Month: June 2021

The WNBA announced it will hold an All-Star Game in 2021, which hasn’t happened in a Summer Olympic year since 2000. The game will be held in Las Vegas, where it was hosted in 2019, on July 14. The event is exciting news for a fanbase that is just getting to see players in person again after the 2020 bubble was strictly televised. It’s big for the players, too, as every four years they were unable to add an All-Star accolade to their resumes regardless of play.

The league is putting a twist on how the game will function this time around. All-Stars chosen from Team USA will play against the rest of the field in a sort-of warm-up match before the group heads to Tokyo. As of June 15, Team USA’s Olympic roster has not been chosen, though the pool can be seen here.

Voting for the All-Star Game began at 2 p.m. ET on June 15, and fans count for 50 percent of the selection for the event. Votes will count twice on June 20 and June 27, and entries will close on June 27 at 11:59 pm. ET.

One of the best parts of the All-Star Game is getting to see new players earn that honor of being an All-Star, and this season there are plenty of players making cases for a first selection. Here are five worthy choices to consider sending to Vegas for their first All-Star experience.

1. Betnijah Laney, New York Liberty

If Laney isn’t an All-Star this year, we’re going to have a problem. The Liberty’s best player is playing even sharper than her breakout Most Improved Player of the Year-winning 2020 season, scoring 21.6 points per game on 48.7 percent shooting from the field and 38.1 percent from 3-point range with 5.6 assists and 4.6 rebounds. She’s scored 20 or more points in nine games this season… and she’s only played in 10 games.

Laney isn’t just the Liberty’s star, she’s one of the league’s stars. It’s incredible to think she was cut by the Indiana Fever last year before the start of the season. Laney deserves a trip to the desert.

2. Arike Ogunbowale, Dallas Wings

It’s wild to think that Ogunbowale has yet to play in an All-Star Game despite winning the WNBA’s scoring championship last season, but the bubble had no mid-season honors for the league’s best players. Now’s the time to right that wrong. Ogunbowale is averaging 20.9 points per game on a shaky 38.6 percent shooting, but is sinking 35.9 percent of her 3-point looks while contributing 3.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

An All-Star Game isn’t right without the league’s most clutch player, who is already responsible for an 8-0 run in the final two minutes of a Wings’ 1-point win against the reigning champion Seattle Storm.

3. Marina Mabrey, Dallas Wings

The fourth-best offense in the league is led by Ogunbowale and her backcourt teammate, Mabrey. The two shared the floor at Notre Dame, and are now wrecking opponents in the big leagues. Few thought the 2019 No. 19 pick would make this big of an impact at the next level, but the sharpshooter is now the favorite to win the 2021 Most Improved Player of the Year award. Through 11 games, Mabrey is scoring 16.9 points on 46.1 percent shooting from the field and 39.2 percent shooting from 3-point range. She’s taking a ton of looks from distance too, firing 6.7 per night, while securing 5.7 boards, dishing 3.2 assists, and grabbing 1.5 steals.

If the stats aren’t enough, let Mabrey’s range be the reason why you want to see Dallas’s second-leading scorer at All-Star.

4. Ariel Atkins, Washington Mystics

Atkins is one of the most under-the-radar two-way stars in the league. She was key in the Mystics 2019 championship win, and now the 5’8 wing is scoring a career-high 18 points on 45.5 percent shooting from the field and 45.5 percent shooting from 3-point range while often being tasked to guard the opponents’ best guards.

If my words aren’t enough, let her teammate Natasha Cloud explain:

5. Courtney Williams, Atlanta Dream

In her second year since leaving the Connecticut Sun, Williams has found her shooting stroke. The six-year veteran is scoring a career-high 17.5 points per night largely due to her increased 3-point rate. She’s nearly doubled her attempts (6.6) and is making 44.2 percent of them while averaging 6.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

More than that, Williams has been there in the clutch. This game-winner against the Liberty is only a glimpse at the fun she could bring to All-Star weekend.

Jean Dawson piqued the interest of many with his 2020 sophomore album Pixel Bath, which expertly toed the line between hip-hop, pop-punk, and hyperpop. He’s now slated to tour with Brockhampton and even received a kind co-sign from pop-punk godfather Travis Barker, who said his music is “slept on.” Continuing to expand on the world he built around his debut effort, the musician offers an inside look at his dizzying dreams with his surreal “Dummy” video.

