Month: June 2024

This Sunday (June 30) at 8 p.m., all eyes will be on BET as the 2024 BET Awards take place. We know who’s nominated: That was announced in May, and leading the pack are Drake, Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, Sexyy Red, SZA, Victoria Monét, 21 Savage, Beyoncé, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Tyla, and Usher.

The other big piece of the puzzle is who is set to perform during the broadcast. Well, now we know.

Who’s Performing At The 2024 BET Awards?

It was announced today (June 26) that Megan Thee Stallion has joined the lineup, as she’ll perform to open the show.

Meanwhile, added to the lineup two days ago was Will Smith, who is set to perform a new original song.

Also performing during the broadcast will be GloRilla, Ice Spice, Latto, Lauryn Hill and YG Marley, Muni Long, Sexyy Red, Shaboozey, Tyla, and Victoria Monét. Tanner Adell will also perform, on the BET Amplified stage.

Usher, meanwhile, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement BET Award. Taraji P. Henson is returning to host the show.

Aside from getting ready for the BET Awards, Megan also just had a fresh Amazon Prime Day ad campaign drop, which included a brand-new song made specifically for the commercial.

Pom Pom Squad is back with a vengeance. Today (June 26), the Mia Berrin-fronted band has shared their new single, “Downhill.”

On “Downhill,” Berrin embraces her inner chaos, recounting a transformation, as she rises from the ashes. Over a distorted, percussion-heavy instrumental, Berrin makes a musical recovery, making it known she’s not making an exit any time soon.

“Feels like I’m losing control / Through all the tears and the sweat / Feels like I’m starting again / I never said I was done / I’m coming back from the dead,” Berrin sings on the song’s chorus.

“Downhill” marks Pom Pom Squad’s first new music in three years, and was born as result of Berrin’s personal reflective work.

“In my everyday life, I’m pretty reserved and shy so it’s odd, even to me, that I feel this pull to be on stage – to put my music out and open myself up to everything that comes with that,” said Berrin in a statement. “When I was writing ‘Downhill’ I was thinking a lot about the push-pull between those opposing sides of my personality. Sometimes being ambitious feels like being self-destructive and I wanted to explore the line between the two. Also, it’s been nearly three years since I’ve released anything new so this song feels like my reintroduction to the world. Pom Pom Squad is soooo back, baby!”

You can listen to “Downhill” above.

Tom Hanks has reached the point in his career where he can do anything he wants. It’s a milestone that only a few iconic actors reach (Hugh Grant is almost there) but nobody is really doing it like Hanks, who has played a toy maker, a greedy music manager, and Walt Disney himself, so there isn’t much he can’t do, and that includes de-aging himself.

Here, Hanks’ latest collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis , is based on the graphic novel of the same name which focuses on one central location over hundreds of years. There is just one camera angle throughout the entire movie as viewers watch the evolution of both the house itself and the people in it. You might cry, not for the flood of memories, but because of the soulless incarnation of a CGI Hanks.

Look, there is no way around this: if you want younger actors, cast them. You don’t need to go to all this tech trouble. But Hanks is Hanks, as mentioned previously, and he does what he wants, so we get to see Teen Tom and Robin Wright thanks to the magic (or horror) of de-aging technology. People seem torn about…this whole thing:

Luckily, other people were into it, or at least more on board than before.

It appears that, just like other Zemeckis films, this one could be a timeless masterpiece or an offensive attempt at cinema. Only you can decide!

Here hits theaters on November 15th.

Snoop Dogg’s promise to “give up smoke” last year may have been a sales-oriented ruse, but when he’s in Paris covering the Olympics next month, he’s definitely not going to be packing any paraphernalia. During a new interview with Time magazine, the patron saint of pot was asked about whether Paris’ prohibition of his favorite plant would affect his plans.

After assuring writer Sean Gregory that he’s “a very legal guy,” when it comes to keeping up on the rules and regulations of reefer in his international travels, Snoop affirmed, “I plan on going out there and doing NBC Olympic work. Being clean as a book, clean as the athletes. They can test me if they want to. I’m going to be out there doing what I’m supposed to be doing to make sure I bring home the gold. Which is me.”

The Doggfather also offered some salient samples of his sports insights regarding a pair of contrasting, but equally controversial athletes, Caitlin Clark and Sha’Carri Richardson. With regard to whether Clark should have made the Olympic team in basketball, Snoop was adamant: No.

