Month: May 2021

Just 48 hours after Russell Westbrook put together a 33-points, 19-rebound, 15-assist effort to tie Oscar Robertson for the NBA’s all-time record for triple-doubles, the Washington Wizards guard took the floor at State Farm Arena in Atlanta with a chance to make history. Given that fellow star guard Bradley Beal was sidelined, Westbrook entered the night with a wide-open canvas in which to add to his already impressive legacy and, with the Wizards in the middle of a playoff race, Washington needed everything Westbrook could provide.

It took Westbrook a half to surpass double-digit points and three quarters to get 10-plus assists. He needed to wait until the fourth quarter rolled around to secure his tenth rebound of the night, but with 8:32 left in the frame, Westbrook achieved immortality by pulling down a rebound off of a miss by Danilo Gallinari to give him his 182nd career triple-double.

Westbrook is in the midst of an unthinkable run of triple-doubles that began on March 13. In the 33 games including Monday’s contest against the Hawks, he produced a triple-double on 26 occasions. That includes 18 triple-doubles in the last 21 contests, and Westbrook is putting up video game-level numbers, including more than 13 assists and 13 rebounds per game.

This season’s performance, combined with years of staggering accomplishments, set Westbrook up to post a mark that may never be challenged again. With that in mind, Robertson recently offered his blessings and praised Westbrook in the process.

“There’s no doubt about it,” Robertson told Marc Stein of the New York Times earlier this month when prompted on whether he wanted Westbrook to break the record. “I hope he gets it. I think he’s one of the elite guards in basketball.”

The Wizards have plenty of work to do in their quest to reach the playoffs, and Westbrook’s recent run is a big reason they will be able to participate in the East’s play-in tournament. Still, Westbrook’s career took center stage on Monday and it felt almost like a foregone conclusion that he would reach double-figures in points, assists, and rebounds. That is an incredible testament in itself.

When the “Me Too” movement exploded a few years ago, the ubiquitousness of women’s sexual harassment and assault experiences became painfully clear. What hasn’t always been as clear is role that less overt, more subtle creepiness plays in making women feel uncomfortable or unsafe as they move through the world, often starting from a young age.

Thankfully—and unfortunately—a viral video from a teen TikToker illustrates exactly what that looks like in real-time when a man came and sat down with her while she was doing a live video. He asked if the chair at her table was taken, and she said no, thinking he wanted to take it to another table. Instead, he sat down and started talking to her. You can see in her face and in her responses that she’s weirded out, though she’s trying not to appear rude or paranoid.

The teen said in a separate TikTok video that the man appeared to be in his 30s. Definitely too old to be pulling up a chair with someone so young who is sitting by herself, and definitely old enough to recognize that she was uncomfortable with the situation.

---

Creep approaches teenage girl while she’s live streaming 😐😖 https://t.co/tJa1ZI7Nan

— chris evans (@chris_notcapn)
1619701955.0

The 18-year-old, who goes by @maasassin_ on TikTok, shared the video in two parts on TikTok. The initial video has received more than 11 million views, and though she has comments turned off on her TikTok channel, the commentary on Twitter shows why it resonated with so many women.

@VABVOX @chris_notcapn Yup. Since I was 12. It’s only recently stopped now that I’m a crone.

— Lisa B, Determined (@Tigrrl)
1619746803.0

Women shared that the “creepy guy” thing happens to many of us starting in childhood and that we have to learn how to navigate such situations from a ridiculously young age.

“I don’t know a single woman who didn’t see themselves in this video,” wrote one woman, “and it’s heartbreaking.”

@VABVOX @chris_notcapn This was my exact reaction. We learn how to tactfully deal with these situations to avoid po… https://t.co/X2UDDbsCkR

— Just Your Average Mel (@MelwiththeHair)
1619780305.0

In fact, the response to the video was visceral for many of us. We’ve been in that exact situation, not sure if we’re overreacting, feeling like something’s off or weird but unsure of how to respond to it on the spot, having to balance our own safety with our desire to give people the benefit of the doubt, etc.

@mscarasco_live @chris_notcapn I didn’t realize I was until I exhaled at the end of the clip.

— Oxtail Empanadas & Sauerkraut (@Hollowgirl78)
1619704460.0

Some guys have responded that the man was just being friendly and making small talk and that everyone is overreacting, but no. A man over 30 years old approaching a girl who is clearly in her teens and sticking around when she’s obviously uncomfortable is not being friendly. He’s being creepy, full stop.

