Month: August 2021

Most any rookie would love to follow in the footsteps of Zion Williamson and replicate just about anything he’s done on the basketball court, but for Lakers’ rookie Chaundee Brown out of Michigan, he had the rare Zion-esque moment on the court at Summer League no player wants to have happen.

During the Lakers matchup with the Knicks on Thursday night, Brown blew through his shoe — somewhat ironically Zion’s signature sneaker with Jordan — as he planted on defense trying to apply backcourt pressure to Obi Toppin. Maybe most impressive is Brown continued to play despite his foot sticking out of his shoe, ultimately fouling Toppin as he was a bit overzealous before strolling to the bench to get a replacement.

Williamson rather famously had a shoe explode at Duke causing him a minor injury and forcing him to miss his the majority of his first game against UNC, leading to Nike going straight to the manufacturer to try and figure out how to build him a shoe that would work for his power. That it’s Zion’s signature with Jordan that produced the same result for Brown is a fascinating coincidence. Happily, Brown did not suffer any knee tweak or ankle issue with the shoe explosion and was able to keep playing once he got a fresh pair on his feet.

Just seven months after sharing his debut album, Virgo World, Lil Tecca returned with a string of singles, including “Show Me Up,” “Never Left,” “Money On Me,” and his most recent track, “Repeat It” with Gunna. The latter, which is the rappers’ first collaboration, finds them both bragging about the multiple ways they can flex their wealth. Days after the single was released, Tecca debuts an accompanying video for it.

Filled with bright, fluorescent colors, it shows Tecca riding confidently in a luxury vehicle before joining Gunna for a small party, where they’re surrounded by a cast of women.

Tecca’s brand new video arrives after he announced his next project, We Love You Tecca 2, is on the way. A release date for the upcoming full-length effort had not yet been shared, but from the looks of it, fans won’t have to wait too long for Tecca’s next body of work. Gunna, on the other hand, recently joined Polo G for their latest collaboration, “Waves.”

You can watch the video for “Repeat It” above.

We Love You Tecca 2 is out soon via Galatic/Republic. Pre-order it here.

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

Following months of vague tweets that hinted at new music, The Weeknd has officially kicked off a new era in his career. It’s expected that the singer will share his next body of work within the next few months. In a GQ profile earlier this month, The Weeknd shared what can be expected on the new album. “The music hit the studio like a Mack truck,” he declared. “The new project is packed with party records. Like real-deal, illuminated-white-tiles-on-the-floor party records. Quincy Jones meets Giorgio Moroder meets the best-night-of-your-f*cking-life party records.”

Just a week after the GQ profile dropped, The Weeknd shared additional inspirations for the project through his Apple Music radio show. The most recent episode of Momento Mori, whose description promised he would play “a mix of music that showcases tracks inspiring the new Dawn era,” found him tapping into the catalogs of several artists. This includes Britney Spears, as he played “Everytime” and “Toxic” from her 2003 album In The Zone.

Other tracks that were aired during the episode came from artists that include Nas, Swedish House Mafia, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Tyler, the Creator.

Elsewhere in the episode, he shared an update on the state of his next album. “Album is pretty much done,” he said. “Just doing some final tweaks, some mixing notes, additional vocals.”

Despite being viewed as one of the four-best players in the 2021 NBA Draft, Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs found himself on the outside looking in as the Toronto Raptors opted to take Scottie Barnes No. 4 overall. It’s hardly a knock on Barnes — who should thrive in Toronto’s vaunted player development program — but there were some eyebrows raised over the former Gonzaga standout seeing himself take the smallest of falls.

Toronto’s decision made the lives of the Orlando Magic brass all the easier. Despite having a handful of guards on the roster, the team opted to take Suggs with the No. 5 pick on Draft night, giving the team the kind of potential franchise-changing guard they’ve lacked for quite a while. After a strong opener against the Warriors, Suggs followed that up on Wednesday, flashing the skills that make him the kind of prospect Orlando has been seeking for years — even if the Magic were unable to beat Evan Mobley and the Cleveland Cavaliers,

Suggs’ strength and athleticism are high on the list of his defining traits. At 6’4 and 205, Suggs is big for the position, and with his athleticism, he’s able to put this all together on occasion to make the spectacular happen. Take, for instance, this tip slam over Lamar Stevens of the Cavaliers — Suggs comes flying in from behind the three-point line to clean up a miss by Janis Timma and elevated far above Stevens for the slam.

