Month: January 2023

As recently as late October, Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner was making a public case for why he should be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. In late December, the posture reportedly shifted, with Turner and the Pacers opening up discussions on a potential contract extension to keep Turner in Indianapolis beyond his current deal that expires at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season.

Now, Turner’s new deal is reportedly a reality, with both ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and TNT’s Chris Haynes reporting a re-negotiated agreement on a new contract worth approximately $60 million.

Shortly after, Shams Charania of The Athletic brought the annual financial details.

This was a unique negotiating position on both sides. Turner is enjoying the most productive season of his career, averaging 17.4 points per game with a 64.7 percent true shooting mark, and he remains a top-tier defensive center. With those impressive efforts, Turner was in the position to command top dollar on the market, but Indiana had an interesting chip to offer.

Because the Pacers have operated more than $25 million under the salary cap after the Phoenix Suns matched an offseason offer sheet for Deandre Ayton, Indiana was able to offer Turner more money for the current 2022-23 season in a way that rarely happens in the NBA. Wojnarowski notes that the $17.1 million in new money for this season is the largest figure in league history, and that balloon payment also allows Indiana to keep Turner’s salary at a very manageable figure for the next two seasons.

With the Pacers exceeding expectations this season on the way to a 24-27 record, the positive vibes likely helped to push this deal over the finish line. Still, this is a good piece of business on both sides, with Indiana taking advantage of odd flexibility and Turner earning a nice bump in salary to combine with security over a longer term.

Lizzy McAlpine recently announced she would no longer be able to join John Mayer for his upcoming Solo Tour. The singer-songwriter revealed on social media that she could not be a part of the forthcoming tour due to “scheduling conflicts.” The “Apple Pie” singer was expected to join Mayer on tour alongside Alec Benjamin and a surprise guest (who has yet to be revealed). The 19-city tour is scheduled to kick off at the beginning of March.

“Unfortunately, due to a last minute scheduling conflict, I will no longer be able to join @JohnMayer on his solo acoustic tour,” she wrote on Twitter Friday, January 27.

McAlpine shared that while she will not be joining Mayer on tour, fans will have a chance to see her again during her own tour later. “I love u all, and I’ll see you in April for my headline tour,” she wrote.

Mayer’s upcoming North American tour — his first in 25 years — will make pitstops in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Toronto, and more.

“I’ll be playing old songs,” Mayer tweeted Thursday, January 26. “Newer songs. Songs you haven’t heard yet that I’ll be road testing — all on acoustic, electric, and piano. Hope to see you there.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are one game out of the play-in tournament in the Western Conference, and are 2.5 games back of the Dallas Mavericks for the 6-seed. This comes despite the fact that Anthony Davis is only just returning from an injury he suffered back in the middle of December.

The Lakers went 10-10 in the 20 games Davis missed, largely due to the fact that LeBron James continues to just not age. James, who turned 38 last month, averaged 34.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 7.6 assists in 36 minutes per game during the stretch with Davis on the sideline, and while other players performed admirably with AD out, James shouldered the biggest load.

What makes it more impressive is that Los Angeles appeared to be in major trouble following a 2-10 start to the year but have appeared to right the ship. This has really impressed Tristan Thompson, and during an appearance on ESPN on Friday, James’ former teammate in Cleveland expressed his belief that the Lakers star deserves to get into the MVP consideration if the team can get to the 6 or 7-seed in the West.

Another one of James’ former teammates, Kendrick Perkins could only put his head in his hands. Anyway, as of this writing, James is tied for 10th in MVP odds, so if the Lakers can make that happen, it sure seems like Thompson will get to see him in the conversation for the league’s top individual award.

You might recall that a month and a half ago people weren’t sure if Avatar: The Way of Water would make much money. Its own creator, James Cameron, even toyed with making fewer sequels if the second entry underperformed. How naïve we all were. Since opening in mid-December, the sequel has been Hoovering up cash worldwide, out-grossing one all-time hit after another. Now it’s surpassed one more.

As per Deadline, on Friday the worldwide total of Avatar 2 ballooned to $2.074 billion. That’s enough to make it the fourth highest-grossing film ever made (not adjusted for inflation, of course). That also means it bumped another biggie from that spot: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which grossed $2.068 billion back in 2015.

Next up: another James Cameron titan, Titanic, which currently holds the number three spot with $2.187 billion. As it happens, there’s a chance Titanic will end Avatar 2’s run as the number one movie in America when it’s re-released for Valentine’s Day. Still, Cameron already has three of the top grossing films in the all-time Top 4, which is nothing to sneeze at. (The only non-Cameron film in that bunch is Avengers: Endgame.) What’s more, it’s not far-fetched that it could nab the top spot, currently occupied by…Avatar 1, which has grossed some $2.9 billion. It’s James Cameron’s world, we’re just living in it.

