Month: September 2021

Though the campaign did not end the way the organization wanted, the New York Knicks enjoyed breakout success in 2020-21. Despite meager preseason expectations, the Knicks earned home-court advantage in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs, riding Julius Randle’s tremendous play and a high-end defense engineered by Tom Thibodeau to a 41-31 record. New York did exit the postseason quietly and quickly, though, leading to some high-profile changes to the roster as the 2021-22 season arrives.

Roster:

RJ Barrett
Alec Burks
Evan Fournier
Taj Gibson
Quentin Grimes
Kevin Knox
Miles McBride
Nerlens Noel
Immanuel Quickley
Julius Randle
Mitchell Robinson
Derrick Rose
Jericho Sims (two-way)
Obi Toppin
Luca Vildoza
Kemba Walker

Projected Vegas Win Total: 41.5 wins

Biggest Addition: Kemba Walker

New York had money to spend and they used it to beef up their offense. Walker essentially fell in their lap after a buyout with the Thunder and, instead of making a max salary, Walker is now slotted in at around the mid-level exception. As such, he won’t necessarily be expected to carry the type of workload he did in Charlotte and early in his Boston tenure, and Walker has still been a very potent offensive creator when healthy. New York may want to be careful with his deployment (something that isn’t a staple under Thibodeau), but Walker and Evan Fournier raise the Knicks’ offensive ceiling considerably.

Biggest Loss: Reggie Bullock

The Knicks are basically bringing the band back other than Bullock. New York clearly upgraded in talent with Walker, Fournier and a bunch of intriguing draft picks, but Bullock will be a loss for them. He was a two-way wing on a team that didn’t have many last year, and Bullock’s shooting was highly valuable for the Knicks.

Biggest Question: Can the Knicks’ defense hold up?

New York flirted with the No. 1 defense in the league for parts of last season, and finished at No. 4 overall while allowing fewer than 1.08 points per possession. That was the clear impetus in the team’s success but, even as Walker and Fournier will undoubtedly help their offense, those two players won’t be positives defensively. Can Thibodeau overcome that downgrade in defensive aptitude? That is a big question, especially considering New York’s statistical profile didn’t always look like a top-five unit last year.

What Makes This Season A Success

It isn’t realistic to pencil in the Knicks for a return to a top-four seed. The Hawks, Heat and Celtics (in addition to the returning top three) are projected for more wins, and the East is quite deep. Instead, New York simply returning to the playoffs would be a success. That may not please everyone, but the Knicks still don’t have quite the top-to-bottom strength of other franchises, and showing competence in back-to-back seasons would go a long way.

What Makes This Season A Failure

Even if it’s unfair, going from a top-four seed to missing the playoffs wouldn’t feel good for New York. It is wild to say, but it is at least possible the Knicks could be just as good as last year’s team from a metric standpoint, only to end up in the play-in and out of the final eight-team mix. If Randle takes a step back from his breakout form, the Knicks could scuffle, and Thibodeau also has a tendency to wear out his welcome a bit after the first year or two. New York is better on paper than they were last season, but a lot can change.

In a damning set of internal documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is shown to have aggressively pursued avenues to get children to use its Messenger Kids app while on play dates. According to the documents, Facebook was troubled by its findings that when kids are together they verbally communicate and interact with each other instead of using their phones, which hello, yes, they’re children. Unfortunately, Facebook saw this natural occurrence as a challenge and began looking into ways for “leveraging play dates to drive word of hand/growth.” Actual phrasing. Via WSJ:

Internal Facebook documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show the company formed a team to study preteens, set a three-year goal to create more products for them and commissioned strategy papers about the long-term business opportunities presented by these potential users. In one presentation, it contemplated whether there might be a way to engage children during play dates.

“Why do we care about tweens?” said one document from 2020. “They are a valuable but untapped audience.”

For the record, tweens are categorized as ages 10 through 12, so we’re talking elementary school students who Facebook hopes to convert into power users who stare at phone screens instead of laughing and playing while with their friends. Real tobacco executive vibes on display here.

The WSJ report arrives on the heels of Facebook putting its plan for “Instagram Kids” on hold after facing a wide array of backlash. Learning that the tech company has been trying to “leverage play dates” into high vectors of user growth [or some corporate gobbeldy gook here] probably isn’t going to help things. Call it a hunch.

(Via Wall Street Journal)

After dropping the 2020 album Confetti, Little Mix‘s Jesy Nelson announced she was officially parting ways as a member of the girl group. The singer, who formed Little Mix on The X-Factor in 2011, after feeling the “constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard.” But it looks like Nelson already has plans to jump start her solo career — and it’s with a very high-profile collaboration.

It all started when Nelson cleared all the posts on her Instagram feed and posted a teaser vaguely promising a “new chapter” for the musician. On Tuesday, Nelson returned to preview what exactly she has in store for her new chapter, and it involves a joint track called “Boyz” with none other than Nicki Minaj.

Nelson and Minaj both shared some behind-the-scenes footage of a dance practice. The end of the clip features a snippet of Minaj in a faux British accent rapping the hook: “It’s the UK baddie and the Barbie.” “Do you think they’re ready for this?” Nelson asked Minaj in the teaser’s caption.

