Category: News

The Brooklyn Nets are picking up a second first-round pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Nets and the Phoenix Suns agreed to a deal that will see the defending Western Conference champions send the No. 29 selection on Thursday night to Brooklyn.

There are some players who will be included in the move, too. Phoenix will add some shooting in the form of Landry Shamet, while the Nets will pick up an end of the bench guard in Jevon Carter.

For Shamet, this marks a reunion with Monty Williams, who was an assistant in Philadelphia when he suited up for the Sixers. Wojnarowski noted that Williams is a “significant supporter” of Shamet, who brings some floor spacing. Last season, Shamet appeared in largely a reserve role for the Nets and averaged 9.3 points in 23 minutes per game while connecting on 38.7 percent of his threes.

Brooklyn, meanwhile, gets a good defensive guard in Carter, but now, they have picks number 27 and 29 in the first round of the Draft. They could, theoretically, use them to acquire some reinforcements behind their big three, or package them together in a deal that would lead to them bringing in someone more established.

Podcasts are continuously proving to be fountains of new information when it comes to actor’s “almosts” and “coulda, woulda,’ shouldas,” and Matt Damon is the latest star to join in on the craze. In an interview with Happy Sad Confused Podcast host Josh Horowitz, Damon confessed to having auditioned for the role of Batman’s trusted sidekick and ward Robin not once, but twice. According to Damon, he attempted to land a role in both Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, as well as Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever.

The first of these two auditions was for Tim Burton’s Batman, the cool-yet-campy take on Gotham’s dark knight that featured Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger, and helped elevate the hero to new heights. Damon said he auditioned for the role sometime in 1987 or 1988 as a teenager and the whole process was “so secretive,” they had him read parts that felt as if they were from another movie rather than the upcoming comic book film.

While Robin’s role was ultimately cut in Tim Burton’s take on the brooding superhero — and thus the casting process wasn’t very extensive or long-lived — Damon did have a bit more to say about his audition for Schumacher. According to Damon, he auditioned for the part of Robin in Batman Forever back in 1993, despite stating he knew he wouldn’t get the part because the studio had already chosen Chris O’Donnell.

“Chris O’Donnell already had the part, but they were haggling over money. The studio was flexing, basically, by flying in two other people to screen test. They wanted Chris, but they just wanted him for a price. I remember at that stage in my career, you would go in and read, even if you knew you weren’t going to get the part.”

If reading all this has you feeling a bit bad for the actor, rest assured the Academy award-winning star is still considered one of the Hollywood’s more profitable actors. You can catch Damon in the upcoming “American tragedy” Stillwater, which hits theaters July 30.

Software developer Angie Jones’ recent girls trip revealed that America still has a long way to go when it comes to race.

To most, that’s not surprising. But what’s unique is how the specific experience Jones and her friends went through revealed the pervasive way systemic racism still runs through our culture.

Jones is the Senior Director of Developer Relations at Applitools, holds 26 patented inventions in the United States of America and Japan, and is an IBM Master Inventor.

On July 27, she tweeted about a flight she took with nine other Black women and they all sat in first class. “People literally could not process how it was possible,” she wrote. “Staff tried to send us to regular lines. Passengers made snide remarks. One guy even yelled ‘are they a higher class of people than I am?!'”

this weekend I went on a girls trip. 10 Black women flying first class. People literally could not process how it w… https://t.co/D1h3FVsbNn

— Angie Jones (@techgirl1908)
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Jones and her friends were the targets of racism that ranged from the seemingly unconscious — people who assumed that Black people don’t sit in first class — to the blatant — those who were seriously bothered that Black people were being treated as having a higher status.

It’s interesting that she didn’t mention anyone saying “good for you” for succeeding in a world that often holds people of color back. Instead, she was greeted with incredulity and jealous rage.

There are a lot of white people who can’t stand the idea of a Black person being elevated above them. It’s disturbing that in 2021 there are still some who will admit it publicly.

Jones’ tweets inspired a lot of people to share their stories about the racism they’ve experienced while flying first class.

Jones’ tweets also angered some people to the point that they denied her story. To which she responded, “To those saying I’m lying, you’re a huge part of the problem,” she wrote. “You tell yourself a notable person is lying (for what reason, I cannot figure out) before you believe there are actual racists in…America.”

@techgirl1908 https://t.co/EkhqeU58yg

— Mr. Skilling (@mr_skilling)
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One Twitter user came up with the perfect retort to the person who asked, “Are they a higher class of people than I am?!”

@ParissAthena fuck I wish I would’ve thought to say this!!!

— Angie Jones (@techgirl1908)
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The Philadelphia 76ers are actively exploring the trade market for their All-Star point guard Ben Simmons, but to this point, they apparently haven’t been serious enough about discussing realistic trades in the minds of other teams around the league.

The word around the league has been that the Sixers are seeking a “Harden-esque” package for Simmons, which isn’t a huge surprise given the years he has left on his deal and that Philly was trying to deal Simmons for Harden earlier this year. Still, the number of picks and quality of players the Sixers are asking for in Simmons talks have apparently led to teams walking away from talks with Daryl Morey feeling there’s not even a middle ground to be found.

Matt Moore of the Action Network reported last week that Toronto unsurprisingly rebuffed a request from the Sixers for the No. 4 pick, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, and Kyle Lowry for Simmons. On Draft day, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer brought further example of the wild trade offers Philly is approaching teams with centered on Simmons, with this nugget about discussions with the Warriors.

The Sixers asked for Andrew Wiggins, James Wiseman, the Nos. 7 and 14 picks in tonight’s NBA draft along with two future first-rounders in exchange for Ben Simmons, according to multiple sources. The Warriors quickly turned down the offer.

