Month: December 2021

On the heels of a breakout third year, Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton was eligible for a rookie contract extension this offseason. Ayton and the organization never came to an agreement, though, and the big man will be a restricted free agent next summer.

Despite that, he isn’t worried about a new deal. In an interview with The Undefeated’s Marc Spears, Ayton spoke on a range of topics, including his response to that impasse. His focus is on working hard, winning games, and dutifully filling his role as a key player on the 20-4, title-contending Suns.

“If you want to get something and earn something in this league, you have to be a winner,” Ayton said. “Me putting my head down and working is just closing out all of that noise. I’m not really worried about all of that.

“You had the time to do the negotiations,” he continued. “You had a deadline and it didn’t work out. Boom, Bada, Bing. You still got to work. You still got to play in between the lines. Still got to make sure this dude don’t dunk on me, score on me or do something to win the game. Still got to do that. And that’s just my competitive spirit.”

Ayton said his desire is ” to be the best young two-way player in the league” and consistently “controlling the game” outside of scoring, whether that’s communicating, anchoring the paint defensively, rolling hard to the rim, or helping create baskets for teammates.

If or when he accomplishes those tasks, he’s searching for more tangible results as well.

“I want All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year,” he said. “I want to be on that talk of First-Team defense.”

Kim Kardashian and Ye may be ending their marriage (and already dating others), but that doesn’t mean they don’t recognize the influence they’ve had on each others’ lives. Kardashian apparently influenced some of Ye’s music on his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album, acting as his muse on the track “Lost In The World.” But Ye has also influenced Kardashian in a number of ways, namely her style.

Kardashian was honored for her style at the 2021 People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday night. She took the stage in a Balenciaga skin-tight black jumpsuit and massively oversized sunglasses to accept the Fashion Icon award, which was presented by last year’s winner Tracee Ellis Ross. During her speech, Kardashian gave Ye a huge shout-out, saying he introduced her to the world of high fashion.

Kardashian said:

“I started off as a closet organizer and a stylist, so the fact that I’m winning a fashion icon award it’s like a pinch-me moment. I have those every single day that designers are willing to work with me, there was a time when they weren’t. […] To Kanye, even to really introducing me to the fashion world. I fell in love with fashion and I’m so inspired by so many people.”

Watch Kardashian’s full acceptance speech above.

This may sound harsh, but it’s meant with absolutely no malice: Lil Duval is a menace and he must be stopped. Whenever the comedian tweets comparing various figures in hip-hop, complete chaos breaks out among rap fans on Twitter as they end up debating the merits of his off-the-cuffing (and likely trolling) analyses for days on end. Previously, he noted similarities between the music video styles of DaBaby and Ludacris, prompting a days-long discussion that led to the rappers themselves weighing in.

This week, though, he made an even more surprising assertion, comparing two rappers who couldn’t be more different on the surface: Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar and the frequently problematic Kodak Black. “Kodak really up there with Kendrick lyrically but y’all don’t wanna hear it tho,” he tweeted yesterday morning. It didn’t take long for Rap Twitter residents to get riled up, chiming in with arguments both for and against Duval’s statement.

The two rappers do share some commonalities. Both were selected for XXL‘s Freshman Class (Kendrick in 2011, Kodak in 2016), and both frequently address the harsh conditions young Black men often face in the US, from poverty and violence to the institutionalization of the prison system. However, they’ve also had wildly different trajectories; while Kendrick has gone from government assistance in Compton, California to be one of hip-hop’s most critically-acclaimed and commercially successful artists (see above, re: Pulitzer), Kodak has faced a number of legal issues and pop culture controversies for everything from illegally purchased guns to sexual assault.

Kodak himself seemingly weighed in as well, writing in a comment about the post on Instagram, “I understand it be controversial Shit behind me but I’ll appreciate it if y’all just worry bout me Fa my talent & not da other shit on social media !!! Thank You”

Check out more responses to Lil Dvual’s unexpected comparison below.