Neither Nelson nor Minaj have offered insight into when “Boyz” is expected to see a release. But the song’s announcement arrives shortly after Minaj made her first public appearance in over two years on stage at Lil Baby’s LA tour stop. Minaj returned to the stage to perform her verses from “Seeing Green” and BIA’s “Whole Lotta Money” remix.

Rick Ross is a man of means, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to save money. Recently the “Rich Forever” rapper revealed that he even mows his own lawn — despite it being huge — to cut down on monthly expenses. It’s a good thing, too, because he just got hit with a new monthly bill that would have some crying poor. According to TMZ, Ross must pay $11,000 a month to the mother of three of his children, Briana Singleton.

In addition, he also agreed to pay $25,000 for Singleton’s attorney in the dispute, along with health insurance and extracurricular activities, which could add up to around $7,500. He may also be required to add annual payments for up to $3,000 per child. However, with an income listed by TMZ at about $585,000/month, the “biggest boss that you’ve seen thus far” shouldn’t be set back too much.

In any event, at least one of his kids (he has four, three with Singleton) likely won’t be needing it in the future. For his son William’s 16th birthday, Ross signed over one of his Wingstop franchises, making the teen a young boss in his own right. Meanwhile, while the younger William just became eligible to get his driver’s license, the elder one only just got his own, despite owning over 100 cars.

One of the fun things about media days around the NBA is young players get the opportunity to introduce themselves to the general public. It’ll occasionally lead to fun moments like what happened on Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles, when basketball fans learned that one of the undrafted free agents signed by the Lakers has a nickname that’ll surely appeal him to the L.A. faithful.

Austin Reaves, who had a productive collegiate career at two schools, was asked how he got the nickname “Hillbilly Kobe.” As he tells it, he earned it after he joined Oklahoma from Wichita State, when one of the team’s managers bestowed it upon him.

“My first year at Oklahoma, we had a GA named Anthony Rini,” Reaves said. “He came up to me one day and was like, ‘I figured it out,’ and I was like, ‘What’re you even talkin’ about?’ And he was like ‘HBK,’ and I was like, ‘What?’ and he was like, ‘Hillbilly Kobe.’”

He went on to explain that one of his teammates heard it and it managed to just follow him around for the rest of his time at Norman. As for which part of nickname better applies to him, Reaves said it’s a 50/50 thing — while not a hillbilly, he grew up on a farm in Arkansas, and he was a Kobe fan growing up.

Reaves was a first-team All-Big 12 selection during his final year at Oklahoma, averaging 18.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.6 assists in 34.5 minutes per game for the Sooners. While he went undrafted, the team recently signed him to a standard contract after signing a two-way deal prior to Summer League.

When Scarlett Johansson sued The Walt Disney Company for giving Black Widow a day-and-date release on Disney+, which weakened the Marvel star’s back-end deal on theatrical profits, it became one of those hotly watched showdowns in the entertainment industry. Regardless of the outcome, the lawsuit has already become a sticking point in negotiations as studios navigate the tricky waters of streaming releases that upend distribution models and directly impact how much talent will get paid. (Warner Bros. decision to put its entire 2021 film slate on HBO Max has already cost the studio its relationship with Christopher Nolan.)

Despite not having a dog in this particular, specific fight, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos couldn’t help but chime in on the Black Widow lawsuit during Tuesday’s Code Conference in Beverly Hills, and he not so subtly let filmmakers and actors know which streaming service has their back. Via Deadline:

At one point, pressed by Swisher, Sarandos ventured a glimpse of his take on the big-bucks legal battle between Disney and Black Widow’s Scarlett Johansson over hybrid release windows and profit participation. “I watch these things as a spectator — I would have said this or said that,” he admitted. “I’m fortunate that we have not been in those shoes.”

Throwing out another bit of red meat for the business and tech crowd in the ballroom and watching online, Sarandos added: “Talent has to be respected and compensated.”

As studios struggle with shrinking theatrical windows and attempt to launch their own in-house streaming services with varying levels of success, Netflix has been poaching top talent like Johansson’s Marvel cohorts, the Russo Brothers, who launched the successful Extraction franchise with Thor star Chris Hemsworth.

As for Netflix’s strategy, it seems pretty simple, and Sarandos isn’t exactly being shy about it: Show them the money.

(Via Deadline)

Hailing from the sparsely populated UK island Isle of Wight, indie duo Wet Leg drummed up excitement earlier this year after signing to Domino Records and issuing the buzzing single “Chaise Lounge.” After earning millions of streams and cosigns from the likes of Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Iggy Pop and Florence Welch, Wet Leg now share the playful single “Wet Dream” and unveil dates to their first-ever North American tour.

“Wet Dream” mirrors the tongue-in-cheek lyrics heard on Wet Leg’s previous single. The duo fire-off verses about being the subject of a wet dream as jangly guitars and quick-tempoed percussion give the song a driving beat.

