Month: October 2021

This Giannis Antetokounmpo fella is, it turns out, pretty good at basketball. The Milwaukee Bucks kicked off their first championship defense in five decades on Tuesday night against the Brooklyn Nets, and despite their opponents being viewed as the favorites to win an NBA title this year, the Bucks managed to cruise to a 127-104 win.

The festive environment in Fiserv Forum — where Milwaukee raised a banner and put on championship rings — translated to some absolutely beautiful basketball by the defending champs. And as he oftentimes is, Antetokounmpo was at the heart of everything. The reigning NBA Finals MVP was in total control of his environment, leading the Bucks with 32 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and a steal in a mere 31 minutes of work.

Continuity oftentimes is a huge help for teams early on in the year, but even by that standard, the Bucks already look like a team that is not going to take long to get humming on all cylinders, which is something that Kevin Durant mentioned after the game. A major reason why is Antetokounmpo, which is always the case when good things happen to Milwaukee. He was omnipresent on defense, keyed the Bucks’ offense (particularly after Jrue Holiday left with a heel injury), and was crucial in earning the team extra possessions, as evidenced by his game-high five offensive rebounds.

Above all else, Antetokounmpo looks like someone who has an extra air of confidence about him, something that can only come from finally winning a championship. His flashing of a new-look jumper during the preseason was a reminder that, despite his consistent individual excellence, there are ways for Antetokounmpo to get better. It’s early days, but Antetokounmpo looks like someone ready, willing, and able to find another level for his game. If so, Tuesday night might go down as game one in a special, 82-game campaign.

Was Rudy Giuliani ever okay? The one once dubbed “America’s mayor” over his handling of the September 11 attacks has been on a constant downslope for the last year, if not before. It started in earnest after his client, Donald J. Trump, lost re-election. Untold humiliations followed, as did legal and financial worries. Still, even considering he once sweated black goo during an already chaotic press conference, what on earth is going on here?

On a mostly peaceful Tuesday night (albeit not for Steve Bannon), social media was hit with the above video. What is it? It shows Giuliani using…an Abraham Lincoln filter to attack Terry McAuliffe, former governor of Virginia who’s running for his old job again. “just listen to Abe,” he wrote in the caption.

“Virginia, vote against the man who dishonored our past by selling my bedroom hundreds and hundreds of times to scoundrels in a pay-for-play scheme!” Giuliani says, while seemingly trying to sound like a ghost (or something). “In my time, we had a name for men who sold bedrooms for one night. In your time, the name is Terry McAuliffe! End the Clinton sleaze once and for all!”

Okay, but why Abraham Lincoln? And what does Bill or Hillary Clinton (or both) have to do with this? Raw Story figured it out:

Giuliani is referring to a controversy in the early 1990s in which the Bill Clinton administration was accused of renting out the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House to campaign contributors. Terry McAuliffe worked in the Clinton White House at the time, but fact-checkers have debunked the frequently repeated claim by Republicans that McAuliffe was the mastermind of the scheme.

Well, then! Mind you, Giuliani did once host SNL, during very different times, so perhaps he thought he was doing a comedy bit. But everyone else was left scratching their heads, even for a Giuliani appearance.

Some felt bad for Abraham Lincoln.

This is far from the most embarrassing thing Giuliani has done in the last year-plus, but only because he’s raised the bar so high.

(Via Raw Story)

Maxo Kream dropped a new album, Weight Of The World, earlier this week. Now he returns with a new video for the album’s opening track, “Cripstian.” It follows a young man who finds himself stepping onto a lavish estate after dying in the back of an ambulance. Upon entering the building and running into family members and friends who presumably passed away, he realizes that he’s in the afterlife.

“Cripstian” joins “Big Persona,” “Greener Knots,” and “Local Joker” as songs from Weight Of The World to receive the video treatment. Throughout the album’s 16 songs are guest appearances from Tyler The Creator, ASAP Rocky, Freddie Gibbs, and fellow Houston natives Monaleo and Don Toliver. It arrived on Monday, October 18, which goes against the industry’s tradition of releasing albums on Fridays, but in a trailer that Maxo released before dropping Weight Of The World, he explained why he chose that date.

“10/18 is symbolic,” he says. “10/18 hold a lot of weight. That’s the day Woodrow [his late cousin] died, you feel me? And that’s the same day Jalae [his niece] was born, and that’s the first show Mmadu [his younger brother] ever missed.”

You can watch the video for “Cripstian” above.

Weight Of The World is out now via RCA Records. Get it here.

Steve Bannon has not been quiet about his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He even admitted he and Trump plotted to “bury” the Biden presidency the day his election was set to be certified by Congress. The certification happened anyway, though not for lack of trying. But now it appears he may wind up paying, however slightly, for his actions. According to The New York Times, the committee investigating that fateful day have voted unanimously to recommend charging Bannon with criminal contempt.

