Month: September 2021

The Weeknd has earned himself another unique award to add to his growing trophy case. The singer recently received the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award which is an honor given through the Black Music Action Coalition. The Weeknd received the award during the Music In Action Awards in Los Angeles on Friday and organizers labeled the Canadian singer as someone who used their status to “call attention to racial and social injustice and raise awareness globally.”

In his acceptance speech for the award, The Weeknd was pushed to tears as he reflected on the first time he met the legendary Quincy Jones.

“I actually first met Quincy Jones in Vegas a long time ago,” The Weeknd said after watching a video from Jones himself. “He pulled up to one of my club shows, and when I got off stage, he was waiting on the side. I was so excited to meet him, and there were fans on the other side screaming and trying to get my attention, but I was so focused on him.”

It was here that Jones taught The Weeknd a lesson that he’d forever carry with him.

“[Quincy] said, ‘Go take pictures, sign autographs, and I’ll still be here waiting. They’re just more important,’” The Weeknd added. “And it stuck with me until this day. He was teaching me a lesson in that moment that nothing is more important than the people, and giving back is always better than receiving.”

To conclude his speech, The Weeknd labeled the honor as the “best award I’ve ever gotten in my life” as he wiped away tears.

You can watch his acceptance speech in the video above.

Despite a breakout season that saw Jerami Grant average 22.3 points per game as the team’s focal point, the Detroit Pistons struggled to an unsightly 20-52 record during the 2020-21 NBA season. Detroit underachieve when compared to its point differential, meaning they were probably a bit better than their record indicated, but the losses helped to pave the way to a lottery win and Cade Cunningham coming to the Pistons in the 2021 NBA Draft. Elsewhere, the Pistons churned through their roster a bit, but they will now build around Cunningham, with intriguing veterans like Grant and Kelly Olynyk to go along with youngsters in Isaiah Stewart, Saddiq Bey, and Killian Hayes.

Roster:

Saddiq Bey
Cade Cunningham
Hamidou Diallo
Luka Garza
Jerami Grant
Killian Hayes
Frank Jackson
Josh Jackson
Cory Joseph
Saben Lee
Isaiah Livers
Trey Lyles
Rodney McGruder
Kelly Olynyk
Chris Smith
Isaiah Stewart
Derrick Walton

Projected Vegas Win Total: 25.5 wins

Biggest Addition: Cade Cunningham

When a team adds the No. 1 overall pick, this answer becomes easy. The Pistons aren’t in “win-now” mode for the 2021-22 season, and they didn’t break the bank elsewhere, so there isn’t much competition for Cunningham in this space other than from Kelly Olynyk. Beyond that, the Pistons are hoping beyond hope that Cunningham is the franchise player that can lead the next generation in Detroit, and he profiles as a top pick that should translate relatively quickly given his shooting, high-end feel and defensive aptitude.

Biggest Loss: Miles Plumlee

No player started more games (56) for the Pistons last season than Plumlee. While it would be fair to point out that he isn’t a dominant starting center by any stretch, Plumlee is easily the best player that left Detroit in the offseason, and it isn’t a lock that they will fully replace his production. Isaiah Stewart is clearly the center of the future for the Pistons and Kelly Olynyk provides valuable offensive versatility, both of which should help to soften the blow.

Biggest Question: What’s happening with Killian Hayes?

Before Cunningham arrived, the Pistons used a 2020 lottery pick on a lead guard prospect in Hayes. His rookie season didn’t go according to plan, both with on-court performance and injury, and Hayes struggled during the Las Vegas Summer League in August. That isn’t a death sentence for his prospect status by any means, but he isn’t the most natural fit with Cunningham, and it could be a big year for Hayes. If he doesn’t show something, the Pistons could find themselves asking questions about his future.

What Makes This Season A Success

Cunningham looking the part would be the single biggest thing that could happen in Detroit this season. In keeping with that theme, the Pistons could also benefit from Stewart, Bey, Hayes and others flashing intrigue for the future. Because they already have Cunningham, ping-pong balls aren’t quite as necessary as for some other rebuilding teams, but progress is more important than wins.

What Makes This Season A Failure

This is a learning year for Detroit, so the downside isn’t terribly low outside of injury or enormous struggles from Cunningham. Aside from that, the Pistons could be worried if their other young pieces scuffle, or if Grant cools off from his explosive statistical showing last season. Patience is a virtue in Detroit, but there are still a few things that could go wrong, particularly with the non-Cunningham prospects.