Later he had another dunk, borne out of Suggs’ ability to move around, find space, and exploit it when the opportunity presents itself. Jaylen Hands was put into the awkward situation of trying to play help defense without knowing that Timma freed up an acre of space by cutting to the ball. Suggs slides into that space, got the ball from Cole Anthony, and immediately attacked the rim, throwing down as Trevon Bluiett made a business decision.

Beyond his athleticism, Suggs’ ability to set teammates up made a few cameos as well. A former highly-regarded quarterback prospect, Suggs threw a pair of dimes to fellow rookie Franz Wagner. The latter was simply reacting to a scramble in which Wagner was able to get behind the free throw line with no one anywhere near him, but the former is perhaps more impressive, as Suggs used a Jon Teske screen to get into the paint and made a live dribble pass to Wagner for an easy lay-in.

The swing skill, the one that will determine whether or not he ascends to stardom or (in all likelihood) is a very good player, is going to be his jumper. While his shot is hardly broken — he connected on 76.1 percent of his free throws during his one year at Gonzaga and showed a propensity for being able to hit shots in the midrange — he went an underwhelming 35-for-104 (33.7 percent) from deep. He was not a killer from downtown against the Cavs, going 2-for-6 from deep, but he did hit a pull-up three early on that looked good from the moment it left his hand.

On the day, Suggs went for 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and a steal in 26 minutes of work. Like most young guards at Summer League, he was hardly perfect — a 6-for-13 from the field with three turnovers — but the flashes of being the exact player that a team like the Magic need were there. His final test before Summer League moves to its next phase will be his toughest, as the team will play Jalen Green, Josh Christopher, and the Houston Rockets on Sunday.

DVSN and Ty Dolla Sign delivered two of last year’s most impressive R&B releases. The former dropped A Muse In Their Feelings, which arrived with features from Future, Jessie Reyez, Popcaan, Snoh Aalegra, and others. Meanwhile Ty Dolla Sign dropped his third album, Featuring Ty Dolla Sign, with contributions from Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Roddy Ricch, Future, Young Thug, and more. Now, the two are bringing their skills together for a brand new joint album.

On Wednesday, DVSN and Ty Dolla Sign revealed that their upcoming collaboration, Cheers To The Best Memories, will arrive on August 20. They also unveiled the cover art, which depicts a collage of black and white photos from a party. No additional details for Cheers To The Best Memories were revealed, but in the meantime, there’s always the album’s lead single, “I Believed It,” which also features Mac Miller.

The upcoming album will not be the first time DVSN and Ty have worked together. The two collaborated for the first time ever on “Dangerous City” from A Muse In Their Feelings.

Cheers To The Best Memories is out 8/20 via OVO Sound/Warner Records.

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

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a Republican for about as long as he’s been an American. He even took over The Apprentice from the 45th president. But he and Trump had a falling out, in part because the actor-turned-pol became one of the too few GOP-ers who had enough of his crap. While many Republicans are struggling to figure out how to balance downplaying the pandemic with keeping their supporters from dying preventable deaths, the occasional Terminator is not mincing words: If you’re against masks, you’re a “schmuck” who doesn’t understand freedom.

In an interview on Tuesday with CNN’s Bianna Golodryga and former National Security Council staffer (and key Trump impeachment witness) Alexander Vindman Schwarzenegger railed against two things: COVID misinformation and anti-vaxxers who don’t seem to care that their actions could affect others.

“A year and a half later, we are still in a mess and there are still people living in denial,” Schwarzenegger said. “There are still people that don’t believe in masks, there are still people out there who say, ‘Well, we don’t have to do social distancing,‘ and all this kind of stuff.”

Schwarzenegger had had it with people who weren’t taking their health, or those of others they may impact, seriously:

“The only way we prevent it is we get vaccinated, we wear masks, we do social distancing, washing your hands all of the time, and not just to think about, ‘Well, my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom. Because with freedom comes obligations and responsibilities.