During a recent profile for Vanity Fair, writer/director Adam McKay opened up about his split from Will Ferrell, which McKay revealed was much more personal than just the dissolving of their Gary Sanchez Productions. The two not only ended their business partnership, but also their friendship, and McKay blames himself for the whole thing. And it was his fault. According to McKay, the situation went south when he poorly handled casting John C. Reilly as Lakers owners Jerry Buss in a new HBO limited series after initially giving the role to Ferrell, a longtime Lakers fan.

However, after making the admission to Vanity Fair, numerous outlets covered the falling out, which McKay might be a little surprised to see. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McKay made mention of how the media focused more on his split from Ferrell and not the climate issues raised in the Vice director’s latest film:

It’s kind of crazy to see how much has been reported on this. We made Don’t Look Up to hopefully get people talking about the climate crisis — literally the biggest threat to life in human history — and to see so much made about two comedy guys not talking about a TV show is a scary sign of our times. I love Ferrell. Always will. I had the best, most fun run of my life with him. Yes, I wish I had talked to him about it out of respect, but we were both focused on our new companies and life just took over.

Despite knocking the media for focusing on the Ferrell split, McKay was surprisingly game for sharing more details about what went wrong with the friendship that created such comedy classics as Anchorman and Talladega Nights. Although, McKay does have hope for the future.

“As clean as we both tried to make it go, there were moments afterward where we weren’t exactly chummy,” McKay told THR. “I kept trying to frame it like, ‘Hey, it’s OK. It’s its natural conclusion,’ but as I would say it, it didn’t quite feel right. It felt like a breakup. I’m looking forward to when the dust has settled. I’d love to just go watch a Lakers game with him and kick back and get back to our old kind of rhythm.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

As one of today’s biggest stars who has spent the last few years out of the limelight and (pretty much) off social media, fans embraced Adele’s new album 30 with open arms. Just three days after its release, 30 had already become the best-selling album of the year. That’s why it comes as no surprise that Adele’s 30 is also the only album this year to sell over a million copies in the US — and it’s only been out for three weeks.

As of Monday, 30 has officially sold over a million copies across all of its formats, including CD, vinyl LP, cassette, and digital album download. Over half of its one million sales took place in its first week, according to Billboard. Just one week after debuting, 30 sold 692,000 copies. 225,000 copies were sold in its second week, which ended December 2.

Before the release of Adele’s smash-hit album, the latest LP to hit one million sales in the US was by Taylor Swift. The singer’s 2020 release Folklore, which was released July of last year, surpassed one million copies sold last October. Currently, Folklore sits at 1.55 million sales and was also the only album in 2020 to sell over a million units.

30 is out now via Columbia. Get it here.

No one’s really keeping score in the ongoing battle of wits words between pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood and pro-inanity congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, but the latest point definitely goes to Wood, who told the Daily Beast that he believes MTG is under the “influence of the devil.”

Mmm-hmmmm, keep talking…

While Wood is a noted fan of Donald Trump, he’s not as enamored of some of Trump’s staunchest supporters. Which is why he’s currently making like Santa Claus and drawing up his own list of all the naughty MAGA folks he believes have wronged him so that he can consider setting his own lawyers upon them for defamation.

Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino were already at the top of that list (it was Wood who shared that alleged “buddy-buddy” e-mail exchange between Carlson and Hunter Biden). Now, as Daily Beast’s Zachary Petrizzo writes, Wood has “added Greene to a growing list of ‘deep state’ right-wing agents working to ‘destroy’ his credibility. ‘They know what they did, they lied like dogs about me,’ Wood said. Greene, Wood alleged, has ‘falsely defamed’ him.”

Though Wood would not say when he will file these possible lawsuits, if he files them at all, escalation seems to be the only likely outcome of the Wood-Greene drama. Especially given Wood’s claims that Greene still owes him a whopping $5,000 for past legal work. While it may seem like a small amount of money, the consequences of MTG skipping out on the bill are actually pretty major: In early November, Daily Beast spoke with four experts who stated that failure to pay this legal bill would be a violation of federal financial reporting laws.

But Wood seems more concerned about the possibility of Greene being in bed with Satan. “I mean, from a biblical perspective, I think she is under the influence of the devil,” Wood told the Daily Beast. “Because people that follow Jesus Christ don’t lie. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a liar. Draw your own conclusions.”

