their basketball program last month, but a number of reports indicated he wasn’t the only NBA coach the university targeted for the job. Hoosier State native Brad Stevens, who came through the coaching ranks at Butler before taking over the Boston Celtics, saw his name linked to the job extensively, even though he publicly shot down any indication that he’d leave Beantown for Bloomington.

Still, there haven’t been too many reports about how legitimate the interest from Indiana was, if there were any conversations, all those sorts of things. On Saturday night, however, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN indicated there was at least an offered shot over to Stevens, one that would have compensated him handsomely.

The deal Woodson signed with his alma mater is worth $3 million a year for six years, so there’s quite a bit of difference between what Indiana paid and what Indiana wanted to give Stevens. Of course, college contracts can feature a number of stipulations and bonuses, so it stands to reason that whatever Stevens might have been offered wasn’t $10 million a year, no questions asked. For now, though, this will merely be a “what if?” … unless, of course, Woodson strikes out in Bloomington and the Hoosiers decide to kick the tires on Stevens again.

Pat Sajak has certainly made a meal of some final puzzles on Wheel of Fortune, but his latest mistake no one seemed to notice. The longtime host of the word puzzle game show has had a number of odd moments on this season of Wheel, some perhaps more offensive than others.

On Thursday’s episode, Sajak actually gave away the answer to the final puzzle that ended up stumping a contestant because he didn’t realize he had been given an enormous clue in the pre-guess banter. Sajak brought the show to its final puzzle where our big winer, Jeffery, didn’t get much help from RSTLNE and his choice of letters and vowel.

“Yikes,” Sajak said when only the “A” popped up for Jeffrey. “Well, I’d rather be standing here than there, quite frankly.”

But here’s the problem: the answer to the puzzle actually was “quite frankly.” Sajak gave it away just before the 10-second timer started for Jeffery, but he didn’t notice the phrase said out loud on the board of blank letters in front of him. After the commercial break, Sajak actually noted that he gave the whole thing away without anyone realizing, though he immediately knew he had made a gaffe.

The show’s Twitter account even called him out on Friday, sharing the clip with the eyeballs emoji.

It’s a very funny moment because no one realized what Sajak had a slip of the tongue here, but it would have brought up an interesting quandary if Jefferey had solved the puzzle, perhaps with Pat’s help. Fans have certainly rooted for players to get breaks in the past, and hopefully the same thing would happen here. Still, all Sajak can do here is laugh about what could have been a much bigger blunder, if anyone had noticed at the time.

“It’s funny,” Sajak later said. “What your mouth will say that your brain says ‘You shouldn’t do that.’”