“They ain’t lost in about 18 years,” he recalled. “On the women’s side in basketball, in the Olympics, they know what they’re doing. What they said is basically, she’s great, but I don’t believe she’s gold-medal-worthy until she pulls her stuff in the WNBA. This is a big step from college to the WNBA. I love what she’s done for the sport in general. But you’ve got to understand, these are WNBA players that have been seasoned to do this. And when you’re going for that gold medal, you want your best girls out there.”

For Richardson, he jovially compared his track performance to hers to point out the Olympic committee’s error in classifying cannabis as a performance enhancer. “I just ran a 34.44 in the 200 meters and I was smoking all night. So that sh*t ain’t got nothing to do with helping my time at all. It f*cked my time up, if anything. Unless they got some super sh*t to get you faster. Let me know where it is and I’ll be the first to try.”

You can read the full interview here.

The Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks agreed to a shocking blockbuster trade on Tuesday night, agreeing to the first trade with each other since 1983 to send Mikal Bridges to Manhattan for Bojan Bogdanovic and five (5) first round picks. That signaled the Nets were ready to tank, but to do that, they needed to get control of their own picks back from Houston, who had the rights to Brooklyn’s 2025 and 2026 picks via the James Harden trade.

The Nets managed to get those picks back by sending the Rockets some of the future Suns picks they acquired for Kevin Durant, which could become very valuable if the Suns Big 3 attempt flames out. Adding to the intrigue of that deal was reporting from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the Rockets were interested in getting Kevin Durant themselves, and wanted to use the Suns own picks to entice them into a deal. He would later backtrack on that a bit, noting it was unlikely the Suns would part with KD and that, instead, the Rockets were more interested in a future push for Devin Booker, if things go the wrong way in Phoenix.

On Wednesday morning, Stephen A. Smith added a bit of color to that story with his own reporting, reading off something that was sent his way that agreed with Woj’s follow-up that Booker is who the Rockets are more interested in than KD — but insisted the Suns are, in fact, looking to deal Durant and “want out” of having the former MVP on the roster.

This is not the first time Smith has indicated the Suns are tired of the Durant experience. He previously made a similar note earlier this offseason, saying some in Phoenix were frustrated with Durant not taking on more of a leadership role. Now he’s doubling down on that. KD and Stephen A. have gone at it in the past and everyone always takes Smith’s reporting with a grain of salt, but he does know things and the ever-plugged in Brian Windhorst, also on the First Take panel this morning, didn’t seem to want to push back on this, instead simply saying “why do the Rockets do the deal, Molly?”

The Suns don’t have many avenues for making changes to their roster without giving up one of their stars, and we’ll have to see if Smith’s premonition on Durant ends up being correct.

Even though European countries and America are roughly on the same level regarding development, there are still some stark differences in their ways of life. Americans may look to Europe and feel a bit jealous over their free healthcare systems and more laid-back approach to their professional lives.

But Europeans who visit America are also in awe of some of the everyday things that Americans take for granted, which seem to be luxuries.

A Reddit user named Prof_XdR asked Europeans on the AskReddit subforum to share the everyday American things that they believe are luxuries, and the question received nearly 13,000 responses.

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Clearly, Europeans admire many things about the American way of life.

Here are 15 of the best responses to the question: “Europeans of Reddit, what do Americans have every day that you see as a luxury?”

1. Disability access

“Disability access everywhere. I can go to any place — theater, store, office, school, whatever — with confidence that I’ll be able to navigate fine in my wheelchair. They’ll have ramps and/or elevators.” — 5AgainstRhoneIsland

“Of all the things in this thread, the disability access is it IMO. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was an absolute game changer, and European countries and the EU as a whole should be embarrassed for not having something like it.” — Jedrekk

2. Climate changes

“You can pretty much choose to live in any climate you like when you live in the USA and still be in the same country. You like 4 seasons: Move to the Northeast. You like the humid ocean climate – move to Seattle. You like dry warm weather – move to Los Angeles. You like deserts, move to Arizona. You like warm and humid weather – move to the Southeast.” — DachauPrince

“I work as an ecologist and the amount of biodiversity in California is insane. I’ll do biological surveys a few hundred miles apart and see so many different plants and animals at each site. I’ve even done work at sites fairly close to each other (sub 50 miles apart) and will still find stark differences between sites. It’s a magic state for wildlife biologists.” — Skinsnax

