Month: June 2022

The Oklahoma City Thunder were among the busiest teams during Thursday night’s NBA Draft, as they made three picks in the lottery, taking Chet Holmgren at No. 2, traded three future firsts to the Knicks for the 11th overall pick to pick up Ousmane Dieng, and then selected Jalen Williams with the 12th pick.

They added one more player in the second round, taking Jaylin Williams, leading to plenty of jokes about taking two players with the same name. The Jalen/Jaylin Williams combo makes for a rare and interesting conundrum for the Thunder staff as they try to talk about the two players, with Sam Presti figuring out a workaround in his post-draft availability, referring to each as their name plus the college they attended — Santa Clara and Arkansas, respectively.

Fans had plenty of jokes after the two were drafted by the same team, with a lot of Spiderman memes floating around, enough to get the Thunder in on the joke as they had their two rookies of the same name recreate that meme in their first photoshoot donning their OKC uniforms.

It’s some terrific team photoshoot content, and it seems the two have come up with their own way of differentiating themselves, as Jalen says he’s “J-Dub” while Jaylin is “J-Will.”

It’s nice of them to come up with a system for their teammates and coaching staff to separate the two when calling them out at practice.

Typically a non-stop performer, Dave Grohl hadn’t taken the stage since drummer Taylor Hawkins’ sudden death this past March. The Foo Fighters cancelled all of their tour dates and festival appearances in the wake of the tragedy as they mourned and figured out how to move forward. And while the band eventually announced two star-studded September tribute shows for Hawkins in London and Los Angeles, Grohl finally got back on stage last night at Glastonbury with Paul McCartney, and even Bruce Springsteen.

There’s a reason why we called Glastonbury, “The most phenomenal fest in Europe and possibly the world,” because unreal moments like this one go down. In the midst of McCartney’s career-spanning 38-song set (!!!) on the Pyramid Stage, he surprised the Worthy Farm crowd by bringing Grohl up on stage, introducing him as, “My friend, your hero, from the West Coast of America, Dave Grohl!”

Grohl joined McCartney and the band to play The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “Band on the Run” by Wings.

No sooner after Grohl walked off the stage, did McCatney introduce his next guest: Bruce Springsteen. The Boss joined Macca for a version of Springsteen’s “Glory Days” and then The Beatles’ “I Wanna Be Your Man.”

Then for the grand finale of McCartney’s set, both Grohl and Springsteen came back out on stage and they played The Beatles’ Abbey Road classic, “The End.”

It’s been three years since Sarah Huckabee Sanders was Donald Trump’s second most rude and flippant press secretary, but she’s back in the public eye again, this time running for governor of Arkansas. If she gets the gig, it sounds like she’ll keep the state’s new ban on safe and legal abortions in place. During a rally, she declared her intention to embrace the Supreme Court’s eradication of Roe v. Wade. She just happened to phrase her support in a term that wasn’t exactly encouraging.

“We will make sure that when a kid is in the womb, they’re as safe as they are in a classroom, the workplace, a nursing home. Because every stage of life has value,” Sanders told the crowd.

Workplaces and nursing homes aren’t exactly safe spaces anymore, not with eroding gun control laws, which you can also thank the Supreme Court for weakening. But it was the first place that caught people’s attention. Perhaps Sanders hasn’t heard about the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead and launched a new conversation about school safety the nation has already had several times before with not much success.

Luckily, people on social media volunteered to inform her.

Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue. If so, that’s been happening to a lot of prominent Republicans of late. On Saturday night, at a rally for Sanders’ old boss Donald Trump, a GOP representative said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a “triumph” for “white life.” And last week, candidate Herschel Walker seemed confused about how many states were in the U.S. but guessed it was something like 52. To quote Rick Perry, “Oops.”

As Wednesday’s deadline for players to pick up or decline their player options for the 2022-23 season approaches, there are some big names still waiting to make their official decision.

The most intriguing of them is Kyrie Irving, as his potential departure from the Nets could lead to Kevin Durant asking out and one of the wildest bidding wars on the trade market that we’ve ever seen. However, in terms of players who would command the most attention on the free agent market, none are bigger than Bradley Beal, as teams have long coveted the Wizards All-Star guard as he’s been in trade rumors for years. Beal opting out to become a free agent is expected, but it remains to be seen if he will open his free agency up to other teams or not.

Plenty would be interested in Beal, as he’d have many contenders vying for him in a sign-and-trade, but it appears he will once again rebuff the interest of outside teams to stay in the nation’s capital. Kevin Pelton of ESPN cited Adrian Wojnarowski as reporting Beal is “very likely” to ink a five-year max in Washington when free agency opens.

