The Philadelphia 76ers have to figure out what the long-term plan is with James Harden. While Harden is still a very good basketball player, Father Time looked like he started catching up to him in a big way this past season, as the former league MVP lacked the burst that made him one of the most devastating players off the dribble at his peak.
Harden was dealing with hamstring issues, but the question Philadelphia has to answer is whether or not he can get his body right and return to form. Making this an even bigger question is that Harden has a player option for the 2022-23 season, and if he picks it up (which reports indicate he will do), he can hit unrestricted free agency next summer.
Giving a five-year supermax to a soon-to-be 33-year-old who struggled last season is, of course, not an easy pill to swallow. But a new report by Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report indicates Philly might not need to do that if it wants to convince Harden to stick around.
Two weeks from the beginning of NBA free agency on June 30 at 6 p.m. ET, all signs point toward All-Star guard James Harden returning to the Philadelphia 76ers on a shorter-term contract extension, league sources told B/R.
Harden and Sixers leadership are aligned on one clear directive, sources said: The franchise’s best opportunity to compete for a championship starring Joel Embiid, as well as Harden’s optimal opportunity to earn his first NBA ring, resides with Harden playing in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future.
Harden joined the Sixers at the trade deadline in a move that sent a package headlined by Ben Simmons to the Brooklyn Nets. While he had some games where he looked like a perfect compliment alongside Embiid, he averaged 18.6 points, 8.6 assists, and 5.7 rebounds in 39.9 minutes per game in the postseason.
The Los Angeles Lakers will enter next season facing an awful lot of questions after failing to even make the play-in tournament in the West in 2022. The biggest of those is whether Russell Westbrook will be able to be a helpful player in Year 2 with the Lakers — provided he’s on the team still, which for now is the expectation — but beyond Westbrook there’s plenty to wonder about when it comes to L.A.’s ability to be a contender again.
Some of that will hinge on how they fill out the roster, but it’s also dependent on a bounceback year from Anthony Davis, who struggled through injuries once again in 2021-22. Injuries weren’t the only issue for Davis, who also regressed as a shooter, something he excelled at in the Bubble when the Lakers won the title and hasn’t replicated since. The questions about Davis’ shot only grew louder this week when a video emerged of him saying he hasn’t shot a basketball since April, which naturally became fodder for questions from fans about whether he was working hard enough on his game — despite there being ample time for him to ramp up on court work before next October.
That debate made its way to First Take where they somewhat oddly debated if Davis could be a “top 7” player in the league, which is one of the strangest arbitrary numbers to pick for such a ranking. When LeBron caught wind of those questioning Davis, he took to Instagram to assert next year Davis will show people once again why he is “Him.”
On Thursday, Stephen A. Smith offered his response to that, noting that LeBron may not be wrong but that the last time he made a similar offseason proclamation, it didn’t work out so well.
.@stephenasmith finds humor in LeBron’s previous tweets compared to his most recent message.
“He sat up there with all the critics, ‘keep the same energy, keep the same energy,’ right? Well dammit they kept it. And what did the Lakers do? They folded like a cheap tent.” pic.twitter.com/mcuHgqagfZ
This is the tweet Stephen A. is referring to that, despite James deleting it, lives on forever in screenshots and the memories of NBA Twitter who will gleefully never let him forget it.
Twitter
As Stephen A. noted, everyone did and the Lakers were not able to do anything to respond, as the Russell Westbrook experiment failed in ways most critics of the move couldn’t even imagine and injuries once again limited Davis and James himself. I get why James is backing his guy here, but Smith makes a salient point that offseason victory laps about what’s to come aren’t always the best idea and the biggest concern he has isn’t Davis playing well but instead him being on the court consistently enough.
It looks like Drink Champs isn’t the only podcast making wild claims about rappers and starting drama with its guests. Take the following statements with a grain of salt because it’s easy to just say things when there’s a microphone in front of you, but according to an OnlyFans model who appeared on the Barstool Sports podcast Sofia With An F, accepting an invite to the studio with Kanye West and Future led her to end up participating in the creative process in an unexpected way.
