Month: March 2024

Quarterbacks are the dominant topic of conversation in the 2024 NFL Draft, as is often the case. It’s the most important position on the football field in the modern game and every team is desperate to find the guy that can turn their franchise around like what we saw in Houston with C.J. Stroud.

At the top, Caleb Williams seems like a lock to go No. 1 to Chicago, but after him there’s all kinds of rumors about what order the other three top QBs — Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and J.J. McCarthy — will go. After that trio, there’s a bit of a gap to the next quarterbacks expected to come off the board, headlined by Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr., one of whom could be a mid-to-late first round selection depending on how the early run on QBs goes.

After that, there’s some Day 2 or Day 3 names that have created some buzz for themselves during the pre-Draft process, with Michael Pratt from Tulane earning praise and Joe Milton from Tennessee unsurprisingly shining in the workout portion of the process.

Milton, who spent three years at Michigan before another three years with the Vols, has always been a guy that looks like he should be a really good quarterback. He has prototypical size (6’5, 235 pounds) and has an absolute cannon strapped to his right shoulder. He has always wowed when allowed to turn that arm loose, and there’s no better place to do that than at Pro Day where he put on a show for scouts in Knoxville.

Please enjoy the latest episode of Joe Milton Throws Ball Far:

This is a terrific followup to his Combine showing where he clocked the fastest ball speed and the longest throws of the day to the delight of everyone in Indy.

Milton is the definition of “toolsy” and it’s impossible for football coaches not to have just enough hubris to believe they could be the one that could harness all that power and get the most out of it. He never could capture that magic fully in Ann Arbor or Knoxville over his six years of college football, having his best year in his final one at Tennessee, but if nothing else he should be able to carve out a professional career off the hope all that arm talent can somehow come together into a complete quarterbacking package — or, at the least, playing scout team and being able to mimic any of the NFL’s livest arms in practice.

Shaquille O’Neal has never been shy about calling out NBA players who disappoint him for one reason or another. In the past, Ben Simmons has drawn the Hall of Fame center’s ire, with Simmons’ playoff woes during his tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers and what happened in the aftermath of his final postseason series with the team being particularly big sore spots.

Now, Shaq is back to calling out Simmons, this time on an episode of The Big Podcast. The big fella got asked by Adam Lefkoe which NBA players he’d buy a ticket to go watch, and perhaps surprisingly, Simmons immediately popped up.

“Ben Simmons, because I would wanna learn how you could make $80 million and play 55 games,” Shaq said. “Teach me. Teach me how you could play 55 games in three seasons and get $30 million, $40 million, and get another $40 million just by saying your back hurt. Get some f*ckin Icy Hot, man up.”

Shaq did go on to give a serious answer — he, once again, made it a point to make clear that he loves Nikola Jokic — but he really did lay into Simmons with this one. Anyway, Simmons only appeared in 15 games this season, the last of which came in late February. He will not play again this year due to a pinched nerve in his lower back.

As the bad news continues to pour in for Sean “Diddy” Combs, more of the people in his orbit have been pulled into the drama surrounding the lawsuit filed by Rod “Lil Rod” Jones. According to XXL, Jones’ most recent amendment, filed on Monday, now levels a number of eyebrow-raising accusations at Yung Miami, Diddy’s rumored paramour, with whom he’s had a very public association, although both have refused to label their relationshipo as such.

Jones accuses Miami of both carrying drugs for Combs and of being a sex worker being paid a monthly retainer by Diddy, according to USA Today. Jones said Miami, real name Caresha Brownlee, was one of three women Combs kept on retainer, including wellness coach Jade Ramey and model/actress Daphne Joy. Incidentally, the latter is most notable for her connection with Curtis Jackson — better known as 50 Cent — the father of her 10-year-old son Sire. 50 has notably trolled his ex over her alleged association with Combs, which could be seen as at least part of why he’s carried on a one-sided feud with the fellow music mogul.

Jones’ lawsuit says Miami brought Combs a drug called “tuci” from Miami to Virginia via private plane when his alleged drug mule, Brendan Paul, forgot to bring it along. Tuci is also known as “pink cocaine” and is a synthetic drug made of pink food coloring, strawberry flavoring, ketamine, caffeine, and MDMA. Its effects are similar to those of ecstasy, rather than cocaine, according to drug treatment facilities such as The Willough at Naples and Avenues Recovery.

The second episode of LeBron James and JJ Redick’s “Mind the Game” podcast came out on Tuesday and featured a very interesting discussion of how to defend some of the hardest offensive actions in the NBA.