His major slip-up? Obeying his old employer Donald Trump’s orders and refusing to obey a subpoena demanding he provide documents and answer questions pertaining to the events of Jan. 6. As such, the committee declared that he is in “contempt of Congress.” The full House will vote on the matter on Thursday. If voted on, a warrant will be issued for his arrest.

“It’s a shame that Mr. Bannon has put us in this position, but we won’t take no for an answer,” said Missouri Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, head of the committee. “If there’s no accountability for these abuses — if there are different sets of rules for different types of people — then our democracy is in serious trouble.

“Mr. Bannon will comply with our investigation,” Thompson added, “or he will face the consequences.”

Bannon, the committee stated, is believed to “have had multiple roles relevant to this investigation. He helped construct the “Stop the Steal” PR effort to spread awareness of the gathering in D.C. the day the of the certification. He was also involved in events in a “war room” held in a D.C. hotel, which involved he and other Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani, hoping to overturn the 2020 election.

The day before, on Jan. 5, Bannon hyped up the Capitol event. “Now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack — the point of attack tomorrow,” Bannon told his listeners. “It’s going to kick off. It’s going to be very dramatic.” He added, “It’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen,” promising it would be “extraordinarily different. And all I can say is: Strap in.”

Bannon and his lawyers have cited “executive privilege,” as Trump himself has, which keeps certain official communications secret as part of a president’s prerogative. Thing is, Trump is no longer president and Bannon, formerly his Chief Strategist, was no longer in his employ during the day’s events. But maybe there’s another part of their plan, as per NYT:

Many Democrats fear that case, as well as any the Justice Department might decide to bring against Mr. Bannon, may drag on for months, potentially long enough for Republicans to gain the House majority in 2022 and bury the inquiry — and with it, any hope of revealing fresh information about what precipitated the riot.

In other words, clog the courts with possibly frivolous lawsuits and delay, delay, delay. But maybe that old line won’t work this time. Should the House vote for his arrest, he faces a jail sentence up to a year and a fine of up to $100,000. And this time, he doesn’t have a sitting president to bail him out.

(Via NYT)

On the first night of the NBA season, the Milwaukee Bucks are dealing with an injury to a key player.

During the second quarter of Tuesday’s night game against the Brooklyn Nets, the Bucks announced that Jrue Holiday had suffered a heel contusion and would not return to the game. It’s not clear when Holiday suffered the injury during the game as of now. Before leaving the game, Holiday played 18 minutes, scoring 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting to go with one assist and one steal.

It’s also not clear how severe the injury is. It’s possible that the Bucks are just being cautious with Holiday since it’s the opening night of a new season and the team is going to be playing the long game with an eye on repeating champions. But depending on the severity of the injury, it could mean that Holiday has to miss some time, forcing the Bucks to deal with injury issues right out of the gate.

With Holiday out, George Hill would presumably slide to point guard, while Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton are more than capable of handling the ball and initiating the offense. Where the Bucks will really miss Holiday is on defense, as he’s one of the league’s best perimeter defenders and a key to their system.

Two years after he announced the project, Young Thug finally released his sophomore album Punk over the weekend. It featured big names like Drake, Future, Gunna, Travis Scott, and more, while also welcoming up-and-comers like Bslime, Strick, Lil Double 0, T-Shyne, and others. Another highlight was a posthumous verse from Mac Miller on “Day Before,” and during a recent interview on The Breakfast Club, Young Thug revealed an eerie coincidence behind the song.

“I was with Mac the day before he died,” Thug said. “He was at my studio and we did the song on my album. This sh*t is so crazy but coincidental. He came to the studio and did the song with me and the next day he died. And the name of the song is ‘Day Before.’ But the song is about like women … It was like flamboyant.”

He added, “I think deep on that because is that a sign? At some point, you’re wondering why? Have you ever just wished God could really talk to you?”

Thug recently performed a pair of songs — “Tick Tock” and “Love Your More” — on Saturday Night Live with help from Travis Barker, Gunna, and Nate Ruess. As for Miller, his estate recently uploaded his 2014 mixtape Faces to streaming services.

You can press listen to Young Thug’s interview on The Breakfast Club above.

Punk is out now via 300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records. Get it here.

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

It’s been two-and-a-half months since Meghan McCain departed The View, and it seemed at the time like she was leaving in a huff. Boy, was she. In a new excerpt from her forthcoming audiobook Bad Republican published in Variety on Tuesday, the conservative commentator said the show bred a “toxic work environment” that leaves one feeling like they’re in “quicksand.” But she made sure to single out co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, both liberal, for inspiring her departure. And people on social media couldn’t help thanking the two for their service.