3. Big kitchens

“Big kitchens and big refrigerators/ freezers. Even in my student apartment, we had a pretty good-sized kitchen. I was dating a Czech girl and her parents came to visit. When they went to my apartment for dinner, the mom was just amazed at the size of my fridge. They were amused when I dumped the scraps in the sink and turned on the garbage disposal. They’d heard about it but had never seen one.” — Granadafan

4. Square footage

“The massive houses, a special room just for your massive washer and dryer units, 2 car garage, basically you have tons of space.” — Howiebledsoe

“The size of your homes in places like Utah and Texas. There’s a dedicated room for everything. Kids playroom that isn’t the living room or the kid’s bedroom, walk-in pantry room, a laundry room.” — mcnunu

5. Free refills

“As an American, it’s so easy to take this for granted. Similarly, getting free ice water in the US as well is something I often forget isn’t exactly a thing in many other parts of the world.” — Gaveuptheghost

6. National parks

“There’s just human development on virtually every inch of large parts of Europe. So even when there are parks, they’re not always as untouched as American parks. And the population density in large parts of Europe means you see a lot more people in the parks. America has national parks that are so untouched and massive that you can really be alone if you want to be.” — CactusBoyScout

7. A/C

“Americans pump it all summer long.” — Websurfer49

8. Two peaceful neighbors (Mexico and Canada)

“Remember, the world’s longest undefended border is between Canada and the United States. That says something about our relationship.” — Dervishler

“We Europeans both love and hate each other in ways that Americans will never understand. But basically, not being French should be enough.” — TitanFox98

10. Big schools

“My high school just had a pool, 3 gyms, an agricultural barn with stalls for students to keep the animals they were raising to show at the rodeo, a few labs, a theater, a full-size kitchen that was used for the culinary classes to share (not the cafeteria), 3 tennis courts, 2 soccer fields that were also used for football practice, and a football stadium with a Jumbotron. At the end of the year, the culinary classes would cook breakfast for the graduating class.” — Elephantepiphany

11. Free bathrooms

“As an American who lived in Europe with little kids, this was frustrating. My wife found an app of free public restrooms in Europe.” — QuotidianPain

12. Mexican food

“Real Mexican food. We have Mexican restaurants in my home country, but the owners are usually not Mexican and it’s just not the same. Now, I’m living in Japan and it’s the same problem… Mexican food is so delicious.” — punpun_Osa

13. Supermarkets

“Enormous supermarkets with abundant choice. I always feel like I’m in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory when I enter one. There’s so much stuff!” — Better protection

14. Big showers

“This stands out – I have two really great friends (an expat woman and her husband) that live in the UK, and when I went to stay at their first place together, their shower was like a 2-foot-wide plastic shield outside of the bathtub. I had to stay so close to the wall, so I didn’t spray water all over the bathroom.” — IGNSolar7

15. Money

“There’s a huge gap between the volume of physical/material stuff Americans count as normal and what Europeans consider normal. An American home might have three TVs versus one, six or seven rooms full of furniture instead of two or three, extra small appliances added all the time like air fryers and espresso machines, new PCs and phones every couple of years because of constant upgrade marketing … the American perception that there’s not enough money is partly down to the giant volume of things Americans regard as minimum equipment.” — AnotherPint

“In effect, when you account for wages and cost of living, luxuries (which usually have similar prices around the world) are proportionally cheaper for Americans. They make up less of their wage and, therefore, make less of a difference. Standard of living is completely different for a working-class American because they can afford luxuries people from working class in other countries can’t.” — ltlyellowcould

This article originally appeared on 1.24.24

It seems safe to say that all of us would like to improve our mental health in one way or another. Or at the very least, protect the sanity we currently have against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

However…figuring out exactly how to do that can feel overwhelming. It can be easy to assume that unless you’re waking up two hours every morning to perform deep meditation, going to therapy twice a week, reading all the self help books and throwing every single one of your devices away, it won’t make much of a difference.

But people from all walks of life do make great strides in their well being simply by incorporating consistent habits. Recently, Dependent_Bit_8333 asked folks to name some lifestyle changes that “massively improved” their mental health. None of the answers were complicated. But they all are pretty profound in their own way.

Check them out below.