(Via Daily Beast)

Fox and Friends recently sounded the alarm on weed and violent crime in New York City, and an early-Wednesday morning development will do nothing to quell that talk. The Fox News “All-American Christmas Tree” (located in midtown Manhattan) was set ablaze, and as Steve Doocy later summed up, “It’s beginning to look a lot like arson” after a suspect allegedly climbed the 50-foot-high structure and unleashed those flames.

Via the Wrap, co-host Brian Kilmeade was quick to label the suspect a “psycho” and emblematic of the “crime surge” that Fox News covers on a regular basis. He continued while blaming the tree-burning menace on The Left:

“This is emblematic of the cities out of control, defame and defund the police and this bail reform that has these men and women — these assailants, these suspects — out before they even can finish off the paperwork. This is what you get if you have these left-wing DAs and officials running these major cities. You get chaos.”

Then while Kilmeade sat by and said nothing in an atypically quiet manner, Ainsley Earhardt made a slip-up (or so it seems) while describing the somber situation. “It’s a tree that unites us,” she said. “It brings us together. It’s about the Christmas spirit. It is about the holiday season. It’s about Jesus. It’s about Hanukkah. It is about everything that we stand for as a country.”

No one’s sure how a Christmas tree is about “Hanukkah,” but regardless, the investigation into the apparent act of arson is still underway by police.

(Via The Wrap & Bobby Lewis on Twitter)

A month after announcing the release date of their upcoming album, Ghetto Gods, Atlanta-based Dreamville duo Earthgang have released the latest single from the album, the historical “American Horror Story.” Over a woozy, somber sample, WowGr8 and Olu detail some of the horrors of American history, while wondering where they’d be were it not for the country’s legacy of slavery and racism. In addition, they touch on more recent events like the “tiki torch” rallies of white nationalist groups and gentrification of historically Black neighborhoods, evoking Nipsey Hussle’s “buy the block” ethos as a possible antidote.

In addition to “American Horror Story,” Earthgang has promoted their upcoming album with the singles “Options” and its remix with Coi Leray, as well as “Erykah,” an ode to R&B pioneer Erykah Badu. It has been a little over two years since the release of the duo’s last album, Mirrorland, although they were able to make the most of 2020’s pandemic conditions to continue promoting that album with a collection of innovative, computer-animated music videos. They also kept themselves busy working with the rest of the Spillage Village collective, which includes 6lack, JID, and Mereba, on their Spilligion album.

Listen to Earthgang’s “American Horror Story” above.

Ghetto Gods is due 1/28/2022 via Dreamville and Interscope.

After a major roster overhaul in the offseason, the Chicago Bulls made noise in beginning the 2021-22 season with a 4-0 record. While that may not seem like much, the four-game winning streak doubled as the first such run of Zach LaVine’s career, illustrating just how turbulent things had been in Chicago in recent seasons. The Bulls did cool off, at least to some extent, following their early-season blitz, but Chicago is now on another active four-game winning streak, and that pushes the Bulls into the top-2 of the Eastern Conference standings.

At 17-8 through 25 games, the early portion of Chicago’s new-look approach has been an unmitigated success. The Bulls are scoring nearly 1.19 points per possession during the winning streak, a run that featured a road sweep over the Nets and Knicks in New York. For the season, Chicago is scoring more than 1.1 points per possession, taking care of the ball at an elite level (13.3 percent turnover rate) and generating a top-five free throw rate. LaVine has been fantastic, following up on his breakout from a year ago, and the Bulls are shooting 36.9 percent from three-point range. It remains to be seen as to how sustainable that is given the team’s roster, but Lonzo Ball is connecting on 42.6 percent of long-range attempts and the Bulls are largely keeping non-shooters off the floor.

Perhaps the No. 1 reason for Chicago’s breakout success is the play of newly-acquired DeMar DeRozan, who is putting together an All-Star campaign. The veteran is averaging 26.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game, posting a 59.2 percent true shooting mark on 30.3 percent usage. As of Monday, DeRozan is in the health and safety protocols but, when he returns, Chicago can take solace in his sky-high level of performance, and the team has been excellent whenever DeRozan has been on the floor.