The downside to the late college football slate this week is that there isn’t one particularly exceptional game. The good news, though, is that these sorts of Saturday nights mean you should bust out the laptop and the iPad, as there are a handful of games between conference foes that have the potential to pop off.

Here’s everything you can watch later in the day, all times EST:

#24 UCLA vs. Stanford, 6:00 PM, Pac-12 Network

Buffalo vs. Old Dominion, 6:00 PM, ESPN+

Charleston Southern vs. East Carolina, 6:00 PM, ESPN+

Louisiana vs. Georgia Southern, 6:00 PM, ESPN+

Texas Southern vs. Rice, 6:30 PM, ESPN3

Tennessee vs. #11 Florida, 7:00 PM, ESPN

Nebraska vs. #20 Michigan State, 7:00 PM, FS1

#25 Kansas State vs. Oklahoma State, 7:00 PM, Big 12 Network/ESPN+

Kentucky vs. South Carolina, 7:00 PM, ESPN2

North Texas vs. Louisiana Tech, 7:00 PM, Stadium

Navy vs. Houston, 7:00 PM, ESPNU

Southern Miss vs. #1 Alabama, 7:30 PM, SEC Network

West Virginia vs. #4 Oklahoma, 7:30 PM, ABC

Akron vs. #10 Ohio State, 7:30 PM, Big Ten Network

#21 North Carolina vs. Georgia Tech, 7:30 PM, ACC Network

Florida Atlantic vs. Air Force, 8:00 PM, FS2

UAB vs. Tulane, 8:00 PM, ESPN+

Indiana vs. Western Kentucky, 8:00 PM, CBS Sports Network

Troy vs. UL Monroe, 8:00 PM, ESPN+

Hawai’i vs. New Mexico State, 8:00 PM, Flo Football

New Mexico vs. UTEP, 9:00 PM, ESPN+

California vs. Washington, 9:30 PM, Pac-12 Network

South Florida vs. #15 BYU, 10:15 PM, ESPN2

Arizona vs. #3 Oregon, 10:30 PM, ESPN

Oregon State vs. USC, 10:30 PM, FS1

Colorado vs. Arizona State, 10:30 PM, ESPNU

Nas has had a great year. The rapper kicked things off by winning his first-ever Grammy Award in the Best Rap Album category thanks to last year’s King’s Disease. Months later, he reconnected with producer Hit-Boy to release King’s Disease II, which boasted 15 songs and guest appearances from Eminem, EPMD, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, YG, Lauryn Hill, Charlie Wilson, and Blxst. Now Nas has become the recipient of a unique honor thanks to leaders in his hometown of Queens, New York.

Nas was awarded the key to Queens as well as his own official day in the city, namely September 23. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and his Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor Franck D. Joseph both used social media to share the news and celebrate the rapper.

“Nothing but love for this son of #Queens who never forgot where he came from. September 23, 2021 is forever @nas Day in this borough — now that’s A Queens Story,” Richards wrote in his post. Joseph added, “September 23, 2021 is now officially Nas Day in Queens, New York. Nasir Jones is not only God’s son, but he’s Queens’ son. That’s why @drichardsqns presented him with not just a proclamation, but also the Key to Queens borough tonight…”

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Dallas Mavericks, for the second year in a row, lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs to the Los Angeles Clippers. In the aftermath, the team went through a bit of a shakeup, adding some players to its roster (although most of them are rotation guys and not the kinds of superstars that can change a team overnight) while making changes in its front office and with its head coach. The good news for Dallas is that might be enough — Luka Doncic is so good that any sort of progress he makes could catapult him directly into the best player in the world discussion. The bad news is if it things don’t work out and they find themselves wondering why they can’t move on in the postseason, perhaps the Mavs will find themselves needing to make even bigger changes next summer.

Roster:

Moses Brown
Sterling Brown
Jalen Brunson
Reggie Bullock
Trey Burke
Willie Cauley-Stein
Luka Doncic
Dorian Finney-Smith
Josh Green
Feron Hunt
Carlik Jones
Maxi Kleber
Boban Marjanovic
JaQuori McLaughlin (two-way)
Frank Ntilikina
Eugene Omoruyi (two-way)
Kristaps Porzingis
Dwight Powell
Tyrell Terry

Projected Vegas Win Total: 47.5 wins

Biggest Addition: Reggie Bullock

Bullock comes to Dallas after a strong stint with the New York Knicks. The team places a premium on the guys they put around Luka Doncic, and Bullock is the kind of three-and-D threat who should be able to thrive next to the All-NBA playmaker. If he can meet the shooting benchmarks he hit with the Knicks last season — 44.2 percent of his field goals, 41 percent of his threes, 90.9 percent of his free throws — he’s going to fit like a glove in his new digs.