(Via Deadline)

Joel Embiid got rather excited during a game against the Brooklyn Nets earlier this week. After finishing a layup through contact and drawing a foul, Embiid, a well-documented professional wrestling fan who has said that his favorite wrestler is Triple H, did the crotch chop made famous by D-Generation X. While he has done the crotch chop before, the NBA still did not like that he did this, and on Friday, the league hit Embiid with a $25,000 fine.

This is not exactly a ton of money for Embiid and, seeing as how much fun he had after the game with all of this, our hunch is that he is going to continue having two words for opponents as the season goes on. And if the league keeps hitting him with fines, Embiid has Triple H in this corner, as The Game took some time away from preparing for Saturday night’s Royal Rumble to let the big man know that he’ll chip in if Embiid wants to send a much larger check to the league to cover future crotch chop-related fines.

There is no word on whether Shawn Michaels, X-Pac, the New Age Outlaws, or (as of Monday night) Kurt Angle will join their fellow DX member in helping Embiid out with this one.

The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a trade earlier this week. L.A. sent Kendrick Nunn and a trio of second-round picks to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Rui Hachimura, the former top-10 pick who should be able to bring a little bit of scoring to a team that could use it as they look to make a push for the play-in tournament.

The Lakers making a trade will always draw eyes, but this trade attracted a bit of attention due to some comments made by Shaquille O’Neal. On Tuesday, Shaq was part of TNT’s NBA crew and said that he did not know who Hachimura was before the deal got made.

Shaq said this more explicitly on “The Big Podcast,” and that if the Lakers wanted to impress him, then the guy they needed to go from the Wizards get was Bradley Beal (something he also said on TNT). Now, seeing as how the Inside the NBA guys get some criticism when they do an annual segment where Charles Barkley is asked about where lesser-heralded players are now playing after they changed teams in the offseason, this did not go over especially well. The Hall of Fame big man got called out for this, and on Saturday, Kevin Durant joined in on things.

Durant is no stranger to going back-and-forth with the Inside crew, as he and Barkley in particular have butted heads in the past.

Jaren Jackson Jr. very well might be the best defensive player in basketball this season. Jackson, a stalwart for the Memphis Grizzlies and the frontrunner to be named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, is averaging a ridiculous 4.2 blocks and 1.4 steals per 36 minutes, and is a major reason why the team has aspirations of winning the first NBA championship in franchise history this year.

On Saturday, basketball fans got caught up in a theory about Jackson’s numbers that got posted to r/NBA. The long and the short of its argument: Jackson’s numbers are ridiculously inflated during Grizzlies home games, to the point that it’s worth wondering if something fishy is going on. Titled “Memphis Grizzlies scorekeeper posting fraudulent numbers,” this is the argument made by the post’s author:

I decided to take a closer look at his games and IMMEDIATELY 1 thing became crystal clear. At home in Memphis he has 66 blocks in 16 home games, averaging 4.13 blocks per game, versus just 35 in 16 road games, averaging 2.19 in nearly identical minutes- an 89% increase in Memphis. In home games he has been credited with 22 steals in 16 home games, versus only 10 steals in 16 road games. This means he is averaging nearly 1.4 steals per game at home, but just 0.63 steals on the road per game- an astounding 120% increase in Memphis. In home games he has been credited with 88 blocks + steals, versus 45 on the road. This equates to an average of an outlandish 5.5 blocks+steals at home in limited minutes versus a reasonable and realistic, and still outstanding, 2.81 steals+blocks per game on the road. This equates to a 1.96X home stat increase only in these 2 categories. A 96% increase in performance specifically at home is truly an aberration which should be reviewed. This demonstrates the sort of incredulous statistics which calls for serious analysis.

The post — which comes in at a robust 1,594 words — believes one of three things is happening: Jackson is trying way harder at home, the team’s official scorekeeper is embellishing the numbers because they want Jackson to look better, or most concerning, something nefarious is happening because of fantasy basketball or gambling. There are also a collection of examples that, they allege, proves this theory.

It is undeniably true that Jackson’s block and steal numbers are better at home than they are on the road — he’s accrued 66 blocks and 22 steals in 417 minutes at FedExForum compared to 37 blocks and 12 steals in 456 minutes everywhere else. Having said that, this theory does struggle in the face of scrutiny, in part due to the fact that the NBA reviews blocks and stats and makes official rulings on whether they should count.