Some have said that she needed to be more forceful about not wanting him there, setting a clear boundary. But when you’re young and have never had someone act this way with you, it’s an awkward position to be in. And as the guys who said he was just being friendly condescendingly point out, it’s not like he was saying anything directly problematic. His words weren’t inappropriate—his imposed, insistent presence was. And that’s a hard thing to convey to a man who is older and presumably bigger than you are, in a public place in broad daylight where you know he’s not likely to do something to you then and there, but you still feel creeped out and uncomfortable.

He’s the one who should know better. He’s the one who should be given a lecture about setting boundaries.

The teen said in another video that she spoke to the person at the front desk of the hotel who said they know who he is and that they would have a talk with him, so hopefully, he’ll rethink.

In the meantime, a lesson we can all take from this is to be on the lookout for one another. The young woman’s friend who called down from the balcony was so helpful—you could see the relief flood her body as soon as she heard and saw him. We can all keep our eyes open for someone being approached by a stranger when they’re alone and pay attention to their facial expressions and body language. We can intervene in some way if they appear uncomfortable, from slipping them a note to ask if they’re okay to acting like we know them to scare off a creeper who’s clearly bothering them.

No one of any gender should have to feel afraid to just sit someplace by themselves. While we can’t rid the world of all the creepos, we can pay attention to what’s happening around us, watch out for one another, and do what we can to create a safer environment for all.

A breathtaking situation unfolded on Monday afternoon in Ogden, Utah as the Utah Utes baseball team hosted Northern Colorado. Things seemed to be going according to play, and then, disaster stuck as an extremely tiny and devastatingly cute dog burst onto the field and just kind of vibed for a while.

Here is video of the incident, which fortunately was remedied quickly when the lil dude scampered off of the field thanks to the ushering of several players — one was covered up by a jacket, so his identity is not known, but the other was redshirt junior Shea Kramer, who very bravely held his arm out and pointed in the direction the pup had to get off of the field.

No way that thing weighs more than like 12 pounds, right? Very good dog. Anyway, all the players appeared to have a nice laugh over the entire thing, which makes sense, because it is extremely funny that a dog who is not Air Bud found its way onto a dang baseball field. Although I do suppose it would have been very funny if Air Bud also made its way onto a baseball field, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, the Utes’ collective chivalry paid off, as they won, 12-3, to cap off a sweep of the Bears.

On Monday, ESPN staple Kenny Mayne announced that he is a “salary cap casualty” and is leaving the network. Mayne joined ESPN in 1994 and is a beloved personality, as evidenced by a thorough outpouring of support from current and former colleagues in Bristol. One such shoutout arrived from Don Van Natta Jr., who resurfaced an old tweet from Mayne featuring a cover letter he wrote to former ESPN executive John Walsh.

Mayne then acknowledged the history and shared that he would be sticking around for two more weeks, while injecting his trademark humor.

Whether the letter above actually got Mayne the job at ESPN is in question, of course, but it’s also an incredible flex. Anyone who watched him over two-plus decades at ESPN is well aware of his particular brand of humor, but that letter is a tremendous way to make an impression.

Mayne is certainly best known for his SportsCenter work, but he also left an impression with Kenny Mayne’s Wider World of Sports and Mayne Street over the years. It’s at least possible that none of that happens without a legendary salvo toward John Walsh, and it is appropriate that it came back to surface on the day Mayne announced his departure.

Kobes are in increasingly high demand right now, due in large part to the fact that you aren’t able to get your hands on new pairs. Last month, it was announced that Bryant’s estate would not renew his contract with Nike, meaning that on April 13, the late Los Angeles Lakers star became a sneaker free agent.

It’s unclear what is next for Bryant’s estate — they could, for example, return to adidas, if the opportunity presents itself — but the possibility of sitting down and hammering a new deal with Nike is plausible, too. If they choose that second path, hopefully one of the releases end up being the kicks that Anthony Davis teased on his Instagram account on Monday.

Davis showed everyone the iconic Kobe 6 Grinches, and then, he showed off a box of Kobes without saying what was inside. He then opened up the box and said they were the reverse colorway of the Grinches.

We can only tell so much from this angle, but these appear to be red with green laces, and it’s unclear if there are any other fun details or if these are just a straight color swap. The Lakers are off today and have back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday, and perhaps we’ll see Davis bust these out.