While Chicago’s offense was supposed to be solid at the very least with DeRozan, LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and plenty of talent, the surprise has been the defense. There are some indicators that the Bulls may not be quite as good as their current performance due to shooting luck, but Chicago is unquestionably better than expected. Opponents are scoring only 105.6 points per 100 possessions against the Bulls this season, with that number dropping to 102.7 points per 100 when the duo of Ball and Alex Caruso are patrolling the perimeter. Chicago’s roster pieces aren’t necessarily seamless fits in a traditional sense, but Caruso and Ball are making opponents uncomfortable and, at least for now, making up for a stark lack of rim protection.

No 25-game sample is enough to erase all doubt about the Bulls, but the first 25 games of this era in Chicago are highly encouraging. Can the Bulls challenge the Nets and Bucks for supremacy in the East? That remains to be seen, but Chicago is higher in our DIME power rankings this week than many would have projected back in October. Just how high are the Bulls? Let’s find out.

1. Golden State Warriors (20-4, Last week — 2nd)

Phoenix usurped Golden State based on a head-to-head win last week. Then, the Warriors returned the favor, albeit in a game that didn’t feature Devin Booker. Still, Golden State gets the edge based on a considerably large gap in net rating, with the Warriors leading the league +13 points per 100 possessions. Admittedly, though, the Warriors and Suns are 1A and 1B right now.

2. Phoenix Suns (20-4, Last week — 1st)

The Suns still have only one loss since late October. That is, of course, completely ridiculous, and Phoenix has been able to maintain a strong level with Booker sidelined. Phoenix’s defense has been notably impressive, ranking No. 2 in the league, and that raises the already lofty ceiling of the Suns.

3. Milwaukee Bucks (16-9, Last week — 3rd)

News broke this week that Brook Lopez will be sidelined indefinitely after back surgery. That is brutal news for Milwaukee, and the Bucks aren’t quite the same team without him. For now, though, the Bucks are rolling with a 10-1 record and a double-digit net rating during that sample.

4. Utah Jazz (16-7, Last week — 5th)

It was a relatively quiet week for the Jazz, with only two games on the docket. Utah kept rolling with two wins, and the Jazz trail only the Warriors in point differential. Utah is scoring three more points per 100 possessions than any other team in the league. Remember when Utah was viewed as a defense-first team?

5. Chicago Bulls (17-8, Last week — 7th)

The Bulls aim for a season-best fifth consecutive win on Wednesday in Cleveland. The odds weren’t high that Bulls-Cavs would be must-see TV in the preseason, but that’ll be a fun one.

6. Brooklyn Nets (17-7, Last week — 4th)

Brooklyn’s winning formula has shifted this season, relying more on defense and patching over holes with Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris sidelined. The Nets are No. 6 in defense, which is genuinely shocking, and Kevin Durant is from another planet. Regardless, the Nets are doing what they need to do, and Brooklyn falls only due to a head-to-head loss to Chicago this week.

7. Memphis Grizzlies (14-10, Last week — 19th)

No team has moved up and down in the rankings more than Memphis this season, but the Grizzlies are riding high now. Memphis just reeled off five straight wins without Ja Morant, which is thoroughly impressive. The Grizzlies now have four straight home games to attempt to build on that already strong push.

8. Atlanta Hawks (13-12, Last week — 8th)

Atlanta set a franchise record with 25 three-pointers on Monday night and, in the process, the Hawks zoomed to the No. 2 spot in the NBA in offensive rating. Nate McMillan’s team is still scuffling on defense, but this is a top-eight team in net rating that largely survived a schedule gauntlet and myriad injuries in the first 25 games.

9. Miami Heat (14-11, Last week — 6th)

With Jimmy Butler sidelined and Bam Adebayo set to be out for several weeks, the Heat are in crisis. Miami remains in the top ten, at least for now, out of respect for what happened early in the year, but the Heat are 3-6 in the last nine games and those struggles may continue for a while.