In the middle of their conversation about how you have to be so smart on the court to defend NBA offenses now, the two went off on a tangent (30:44 of the above video) started by LeBron about how watching college basketball drives them both insane. James, of course, watches more college basketball now than he probably has in his entire NBA career because his son plays at USC, and explained why it’s hard for him to watch an entire college game and that they give him anxiety just because so many things don’t make sense, particularly with how they use bigs in the post.

LeBron: The NBA is the best league in the world. That’s why it’s hard to watch my son play college basketball.

JJ: You wanna go there.

…

LeBron: It is hard watching a 40 minute college basketball game. It’s hard. I get more anxiety and I sweat more watching college basketball, especially my son now, than I’ve ever done in my life.

JJ: I still watch legitimate teams. Ranked teams. They will run a play and their best player will get the ball on the wing and they will have a non-threat big man posting up on the same side and the guard or the wing will drive into the occupied post. And I’m like, guys, it’s 2024, we can all watch YouTube. There’s a wealth of information out there. Why are we still playing this way?

LeBron: I’ve never understood why a coach will throw the ball into the post with his big with no business with the ball in the post. The only time the ball should go into the post with the big is if he’s automatically, as soon as he catches it, flattens the defense and he goes right back into a DHO uphill, roll – if he’s not a pocket passer you can’t throw it low, throw it to the rim – or it’s his job is to just shrink the defense cause his role is so dynamic. I watch college games and I see guys throw the ball in the post to guys and they’ll turn around and shoot a jump shot or a running left handed jump hook.

It really is fascinating watching men’s college basketball because it does feel at times like going back in time. The problem is not that there are some teams that play through a dominant big man and take advantage of a size mismatch inside. It’s, as LeBron and Redick explain, that there are a lot of teams that just can’t help but post up bigs that have no business being part of the offense as a post hub.

It is funny hearing LeBron talk about how he now finds himself locked in on college hoops and that it kills him a little bit inside every time he turns it on, because his brain can’t fathom why someone would consistently make the wrong reads (which is what college kids do a lot of the time) or call plays that don’t give your best players the best chance to make plays (which is what college coaches do a lot of the time).

Hot mics, man. They occasionally catch the best but usually (especially in Robert Durst’s case) the worst of people, and HBO is following up on their 2015 true-crime series, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, in which the subject essentially landed himself behind bars while talking to himself: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

This pivotal finale moment relaunched an investigation after Durst’s long history of dodging prosecution for repeated murder allegations due to insufficient evidence. However, he did himself in and ultimately served time for killing Susan Berman, who was one of two people he killed to help cover up the 1982 death of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. Oh, and once his inadvertent on-air confession surfaced on The Jinx, all legal hell broke loose, so finally, HBO (and the Max streamer) will show us what happened behind the scenes as director Andrew Jarecki continued digging into the most bizarre of cases. From HBO’s logline:

In Part Two, the filmmakers continue their investigation for the next eight years, uncovering hidden material, Durst’s prison calls, and interviews with witnesses who had not come forward until now.

HBO‘s The Jinx — Part Two debuts on Sunday, April 21, although it’s hard to imagine how the filmmakers could ever top that first season finale.

Noah Kahan launched a new North American leg of his We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour when he took the stage at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena last night (March 26).

With lots of dates still to go as he makes his way to major cities, fans who managed to secure tickets might also be curious about what the merch selection looks like.

Here’s what to know.

Here Is The Noah Kahan Merch Available At We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour

Kahan has a ton of merch options for fans at his 2024 tour, as seen in a video that was posted by the venue. The first of the T-shirts is tan and has a large floral design on the back, along with a lyric from “Homesick,” for $60. There’s a dark green “Stick Season” shirt, two different options of shirts with just the dates on the back, and two hoodies (brown and green) for $110. (It’s unclear if these prices will change outside of Canadian currency.)

Near the end of the video, there appears to be a blue sweatshirt, although it’s unclear how much this is. Kahan also seems to be selling CD and vinyl copies of his music.

In terms of accessories, there is a green trucker hat for $40. The tour poster this year is $50. He is also selling a colorful tote bag with his name on it for $30.

Below, find a complete video showing off Noah Kahan’s tour merch.

We are just a month out from Hovvdy‘s upcoming self-titled fifth studio album. Ahead of the release, Hovvdy has shared “Make Ya Proud,” a poignant ballad displaying pure, raw emotion.

On “Make Ya Proud,” Hovvdy members Charlie Martin and Will Taylor reflect on life, detailing that while someone can live a very fulfilling life, the time we have on earth is too damn short.

“C’mon man, you need strength / Everyone needs a little more time / God damn, don’t we all need more time? / Thanks mom, I’ll stay for a while / Help you out how I can,” Martin sings on one of the song’s verses.

According to Martin, “Make Ya Proud” is one of the most personal tracks on the upcoming album.