Biggest Loss: Rick Carlisle

While the biggest loss to the roster is probably Josh Richardson, he never seemed to quite fit. As such, the biggest loss is probably Carlisle, who left the team on his own accord and before deciding to return to the Indiana Pacers as head coach. There had been plenty of rumors about Carlisle butting heads with Luka Doncic, but the dude knows how to coach up a team and win games. In his place is Jason Kidd, whose head coaching career has been less-than-stellar. Has he grown enough as a coach during his time as an assistant with the Lakers that he can make this work? Or will the Mavs find themselves wishing they were able to make things work with Carlisle?

Biggest Question: Can Kristaps Porzingis be the No. 2 the Mavs imagined when they got him?

A whole lot of people got jokes off last postseason about Kristaps Porzingis being a throw-in in the trade that brought Tim Hardaway Jr. to Dallas. This is absolutely not a knock on Hardaway, who is a very good basketball player, but considering Porzingis got a hefty payday after the trade and was viewed as the guy who would take over games alongside Doncic, it’s a bit eyebrow-raising.

In fairness, Porzingis spent last year working his way back from knee surgery, but he has a way to go to look like the kind of second banana who can help take Dallas to the promised land in the postseason. The Clippers, so eager to go small and switch like crazy, were the worst matchup for him in round one and it showed — Porzingis averaged 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while hitting 29.6 percent of his threes in the series. He needs to be better, particularly when the postseason rolls around. Can he be the kind of rim protecting big and floor spacer that he looked like he was going to be in New York? If not, can the Mavs get to where they want to go with so much riding on his shoulders?

What Makes This Season A Success: Getting past the first round of the playoffs. It’s not exactly Dallas’ fault that it ran into Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers in back-to-back postseasons, and they deserve credit for giving them really good, competitive series both times despite being led by a player as young as Doncic. But it’s now time for them to take that next step, and they very much have the chance to do that with Doncic and the cast of players surrounding him.

What Makes This Season A Failure: Barely making the playoffs and getting bounced in the first round again. The Western Conference is going to be a grind, and while this Dallas team is going to be good, missing the playoffs is possible if only because it’s possible for just about everyone in the conference. Doncic is so good and there is enough talent here that they should be able to make it in, but the Mavs would not be content with making it and having a short playoff stint again. It’s been a decade since they last made it out of the first round, the expectation is that changes this year.

Coldplay is less than a month away from sharing their ninth album Music Of The Spheres. As its release date nears, the band delivered their latest single, namely “My Universe,” their endearing collaboration with BTS. The track features production from Swedish producer Max Martin and it finds Coldplay and BTS singing in English and Korean. Recently they performed it on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

It finds Chris Martin, with a guitar in hand, sitting beside Clarkson to perform a shorter version of the song. The singer’s vocals roar as he tears through the chorus and first verse of the song. He switches to Korean as he heads into the song’s pre-chorus, which is performed by BTS’ Jungkook on the official version.

During a recent interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Chris Martin spoke about how much he enjoyed working with BTS. “I love them, and we love them, and it’s been such a joy,” he said. “It’s something you could look at so cynically, and we have at times, but anytime there’s actual communication or music between us, it just feels so good. So, I unabashedly and unashamedly feel really grateful for the song, grateful for the person that inspired the song, and grateful for the people we sing it with.”

You can watch Chris Martin perform the song in the video above.

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

Cobra Kai has done a lot for the cast of the original Karate Kid films. It didn’t just bring back Ralph Macchio, who played American teen-turned-martial arts master Daniel LaRusso back in the Reagan era. One by one the actors who played his adversaries have re-emerged, getting that good Netflix money. But the trailer for the forthcoming Season 4 didn’t just reveal its release date. It also unveiled yet another returning foe.

Towards the end of the ad, Thomas Ian Griffith, who played one of the main baddies in the third Karate Kid film, can be seen, teaming up with Martin Kove’s John Kreese, as he did in that installment. He seems about as intense as he did back in 1989, threatening to upset the more comic tone taken by the franchise’s revival.