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1. “De-emphasizing the importance of my every thought. Most human thoughts are nonsense. I question every single negative thought, and every single one so far has turned out to be bullshit. No joke. It’s a game-changer.”

“I came to this practice by reading Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie, mostly. Both reference great spiritual leaders throughout human history (Jesus, Lao Tzu, The Buddha, Ramana Maharshi) who all point to this notion as a path to end suffering. There are many contemporary writers who also point to the same truths (some mentioned here).”—u/JaxMema

2. “When I stopped being in a hurry. Urgency is a trauma response and, with current American culture focused on everything happening immediately, it’s easy to lose yourself to being in a hurry.”—u/rahyveshachr

3. “Taking care of plants and watching them grow, it gave me a sense of responsibility and they also purify the air!”—u/snoopyluva

4. “Writing!! You don’t realize how much is ruminating up there until you take pen to paper. Been writing pretty much daily for almost a decade, an outlet that’s very near and dear to my heart.”—u/lukyspeed14

5. “People severely underestimate what a tremendous impact sleep has on your day, productivity, and mood. If only I’d realized this in my teens.”—u/ComprehensiveGap3773

“6. ‘Staying in the present’ instead of letting the mind obsess with past and future.”—u/ComputersWantMeDead

7. “Being the ‘bad guy,’ also known as prioritizing yourself. Having been a chronic people pleaser, I was constantly drained and taken advantage of. There is no escaping that some people will be disappointed with you, the question is, will you be disappointed in yourself? The right people in your life will be happy when you are, it’s simple but it took me way too long to realize.”—u/keeepre

8. “Leaving a toxic work environment.”—u/badatboujie

9. “Learning to love myself. A few years ago, I was in a very low spot with my self-esteem, and I wanted to be better. My therapist and I talked a lot about treating myself like I would a friend. It sounds cheesy, but I started writing compliments to myself on post-it notes in the morning and placing them on a mirror. It didn’t take too long before I started to believe them. It’s amazing how being nice to yourself and giving yourself grace can really improve your mental health.”—u/SeaTonight4033

10. “Reducing clutter and your general volume of possessions helps a lot.”—u/ashoka_akira

11. “Removing toxic people from my life. It’s amazing how much your mental health can improve just by removing someone who brings nothing but negativity to your life.”—u/crazylittlemermaid

12. “Walking. That shit is legit.”—u/baylonedward

13. “The ‘what ifs’ were consuming me. I was losing my mind thinking about problems that haven’t happened, and may never happen. This little quote from Bill Burr put a lot into perspective for me: ‘You’re going to be fine; and even if you’re not going to be fine, isn’t it better to just exist thinking that you’re going to be fine? And when it’s not fine, then you can just fuckin handle it. There no sense to ruin right now, right?'”—u/MaritimeRedditor

14. “Creating. Especially making something with my hands.”—u/thankyouforecstasy

15. “Going. The f*ck. Outside.”—u/coilovercat

16. “Having a routine. No matter what my schedule is for the day, whenever I’m in a routine of getting up, getting dressed, and taking a shower, I’m in a good place.”—u/elmatador12

…and least, but certainly not least,

17. “Never trust how you feel about your life past 9 p.m.”—u/Lyra_Kurokami

Be well out there, folks.

Camila Cabello is delivering some heat in time for the summer. Over the past few months, the Cuban hitmaker has been teasing her Miami-inspired fourth studio album, C,XOXO. The album arrives later this week, and features Cabello experimenting with a multitude of genres, including hip-hop and EDM.

This is also Cabello’s most collab heavy album, as various artists help her explore new avenues and play with new sounds. Ahead of the album, we’ve put together a handy guide featuring everything you need to know about C,XOXO.

Release Date

C,XOXO is out 6/28 via Interscope. Find more information here.

Tracklist

You can see the C,XOXO tracklist below.

1. “I Luv It” feat. Playboi Carti
2. “Chanel No. 5”
3. “Pink XOXO”
4. “He Knows” Feat. Lil Nas X
5. “Twentysomethings”
6. “Dade County Dreaming” Feat. JT and Yung Miami
7. “Koshi XOXO”
8. “Hot Uptown” Feat. Drake
9. “Uuugly” Feat. Drake
10. “Dream-Girls”
11. “305TilIDie”
12. “B.O.A.T”
13. “Pretty When I Cry”
14. “June Gloom”

Features

C,XOXO has several collaborations, including songs with Playboi Carti, Lil Nas X, two songs with Drake, and possibly, the last City Girls feature.