The model, Aliza, tells host Sofia Franklyn that after meeting Kanye in Miami, she received a message from the producer, “‘Come over to Future’s house, we’re in the studio,’” she says. When she got there, though, rather than being a “fly on the wall,” watching them record one of their surefire hits, she wound up naked and twerking for the two stars. “[Kanye] literally just has me come in the studio and get butt-ass-naked and twerk in front of him and all his friends,” she claims. The timing of the session appears to be during the recording of Donda 2. Maybe he was trying to cope with his impending divorce?
The outrageous story does sorta line up with some of what we know about Kanye’s in-studio proclivities though. Kanye told Apple Radio host Zane Lowe that he has a “porn addiction” and collaborators such as Daft Punk and Nicki Minaj have commented that he seems to use it to get inspired in the studio, watching during sessions, so this could be an extension of that. Considering how far left some sex workers’ stories have gone in recent years though, things could have been worse. But if it really happened, it still sounds bizarre and not a little bit creepy.
The Boston Celtics have been excellent this postseason off of losses, and they’ll have to rely on that to continue to be the case if they want their pursuit of a championship to stay alive. Boston lost Game 5 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors, putting them in a 3-2 series hole as the series shifts back to Massachusetts on Thursday night.
Celtics coach Ime Udoka has assuredly spent the last few days trying to find a happy medium between what killed them in Game 4 (Steph Curry going off and carrying the Warriors to a win) and what went wrong in Game 5 (keeping Curry in check but a number of other players having big games). While meeting with the media on Wednesday, Udoka pointed out one specific thing that he thinks would help Boston a whole lot as they attempt to win the next two games.
“I think we’re complaining at times too much throughout the game,” Udoka said, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “Late game may not be any different than first, second or third quarter. Something we need to block out and be better at overall.”
Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals will tip off on Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
With only three new songs on a record, BTS can still make the earth move. Since most pop stars need to pack out arena shows to make their presence felt, the pandemic has been an understandably unpredictable time for plenty of the world’s most famous musicians. But several of the biggest stars opted to go right back to releasing music without a hitch, like Taylor Swift’s double whammy, folklore and evermore in 2020, or Billie Eilish swiftly following up her breakout debut just two years later, in 2021, with Happier Than Ever. Taking their cue from these artists, who seemed to intuit that even without tours, fans wanted more new music, less than a year after their last release, BTS dropped a massive anthology for fans to dig into.
It’s worth noting that the band also performed a series of one-off shows in massive American markets like LA and Las Vegas to keep their live show top of mind, even if a full-blown global tour hasn’t made sense for them yet. Clearly, the world’s biggest boy band aren’t going to let a minor catastrophe like a pandemic stop their momentum, and a sort of exponential energy of late that just keeps building. Proof is the latest entry into their quickly growing discography, and with a collection of almost fifty tracks, the album is making a case for the band’s progress.
Even if “Butter,” released in 2021, or “Dynamite,” from the summer of 2020, was what really put the band on the map for some American listeners, BTS has actually been together for quite some time. And for those who study the inevitable trajectory of incredibly successful group acts, that longevity is a testament to their patience. Forming over a decade ago, back in 2010, they released their debut EP, 2 Cool 4 Skool, in 2013 — and put out a whopping eight albums before 2020’s Be, which was anchored by the mainstream hit, “Dynamite,” their first all English language single. The group’s early work is mostly split between Korean and Japanese language albums, but more recent releases have prioritized English in their songs, and their success in America has strongly correlated with that move. On Proof, the song selection runs the gamut, with inclusion from all three phases, and a reminder that these guys aren’t just producing hits in the US — they’re superstars around the world.
Coming almost ten years after that first release, Proof is more song cycle than record, a sprawling declaration of the band’s global influence and practically a symposium on their range. Across 48 songs that are divided into two sections — with only the first two available on streaming, a third full of rare demos and unreleased material has been relegated to physical releases only — the seven-member collective is proud to remind the world of their vast back catalog. Each of the album’s three sections also includes a new song, giving listeners something current to chew on even as they dig deeper into the BTS discography.