He then pointed out that there are plenty of everyday rules you can’t opt out of just because you feel they infringe upon your rights to do whatever you want:

“You cannot just say, ‘I have the right to do x, y, and z,’ when you affect other people. That is when it gets serious. It’s like, no different than a traffic light. They put the traffic light in the intersection so someone doesn’t kill someone else by accident. You cannot say, ‘No one is going to tell me that I’m going to stop here, I’m going to go right through it.’ Yeah, then you kill someone else. It is the same thing with the virus. You cannot go and not put the mask on because when you breathe you can infect someone else, and you can infect someone that then gets sick and may die.”

But he tried to stay positive, preaching unity. “So this is why I think we all have to work together on this,” he said. “We have to come together rather than fighting and always just saying, ‘According to my principles this is a free country and I have the freedom to wear no mask.’ Yeah, you have the freedom to wear no mask, but you know something? You’re a schmuck for not wearing a mask.”

Of course, far right blogs, when they see a more traditional Republican saying “screw your freedom,” will probably take it out of context and use it to gin up outrage with their base — who, again, are all pointlessly risking their lives while ensuring a virus stays alive long enough to keep mutating, endangering us all. But that’s not the kind of freedom he’s talking about, and it’s not the kind that’s going to ensure that we all get through this.

You can watch the full chat below.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Imagine deciding to take up a hobby that usually requires many years to perfect at age 35, and three years later ending up in the top 30 in the world at the highest international competition for it.

That’s what happened to a 38-year-old math and physics teacher from Diepenbeek, Belgium. According to Netherlands News Live, Mieke Gorissen has jogged 10km (a little over six miles) a few times a week for exercise for many years. But in 2018, she decided to hire a running trainer to improve her technique. As it turned out, she was a bit of a natural at distance running.

Three years later, Gorissen found herself running her third marathon. But not just any old marathon (as if there were such a thing)—the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics. And not only did she compete with the world’s most elite group of runners, she came in 28th out of the 88 competing in the race.

With the heat and humidity in Tokyo, even completing the race was a major accomplishment. (Fifteen women competing did not finish the marathon.) But to come in in the top 30 when you just started focusing on distance running three years ago? Unbelievable.

In fact, Gorissen could hardly believe it herself. A video of her reaction upon hearing her results has gone viral for its purity and genuine humility. “No,” she said when a reporter told her she came in 28th in the race. “That’s not possible.”

Then she burst into tears.

Belgian marathoner reached 28th place At the Olympics, but she didn’t believe that!

www.youtube.com

Her emotional disbelief is so moving. “I was already happy to finish the race,” she said through sobs. “I do think I have reached my goal and that I can be happy.”

“I also think I lost a toenail,” she added, laughing.

Even after the English translation ends in the video, it’s clear how much this finish meant to her. A remarkable accomplishment for a 38-year-old who knits and reads for fun and who has only run two marathons prior to competing in the Olympics.

According to her Olympic profile, she’s glad she got started with distance running later in life. “If I started running in my teens, it wouldn’t have been good for me,” she said. “I wasn’t really happy then, I would have been too hard on myself and I would have lost myself in it in a way that wasn’t healthy. It came at exactly the right time.”

Congratulations, Mieke. You’ve given us all the inspiration to set new goals and dream bigger than we ever thought possible.

It’s been almost three weeks since Kanye West meant to — but didn’t — drop his tenth album, Donda. The rapper previously said the album, which he first announced last summer, would arrive on July 23, 2021, following a listening session at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. While the event went as planned, the album was not released — and still hasn’t been, even after a second listening event. Donda currently has a tentative release day of Friday, August 13, but fans will have to wait until that day to see if it actually drops. But it seems that the project has been a success, at least for him, even though he has yet to even release the album.

According to Billboard, West’s second listening event for Donda, which occurred on August 5, set a new livestream record on Apple Music, garnering 5.4 million viewers. That number is still short of the 6.1 million people that watched the 2020 Primetime Emmys last September, which makes the second Donda listening session one of the most-watched livestream events within the past year. The second livestream also amassed some $7 million in revenue thanks to in-person purchases made at the stadium.