The 2020-21 season for the Boston Celtics has been defined by a seemingly never-ending collection of injuries, and on Monday evening, the team announced its most devastating injury news yet. The Celtics revealed on its Twitter account that All-Star wing Jaylen Brown suffered a wrist injury that will cause him to miss the remainder of the year.

The official diagnosis is a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist, which will require surgery a little later this week. There is no word on a timetable for Brown’s return to action and whether this will cause him to miss any games in 2021-22.

Brown has been perhaps the brightest spot this year for the Celtics, taking a step forward as a scorer en route to earning the first All-Star selection of his career. On the year, Brown has put up a career-best 24.7 points per game while achieving career-best marks from the field (48.4 percent), from three (39.7 percent on 7.1 attempts a night), and at the free throw line (76.4 percent). Additionally, Brown’s 3.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game are career marks, and he’s bringing in six boards a night, too.

Boston is the likely seven seed in the Eastern Conference, meaning its postseason path would go through the play-in tournament. The team currently sits 35-33, two games back of the Miami Heat for the six seed.

Abigail Mack, an 18-year-old high school senior from Massachusetts, is over the moon after being admitted to Harvard during the most competitive admission season of all time.

Applications to the university skyrocketed during the pandemic and it was only able to accept 1,968 out of 57,435 first-year applicants, less than 4%.

However, Abigail didn’t just overcome long odds during the application process, she was accepted because she was able to thrive as a high school student after losing her mother to cancer. Her experience losing a parent was the topic of her inspiring admissions essay which has touched countless lives.

---

A TikTok post of her reading a portion of the letter went viral with millions of views.

Her essay begins with a meditation on the letter “S” and how it has affected her life.

“I hate the letter ‘S,'” Abigail’s essay begins. “Of the 164,777 words with ‘S,’ I only grapple with one. To condemn an entire letter because of its use .0006 percent of the time sounds statistically absurd, but that one case changed 100 percent of my life. I used to have two parents, but now I have one, and the ‘S’ in ‘parents’ isn’t going anywhere.”

“‘S’ follows me,” she continued. “I can’t get through a day without being reminded that while my friends went out to dinner with their parents, I ate with my parent. As I write this essay, there is a blue line under the word ‘parent’ telling me to check my grammar; even Grammarly assumes that I should have parents, but cancer doesn’t listen to edit suggestions.”

“I won’t claim that my situation is as unique as one in 164,777, but it is still an exception to the rule — an outlier,” she continued. “The world isn’t meant for this special case.”

Abigail then shares that after losing a parent she got involved with as many extracurricular activities as possible to get her mind off of the gut-wrenching loss.

“You can’t have dinner with your parent…if you’re too busy to have family dinner,” she said. “I couldn’t fill the loss that ‘S’ left in my life, but I could at least make sure I didn’t have to think about it. There were so many things in my life I couldn’t control, so I controlled what I could — my schedule.”

But eventually, she decided to go from mourning the loss of one “S” to embracing two by whittling down her activities to three “paSSions”: Theater, academics, and politics.

“‘S’ got me moving, but it hasn’t kept me going,” Abigail concluded in her essay. “I don’t seek out sadness, so ‘S’ must stay on the sidelines, and until I am completely ready, motivation is more than enough for me.”

Abigail’s mother opened up a dance studio which is still run by her father, a musician, so theater is a natural extension of her upbringing. She excelled at academics, becoming the valedictorian of her school. Politics is a passion she developed over the summer of 2020.

“When the Black Lives Matter demonstrations were occurring this past summer, I realized how passionately I felt about politics,” she told Buzzfeed. “I knew that I could no longer stand idly by and watch as the world made leaps forward without me. I became a fellow on Senator Ed Markey’s re-election campaign and also taught volunteers how to phone bank for Joe Biden’s campaign. It was extremely gratifying to feel like my voice was being heard.”

Abigail is unsure what her major will be at Harvard but she plans to pursue social sciences, the humanities, and possibly French.

She has some great advice for high schoolers coming up behind her to get into their dream schools.

“Your college application is a culmination of everything you’ve done in high school,” she said. “You’ve already put in the work, so the hardest part is done. Now, you just have to put pen to paper, share what you’ve accomplished, and, most importantly, illustrate how you plan to make a difference going forward in your own, unique way.”

Seth Rogen and James Franco have made some of the funniest and most popular films over the past two decades. The two have starred alongside each other in comedies such as “The Interview,” “Sausage Party,” “Pineapple Express,” and “This is the End.”