The first new song, and de facto lead single for the album, is a soft rock track called “Yet To Come,” one that falls in line with other slower, more introspective tracks from the group, like “Life Goes On.” The band also released a brand new video to accompany this track, elevating it a bit beyond the other two with additional visual treatment. The second new release, “Run BTS,” feels like a sly tribute to another three-letter rap group (Run DMC, natch), and doubles down on their hip-hop roots — even if their government isn’t necessarily thrilled about that connection.
Reportedly, this single and another track, “Born Singer,” were banned by Korea’s government-run TV channel. Proof marks the first official release for “Born Singer,” making it technically a new song, too, though it’s existed as a SoundCloud loosie for years now. The song is a modified version/remix/sample of J Cole’s “Born Sinner,” not only doubling down on the hip-hop influences the group has always embraced, but giving an old declaration of intent a proper release. Initially, the song dropped right after their debut EP, a ferocious declaration of where they knew they were headed.
The final new track, and the only part of Proof’s third act that’s available on streaming, is another schmaltzy tune, “For Youth,” and all of this emotionalism should’ve prepped listeners that big news was likely coming. Because one of the other things Proof so effectively does is showcase each member’s distinctive sound and talents, so the news that they’re focusing on some solo endeavors after this anthology is not all that surprising. They’re clear that this is not a break-up, and leaving fans with a big collection of material is definitely a way to connect with The Army until they’re back together again.
In this context, Proof also serves as a monument — a tribute to what the band once was, an end of an era and a start of a new chapter. In that sense, it becomes infinitely more valuable, and serves exactly the purpose it was designed for — proving their worth.
Chicago band Whitney have announced a new album Spark, the follow-up to 2020’s Candid. The lead single “Real Love” is out now and it sees the duo moving in a poppier direction. They’ve also announced a tour, starting in Davenport, Iowa in September and ending with three shows at Chicago’s Thalia Hall in December. The album is produced by Brad Cook, who’s worked with Snail Mail and Bon Iver, and John Congleton, who’s worked with Clairo and Earl Sweatshirt.
The band’s Julien Ehlrich says:
“Max and I wrote ʻReal Loveʼ in June 2021 right after a cross-country move back to Chicago. I was experiencing heightened levels of anxiety and panic, while the entire city was re-emerging from isolation. Iʼve been running away from and self medicating my anxiety for as long as I can remember, but for whatever reason, it felt like it was time to dive straight into it. During late night sessions over a two week period, we captured the embrace of anxiety and fear in a way that resonated with us immediately. We spent the next few summer nights driving on Ashland with the windows down and the song turned up. It felt like an emotional and musical burst of light and weʼre so grateful to finally be sharing that with people.”
Listen to “Real Love” above. Below, check out the album artwork and tracklist, as well as the band’s tour dates.
09/29 – Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
09/30 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
10/01 – Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
10/03 – Fort Collins, CO @ The Aggie
10/04 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
10/05 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
10/07 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Jones Assembly
10/08 – Columbia, MO @ Blue Note
10/09 – St Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
10/11 – Oxford, MS @ The Lyric
10/12 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
10/14 – Miami, FL @ Miami Beach Bandshell
10/15 – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
10/17 – Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
10/19 – Jacksonville, FL @ Intuition Ale Works
10/20 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
10/22 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre
10/23 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
10/24 – Charleston, SC @ Music Farm
10/25 – Carrboro, NC @ Catʼs Cradle
10/26 – Charlottesville, VA @ Jefferson Theater
10/28 – Nashville, TN @ Eastside Bowl
10/30 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
11/06 – Paris, FR @ Trabendo
11/08 – Antwerp, BE @ De Roma
11/09 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
11/10 – Cologne, DE @ Bürgerhaus Stollwerck
11/11 – Munich, DE @ Freiheizhalle
11/12 – Zurich, CN @ Mascotte
11/13 – Berlin, DE @ Columbia Theater
11/15 – Hamburg, DE @ Mojo Club
11/16 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
11/17 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller
11/18 – Stockholm, SE @ Nalen
11/19 – Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik
11/20 – Aarhus, DK @ Voxhall
11/22 – Bristol, UK @SWX
11/23 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
11/24 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
11/25 – Glasgow, UK @ QMU
11/27 – Dublin, IE @ The Academy
12/08 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
12/09 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
12/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
12/11 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
12/14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit
12/15 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Theatre
12/16 – Detroit, MI @ The Crofoot
12/21 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
12/22 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
12/23 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Spark is out 9/16 via Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage was about as ridiculous as a superhero movie gets. In a good way, of course. Which is why more from Tom Hardy and his more viscous counterpart is welcome news to those following the actor on social media.
