Month: July 2021

LeBron James is no stranger to being in movies, but his most recent release on the silver screen is a little bit different. James starred in Space Jam: A New Legacy, which hit theaters and streaming services on Friday. While not a direct sequel to the original movie, James and the Looney Tunes team up to play a basketball game against Don Cheadle, James’ son in the film, and video game versions of NBA and WNBA players.

The critical response to the movie hasn’t exactly been great, but regardless, James couldn’t be more excited that this is a reality. In a video he posted on Saturday, James reacted to the release of the film, which has been in development in some form or fashion since 2014.

“I literally got a movie that dropped today,” James said. “Space Jam: A New Legacy, oh my goodness. It finally just hit me, I can’t believe it. I’m so honored, I’m so humbled, this is crazy. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I’ve got so much energy today, I hope everybody goes out, check it out at the movie theaters, HBO Max. Wherever it’s around you, please check it out, I promise you won’t be disappointed. I’m just super hype right now, I can’t even control my energy right now. I’m watching my son right now playing his basketball game in Augusta, Georgia. My wife is right next to me, she’s looking at me crazy because it’s like 8 o’clock in the morning.”

James then had one final message, saying, “And let me not forget the most important: My haters. I just wanna say, I love you guys.”

James spent all day on Friday posting about the movie (and also how he does not like Almond Joys), so it’s probably safe to say he was in a pretty good mood over the face that he is now the second NBA player to star in a Space Jam.

ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Finals will look a little different between now and the end of the series. In a video posted to his Twitter account, Jay Williams, who is part of the NBA Countdown crew, revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, he’s quarantining in a hotel room for the foreseeable future while the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns play for the Larry O’Brien trophy.

“The last couple of days for me have been challenging,” Williams said. “But I wanted to be the first to tell you guys that you will not see me at Game 5, Game 6, or a potential Game 7 of the NBA Finals, because I have tested positive for COVID. I have received both my shots, I am fully vaccinated, but this is our new normal, this is the difficulty of navigating a different type of terrain here, like we all are.”

Williams mentioned that his daughter, who is 2.5, is immunosuppressed, and that as a result, he and his loved ones have been “overly-diligent, hyper-sensitive to COVID.” But regardless, he caught the novel coronavirus, which he hopes people take as a warning.

“This serves as a great reminder to me, my family, and hopefully all of you that we have to continue to be as diligent as possible,” Williams said.

There is no word on whether or not the Countdown crew will look to replace Williams for the remaining two or three games, or if they’ll roll with the three-person team of Jalen Rose, Maria Taylor, and Adrian Wojnarowski.

This past Friday, Pop Smoke’s team released the late rapper’s second posthumous album, Faith. It arrived a little over a year since his first effort, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, was released for fans. Altogether, Faith presents 20 songs with a boatload of guest acts, those being Pusha T, Kanye West, Rick Ross, The-Dream, 42 Dugg, 21 Savage, Rah Swish, Travi, Beam, Bizzy Banks, Takeoff, Lil Tjay, Swae Lee, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Quavo, and Kodak Black.

The project also sees an appearance from the late rapper’s mother, Audrey Jackson, who shared some words on the project’s intro track, “Good News.”

During a recent interview with Power 105.1 radio host Angie Martinez, Jackson admitted that “it’s easier” to hear her son on Faith. “He does sound different on this, his sound, his style, it’s different,” she said. Jackson also confessed that she has not listened to Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon yet. She later expressed that she’s “grateful” law enforcement arrested the individuals responsible for her son’s death.

“They’re off the streets, they’ve been caught,” she said. “They need to serve some time. Throwing them under the jail isn’t going to bring him back, taking their lives isn’t going to bring him back but as long as there’s a real consequence.”

The rapper’s brother, Obasi Jackson, also shared his gratitude for the arrests.

“I feel like they didn’t have to do what they did,” he said. “Now, you deserve the ultimate penalty.”

You can watch the full interview above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

While promotion has been in full swing for Dwayne Johnson’s Disney movie based on a theme park ride, he’s been all-in on filming Black Adam for the DC Universe. The superstar actor has hyped the movie up in a big way, and provided a number of updates about filming through social media messages from the set.

While many of his updates have essentially been extremely jacked photos of him with some teases of the costume he will wear, Johnson announcing that filming had wrapped included a different kind of tease fans of the larger DC Universe will certainly be interested to weigh.