Per Wojnarowski, Beal is very likely to decline the option and re-sign with Washington on a five-year deal worth a projected $248 million that would take him through age 33.

That will probably slow rumors of teams trying to pry Beal out of Washington for about a year before rumors pop up again, as Beal has been a constant target for years despite his insistence he wants to stay with the Wizards. How Washington navigates this offseason in terms of building around Beal will be interesting, as GM Tommy Sheppard has insisted they’re comfortable having Beal play point guard next year, despite the belief of many that they need to bolster their point guard spot to be competitive in the suddenly deep East playoff race.

For Beal, it’d be hard to walk away from a quarter billion if it’s put on the table, and he clearly likes living in D.C., even if there would be quicker paths to being a contender elsewhere.

On Friday, the Supreme Court did what was teased back in early May: It overturned Roe v. Wade, much to the shock of easily duped lawmakers. Suddenly women in at least a dozen states were unable to procure a safe and legal abortion. More states are bound to follow, and there’s fear that that’s just the beginning of even more infringements on civil rights. Though it’s the endgame of a long con that began decades ago, there hasn’t been much rejoicing. Even Donald Trump, who stacked the court with rightwing extremists, has reportedly trashed it in private, fretting that it may lead to backlash from voters.

On Sunday, others tried to play damage control. Peggy Noonan, longtime conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter, participated in a panel on NBC’s Meet the Press. She offered some advice to her buds.

“You know what the Republican party should do now?” she said. “ It should use this victory, if you see it that way, to change itself and become a party that helps women — to change its reputation and become a party that helps women and children become responsible and supportive.”

Before she could even get halfway through her line, her fellow panelists, including host Chuck Todd, were laughing. Was it because the party is still largely beholden to a former president who’s been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by several women? Was it because they just took rights away from women?

In any case, they weren’t the only ones laughing at Noonan’s logic.

Meanwhile, there are people on the right celebrating the destruction of Roe v. Wade. One of them, Rep. Mary Miller, told a crowd at a Trump rally that it was a victory for “white life.”

You can watch the entire panel discussion in the video above. Noonan’s comments begin around the 7:45 mark.

The cryptocurrency market is not doing so hot right now, with prices plummeting so low that people are once again remembering that notorious Matt Damon Super Bowl crypto ad. It’s gotten so bad that Gemini, the exchange company run by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — aka the Winklevii, made famous by their lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg and portrayal in the film The Social Network — had to law off 10 percent of their staff. But that hasn’t stopped them from touring with their much-mocked cover band.

In a new report by The Daily Beast, current and former Gemini employees spilled the dirt on the company’s attempts to deal with the floundering crypto market, as well as multiple lawsuits. They’ve responded in two ways: with layoffs and by putting more weight on Mars Junction, their touring cover band in which they do renditions of “Don’t Stop Believin’” and The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Suck My Kiss.”

The twins have gone so far as to remove references to crypto from their Twitter bios and replaced a link to Gemini with one for Mars Junction, which is described on their Twitter bio as a “hard-hitting rock band.”

“They laid off 10 percent of their staff,” one former staffer told The Daily Beast, “and then they went on tour with their rock band.”

The Winklevii launched Gemini in 2014, in the early days of the cryptocurrency craze, when bitcoin was only worth a few hundred dollars. Today, one current employee describes it as a “sinking ship.” Meanwhile, Mars Junction spent Saturday night playing in Brooklyn.

(Via The Daily Beast)

On Saturday, President Joe Biden signed into law a modest gun control bill in the only developed nation where mass shootings happen on a regular basis. It was done with bipartisan cooperation, with help from two Republicans, including Texas senator John Cornyn. Cornyn received backlash from extremists in his party, which may be why he took to Twitter for a bizarre post about segregation.

Cornyn was responding to a tweet from Barack Obama, in which the former president railed against the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, thus reversing “nearly 50 years of precedent.” Cornyn quote-tweeted that, writing “Now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education.”

Plessy v. Ferguson, which is widely considered one of the worst rulings in Supreme Court history, ruled in 1896 that segregation did not violate the Constitution. It has never been formally overruled, but it was severely weakened by Board v. Board of Education, which eliminated segregation in the nation’s schools in 1954.