And as Hardy posted to his Instagram account on Thursday, he may be even more involved in a third installment of Venom than previous versions. The actor shared a title page of what certainly looks like a third Venom movie if you interpret the little drawing above the bylines to be the antihero Hardy has played in two movies in recent years.
Most interestingly, Hardy is once again listed with a writing credit on the project. Hardy had a “story by” credit on the Andy Serkis-directed Let There Be Carnage, and this time he apparently co-wrote the story along with Kelly Marcel, who wrote the screenplay for the first Venom sequel.
It certainly makes sense that there’s more Venom coming, as the movies have faired well at the box office and generally played well with audiences awash in more traditional superhero movies. We’ve also seen Venom pop up in some… interesting places in recent months, so there will be plenty of speculation about just what’s on the pages behind the one Hardy posted to Instagram as a very clear teaser.
The newest front in America’s culture wars are drag shows. Some conservative activists claim that they are being used to “groom” children into becoming LGBTQ+ by exposing them to the culture at a young age. However, that logic shows a profound misunderstanding of how human sexuality works.
“What we do know is it doesn’t look like there’s much that changes [sexuality] externally,” Clinton Anderson, acting chief of psychology in the public interest for the American Psychological Association, told PolitiFact. “The changes that happen seem to happen naturally because of how people develop—not because something is being done to them.”
The “grooming” claims also dredge up an old homophobic stereotype that suggests LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be child predators, which, according to multiple studies cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is entirely false.
u201cWe must protect Texas kids from sick adults who want to sexualize them.nnNo drag shows.nnNo porn in their libraries.nnNo gender transition surgeries.nnYes to letting kids be kids.u201d
Facts be damned, Bryan Slaton, a Texas Republican state lawmaker, said he will propose a bill that would ban people from performing drag shows in the presence of minors. Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis is looking into charging people who bring children to drag shows with “child endangerment.”
Taco Bell isn’t shying away from the controversy surrounding drag performances. It’s been hosting a drag brunch tour across the U.S. since May, which has included stops at its cantinas in Las Vegas, Chicago, Nashville and New York City. Taco Bell Cantinas are upscale versions of the fast food chain that serve alcohol. The company says the shows are a way to celebrate “the wonderful artform of drag and its influence in culture with their chosen families.”
The drag brunches are also a way to spotlight and support the It Gets Better Project to expand “workforce readiness resources for LGBTQIA+ youth around the globe.”
There is one stop left on the tour, June 26 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Maybe DeSantis will stop by for a mimosa and realize that drag queens aren’t that bad after all.
The drag brunches are hosted by the aptly-named Kay Sedia (pronounced “quesadilla”) a self-proclaimed “Tupperware Diva” who stars in a one-woman stage show, the “Taco Chronicles.” Diners at the brunch are served a Bell Box featuring a Grande Toasted Breakfast Burrito, Cinnabon Delights and hash browns. Of course, the festivities wouldn’t be complete without the drag brunch staple, the mimosa.
During the shows the drag performers lip-sync, dance, tell jokes and host a twerking contest featuring the audience. Tips are collected by a group of “Bell Boys,” who wear satin shorts, open shirts and stuff the money into glittery rainbow fanny packs.