The incident that put the nail in the coffin of McCain’s View tenure, she claims, came after she returned from maternity leave, only to find someone hadn’t missed her. That person was Behar. During a segment back in January — some eight months before she actually vamoosed — McCain tried to joke with Behar, cracking, “You missed me so much, Joy. You missed me so much when I was on maternity leave. You missed fighting with me.” But Behar did not give in. “I did not,” she replied. “I did not miss you. Zero.”

“Nothing anyone has ever said to me on camera since I have been giving interviews since I was 22 years old ever hit this hard,” McCain writes in her audio-memori. “I felt like I’d been slapped.”

One could say it’s a bit melodramatic for McCain to drag one of her View co-hosts for saying mean things on-air. After all, McCain called Behar a “bitch” during a taping back in 2019. She later defended the slur, saying, “We call each other bitch all the time” and that people should “stop being so precious about our relationship.” Then again, being diplomatic doesn’t sell audiobooks.

Surely, McCain meant to drag Behar, make her look mean, like she’d brought a premature end to what could have been an even longer stint on The View. But not everyone on social media took it that way. Many offered Behar — and Goldberg — thanks for ridding the show of its most controversial figure.

Others reminded people that McCain was far from innocent here.

There were other jokes, too.

And there were people who didn’t miss McCain either, during her maternity leave and during her retirement, when this “bad Republican” is visitng the likes of Sean Hannity.

The Inside the NBA guys have a lot of fun yelling at each other over stuff. Our latest example of this came on Tuesday evening before TNT kicked off the 2021-22 NBA regular season. Things started with the first third of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team being released, and after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar unsurprisingly made the list, Ernie Johnson had a simple question for Shaquille O’Neal: If you were to rank the greatest centers in Los Angeles Lakers history, how would that look.

Shaq put Kareem No. 1, which, no complaints there. He then placed himself second and Wilt Chamberlain third, and Charles Barkley responded by blowing a gasket. In response to that, Shaq started screaming. A lot of screaming! It was pretty good.

“Oh, you’re not better than Wilt!” Barkley screamed. “Stop it!”

“I got four…” Shaq said, in reference to the number of championship rings he won with the team. He then pointed to the statue of himself. A lot more screaming happened between the two, more than we usually see on Inside, and then, Kenny Smith jumped in.

“You better than Wilt?” Smith asked, presumably because he was enjoying this whole display.

“Yeah, I’m better than Wilt,” Shaq said. “I’d bust Wilt’s ass. Yeah. Hell yeah.”

Despite the season only just officially starting, the Inside crew is already in midseason form.

The NBA is going all out to celebrate its 75th anniversary season, with a special logo, ad campaigns, photo shoots, and, maybe most interesting for fans, a new list of the 75 Greatest Players of All-Time. The league did this for the 50th anniversary, with a special presentation at All-Star Weekend, having players past and present come together to show the strength of the league then and now.

What will be interesting is to see if any players from the NBA at 50 end up being left off the 75th anniversary list, or if it will simply be the addition of 25 new names. Over the first three nights of the season, the league will unveil the 75 Greatest Players list, which began with Tuesday’s TNT broadcast and will continue on ESPN Wednesday and then again on TNT on Thursday to finish off the reveal.

The list is just that, a list, without any rankings, which is probably smart coming from the league (and is how the NBA at 50 list was done), but you can rest assured folks will end up ranking them anyways. The names seem to be in no particular order, alphabetical or otherwise. Here are the first 25 names unveiled on Tuesday night.

Bill Russell
Hal Greer
Dirk Nowitzki
Bob Pettit
Oscar Robertson
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Kevin Durant
Elvin Hayes
Jerry Lucas
Willis Reed
Nate Archibald
Bob Cousy
Dave Cowens
James Harden
Hakeem Olajuwon
Kevin McHale
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
George Mikan
John Stockton
Steve Nash
Charles Barkley
Moses Malone
Julius Erving
George Gervin
David Robinson

Since the first listening session for Kanye West’s tenth album Donda, the rapper has spent most of his time in the spotlight wearing an assortment of masks. Perhaps it’s his attempt from to place a wall between himself and those watching him. The rapper took things to next level on Tuesday. While in New York City, he wore a prosthetic mask — which was made to look like a Caucasian woman with smoky eye shadow — that covered his whole face, while meeting with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

It’s unknown why Kanye was meeting with Cohen, but in a conversation with Page Six, Cohen did share why West was wearing the mask (although not why he chose one that looks like caucasian woman). “The purpose [of the mask] was so that people would not recognize him,” he said. “The first 10 minutes we sat down, he was mobbed by people … who wanted photos, and to say hello. So he put on this mask to give him some anonymity, which interestingly enough, did not really work.”

This comes as Kanye is going to officially change his name to “Ye.” Judge Michelle Williams Court signed off the change after he filed a petition to The Los Angeles Superior Court on August 24, citing “personal reasons.”