“This is one of a few songs on the record I wrote for my grandpa Pete, my father’s father,” Martin said in a statement. “He passed away last summer and was in many ways the backbone of that side of my family. I wrote ‘Make Ya Proud’ during that time in Mississippi, between trips to the coast to visit him in the hospital. It’s really hard to describe; but the songs are a celebration of him and how he inspired me.”

You can listen to “Make Ya Proud” above.

Hovvdy is out 4/26 via Arts And Crafts. Find more information here.

Whoopi Goldberg has been having one heck of a week on The View.

Things kicked off Monday when the entire panel apologized for speculating about Kate Middleton after Whoopi repeatedly told them to knock it off. The next day, Whoopi brought the show to a screeching halt as she confronted an audience member who was recording a Hot Topics segment with his phone. And, now, Whoopi is casually announcing that she believes aliens are among us and not the kind that make Republicans mad. We’re talking space aliens.

The revelation came as guest Kumail Nanjiani shared that he believes in aliens and thinks that they’re already circling the Earth waiting for humans to get their act together before touching down. That’s when Whoopi stepped in to say he’s only half right.

Via Decider:

When Goldberg interjected, “They’re already here,” [Sunny] Hostin asked, “Oh, they’re here already?”

Her co-host, maintaining a very serious tone, repeated, “They are already, they’ve been here for quite some time.”

Nanjiani then asked Goldberg, “You think they’re here? And what are they doing?”

The View moderator replied, “They’re watching us,” and Hostin backed her up, chiming in, “They’re talking to Whoopi,” as the studio audience laughed.

As the laughter died down, Sara Haines joked that actually Whoopi talks to ghosts, not aliens, in reference to Goldberg starring alongside Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in the classic movie Ghost.

“I got you, girl,” Haines quipped to Whoopi.

You can watch the full segment below:

(Via Decider)

We have reached the final weeks of the NBA regular season, with most teams having just 10 games left to make a move in the standings. For teams eliminated from contention, they’ll be running out the clock and trying to find a bit of positivity going into the 2024-25 campaign, but for those still in the hunt for spots in the Playoffs or Play-In, there’s some real importance to this stretch run.

In the East, the top-seed has been locked up by the Boston Celtics, leaving the teams below them to posture for seeding. The Bucks loss on Tuesday to the Lakers opened the door for the Cavs and Knicks to still feel like the 2-seed is within reach if they can get hot, while the Magic will be looking to leap someone into a top-4 position. The Pacers, meanwhile, hold a 1.5 game lead over the Heat and Sixers for the all-important 6-seed that keeps you out of the Play-In. The East’s second Play-In game is effectively set in stone between the Bulls and Hawks, leaving little drama at the bottom of the standings.

Out West, things are bunched up much tighter throughout. At the top, Denver is a half-game up on the Thunder and 1.5 games up on Minnesota as that trio has separated themselves from the pack, but still could end up in any order as the top 3 seeds. In the middle, the Clippers, Pelicans, Mavs, Kings, and Suns are all within 2.5 games of each other, meaning the battle to avoid the Play-In should be fascinating. Below them, the Lakers could get in the mix for the 8-seed if they can get hot, but the 9 seems far more likely as they’re two games back of the 8 and two games up on Golden State in 10th. The Warriors, meanwhile, hold just a 1-game lead over Houston for the 10th and final spot in the Play-In and will have to battle just to give themselves a chance at playing their way into the postseason.

All of that is to say, there’s plenty still out there to play for in the final weeks of the season, and within those groupings, the few head-to-head battles remaining will be especially important. By my count there are 15 games left on the schedule that will directly impact playoff seeding by way of teams battling for the same positions going head-to-head (mostly in the West), meaning these are the games to keep a particularly close eye on as we close out this regular season.

EAST

76ers at Heat (4/4): This game figures to be a Play-In preview and could go a long way in determining whether the 7/8 game gets played in Philadelphia or Miami. The two teams are tied right now at 39-33 and while they both will have designs on catching Indiana 1.5 games ahead, neither team gets to play the Pacers in the final 10 games, meaning they’ll need help. In the mean time, they can help themselves with a win in this matchup as both teams look to round into form at the right time.

Knicks at Bucks (4/7): Making up 2.5 games in 10 is very difficult, but a win here by the Knicks would give them an outside chance at the 2-seed in the East. The Bucks have left the door ajar with their play of late and New York is playing at a high level as we hit the final couple weeks of the season. It should be Milwaukee in the 2 spot come playoff time, but they certainly haven’t earned the trust to put them there in pen just yet.