On Friday, Johnson announced that Black Adam had wrapped filming, sharing a video of a speech he made to the cast and crew as things wound down on set. Johnson called it the “hardest undertaking of my entire career” both physically and mentally, but stressed that the experience was worth it in the end.

Interestingly, he teased that the “balance” of power in the DC Universe is about to change.

“The hierarchy of power in DC Universe is changing,” he wrote.

What that means for the actual story of the movie is about as vague as Johnson’s other posts about the movie because the source material is, well, complicated. But it’s the latest big tease from Johnson about a project he’s clearly excited about.

We’ll have to see what all that actually means when Black Adams hits theaters, which is currently scheduled for July 29, 2022.

The Milwaukee Bucks took care of business on their home floor in Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals. After the Phoenix Suns took the opening two games of the series in their building, things shifted to Milwaukee, where the Bucks picked up wins in both games and made the NBA Finals a best-of-3 series to determine a champion.

The two teams will square off on Saturday night in the first of those tilts, a Game 5 matchup at Phoenix Suns Arena, a building where the Suns have only lost twice this postseason. Perhaps this will make it easier for Phoenix to contain Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has been magnificent during the Finals, or perhaps it will help Chris Paul, who struggled mightily in Game 4, to find his form and help get the Suns one win away from a championship. Then again, if the Bucks can carry their recent play to an opposing building, it’s very easy to imagine them returning to their home court for Game 6 with the chance to life the Larry O’Brien trophy in front of their home fans.

Game 4 TV Info

Tip Time: Saturday, July 17; 9 p.m. ET
TV Network: ABC

Game 4 Betting Lines (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Series Prices: Suns (-145), Bucks (+125)
Spread: Suns -3.5 (-110), Bucks +3.5 (-110)
Total: Over 219 (-115), Under 219 (-105)
Money Line: Suns (-165), Bucks (+145)

Game 4 Player Scoring Props (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Bobby Portis O/U 6.5 (Over -105, Under -115)
Brook Lopez O/U 10.5 (-115, -105)
Cameron Johnson O/U 9.5 (+100, -120)
Cameron Payne O/U 7.5 (+100, -120)
Chris Paul O/U 21.5 (-105, -115)
Deandre Ayton O/U 15.5 (-115, -105)
Devin Booker O/U 28.5 (-110, -110)
Giannis Antetokounmpo O/U 33.5 (-110, -110)
Jae Crowder O/U 11.5 (-105, -115)
Jrue Holiday O/U 18.5 (-120, +100)
Khris Middleton O/U 24.5 (-120, +100)
Mikal Bridges O/U 10.5 (-110, -110)
P.J. Tucker O/U 4.5 (-120, +100)
Pat Connaughton O/U 8.5 (+105, -125)

Shohei Ohtani has taken over baseball this season, putting forth the kind of performance as a hitter and a pitcher that we’ve never seen before en route to being the frontrunner for the American League Most Valuable Player award. He parlayed this into a cameo in the Home Run Derby, and while he did not advance past the first round, Ohtani took his winnings and gave them back to the people in the Los Angeles Angels organization who make his life easier.

According to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, Ohtani, who lost in a swing-off in the first round to Juan Soto, took the $150,000 he won and split it evenly among 30 members of the Angels’ support staff. This wasn’t only because he pocketed the lowest-possible amount: Fletcher reports this was his plan regardless of where he finished.

Ohtani apparently decided that he was going to use the money in this way no matter what the outcome was. The Derby winner received $1 million, while the runner-up received $500,000.

Ohtani entered the Derby as the No. 1 overall seed, but fell in a thrilling first-round matchup to Soto — the pair were tied at 22 home runs each after the first round, then 28 after the first tiebreaker round. Soto went on to go 3-for-3 in the tiebreaker swing-off, while Ohtani failed to go yard with his first swing of the round. Currently, Ohtani leads Major League Baseball with 33 home runs.

Britney Spears scored a win in a court hearing this past week when a judge allowed her to retain a new lawyer of her choice, that being former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart. While the singer’s conservatorship stating that her conservator, her father Jamie Spears in this case, needs to approve any moves the singer attempts to make, Rosengart argued that it’s the singer’s constitutional right to have the lawyer of her choice and the judge agreed. It’s a small win in what will be a long journey for the singer as she hopes to remove her father from his conservator role and eventually end the conservatorship altogether.

As we wait for the next hearing in the conservatorship battle, Britney took a moment to call out some of the people closest to her in an Instagram post. Under an image that read, “Never forget who ignored you when you needed them and who helped you before you even had to ask,” the singer shared a piece of her mind in a lengthy caption.