Singles

So far, Cabello has released the Playboi Carti-assisted “I Luv It” as the album’s lead single, along with the follow-up “He Knows” with Lil Nas X.

Artwork

You can see the C,XOXO artwork below.

Tour

At the time of writing, Cabello has not yet announced a tour in support of C,XOXO.

The peak of the High School Musical movies — nay, the peak of mid-2000s cinema — is Zac Efron‘s spirited performance of “Bet On It” from High School Musical 2. Look at those moves! He worked that golf course the way the wrestler does a ring (it all suddenly makes sense). High School Musical 2 was directed by choreography legend Kenny Ortega, but apparently, he had little to do with the famed “Bet On It” dance. That was all Efron.

During a video to promote the Netflix movie A Family Affair, Efron admitted to co-star Joey King that he still sings High School Musical songs in the shower. After King performed a bit of “Bet On It” (which had to be censored due to rights issues), Efron added, “I thought I invented that dance move, by the way. You know, when we shot that, we just had no ideas for what to do on the day. Like, the director, he was just like, ‘Dude, we have no concept for this song, what do you wanna do?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, we’re on a golf course.’ That was all improv and we shot it, I think the whole song, in like three hours.”

Now I’m mad Efron was snubbed for an Oscar nomination for two movies: The Iron Claw and High School Musical 2.

The improv real is blowing the minds of everyone who grew up on High School Musical, even though in hindsight, yeah, makes sense.

Enjoy.

A Family Affair premieres on Netflix on June 28.

The process leading up to the NBA Draft can be pretty annoying for prospects. It’s crucial for prospective players who want to make a good impression as they prepare to enter the league, but let’s face it, going through workouts and interviews all over the country can be pretty stressful. If you don’t put your best foot forward in your one opportunity with a team in person, they can decide they’re knocking you down a few spots on their big board, or taking you off of it altogether.

Cam Spencer doesn’t quite view things like that. Spencer, the veteran guard who will enter the Draft after a sterling season at the University of Connecticut which ended with a national championship, has a big smile on his face as he’s discussing the workouts he’s been put through ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft on June 26 and June 27.

He looks back on his last two stops in college. Spencer started his career at Loyola, the Patriot League school in Maryland which gave him his only offer after a productive high school career. After three years, he spent a year at Rutgers before heading to Storrs, and admits that the practices he had under both Steve Pikiell and Hurley were “for sure” harder than what teams are putting him through.

But ultimately, a grin pops up on his face as he says the sentence that has come to define Cam Spencer on his basketball journey.

“Any time you get to compete,” Spencer tells Dime, “is a lot of fun to me.”

Watch Spencer play basketball for two seconds and you can see he’s just wired a little differently. Quantifying competitiveness is, of course, impossible — there’s no one stat that can measure a basketball player’s love for the game or anything like that. So, all you have to go off of is what people say. Both Hurley and big man Donovan Clingan, who is primed to go high in the first round on Wednesday night, spoke glowingly to The Athletic about Spencer’s commitment to excellence and the standard to which he holds himself and others.

In discussing how he responds to and processes a loss, Spencer says something that seems hyperbolic but comes off as 100 percent serious.

“Get back in the gym as soon as possible,” he says. “Definitely watching film right away. It’s extreme, but I’d rather die than lose, honestly. It’s just that sickening of a feeling, and those days in between games after you lose, they feel like years. So, definitely watching a lot of film, just trying to get better, and can’t wait to get back on the court to compete again, the next time, to go win.”

A self-described “sports junkie” who played lacrosse and football as a child (basketball, he notes, was his first love), Spencer grew up the middle of three brothers — his older brother, Pat, was an all-time great lacrosse star at Loyola for four years before grad transferring to Northwerern, where he played basketball, and is now with the Golden State Warriors on a two-way deal. His younger brother, Will, plays basketball at Hood College in Maryland.

While he stresses that they were all one another’s biggest supporters, things frequently got heated. Whether it was playing cards, or golfing, or shooting hoops, or anything else, there were “a lot of fights growing up, for sure.” I couldn’t help but laugh when I asked if there was one particular story of a time when things boiled over among the brothers and he just couldn’t, because there were too many examples for one to stick out. And yet, growing up in this environment was critical for Spencer as he got to this point.