10. Philadelphia 76ers (13-11, Last week — 11th)

The Sixers are 10-4 when Joel Embiid plays this season. It’s been a weird campaign with Philadelphia dealing with injury, illness, and the absence of Ben Simmons, but Doc Rivers’ team is lingering. Embiid scored 71 points combined in two wins over Atlanta and Charlotte this week, and that’s probably a good sign for his future.

11. Los Angeles Lakers (13-12, Last week — 13th)

It’s hard too be too optimistic about the Lakers, but they aren’t going anywhere. It helps that the middle of the league is bunched up beyond belief, but Los Angeles is 8-5 with LeBron in the lineup and they looked good in a breezy win over the Celtics on Tuesday.

12. Boston Celtics (13-12, Last week — 9th)

Boston’s in the middle of a tough west coast trip, though the Celtics did blast the Blazers in the middle of the journey. It would’ve been nice if the Celtics were better against the Lakers on Tuesday, but they will have the chance to win a game in Los Angeles again on Wednesday with a back-to-back against the Clippers.

13. L.A. Clippers (13-12, Last week — 14th)

Speaking of the Clippers, L.A. is 2-4 in the last six and 5-8 in the last 13 games. That isn’t exactly blowing anyone away, but the Clippers did beat the Lakers in a head-to-head last week. They will be at home all week with three games on the docket, and that could kickstasrt Ty Lue’s team.

14. New York Knicks (12-12, Last week — 17th)

It feels silly to have the Knicks at No. 14 with how they’ve played, but that could be said for any number of teams. New York took care of business with a road win over San Antonio on Tuesday, but the Knicks have also been out-scored for the season. Good luck trying to make heads or tails of this entire tier of teams.

15. Charlotte Hornets (14-12, Last week — 16th)

Half of Charlotte’s rotation has been in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, which at least partly explains recent results. To their credit, the Hornets were able to steal a road win in Atlanta with a depleted roster, and they took the Sixers to overtime on the very next night. James Borrego is doing a nice job.

16. Cleveland Cavaliers (13-12, Last week — 20th)

It’s been a good two-week period for the Cavs, even if the some of the early-season buzz is gone. Cleveland won four in a row and, while the last two did not go the way the Cavs wanted, the losses came to Utah and Milwaukee by single digits. Oh, and the Cavs are No. 4 in the NBA in defensive rating through 25 games. That’s impressive.

17. Washington Wizards (14-11, Last week — 12th)

The bloom is off the rose in the nation’s capital. Washington is 4-8 in the last 12 games, giving up more than 1.14 points per possession with a hideous -7.3 net rating over that sample. With three straight losses at the time of this post, Washington might even deserve to be lower, but the season-long profile is solid enough to avoid freefall.

18. Minnesota Timberwolves (11-13, Last week — 10th)

A week ago, we were expressing overarching optimism about Minnesota. Some of that still applies, but the Wolves promptly went 0-3 this week. The loss to Atlanta on Monday wasn’t too brutal on its face, but that game happened at home on a night in which Minnesota simply had no defensive answers. That’s at least mildly concerning.

19. Denver Nuggets (11-12, Last week — 18th)

Only the Magic, Thunder, and Pistons have been worse by net rating over the last 10 games than the Nuggets. That isn’t a good place to be, even if some of the struggles are explainable by roster challenges. A team with Nikola Jokic on the floor can only fall so far, but it’s not going well.

20. Toronto Raptors (11-13, Last week — 23rd)

Toronto’s defensive issues have been puzzling all season long, and the overall numbers are bad. However, the Raptors may have found something in allowing fewer than 100 points in three straight games. That came with two victories over Milwaukee and Washington, and that perhaps brings some encouragement for the future.

21. Sacramento Kings (10-14, Last week — 24th)

The Kings only played two games this week, and they won both of them against the same opponent in the Clippers. I’m not sure how much was learned with those wins, but Sacramento certainly needed them.