Magic at Bucks (4/10) and Bucks at Magic (4/14): Orlando is 3.5 games back of Milwaukee, but they do get two cracks at the Bucks to end the season. They would need a huge run before this to have a chance at reeling the Bucks in, but being able to pick up two games on them in head-to-head matchups means the Magic certainly have something to chase over the next couple weeks. If they can get to 2 games back by the 10th, these two games will become very important to both teams.

WEST

Timberwolves at Nuggets (3/29): The last head-to-head game for any of the top 3 in the West against each other will see Minnesota travel to Denver on Friday. A Timberwolves win would put the 1-seed in real doubt over the last two weeks, while a Nuggets win would likely put enough daylight between these two teams that it becomes a two-team race between Denver and OKC.

Mavericks at Kings (3/29): The battle for the 4-8 seeds in the West is going to be fascinating, particularly for Sacramento as they get a game against all four of the teams they’ll be battling for seeding with. That certainly gives them plenty of opportunity to make up ground on the teams around them. It also means they have a difficult schedule playing not only playoff caliber teams, but playoff caliber teams that still have something to play for. The first of those is against the red-hot Mavs, who have jumped the Kings into the 6-spot at the moment.

Suns at Pelicans (4/1): The Pelicans, meanwhile, face the two teams furthest from them in the standings at the moment, meaning they get a chance to put some distance between themselves and the Suns and Kings, all but assuring a playoff position. Their first chance to do so comes against Phoenix at home, where a win would give them some more cushion.

Kings at Clippers (4/2): The Clippers have been stumbling of late and now aren’t guaranteed homecourt in the first round. They need to right the ship quickly, and beating the Kings next Tuesday would likely lock them into a playoff spot.

Warriors at Rockets (4/4): The most important game of the season for the Warriors being a road game in Houston in April was not something anyone expected coming into the year, but here we are. Golden State is currently just one game up on Houston and in a week’s time we’ll have to see what that gap is, but it stands to reason this could be a play-in game for the Play-In when it’s all said and done.

Clippers at Suns (4/9) and Suns at Clippers (4/10): Like the Kings, the Suns will also have ample opportunity to make up ground on the teams around them via head-to-head matchups. While they’re 2.5 games back of the Clippers currently, they will get two meetings on a home-and-home back-to-back in the last week of the season. Those two games could be very important for both teams, with Phoenix obviously looking for a chance to move up and out of the Play-In, while the Clippers are rather desperate right now for some positive momentum going into the playoffs. A split here would likely be enough for L.A., but two wins in this mini-series for either team would be a big boost as the postseason arrives.

Warriors at Lakers (4/9): If the Warriors can get some cushion on the Rockets and win their game on the 4th, this game could be meaningful for homecourt in the 9/10 Play-In eliminator. That’ll be dependent on whether the Lakers slip at all, but this could be a little preview of a win-or-go home game in mid-April.

Pelicans at Kings (4/11): By this point, we should have some clarity on what’s really at stake in the race for West playoff seeding, but if the Kings can win some of their earlier head-to-heads, this could have some real importance. If the Pelicans can win this game, their game against Phoenix earlier in the month, and tread water otherwise, they should lock up a top-6 spot.

Suns at Kings (4/12): As of now, this is the 7/8 game in the Play-In out West. By the 12th, we’ll see if that’s still the case but as it stands, this could be for homecourt in that Play-In game.

Fans of Noah Kahan can look forward to a stacked show. The country/alt-pop star is currently on his We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour, which comes after the past year proved to be a breakthrough for him. Kahan carved his way into the mainstream landscape with hits like “Dial Drunk,” “Paul Revere,” and “Stick Season,” the title track to his third studio album.

Fans of Kahan — whether they be longtime fans, or just discovered him last year — are all in for a treat with the We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour.

How Long Is Noah Kahan’s We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour Concert?

According to Setlist.fm, the shows have started at 9 p.m. and have wrapped around 11 p.m., marking about an hour and 45 minutes of performance time. Kahan’s set list comprised of 20 songs, and three encores.

You can see the full setlist below.

Noah Kahan’s We’ll All Be Here Forever Tour Setlist

1. “Dial Drunk”
2. “New Perspective”
3. “Everywhere, Everything”
4. “False Confidence”
5. “Forever”
6. “Come Over”
7. “Godlight”
8. “Pain Is Like Cold Water”
9. “Maine”
10. “All My Love”
11. “Your Needs, My Needs”
12. “Paul Revere”
13. “You’re Gonna Go Far”
14. “Homesick”
15. “Growing Sideways”
16. “Glue Myself Shut”
17. “She Calls Me Back”
18. “Call Your Mom”
19. “Orange Juice”
20. “Northern Attitude”
21. “Young Blood”
22. “The View Between Villages”
23. “Stick Season”