Month: August 2024

While the eyes of the basketball watching world are on Paris right now for the Summer Olympics, the NBA is preparing to release its schedule for the 2024-25 season. So far, the only thing we know are the groups for the NBA Cup, but the full schedule is going to come out sometime soon.

On Thursday, Shams Charania of The Athletic brought word of the slate of games for the biggest day on the NBA’s calendar: Christmas Day. It’s an absolutely loaded quintet of games, and while we do not have an NBA Finals rematch between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, both teams are on the schedule against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively. Here’s how the whole thing breaks down.

We’ll have to wait and see what the tip times are for all of these, although it’s probably safe to assume that we will start the day with Victor Wembanyama leading the San Antonio Spurs into Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Knicks. Still, with these three games, a LeBron James vs. Steph Curry matchup, and Nikola Jokic leading Denver into Phoenix to take on Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, it should be a pretty great Christmas slate for the league as it goes up against a pair of NFL games.

The Dallas Cowboys have high hopes for the 2024 season, as is always the case this time of year in Dallas, but they also have some major contract decisions looming on the offensive side of the ball. Quarterback Dak Prescott can be a free agent next year, and the Cowboys have to decide if they’re going to give him $50+ million per year to lock him up long-term or risk seeing him walk next spring.

Along with the uncertainty surrounding Dak’s future, his top weapon on the outside is a holdout from Cowboys camp, as CeeDee Lamb wants a new deal commiserate with his production and the top receivers around the league. Unfortunately for Lamb, it does not sound like a new deal is close on the horizon, as the Cowboys seem willing to test his mettle when it comes to how long he’ll take fines for holding out. Jerry Jones met with the media on Thursday night and stated in no uncertain terms that Lamb’s deal was not high on their to-do list during camp.

You may ask, Why would Jerry Jones say that to a bunch of reporters with microphones? That’s a very good question, one those same reporters asked Jerry, who also had no idea why he said it.

That’s always what you want out of your owner who also runs the front office, and it didn’t take long for the quote to make its way across CeeDee’s desk, to which the star receiver had a very short response.

It wouldn’t be an offseason with the Dallas Cowboys if there weren’t some drama being stoked by Jerry Jones, and this time he’s taken it upon himself to further frustrate his star receiver in contract negotiations. The Cowboys season starts in exactly one month, as they travel to Cleveland to face the Browns on September 8.

Team USA will face France for the gold medal in Paris on Saturday, after both teams managed to pull off impressive comeback wins in the Olympic semifinals on Thursday. France was down double-digits to Germany in a defensive struggle before finding just enough offense down the stretch to pull out a win, while Team USA trailed by 13 going into the fourth quarter against Serbia, but followed their veteran stars down the stretch to a thrilling comeback win.

Stephen Curry led the way with 36 points, as he broke out of his Paris slump in a big way, burying nine threes against Serbia, at times carrying the American offense by himself. He did get some help, especially in the fourth quarter as Joel Embiid had his best game with 19 points, LeBron James put up a triple-double and had some clutch buckets, and Kevin Durant helped put the game on ice with his pullup jumper off a crossover to push the lead out to four with 30 seconds to play.

It was a truly incredible performance, as Serbia played a fantastic game themselves to push Team USA to the brink, and after the game the emotions poured out of the American stars. LeBron, Steph, and KD shared a moment on the baseline, while Joel Embiid did crotch chops to “Freed From Desire”, as Team USA showed how much this Olympic run means to them. After the game, Durant got asked about playing for Team USA and his general feelings on patriotism, and succinctly summed up his thoughts in a way that connects with an awful lot of Americans.

I honestly don’t know if there’s a better way to distill how a lot of Americans feel, especially around the Olympics. There are plenty of flaws with our country and problems that need to be solved and addressed, but it’s also a pretty incredible place with a lot of pretty incredible people. The Olympics give us a chance to celebrate that part of America, highlighting the incredible talent produced across the country, and for the athletes playing, it’s a chance to represent themselves and their communities on a grand stage.

Seven months after the release of their newest album, Wall Of Eyes, art-rock band The Smile return with a new single, “Don’t Get Me Started.” The synth-heavy, propulsive new song is accompanied by a psychedelic video produced by Weirdcore. In keeping with the digital theming of the song itself, the video is driven by glitchy, ’80s-style computer graphics that appear to track a cyberpunk-inspired chase sequence through a portentous cityscape. The surreal visuals don’t exactly tell a story, giving things a sort of AI-generated quality (if you’ve ever seen attempts at full-AI short visual narratives, you can tell the computers haven’t quite figured out rising action, let alone a consistent visual style).