So what on earth did Cornyn mean? Was he suggesting that the right-leaning Supreme Court — one of whom, Clarence Thomas, suggested they go after rulings pertaining to contraceptives, same-sex marriage, same-sex coupling, and more — tackle bills involving segregation? Was it some kind of joke? Cornyn later attempted to clarify, but not that much, writing simply and cryptically, “Thank goodness some SCOTUS precedents are overruled.” (Again, Plessy v. Ferguson has never been officially overruled.)

Cornyn’s initial tweet was widely condemned for being at best poorly worded and at worst…well, you can see:

Cornyn, who tweets a lot and hasn’t deleted this one in particular, was dragged earlier this year for complaining that Biden doesn’t tweet enough.

On Friday, the right-leaning Supreme Court gave conservatives one of their biggest wishes: They ended safe and legal abortion across the United States. The destruction of Roe v. Wade was met with condemnation, even allegedly from the former president who helped make it happen. Speaking of, the day after Donald Trump held one of his rallies, where a MAGA lawmaker said the quiet part extremely loud.

Mary Miller, an Illinois representative who earlier this year favorably quoted Adolf Hitler, took the stage in front of a beaming Trump, to heap some dubious praise upon him. “President Trump,” she said, “on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America. I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday.” She and the crowd then cheered.

A spokesperson for Miller subsequently played damage control, telling NBC News, “You can clearly see she is reading off a piece of paper, she meant to say ‘right to life.”

Aides to MAGA politicians have been busy lately cleaning up their bosses’ messes. Last week, Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker went on a podcast and said America had 52 states. A spokesperson for the former footballer said he “obviously knows there are 50 states.”

(Via NBC News)

Copa América Femenina, the top soccer tournament involving women’s national teams in South America, will take place next month. In the lead-up, two teams that are slated to go but are in opposite groups — Chile and Venezuela — squared off on Saturday evening at the Estadio La Granja in Chile.

Venezuela ended up picking up a 1-0 win thanks to a second half goal by Mariana Speckmaier. Before that happened, the two teams had to deal with a rather rude interruption, as a dang dog ran onto the field and apparently thought getting pets from everyone would be the best thing in the world.

Even some photographers on the sideline and one of the officials got in on the fun. I really love the 52-second mark, when you can see in the distance that Chilean keeper Christine Endler is petting the dog’s stomach right after the ball goes out of play with a huge smile on her face, presumably because this is extremely funny. The dog looks for a few more pets, and when an effort is made to get it off the pitch, it takes off to the delight of every person in the stadium.

Eventually, a pair of Chilean teammates — Yenny Acuña and Javiera Toro — were able to get the situation all taken care of. I wish nothing but the best for this dog for the rest of time.

It’s hard to understand how Azealia Banks’ brain works sometimes. Last week, the rapper and noted provocateur vehemently asked people to stop making mash-ups of her music with Beyoncé’s latest single “Break My Soul.” “Please for the love of God,” she posted on her Instagram Story. “They are horrible.” And look, we’ll give her that. She didn’t ask for her music to be thrust alongside Bey’s. But as we try to make sense of how Banks’ mind works, she was clearly perturbed my these mash-ups for a reason. Today, back on her Instagram story soap box, she went on a tirade accusing Beyoncé of “stealing” from Robin S, and then some.

For posterity, her actual words claimed that Bey, “…is out here pretending to support Black divas with bouquets of wilted flowers after stealing their art, arrogantly assuming they don’t have money for legal counsel… and muscling them into making stock PR statements to cover up this messy album roll out..”

Ok, let’s backtrack for a second. Beyoncé sampled Robin S’ 90s house hit “Show Me Love” on “Break My Soul,” and fully credited her as a songwriter. While Robin S said that she was not contacted ahead of time, she did post a video thanking Beyoncé and her team (including Jay-Z) profusely, saying, “Thank you so much for giving me my flowers while I’m still alive.”

It’s safe to say that Robin S stands to make a dandy sum from royalty checks off of “Break My Soul,” but Banks, who has noted beefs with everyone from Cardi B to Elon Musk, thinks she sees right through Beyoncé’s intent. She suggests that the best way for Beyoncé to repent for this sin of “stealing,” is to provide an, “update on Koi Knowles,” the alleged sister and daughter of Bey’s father, Mathew Knowles. Or as Banks calls her, “…your little sister you think we forgot about?” Here’s Banks’ full post from her Instagram Story:

It’s hard to understand how the two issues are analogous, but it makes sense to Azealia Banks? An hour after calling out Beyoncé, Banks posted a video of her song, “I Rule The World,” on her Instagram, which has been out since February. Just another day for Ms. Banks…