“There’s nothing worse than when the people closest to you who never showed up for you post things in regard to your situation whatever it may be and speak righteously for support … there’s nothing worse than that!!!!” she began. “How dare the people you love the most say anything at all … did they even put a hand out to even lift me up at the TIME !!!??? How dare you make it public that NOW you CARE … did you put your hand out when I was drowning ????”

She continued her point further into the caption.

Again … NO … so if you’re reading this and you know who you are … and you actually have the nerve to say anything about my situation just to save face for yourself publicly !!! If you’re gonna post something …. Please stop with the righteous approach when you’re so far from righteous it’s not even funny …. [middle finger emojis] and have a good day !!!!! and have a good day !!!!! PS if you’re reading this today and you can relate …. I’m sorry because I know what it’s like … and I send you my love.

You can check out Britney’s post above.

It’s been more than two years since DaBaby shot into the mainstream rap spotlight with his breakout single “Suge,” an effort that peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard singles chart in 2019. The North Carolina native would then go on to share two back-to-back chart-topping albums with 2019’s Kirk and 2020’s Blame It On Baby.

While some may be iffy about his music nowadays, there’s no denying the success the rapper has attained over the years. And during a recent interview with Complex, DaBaby reflected on his a few moments during come-up which included one time when he learned that Beyoncé was a fan of his music.

“I remember when Beyoncé walked up to me at Diddy crib and told me she was a fan of my music,” he said to Complex’s Speedy Morman. “Told me she loved what I’m doing. That was dope. I’m like, ‘OK, this Beyoncé, you get what I’m saying?’ Diddy too, that was dope too, he reached out to me…He hold me close to him when he reach out to me.”

During the interview, he also confirmed that fans can expect a new project in the near future. “Another single before the album,” he said before adding, “definitely a new album on the way!” The new single would follow last month’s “Red Light Green Light” and “Ball If I Want To” as well as January’s “Masterpiece.”

The drama between a pair of Roc-A-Fella Records co-founders continues as a judge delivered a new ruling this past week. The label was created more than 25 years ago by Jay-Z, Dame Dash, and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, but recently, Dash sought to sell his one-third stake in the company, a move that Jay-Z is reportedly trying to stop. According to TMZ, Dash recently learned about a meeting that was set to take place between Jay-Z and Burke on Friday and quickly sought to have the meeting stopped by a judge. Unfortunately for Dash, the judge denied his request and told him to file a lawsuit at a later date if he was not pleased with the outcome of the meeting.

This comes less than a month after a judge blocked Dash’s attempt to sell an NFT of Jay-Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt. According to The Hollywood Reporter, U.S. District Court Judge John Cronan signed off on a temporary restraining order to the label. Dash denies trying to auction an NFT of Reasonable Doubt, but his partner in the business move, SuperFarm, announced the auction “of Damon‘s ownership of the copyright to Jay-Z’s first album Reasonable Doubt. This marks a new milestone in the history of NFT’s, entitling the new owner to future revenue generated by the unique asset.”

As for Dash’s attempt to sell his one-third stake in Roc-A-Fella, he claims that Jay-Z offered to buy his portion of the label back in March, but it was at “a price I deemed unacceptable.” As a result, Dash was left to find a more suitable buyer for his Roc-A-Fella stake.

On his seventh attempt in the Pacific Skateboard Vert Best Trick competition at this year’s Summer X-Games, 12-year-old Gui Khury pulled off an unreal 1080 spin move in the halfpipe to win the gold medal.

It is the first such trick ever to be pulled off in competition, and Khury is the youngest gold medalist in the history of the X-Games.

To make things even better for Khury, he pulled off the trick right in front of the legendary Tony Hawk, likely making a surreal win even more incredible for the young Brazilian skateboarder.

The part you might miss from the highlight is that the 53-year-old Hawk was not just in attendance or there for kicks. The legend was himself competing in the Vert Best Trick competition, meaning Khury beat Hawk for the win.

As Michelle Bruton explains at Forbes, Khury last year became the first skater ever to land a 1080 on a traditional sized vert ramp, and this was his first time landing it in competition. To be sure, this kid seems like the future of skating, already bending gravity and reaching unprecedented heights before he hits his teenage years. To land this groundbreaking trick in front of Hawk, a legend dipping his toes back in, makes the full-circle moment all the more special.