22. Indiana Pacers (10-16, Last week — 22nd)

Rebuild season is reportedly here in Indiana. It makes sense on some level but, at the same time, the Pacers haven’t picked in the top ten of the NBA Draft in more than three decades (I promise this is true) and they just hired Rick Carlisle for top-dollar on the bench. It’s a weird situation, but the Pacers are worth monitoring with a very close eye for the next few weeks.

23. Dallas Mavericks (11-12, Last week — 21st)

The Mavericks’ 9-4 start was put together with smoke and mirrors and a quick look at the team’s point differential was all one needed to see that. Since then, Dallas is 2-8 and the formerly high-powered Mavericks just slogged through a three-game losing streak with 98.2 points per 100 possessions. Yuck.

24. San Antonio Spurs (8-15, Last week — 25th)

The Spurs are 4-2 in the last six, and San Antonio’s only real blemish came on Tuesday with a loss on a back-to-back to New York. They are operating in virtual obscurity, but the Spurs have been competitive following a disappointing 4-13 start.

25. Houston Rockets (7-16, Last week — 27th)

So, this is weird. The Rockets lost 15 games in a row. Then, the Rockets immediately won six games in a row. Per Elias Sports Bureau, that was the first time that any NBA, NHL, MLB, or NHL team produced that level of madness. There is credit due to Stephen Silas and Houston for bouncing back.

26. Portland Trail Blazers (11-14, Last week — 15th)

Things are absolutely disastrous in Portland right now. Damian Lillard isn’t happy, CJ McCollum is injured, Neil Olshey is no longer employed, and the on-court product is hideous. The Blazers have lost six of the last seven, and Portland allowed nearly 1.2 points per possession over that stretch. They shouldn’t be this bad. The vibes are dreadful.

27. New Orleans Pelicans (7-19, Last week — 26th)

Zion Williamson still isn’t playing, but New Orleans is at least playing better. The Pelicans are 4-3 in the last seven games, scoring more than 1.14 points per possession. New Orleans lost by 10 in Houston on Sunday, or the Pelicans might be higher on this list.

28. Oklahoma City Thunder (7-16, Last week — 29th)

It’s rather unbelievable that Oklahoma City lost a game by 73 points this week and still rose in the rankings. Granted, the Thunder were short-handed in that game, but Oklahoma City bounced back with a nice road win over Detroit to end the week. They can take a small pass for the history-making mess against Memphis.

29. Orlando Magic (5-20, Last week — 30th)

Detroit made it easy on Orlando in escaping the basement. The Magic are still struggling mightily with the worst net rating (-10.6) in the NBA, but Orlando did beat Denver this week. That’s a nice result amid the ugliness.

30. Detroit Pistons (4-19, Last week — 28th)

On the bright side, Cade Cunningham is coming on strong, averaging 22 points and 7.8 rebounds in the last four games. On the less rosy side, the Pistons have lost nine straight games, including a home loss to OKC that ensured Detroit would land in the No. 30 spot this week.

In a last-minute move, Roku and Google have finally reached an agreement that will allow the YouTube and YouTube TV apps to remain on the streaming platform as part of a “multi-year carriage extension.” A current deal between the two companies was due to expire on December 9, but with less than 24 hours remaining, both sides were able to squash a long-running dispute that almost resulted in Google removing its popular apps from all Roku devices. (The tech giant had already pulled YouTube TV from the Roku Channel Store earlier in the year.)

Via Deadline:

“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached a deal with Roku to continue distributing the YouTube and YouTube TV apps on Roku devices,” a YouTube rep said. “This means that Roku customers will continue to have access to YouTube and that the YouTube TV app will once again be available in the Roku store for both new and existing members. We are pleased to have a partnership that benefits our mutual users.”

As of this writing, financial terms were not disclosed, but Roku has long-maintained that revenue was not its concern during the fight with Google. Starting in 2019, Roku had become increasingly vocal about accusing Google of making “disturbing” demands in regards to search results. Roku accused Google of wanting YouTube results to have “preference over other content providers” as well as demanding access to customer data. Google hit back and accused of having “unreasonable” expectations about how apps run on streaming platforms.

Fortuantely, the two parties were able to come to an agreement and just under the wire.

(Via Deadline)