We also see Daniel struggling to teach alongside baddie-turned-goodie Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), who keeps telling his students to strike first rather than be patient and goodly, as he was taught by Noriyuki “Pat” Morita’s Mr. Miyaga decades back. Stuff is bound to go down, but you won’t find out what kind of stuff until the year is almost up. That’s because [drum roll] the series won’t drop on Netflix until December 31. Happy New Year.

You can watch the Season 4 trailer above.

It kind of got lost amid Team USA’s gold medal winning performance during the Tokyo Olympics, but at one point, USA Basketball boss Jerry Colangelo decided to go after Kevin Love, who was part of the team in training camp but pulled out before the side went to Japan. Love made clear that he didn’t think he would be able to contribute as he was working his way back from a calf injury, and in response, Colangelo did not seem particularly pleased.

“I didn’t think Kevin Love was going to play. I wasn’t even sure he had much left to play,” Colangelo said. “He reached out to us and said he was in shape and said he felt he owed us. And on the basis of that, we’re looking at someone with international experience who at one time was a heck of a rebounder and could still shoot the ball. You know, being like a 12th man on a roster.

“Well, it didn’t work out,” Colangelo continued. “He wasn’t in shape. And he was way behind as it turned out. So you move on. Call it a mistake. Call it giving someone an opportunity. Someone who had equity with us.”

It was surprising, in large part because the absolute most charitable read on this was that Colangelo thought it was appropriate to say these sorts of things about the last player who would have made the roster. As Love explained on HBO’s The Shop, he wasn’t particularly enthused with this, going as far as to offer up a big “f*ck him” to the longtime basketball executive.

“You weren’t the only one,” Love said after Maverick Carter used the words “f*cked up” to describe Colangelo’s comments. “[LeBron James] called me, same thing, and was like, ‘Yeah, f*ck that, that’s something that should never be said, regardless of what was said on either side and all of that, you just never do that.’”

Love went onto say that this was an example of Colangelo saying something to try and protect his legacy, theorizing that because things were looking rocky in the lead-up to the Olympics and during the team’s opening game, “He wanted something to point the finger at if they lost.”

“It was just wrong in so many ways,” Love said. “And for me, I’m sitting up here being the nice guy right now, but honestly, f*ck that.”

This year has been unusually active for Kanye West. The rapper released his tenth solo album, Donda, last month, and it predictably topped the charts, making it his tenth consecutive project to do so. But he’s spent most of his time in the public eye trying to avoid it, including wearing ski masks when out and about. But thanks to an upcoming Netflix documentary, fans will finally get a new look at the vast and eclectic scope of his brilliant career.

A trailer for the film, which is titled Jeen-Yuhs, was shared on Saturday and the clip shows West and Mos Def rapping the words to their 2004 collaboration, “Two Words,” from the former’s debut album College Droput.

Jeen-Yuhs is directed by Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah, a duo better known as Coodie And Chike. The documentary will be released in three parts, tracing its subject as he rose from a hot producer and aspiring rapper to one of the biggest and most influential artists of today. According to Variety, the film will also touch on West’s failed 2020 presidential run and the tragic death of his mother Donda West, who passed in 2007.

You can watch the trailer for Jeen-Yuhs in the video above.

Since 1989, Neil Gaiman’s game-changing comic The Sandman has bewitched readers with its brainy and surreal take on the otherworldly. But it’s also long resisted film and TV adaptations.(A new Audible audiobook, though, came off without a hitch.) Attempts have been made by the likes of Terry Gilliam, Roger Avary, David S. Goyer, and James Mangold, but they all came to naught. But a new version, from Wonder Woman screenwriter Allan Heinberg, finally did it, and now we have the proof in a first look trailer.

The promo sticks closely to Gaiman’s first issue, which introduces us to Morpheus, aka Dream — the Goth icon who’s one of seven semi-immortal beings known as the “Endless” — in the early 20th century, when he’s summoned and entrapped by a magician (played here by Charles Dance). The trailer ends with our first glimpse of Tom Sturridge as one of the comics world’s most fascinating and magnetic characters, promising that his jailer will pay.

There are 75 issues, plus a number of spin-offs and revisits, the Netflix show can tackle. Some show Morpehus’ dalliances in the past, with him hobnobbing with everyone from William Shakespeare to Orpheus, going to hell or to ancient Baghdad. But the show can always start off simple before going big. There is no release date for the Sandman show yet, but it just wrapped filming in August, so you may have a be a touch patient.

You can watch the trailer above.