Dawson’s “Dummy” video, directed Mowgly Lee and Bradley Calder, opens with the musician awaking only to find himself still in a dreamlike state. With quick jump cuts that mimic the song’s hurried beat, the visual follows Dawson as he rides through the city in the dead of night before being transported to a vast meadow of golden flowers. The song itself mirrors the disorienting style of the visual as Dawson teeters between pop-punk-style refrains and melodic raps.

Dawson says of the song, “Every time someone tries to tell me about a dream they had it always feels like a run on sentence — ‘Dummy’ is a run on sentence.”

Ahead of the visual’s release, Dawson shared the mini-documentary Burnout, which gives insight to his creative process. “The older I get, the happier I get,” he explained in the film. “And I think that’s the opposite for people. Thankfully, I think it’s because I do the thing that I want to do. When we’re younger, I think we’re forced to do things that we don’t understand.”

Watch the “Dummy” video above and listen to his latest song, “Ghost*,” below.

Pixel Bath is out now via P+. Get it here.

Nikola Jokic had a tremendous 2020-21 season, taking home the league’s MVP honors for his work in getting the Denver Nuggets to the 3-seed, scoring at a career-high level on career-high efficiency while still proving himself as the NBA’s best passing big man.

However, his season ended on a less than positive note when he got ejected in the third quarter of Game 4 against the Suns for a Flagrant 2 on Cam Payne out of frustration with the lack of a whistle going his way. That was the last thing he did on the season, and after the foul Devin Booker and the Suns unsurprisingly took exception and got in the face of the Serbian big man. It’s probably for the best that this is the NBA and actual fights never break out because Jokic is, one, a giant human being and Booker is not in comparison, and, two, Jokic had some serious backup ready.

Seated in the lower bowl right by where the kerfuffle broke out were Jokic’s likewise incredibly large brothers and while Nikola was fairly calm as Booker got in his face, staring down the Suns star and jawing, the other Jokic boys were feeling a bit rowdier in the stands, ready for a fight.

Those are a couple of big ol’ boys who looked ready to rumble and you could see that security was just hoping they’d stay where they were, barking at the Suns and that nothing would happen on the court that might lead the brothers to feel the need to defend Nikola. That would be highly unlikely, but their presence is probably a significant deterrent to anyone who is thinking about starting an actual fight with Jokic. It’s also a little funny that of all the Jokic’s, I think Nikola is the one who looks the least like a professional athlete in terms of body type despite being one of the very best basketball players on the planet.

Teofimo Lopez became one of boxing’s rare undisputed champions last year when he beat Vasyl Lomachenko by unanimous decision in Las Vegas to become the king of the lightweight division.

The 135-pound champ was set to make his first defense of all his belts this weekend against George Kambosos in Miami as Triller made its first foray into actual championship boxing, but on Tuesday, word emerged that rocked the boxing world. Lopez had tested positive for COVID-19 and was symptomatic, forcing the fight and all of the undercards to be pushed to August 14 — although, it should be said that date has to be considered somewhat tentative pending how severe his bout with the virus is.

Hopefully Lopez’s symptoms remain mild and he doesn’t deal with lingering effects long-term, but as we’ve seen over the last year-plus, even elite athletes in their prime can suffer severely from COVID-19 — Jayson Tatum said he started using an inhaler after his bout with the virus as it impacted his lung function. It’s an incredibly unfortunate situation for one of boxing’s most promising rising stars, as well as everyone else on the card who now have their fights pushed out two months. It also serves as a reminder that, while things are opening up in full again, there is still plenty of danger of transmission for those who haven’t had the vaccine.

A couple of days ago, Courtney Love shared an Instagram post, which she has since deleted. In that post, she accused Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor of “so much systemic abuse of kids, girls as young as 12.” In that same post, she criticized Dave Grohl and how he has handled financial matters related to Nirvana. Now, Love has offered an apology.

In a post to her Instagram Story yesterday, Love wrote, “I need to apologize for my recent post. It was insensitive and it was wrong. No matter how I feel, there are real people behind my words and I need to learn to be more responsible with my words. I am truly sorry for those I’ve hurt. I will do better.”

In the original post, Love called Reznor “talented but still a creep” and wrote, “I’ve never seen so much systemic abuse of kids, girls as young as 12, by him and his crew, we all (the members of Hole) witnessed it.” She also said of Grohl, “The chaos and fury over [Kurt Cobain’s] death being directed at me, deflected by Dave, while he enriched and continues to enrich himself, gorging on Kurt’s fortune and Kurt’s goodwill. 27! Years!!! I’ve had enough. […] Nicest guy in Rock ? No.”