In the meantime, it’s been reported that “Hurricane,” a track from Donda with The Weeknd and Lil Baby, could arrive as the first single for the album.

Rand Paul has been one of the most COVID-skeptic members of the GOP, known for getting schooled by Dr. Anthony Fauci and for spreading misinformation so severe it’s gotten him suspended from YouTube. But behind the scenes he’s a little different. According to The Washington Post, the Republican senator’s wife bought stock in a drug that wound up being used to battle the virus that has engulfed the planet. And the public is only finding out about it 16 months later.

The Post reports that back in late February, Paul’s wife Kelley brought stock in Gilead Sciences, the company behind Remdesivir, which, months later, was administered to then-president Donald J. Trump after he tested positive for the disease. Initially invented to combat hepatitis C drug and later tested for possible use against other illnesses, including Ebola, the drug was granted emergency use by the FDA as a possible treatment against COVID. Shortly after it was granted full approval, that status was rescinded after a WHO-sponsored study raised doubts about its efficacy.

Kelley Paul’s investment wasn’t very large; it was reportedly between $1,000 and $15,000. She also claimed she lost money on it, which she had made with her own earnings. But her husband only reporting it now greatly exceeds the deadline put in place by the Stock Act, which is designed to stop insider trading. That deadline is 45 days; Paul took 16 months.

At least, as per the Post, he had an excuse:

Kelsey Cooper, a spokeswoman for Paul, said the senator completed a reporting form for his wife’s investment last year, but learned only recently, while preparing an annual disclosure, that the form had not been transmitted. He sought guidance from the Senate Ethics Committee, she said, and filed the supplemental report along with an annual disclosure Wednesday.

The timing of Paul’s wife’s investment was questionable in another way. Though she invested before the pandemic hit the U.S., Remdesivir was backed a mere two days before her purchase, by a WHO assistant director-general who had claimed that it “may have real efficacy” in treating the disease. Joshua Mitts, an expert in securities law at Columbia University, told the Post that the purchase “may have exploited knowledge of the impending pandemic.”

Eight days after his wife purchased stock in a company responsible for a drug seen as a potential treatment against a virus about to take over the U.S., Paul cast the only Senate vote against an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to combat the outbreak. Later he became the first U.S. senator to test positive for COVID. And last week he released a video in which he claimed, contrary to all medical advice, that wearing masks doesn’t stop transmission.

(Via The Post)

Three of the Trump allies who threw their reputations, their fortunes, and their fates in general in with the former president had a rude awakening on Wednesday. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, and Sidney Powell attempted to get the billion-dollar lawsuits filed against each of them tossed by a federal judge. And those endeavors all ended in miserable failure.

As per Reuters, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington D.C. has declared that the lawsuits against Giuliani, Lindell, and Powell filed by Dominion Voting Systems — which were each $1.3 billion dollars apiece — could move forward, despite their attempts to shoot them down. Each one is accused of defamation, having spread, as per the suits, false information about 2020 election, including that the voting booth company was involved in a massive conspiracy to rig the results.

Nichols singled out one of their arguments — that what they said was protected under the First Amendment — for scorn, saying free speech offers them “no blanket immunity.”

A lawyer for Powell — herself a lawyer, who joined and then left the Trump team, and who was initially billed as “the Krakken” — told Reuters they were confident about moving forward, and that what his client said was “accurate and certainly not published with malice.” Her defense in the past has been that “no reasonable person” would have believed her claims.

This is bad news for all of them, but perhaps for Giuliani most of all. The former NYC mayor has reportedly not received any financial help from his client, nor from most of his circle. Those closest to the former president haven’t so much as even re-tweeted Giuliani’s legal fund, which has raised barely nothing, even as he’s drowned in legal fees, on top of this billion dollar lawsuit — all for things he did for Trump.

Dominion, meanwhile, has kept filing lawsuits. They filed two more on Tuesday, one against One America News Network, the other against Newsmax Media Inc, for their role in spreading voter fraud misinformation involving them. The company has reportedly not ruled out the possibility of going after Trump, too.

(Via Reuters)