“This was so much fun! I’m so glad to be a part of it,” drag performer Alexia Noelle Paris, who appeared at the Nashville show, told the OpenTable blog. “We made herstory. Living in Nashville you learn that most of the people that come downtown are not only tourists, but for the most part have probably not been to a drag show so getting to see everyone’s faces and reactions was great.”
Even though some Americans are attempting to push LGBTQ+ people to the sidelines by launching a war on a joyous tradition, Taco Bell didn’t flinch and kept the party going.
Who can resist a sweet little kitten trying to cross the road? Even if you’re not a fan of cats, you’d likely stop for a baby animal in the street. That’s what happened to Robert Brantley of Louisiana. Brantley was on his way to work and spotted a tiny white and gray kitten trying to get across the street. Being a kind human, he stopped his car to bring the kitten to safety. But he got more than he bargained for, because as he was scooping up the little thing, several more kitty cat siblings came running out of the nearby grass.
In all, Brantley counted 13 kittens. Twelve more than he planned on caring for, but by the looks of his Instagram page, his family has taken their role of cat rescuers seriously. With kitten season being in full effect in these warmer months and pet surrenders remaining high since the return to work from the pandemic, Brantley taking on fostering 13 kittens is much needed. Humane societies across the country are reportedly full or even over capacity. My own local humane society currently has nearly 150 animals over its limit and is begging for foster families and adopters to help clear the shelter.
It’s not only humane societies that have reached or exceeded capacity. Animal rescues across the board are in dire need of people to take animals to make room for the inevitable drop off of puppies and kittens from the current litter season. Mating season, which subsequently turns into puppy and kitten season, starts in early spring and lasts throughout the summer. This inundates local shelters and rescues.
Some shelters, like my local humane society, are asking people who find litters of puppies or kittens to do exactly what Brantley is doing. Foster them and attempt to adopt them out on their own. It looks like Brantley’s wife decided to get these now cleaned up kitties in their Sunday best to have a photoshoot in her makeshift studio. One kitten sported a bow tie while the others climbed around the enclosure patiently awaiting their turn. It also seems Brantley himself is having fun with the situation—in one video he talks about what he packs to go on a marksmanship match and includes 13 kittens along with his tripod and toolkit.
In one of Brantley’s most recent updates, he says that two of the kittens, Michael Scott and Nala, have been adopted by a family in Alexandria, Louisiana. In the same update he informs his followers that one of the kittens still left to be adopted is currently on daily medication and the family is keeping up with check-ups for the rest of the furry crew.
Here’s hoping that all of these little guys get adopted out soon. And may more people take Brantley’s lead to foster the kittens or puppies they find if they have the means. This can also serve as a reminder to spay and neuter your pets and any strays you may be caring for outside of your home.
Pedro Pascal can sell anything with his voice, including a TV show in which he never shows his face. Now, he will be using that iconic voice to educate us about South America’s Patagonia region.
The Mandalorianstar, who first came into our lives helmetless as Oberyn Martell on HBO’sGame of Thrones, will narrate a documentary for CNN, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series, titled Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World is a six-part nature series that “uses visual storytelling in the style of programming like Planet Earth to explore the Patagonia region of South America, straddling Chile and Argentina.”
“I have great memories of taking trips to Patagonia and exploring some of the beautiful places depicted in the series,” Pascal, who was born in Chile, said in a statement per THR. “I am excited to bring my voice to the project and share this special part of the world with North American audiences.”
The series joins Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy as a part of CNN’s mission to expand its original programming using star talent, although Pascal describing a tree may not be as horny as Tucci eating spaghetti. When Patagonia was announced last year, Amy Entelis, executive VP of talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, told THR that the channel is hoping the new programming will draw in a new audience. “We were looking to spread our wings a bit, we wanted to move into other sorts of subject areas that we have not relied upon in the past at CNN,“ Entelis said. “We could do presidents and history over and over again and it would do well, but we wanted to broaden out, and attract a different kind of audience that might want to come for Patagonia but didn’t necessarily want to come for Lincoln.”
Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World premieres Sunday, July 10 on CNN at 9 p.m. Eastern.
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