This week brings the 101st episode of People’s Party with Talib Kweli, and to mark that milestone achievement the podcast is going all out, delivering us an episode in which Kweli finally chops it up with his longtime friend and musical collaborator, Yasiin Bey. In addition to bringing us one of the best hip-hop records of all time in Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Kweli and Bey also co-host Dave Chappelle’s Midnight Miracle podcast over on Luminary, where the three’s infectious chemistry makes for an always interesting listen.

In keeping it all in the family, Chappelle will now serve as People’s Party’s new executive producer under his Pilot Boy Productions banner, as People’s Party also makes the move to subscription podcast platform Luminary.

“People’s Party has been a labor of love and I am very proud of what we have accomplished over these first 100 episodes. It makes perfect sense for us to partner with Dave Chappelle’s Pilot Boy Products going forward,” Kweli told Deadline. “Dave has always championed this culture that is based in hip-hop and he is the vanguard for great art. People’s Party is the world’s best podcast and now we have joined Luminary to become the sister podcast to the best podcast in the world, The Midnight Miracle.”

While the audio version of People’s Party will become exclusive to Luminary and Luminary’s channel on Apple Podcasts on July 5th, Uproxx will still be leading production on the series. Uproxx will also air the video version of each episode via YouTube on Mondays, one week after the audio podcast launches. The show will continue to be co-hosted by Jasmin Leigh with Uproxx’s Steve Vasquez directing. Catch the 101st episode of People’s Party here.

After releasing the exquisite LP Heaven To A Tortured Mind, Yves Tumor briefly pivoted to the world of high fashion. Their music appeared in Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 2021 collection video, and they even modeled in an Byredo eye makeup campaign. But they’re now ushering in a new era of music, complete with a colorful video.

Yves Tumor returned Tuesday to release the innovative alt-rock track “Jackie,” which features a pair of emotive electric guitars and a skittering beat that builds to a powerful chorus. The accompanying video reflects the track’s experimental nature, following the musician as they tepidly explore a disorienting sci-fi world.

In a statement about the visual’s creative process, producer Actual Objects said, “We loved collaborating with Yves Tumor on ‘Jackie’ — we’ve been massive fans for years. Their work is always so forward looking, and has always been a major inspiration for us. ‘Jackie’ was a chance for us to dig deep into our toolkit and work with some of our most experimental techniques.”

Watch Yves Tumor’s “Jackie” video above and find their 2021 and 2022 tour dates below.

09/11/2021 — Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee WI Cactus Club
09/12/2021 — Chicago, IL @ Chicago IL Pitchfork Festival
09/12/2021 — Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
10/22/2021 — Miami, FL @ III Points Festival
10/24/2021 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
10/25/2021 — Washington, DC @ Union Stage
10/26/2021 — NYC @ Webster Hall
10/29/2021 — Philadelphia, PA @ Warehouse On Watts
10/30/2021 — Austin, TX @ TBA
10/31/2021 — San Francisco CA @ Outside Lands
11/02/2021 — Denver CO @ Denver CO Stanley Hotel
11/03/2021 — Seattle, WA @ Numos
11/08/2021 — Los Angeles CA @ The Fonda
11/13/2021 — Las Vegas NV @ Day N Vegas
11/15/2021 — Pioneertown CA @ Desert Daze
02/02/2022 — Warsaw PL @ Hydrozagadka
02/24/2022 — Prague CZ @ Meet Factory
02/26/2022 — Berlin DE @ Gretchen
02/28/2022 — Copenhagen DK @ Vega
03/01/2022 — Amsterdam NL @ Paradiso Noord
03/02/2022 — Gent BE @ Balzaal Vooruit
03/03/2022 — Paris FR @ Trabendo
03/05/2022 — Bristol UK @ Strange Brew
03/06/2022 — Glasgow UK @ Stereo
03/07/2022 — Dublin IE @ Whelans
03/08/2022 — London UK @ Electric Brixton
03/09/2022 — Brighton UK @ Chalk
03/10/2022 — Manchester UK @ Yes

Patton Oswalt seems to be everywhere at the moment with the excellent Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. on Hulu and the adorable Penguin Town on Netflix, in addition to production gearing up on Neil Gaiman’s live-action The Sandman (wherein Patton portrays Matthew the Raven) on Netflix. That doesn’t mean that Patton didn’t feel a little restless during the pandemic shut downs, though.