Despite the song’s sultry theme, Wet Leg say the single is actually their version of a break-up song, inspired by one of vocalist Rhian Teasdale’s exes. “‘Wet Dream’ is a breakup song; it came about when one of my ex’s went through a stage of texting me after we’d broken up telling me that ‘he had a dream about me,’” she said.

Watch Wet Leg’s “Wet Dream” video above and check out their 2021 North America tour dates below.

12/08 — Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
12/14 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Moroccan Lounge
12/15 — San Francisco, CA @ Popscene at Rickshaw Shop

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

During his time in office, Donald Trump became infamous for his ill-controlled temper.

From Twitter rants to shouting matches with the White House press corps and detailed accounts from aides that recounted his worst public meltdowns, Trump had anger issues. But according to a new book coming from former White House press secretary and the First Lady’s Chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham, those within his inner circle developed some strange ways of soothing the overgrown toddler during his worst tantrums.

In I’ll Take Your Questions Now, Grisham reveals that the administration had a designated “Music Man” whose job was to follow Trump around the White House and play show tunes whenever he seemed to be spiraling into a fit of rage. Though Grisham doesn’t name the aide in question, The New York Times reports that her ex-boyfriend, Max Miller, is the unlucky employee charged with serving as Trump’s meditation DJ. Apparently, the former president’s preferred wind-down music was anything Broadway, specifically Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical stylings in Cats.

Trump reportedly required an aide to play the song “Memory” from the musical if staff hoped to stave off a future blow-up which tracks, seeing as he’s been issued cease-and-desist orders by Weber in the past for using some of his Broadway tunes at rallies. (Les Mis producer Cameron Macintosh also objected to the Trump campaign’s intended use of the musical’s revolutionary ballad “Do You Hear The People Sing?” during rallies in 2016.)

This isn’t the strangest revelation from Grisham’s book — that honor belongs to a story she tells about Trump refusing to go under anesthesia for a colonoscopy because he didn’t want to put Vice President Mike Pence in charge for a few hours — but it does raise some interesting questions. Chief among them: Has Trump seen Tom Hooper’s butthole cut?

(Via New York Times)

The Guardians of the Galaxy movies have a sarcastic raccoon; a green girl; a blue guy; a bug lady; shirtless Dave Bautista; and a walking tree voiced by Vin Diesel. What more could you want? If you’re the person who has messaged James Gunn every day for the past two years, a ferret.

“This person has been messaging me on IG multiple times a week for well over two years,” the Guardians and The Suicide Squad writer and director tweeted, adding photographic proof of the fan’s request. It reads, “So will u put a FERRET in GOTG3? (I KNOW YOU SAW THIS) I’m from STL too, do it for the HOMIES!”

Come on, James Gunn, add a ferret to Guardians 3 for the homies in St. Louis!

My Marvel knowledge is rusty, but apparently there’s a detective nicknamed “The Ferret” in the comics. “Dennis Piper eventually changed careers and became a private detective/crime writer under the assumed name Leslie Lenrow. His detective work earned him the nickname ‘Ferret’ for his ability to ‘ferret’ out criminals,” the Marvel Fandom wiki reads. “He often beat the local police in solving crimes, gaining him some notoriety with the police. He adopted a pet Ferret named Nosey who sometimes helped him in his cases.” A crime-solving ferret? Think of all the wacky adventures he and Rocket could go on. In fact, give them a standalone movie. Chris Pratt is busy anyway.

As for the identity of the ferret demander:

I guess I’ll have to re-watch Loki to see if there’s a Ferret Loki.

(Via Insider)

Dave Grohl has a colorful and active past in the music industry, and in a new Rolling Stone interview, he revealed he was once album a member of GWAR. However, GWAR has a different (not so serious) story, claiming that Grohl actually did join the band only to be fired a few minutes later.

As a reminder, Grohl said:

“GWAR were looking for a drummer. And I talked to their guitar player Dewey about it. And he’s like, it’s great, and you get to design your own costume. As drummer, you don’t want something that covers your face fully. You want your arms to be free. So I was like cool. So I started kind of drawing this thing. At the time GWAR was a band that would draw like 700 people, right? Which is huge. And then the more I thought about it, am I really gonna invite my uncle to see me play when there’s like fake blood and cum shooting all over the place?”

In response, GWAR’s Michael Bishop, in character as Blothar The Berserker, told Consequence, “Grohl remembers this ALL wrong! He used to hang around the track with all the other young punks jacked on gak. This is back before he lost all his teeth. We hired him and then called him back immediately and fired him. He was in the band for around 7 and a half minutes. He was holding us back.”

Then, Bishop, as himself, gave a more serious recounting of events, saying, “Our guitar player Dewey (Flattus Maximus) was booking shows in Richmond at the time, and we had all seen Dave play with his bands Dain Bramage and later on in Scream. He was already one of the greatest, hardest hitting drummers I had ever seen. He still is. Dewey called and started the conversation with him about joining GWAR. I was stoked because I played bass at the time, and I would have loved to jam with him. Just think, he could have been working his ass off playing drums in a rubber monster suit all these years. Boy did he make the wrong choice.”