“Don’t Get Me Started” is part of a double single, released along with “The Slip” as an extremely limited edition 12″. You can only get “The Slip” with the record, as it has not been made available for streaming. The songs were released coinciding with the group canceling their European tour as multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood was diagnosed with a serious infection.

“A few days ago, Jonny became seriously ill from an infection that needed emergency hospital treatment, some of it in intensive care,” they told fans in a statement. “Mercifully, he is now out of danger and will soon return home. We have been instructed by the medical team in charge of Jonny’s care to cancel all engagements until he has had time to make a full recovery. To that end, The Smile tour of Europe in August is cancelled. Refunds for headline shows will be available from your ticket provider. We all wish Jonny a speedy recovery.”

You can watch the video for “Don’t Get Me Started” above.

At this point, HARD Summer is an institution. From the moments between when the lineup drops to when the last attendee exits Hollywood Park — located on the SoFi Stadium grounds — everyone knows that the dance-music powerhouse is going to throw one of the best parties LA, or anywhere, is offering. And this year was no different, as HARD welcomed a stellar lineup that included Disclosure, Jamie xx, Fisher + Chris Lake, Major Lazer, Skepta, Channel Tres, Nelly Furtado, and many more. It’s the first year in several that the lineup felt more traditionally in-line with the dance roots of HARD and without a major hip-hop headliner.

That doesn’t mean that HARD is stagnant or one dimensional. There’s still remarkably varied music over the course of two days with a multi-genre aesthetic. Kenny Beats and the aforementioned Channel Tres still give hip-hop currents a foothold in the presentation, while the festival is majorly investing in both the underground and experimental wings of the electronic world. The result is the biggest yearly electronic music festival in Los Angeles, where there is a bit of something for everyone — as long as that everyone likes to groove all night long.

Check out some select photos from Hard Summer 2024 below.

Angel Reese has had quite the 2024, as she was drafted seventh overall by the Chicago Sky after another strong season at LSU, and it didn’t take her long to put her name in the WNBA record books.

In July, Reese broke Candace Parker’s record for consecutive double-doubles, putting together 15 straight games with 10+ points and 10+ rebounds, as she has been a dominant force in the paint for the Sky. On the season, she’s averaging 13.5 points and 11.9 rebounds per game, earning an All-Star nod as a rookie — adding a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double in a Team WNBA win over Team USA.

Off the court, Reese has become a phenomenon as well, with plenty of famous fans in the hip-hop space and becoming one of the faces of Reebok. As part of that partnership, Reese has a new collection she designed for Reebok that features three sneakers and a line of clothes that reflect her unique style.

Reese leans on a silver and icy blue color palette for the collection, which includes leggings, bodysuits, crop tops, and more, as she crosses over in both the athleisure and lifestyle space. The collection is up on Reebok’s website to look at, but isn’t available for purchase just yet, as it says “coming soon.”

Steph Curry‘s first Olympics as a member of USA Basketball wasn’t going especially well in the lead-up to Thursday’s game against Serbia. And then, Curry played one of the very best games of his decorated career to help save the Americans, as he went for 36 points on 12-for-19 shooting from the field and 9-for-14 shooting from three to help the United States pick up a thrilling, 95-91 win.

Serbia forced the U.S. to dig deep, as the Serbians’ ability to stretch the floor gave them headaches all game, while Nikola Jokic looked excellent. And yet Curry (with LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Kevin Durant) came up gigantic, dragging the team across the finish line against an opponent that brought their A+ game. And after it was all over, Curry opened up to NBC about just how special that game was.

“It was everything I imagined it to be,” Curry said. “Obviously, this is my first go around in the Olympics. Knew we were gonna get challenged by a great Serbia team, and to have to beat them three times this summer was gonna be tough. I just kinda got lost in the moment of understanding how big this stage is, and what’s at stake for this team. And it was special, it was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. To dig deep like we did with this group and get a win, special. So, I’m kinda basking in that right now.”

The United States will play France with a gold medal on the line on Saturday.

Maybe Cate Blanchett thought that wearing 100+ spoons to the Borderlands premiere would distract people from Borderlands itself. That didn’t happen. But the actress did have a minor wardrobe malfunction and the only person who could save her was co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, who knows her way around a spoon.

Blanchett was decked out in antique spoons sourced from the Swedish countryside when she was interviewed ahead of the premiere, though she had a bit of a mishap and was saved by none other than Curtis, who was holding the back of her spoon top. “You know what’s going on? I’ve got her back,” Curtis said when ET asked her to explain.