However, the two haven’t worked together since 2017’s “The Disaster Artist” and, according to Rogen, a lot of it has to do with the sexual misconduct allegations made against Franco.

In 2014, Franco was accused of soliciting a 17-year-old girl on Instagram. After the teenager revealed her age, Franco still pursued her asking, “You’re single? What’s the hotel? Should I rent a room?”

---

via Instagram

Since the first allegation, five more women came forward in 2018. They were inspired to share their stories after he wore a “Time’s Up” pin at the Academy Awards. The five of the women accused Franco of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior. Four of them were students at his now-defunct acting studio and another claimed Franco was her mentor.

“James [Franco] is absolutely not a Harvey Weinstein.” Two of Franco’s accusers have spoken out about their experie… https://t.co/DX8r9pTZJ5

— New York Magazine (@NYMag)
1516722963.0

At the time, Franco denied the accusations but applauded the women for speaking up which many called out as a hypocritical attempt to have things both ways.

“The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long. So, I don’t want to shut them down in any way. It’s a good thing and I support it,” Franco said.

Earlier this year, Franco reached a settlement with two former students at his acting school.

In a recent interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Rogen spoke out about his professional relationship with Franco.

“What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment, and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that,” Rogen said when asked about actress Charlyne Yi’s claim that he enabled Franco.

Rogen also apologized about a joke he made on “Saturday Night Live” in 2014 where he pretended that he pranked Franco by posing as a 17-year-old on Instagram.

Rogen Journal Monologue – Saturday Night Live

www.youtube.com

“I do look back at a joke I made on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke,” adding: “It was a terrible joke, honestly. And I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”

Rogen told the newspaper that the allegations have created a rift in his relationship with Franco, but sympathies should lie with the accusers.

“I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic.” However, he believes his own situation is “not as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved. I have no pity for myself in this situation.”

Although Rogen once joked about his former co-star’s behavior it’s good to see him coming around to understanding that Franco’s alleged behavior should be condemned. It took a while for Rogen to publicly discuss his true feelings about Franco, but his ability to put the health and safety of women before his professional and personal relationship with the actor is commendable.

Florida rapper Lil Pump was understandably upset when he discovered that someone busted the windows of his luxury car over the weekend, posting a video in which he threatens the as-yet-unknown culprits with violent repercussions. Panning his phone’s camera over the damage, Pump promised, “Whoever did this, I’ma catch you and I’ma blow your brains out… Step foot in my yard again. I want you to step foot in my yard. I’ma be up for three days straight… That’s a free body for me.”

Pump seems to have gotten himself into a number of disagreements over the past year, including with JetBlue Airlines after refusing to wear a mask during a December flight and with Eminem fans after lashing out at the elder rapper over Eminem’s derogatingly name-checking him in songs.

Of course, Pump also seemingly invited the disapproval of a great many outspoken hip-hop fans when he decided to endorse Donald Trump’s re-election run — despite not being registered to vote himself — even going so far as releasing the baffling single, “Lil Pimp Big MAGA Steppin.”

After doing so much to alienate so many people, it’s not hard to believe that the destruction was meant to antagonize Pump, but it’s equally likely he’s merely seeing the rift between rabblerousing youth and adults from the other side.,

Strap in everyone, it looks like the console wars are being taken to the streets — literally. A few days ago, Complex got their hands on an Adidas document detailing an upcoming collaboration between the sportswear manufacturer and Xbox. The document breaks down the company’s plans for four new sneaker styles throughout 2021, with even more planned for the following. This news comes not long after Nike revealed their exclusive PlayStation 5 sneakers inspired by the Sony console’s “sleek design,” which are scheduled to release on May 27.

According to the original report, the Adidas x Xbox collaboration will stay true to the console’s signature colors, with both the shoes and their boxes coming primarily in that iconic green and black. The first shoe will be a promo version of the Forum Tech Boost (style number GZ3733) and is set to release in June. It will then be followed by two pairs of Adidas’ retro Forum Mid basketball sneakers (style numbers GW7794 and GW7795) in October, and the Forum Tech (style number GW2646) in November. The document also mentions Adidas x Xbox sneakers are planned for 2022, though the details and designs are still uncertain. As of right now, there are no exact prices listed.

Also in the original report is the photo shown above, which is a work-in-progress of the upcoming Xbox x Adidas Forum Tech Boost. However, Complex stated the mock-up is “a first-round sample of the Forum Tech Boost,” and “the final sneaker that will release later this year could look significantly different.”