Like many of us out here reading (and watching at home), Patton admitted during a visit to Conan that he actually felt “crazier than a barn full of clown pubes” after about a month of staying at home. This terminology quickly spiraled with Conan asking for followup, and Patton clarifying that he was “not putting the crazy on the clown pubes, it’s the act of gathering enough clown pubes to fill a barn.” He then added, “Please, clown pube shaming hurts all of us.” As if things weren’t surreal enough already, Patton then explained how buffet restaurants are gonna make a massive comeback soon.

“Buffets are gonna come back so hard,” the comedian predicted. “And they’re gonna come back in that defiant, kinda like, ‘Are you a pussy, or can you come eat at the Golden Corral?’ way.” He wasn’t done yet.

“It’s gonna be like, ‘We don’t have any of those woke sneeze guards like those liberal, left-coast weirdoes,’” Patton continued to paraphrase-predict. “‘Come on our here to our [laughs] cough-welcome zone’…. can you not take no-sneeze-guard dining, or can you not make love to your wife?‘” You just wait, it’ll happen.

Also during the visit, Patton pretended to spill a future M.O.D.O.K. secret while feigning the effects of a Suicide Squad-like implanted device going off. (Tom Holland’s reputation as a spoiler-spiller precedes them all.)

The Brooklyn Nets lost Kyrie Irving in the second quarter of Game 2 after he suffered a sprained ankle landing on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s foot in the lane, and suddenly found themselves without two of their Big 3, as James Harden sat on the bench in street clothes due to an aggravation of his hamstring injury in the first minute of Game 1.

On Monday, the Nets listed both Irving and Harden as officially out, and it seemed like they’d enter the pivotal Game 5 with just Kevin Durant leading the way. Then, on Tuesday morning Harden was moved to doubtful and later upgraded again to questionable after going through another workout in the afternoon, and it became apparent that the Nets’ star guard had a very real chance of making his return.

The Athletics’ Shams Charania brought further word that Harden “plans to play” provided he doesn’t suffer a setback in pregame.

It would be great news for the Nets if Harden can go and be anything close to his normal self, but there is obviously concern about whether he’s hurrying back and could aggravate it again as he did in the opener. Steve Nash insisted the team wouldn’t let him rush back at risk of longterm issues, but with the importance of Game 5, Harden clearly wants to do everything in his power to play. That he was initially listed as out raises eyebrows though, as it’s quite the rare shift to go from that to questionable in under 24 hours.

Ever since Nintendo first announced The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 back in 2019 there has been eager anticipation for more news about it. The first Breath of the Wild game was beloved by not only Zelda fans, but video game fans as a whole. It won numerous game of the year awards and was considered an absolute masterpiece of a game. So of course everyone wanted a sequel.

On Tuesday, during Nintendo’s E3 Presentation, fans finally got the teaser trailer they’ve been wanting for so long. While it didn’t give us all the details we could want, it was enough to tide us over until we get more info at a later date. More importantly, we have an idea of when the game is coming. 2022. As long as it doesn’t get delayed, we should all be exploring Hyrule again by the end of 2022 at the latest. It can’t come soon enough.

Of course, since this is a sequel, we do want to see some changes in the upcoming game and the trailer did give us a tease of what it may look like. A big part of the first Breath of the Wild was the ability to climb and go anywhere the player wanted. The detail was incredible with every piece of the world having something in it and no piece of land going unused. So there wasn’t much more the developers could do with the land itself. So where could they go? In the sky of course!

The trailer featured Link gliding through the sky, giant continents floating in the air and clear use of more verticality in the map. This gives the developers infinite room to work with and some of the new tools we were teased complimented this new vertical approach. One, which had Link phasing through solid matter, looked particularly fun to use.

Two aspects of the game they didn’t show that is going to make or break this game for a lot of traditional Zelda fans are the dungeons and weapons. The first game allowed Link to use all kinds of weapons, but they would break after being used too long forcing the player to go find new ones. This, and the lack of major themed dungeons, turned off a lot of longtime Zelda fans from the first Breath of the Wild game. It will be interesting to see if the developers stick to the formula of the first game or try to appease some of the original fans with a more traditional Zelda game.