“I’m in The Bear, and they had an entire episode called ‘Forks’ so we’re covering all of the preliminary stuff,” Curtis said, while Blanchett jokingly added, “There are a lot of references at play here.” Curtis proceeded to hang around for the rest of the interview, shielding Blanchett’s top. You can check out the full clip above.

While out promoting Borderlands, Blanchett has been keeping very busy by talking about anything but the movie. When she was asked by Andy Cohen about her biggest paycheck, he guessed it was Lord of the Rings, to which she objected. “Are you kidding me?” Blanchett said. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie. I basically got free sandwiches,” Blanchett added. “And I got to keep my ears.” Hopefully she gets to keep her spoons from this one. There is a new black cherry Activia flavor that she needs to check out.

Borderlands hits theaters on August 9th.

The United States men’s basketball team will play for a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Despite trailing against Serbia by as many as 17 points, the Americans were able to dig deep and pick up a thrilling, 95-91 win to earn their spot in the gold medal game.

It was one of the best basketball games you’ll ever see, as Serbia brought its A+ game and the United States needed a monster night from Steph Curry to get over the finish line. Curry wasn’t the only player who snapped himself out of an Olympic slump, as Joel Embiid was great, going for 19 points against Nikola Jokic in arguably the matchup that made him such an important addition to the U.S. roster.

After the game, Embiid celebrated by doing something that only he (and Triple H, and Shawn Michaels, and Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn, and X-Pac) can do: Dancing around while doing D-Generation X crotch chops. Sixers executive Daryl Morey posted a video of Embiid celebrating after the game while Gala’s “Freed from Desire” played, and you can tell that Embiid just had the weight of the world lifted off of his shoulders.

Embiid has done the crotch chop throughout the Olympics, and has, of course, gotten fined by the NBA for doing it in the past on multiple occasions. Anyway, Embiid and the Americans have only one thing standing between them and another gold medal: A France team led by Victor Wembanyama on Saturday. Embiid has drawn the ire of French fans all tournament, as he flirted with joining their national team before announcing he’d play for the U.S. Our hunch is that he’s not going to have a fun time dealing with their fans in the gold medal game, but if he comes out on top, he’s going to crotch chop once again.

For the third time in the last month, Team USA faced Serbia in men’s basketball, but after cruising to two comfortable wins in exhibition and group stage play, they faced a much stiffer test in the Olympic semifinals.

Serbia came out aggressive, as they were red-hot shooting the ball in the first quarter, jumping out to a 31-23 lead on Team USA. The only reason the Americans were able to stay within touch was Stephen Curry finally snapping his Olympic shooting slump, as he had 17 in the first quarter, keeping Team USA’s offense afloat single-handedly.

However, no one else from Team USA could get it going and Serbia just kept piling in buckets, with a Nikola Jokic and-1 putting them up by 16 in the second quarter.

The Americans would chip away to get that lead back to 11 by halftime, as Joel Embiid — who authored his best game of the Olympics — had a massive dunk to show some life for Team USA.

The two teams would go back-and-forth in the third, with Team USA getting the lead down to a two-possession game in the mid-third quarter, but Serbia would explode ahead again with a flurry late in the third quarter, as their lead ballooned back up to 15 late after Marko Guduric got a 4-point play that had the arena buzzing.

The fourth quarter saw Serbia looking to work clock and keep Team USA out of transition, but in doing so, they got themselves out of rhythm and into foul trouble. With seven minutes to go, one of the biggest swings of the game went the way of Team USA. Nikola Jokic picked up his fourth foul when he pushed Anthony Davis into Kevin Durant as he came down from hitting a three-pointer. That gave the Americans a side-out and the bucket, and they turned that into a six-point possession on a Devin Booker three to trim Serbia’s lead down to five.

From there, Serbia just could not come up with consistently good offense, while Curry, Embiid, and LeBron James came up with clutch buckets to get the game tied and, eventually, reclaim the lead for the first time since the very early stages of the first quarter.

The dagger came on a Kevin Durant midrange jumper that extended the lead to four, and Serbia just could never fully close the gap again, as the Americans iced it at the free throw line with Curry.

Steph finished the game with 36 points on 12-of-19 shooting, including nine made threes, while LeBron had a 16-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist triple-double, and Embiid had 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Those three pretty much made up Team USA’s offensive attack, with Durant finding some key late buckets but only scoring nine on the night.

Serbia got a 20-point night from Bogdan Bogdanovic and 17 points and 11 assists from Jokic, and poured in 15 threes as a team, but their shot went cold late as they missed a handful of good looks, as the tension of the moment seemed to catch up with their non-stars late in the game.

The Americans will now face France on Saturday in a highly anticipated gold medal showdown between the favorites and the host nation, while Serbia will play Germany for the bronze.