“I think it’s just who I am by nature, and like I said, from the household that I grew up in, just the intensity and the passion for winning are just things that are kind of in me,” Spencer says. “And I think that’s contributed a long way to where I am today in my career, but I can’t hide it, that’s just how I am. I love to win and hate to lose. So, I definitely contribute my competitiveness and my intensity and passion for winning as a big reason why I am where I am today.”

Spencer got to this point by proving he could play at every level he’s made. That started by proving what he could do at a D1 school, then a Big Ten school, before ultimately heading to the Big East for the defending national champions.

He played for three radically different programs in his career. Loyla isn’t exactly a college basketball powerhouse, and while Rutgers made the NIT during his one year there, it’s a school that has generally struggled to consistently have success until recently under Pikiell. UConn were the defending national champions at the time he joined. In making the case for himself at the next level, Spencer points out that he’s had to be versatile enough to adapt to joining a new team on three separate occasions.

All three schools had similarities that Spencer appreciated — a “blue collar nature,” he calls it, built around a strong work ethic, toughness, intensity, passion, and a team-first approach. He also got the experience of having the game taken away from him during his sophomore year, as he needed hip surgery, which limited him to only five games all season.

“It taught me a lot of things, as far as appreciating the game more,” Spencer says. “Every day is not promised, you could get hurt the next day — knock on wood that doesn’t happen. But, every day is not guaranteed. It’s cliche, but I think it just taught me to appreciate every practive, every game, every time I get to step on the court that much more … Watching from the sideline is, like, the worst feeling in the world. To have basketball taken away from me early on in my career taught me to take advantage of every opportunity I get on the court.”

He’s managed to do that in a big way. Spencer was one of the top-250 players in all of college basketball in offensive rating every year he was healthy, and as a senior with UConn, he was ranked No. 1. You would never have been able to tell that he was the new guy in Storrs last year, as the first-team All-Big East and Final Four All-Tournament team selection averaged 14.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.5 steals in 33 minutes per game while shooting 44 percent from three on 5.6 attempts a night.

The ability to shoot the basketball has long been a strength, one that Spencer has worked hard to improve upon — for his collegiate career, he shot 41.7 percent from deep and 87.8 percent from the free throw line, with both of those numbers ticking slightly up after he jumped to the P5 level for his final two seasons. In his invaluable NBA Draft guide, Sam Vecenie of The Athletic notes that “from a skill perspective, Spencer might be the best shooter in this draft class.” It’s the skill that will get him to the NBA, and Spencer believes that his background in another sport has helped him build on that.

“I think from playing multiple sports and coming from lacrosse, you have to learn how to be able to not only shoot and score, but read the defense and make the right play when a help defender is rotating over and finding the open man,” he says. “So, I think being able to pass the ball has always been something that I’ve prided myself on. Because my strength is shooting, guys will have to play me out farther, and that opens up other areas, to get in the paint and make the right play, make the right basketball play.”

Spencer understands that there’s a big jump coming, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. He’s not the most physically imposing dude in the draft by any stretch — he came in at the NBA Draft Combine at 6’3 with a 6’5 wingspan, and didn’t blow anyone away with his athleticism numbers. And yet, between putting in the work to get better on that end of the floor, his competitive disposition, and his understanding of the importance of the “little technical details” give him confidence.

“It all starts with being able to guard the ball one-on-one,” Spencer says. “That makes defense a lot easier. But it’s also the little technical details of defense as far as getting into a guy and forcing them into a screen in the pick-and-roll, being a good communicator off ball, being in the right help position or being in the gap when you need to be. So, I think it’s a lot of little things that help to contribute to being a great defender at the next level.”

Spencer is, in just about every way you can imagine, a basketball junkie. During the NBA Finals, he appreciated how both the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks played “as a unit” and that their role players came up big on their path to that point. He loves watching Jalen Brunson, citing the pace he plays at, his footwork, how he plays off of two feet, and the way he’s able to use his body to create separation from defenders.

He’s totally off of social media. “I’m trying to be a great basketball player,” he says. “I don’t really need social media.” What’s he doing instead? Well, watching a college or an NBA game is an option, as is spending time on the golf course. And then there’s the third option, which he simply describes as “trying to find something competitive.”