Of course, people make mistakes, even if this would be a pretty big mistake to make and would require several layers of folks being in on the whole thing, all in an effort to promote one player in the 51st-largest media market in the United States. Still, multiple people decided to fact check the clips that got flagged by the post’s author, and believe that there’s no major conspiracy going on here.

And as noted by Michael Sykes of For The Win, it’s not like players getting their stats slightly inflated at home is a new phenomenon, either, as there was a paper written on the exact topic for the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference a few years ago. Perhaps the NBA ends up looking into all of this and eventually determines that the Grizzlies are engaging in a plot to juice Jackson’s numbers, but the simplest answer is usually the correct one, and the simplest answer here is that Jackson is just really, really good at playing defense.

It’s been nearly two weeks since news broke about Tyre Nichols’ death. The 29-year-old died after succumbing to his injuries after being severely beaten by five Memphis police officers at a traffic stop. Nichols’ death, similar to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others has enraged the nation, causing many discussions about state violence and the institutional racism embedded in police organizations. Several celebrities, artists, and athletes including, Memphis rappers Moneybagg Yo and GloRilla, have spoken about Nichols’ unjust death. More are sure to follow.

Moneybagg took to social media to offer a message to Nichols’ family and the city of Memphis. “Praying for the family of Tyre Nichols,” the rapper wrote on Instagram. “Also praying for our city. #JusticeForTyre.”

GloRilla, another Memphis native, reposted Moneybagg’s post on her Instagram story before making a post of her own. The “F.N.F” rapper posted a message that read “Justice For Tyre Nichols” with a caption containing a broken heart emoji with several prayer hands.

Ari Lennox shared a post on her Instagram story that read, “Justice for Tyre. Praying for his family and friends and the Memphis community.”

NBA stars like LeBron James and Chris Paul also chimed in with some thoughts about the unfortunate situation. “WE ARE OUR OWN WORSE ENEMY!!!” James tweeted regarding the five officers who attacked Nichols, all of which were Black.

Paul offered a heartfelt message to Nichols’ family and the Memphis community, writing, “Change is needed at all levels, and we all need to do our part.”

“We can’t lose our humanity as a society,” he continued. “To the Nichols family and Memphis community, my heart is with you tonight.”

Since Nichols’ death, the five officers involved have been fired from the Memphis Police Department and are facing impending charges. Footage of the horrific incident was recently released, where Nichols can be seen fleeing from the police before they eventually caught up with him.

Donald Trump is running for president, again. It’s his third rodeo, but you might not know that given how long it’s taken him to start seriously campaigning. Ditto the size of his rallies. In his previous two campaigns, the failed blogger and dubious golf champ has commanded large audiences worthy of classic rocker tours. Not so much these days. Indeed, his first stop? A high school auditorium.

As per The New York Times, the 45th president officially kicks off a campaign he announced over two months ago in Salem, New Hampshire. There, he’ll address an annual state party meeting at a local high school. He’ll then head down to South Carolina, where instead of ranting to thousands about his personal problems, he’ll simply hold court at the state Capitol.

As previously reported, the Trump team was shocked to discover how difficult it was to get any big GOP leaders to join him at his South Carolina rally. Trump had a lousy end to his 2022; his business was found guilty of fraud, his tax returns were made finally made public, he was caught dining with anti-Semites, then there was that backlash over his lame NFTs. It appears many in the party he once dramatically changed see him as King Midas in reverse.

Then again, Trump is no stranger to improbable, unearned comebacks.

(Via NYT)

It seems like Lil Tjay can’t catch a break: The New York City rapper has been arrested for the second time this month. Just two weeks ago, the “Resume” rapper was detained for gun possession while on his way to film a music video with Ice Spice. The video was presumably for their recent collaboration on the “Munch” rapper’s EP Like..?, on a track titled “Gangsta Boo,” which dropped on January 6.

Reports show that Tjay was with several other people inside a vehicle in a “no-idling zone” before the police searched the car. It’s alleged that the authorities then located a firearm, and despite the rapper not being the driver, he was still arrested.

Tjay’s attorney, Dawn Florio, gave a statement in a recent interview with XXL regarding the rapper’s current situation. According to his attorney, the rapper was not arrested on another gun charge but for missing court.

“Lil Tjay was not rearrested for another gun charge,” she told XXL. “He was excused from appearing in court last Friday by the arraignment Judge. Another Judge revoked his bond and put him back in jail for missing court on Friday even though he was told by the first Judge that he did not have [to] appear.”

Florio also revealed that Tjay’s family has posted bail for the rapper and that he is free.

“It is so unfortunate that he had to be jailed for something that was not his fault,” she said.