…

One league executive said the Sixers are making “totally outlandish offers.”

It’s not a complete shock that the Sixers are asking for the world in return for Simmons right now, as they feel they can hold out on a trade until closer to the start of the season when desperation might set in elsewhere. However, given this is the starting point for them, it raises a real question about what they’d be willing to compromise down to in Simmons talks, because it seems abundantly clear that their current asking price isn’t close to what the league feels is Simmons’ market.

Part of this might be the Sixers and Morey trying desperately to drive that market up after Simmons’ dreadful postseason, knowing these are ridiculous offers but also knowing that they need to set the bar high to try and bring others up in the hunt for the middle ground. In any case, barring the Sixers coming back to reality quickly or some team thinking very highly of Simmons, a Draft night Simmons trade seems unlikely for the moment.

With Isaiah Rashad’s new album, The House Is Burning just hours from release, the TDE rapper releases just one more song to juice the hype. Incidentally, it might also be one of the songs with the biggest buzz — which isn’t to say that “Lay Wit Ya” with Duke Deuce, “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” “Wat U Sed,” featuring Doechii and Kal Banks, or “Runnin’” with Schoolboy Q weren’t heavily anticipated on their own. It’s just that Lil Uzi Vert, the guest star on “From The Garden,” is one of the biggest stars in rap right now, and hearing him paired with Isaiah constituted one of the more intriguing possibilities.

The spare beat, which is produced by Kal Banks, features a dramatic soul sample reworked from the version Rashad teased on his Instagram Live nearly four years ago. Within the verses, the two rappers spit boastful verses that find them linking themselves to such pop-culture figures as Shazam and Lil Wayne. It’ll be one of those songs that definitely turn the crowd up when it gets played live on Isaiah’s upcoming tour.

Listen to Isaiah Rashad’s “From The Garden” featuring Lil Uzi Vert above.

The House Is Burning is due 7/30 on TDE/Warner. You can pre-save it now.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Time for some good news: In a new interview with AARP Magazine (as caught by Mediaite), Jamie Lee Curtis revealed that one of the two adopted daughters she has with her husband, fellow performer Christopher Guest, is transgender. She says the two of them have “watched in wonder and pride as our son became our daughter Ruby.”

Ruby, who was previously referred to as Thomas, was born in 1996. (Their other adopted daughter was born 10 years prior.) What’s more she’s engaged to be married, and Curtis says it will be her who officiates. She says Ruby’s life nowadays is one of “constant metamorphosis.”

Curtis told AARP that understanding that gender isn’t fixed is one of a number of “old ideas” she’s shed recently. She’s long been a big believer in getting rid of habits that weren’t working or making things worse. She talks about overcoming her addiction to painkillers, starting in the late ’90s, and about scaling back her acting career, to focus on other things, like her children. She describes herself as someone who is open to change.

“I am somebody who sheds every day,” she says. “Let’s get rid of that, I don’t need that. It’s all about old ideas that don’t work anymore.”

(Via AARP and Mediaite)

As part of their ongoing publicity stunt to distract from the January 6 commission, the Republican quartet of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, and Paul Gosar have been accused of trespassing after storming a Washington, D.C. jail on Thursday with a camera crew in tow. The members of Congress set out to “expose” the conditions of prisoners who were arrested for the assault on the U.S. Capitol building following a Donald Trump rally, but they never made it past the front entrance where a guard quickly shut them down.

Via Mediaite:

Footage of the morning incident showed Gohmert and Greene being intercepted by a guard when they attempted to enter the building, telling them, “You right now are obstructing the entrance into this facility. This is the way people enter.”

Greene protested that they were not there to obstruct the entrance. “Right now, that’s what you’re doing,” the guard replied as she departed to find a supervisor.

After being denied entry, the quartet turned to the Right Side Broadcast Network camera crew accompanying them and began to criticize the facility.

“If that attitude is any indication of how they’re treating their prisoners inside, I have great concerns,” Greene said. After being escorted outside, Gohmert proclaimed that they’re in “totalitarian, Marxist territory here.”

The incident at the D.C. prison is now the quartet’s second publicity stunt that has been thwarted in the past 48 hours. On Tuesday, the Republican politicians attempted to hold a press conference outside the Department of Justice to counteract the Jan. 6 commission hearing featuring Capitol Police testimony. However, the presser was quickly abandoned after protestors wouldn’t stop whistling and asking Gaetz, “Are you a pedophile?”

(Via Mediaite)

Maybe it’s unfair to compare Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. They’re two different movies from two different directors, and only one has a shark. Not just any shark, either, but King Shark. Of course The Suicide Squad is getting good reviews with King Shark in it. But I’m not sure anyone expected it to have a 99 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its cast, humor, and gleeful violence. It’s actually the DC Extended Universe’s top-rated movie on the review aggregation website, while Suicide Squad, the one starring Jared Leto, is at the bottom with 26 percent.

Director David Ayer has long felt that 2016’s (Oscar winning!) Suicide Squad was a victim of reshoots and that the intended cut is “an amazing movie” that “just scared the sh*t out of the executives.” On Thursday, a day after The Suicide Squad review embargo lifted, he compiled all his thoughts into a lengthy note on Twitter.

“I put my life into Suicide Squad,” Ayer wrote. “I made something amazing. My cut is intricate and emotional journey with some bad people who are shit on and discarded (a theme that resonates in my soul). The studio cut is not my movie. Read that again. And my cut is not the 10 week director’s cut — it’s a fully mature edit by Lee Smith standing on the incredible work by John Gilroy. It’s all Steven Price’s brilliant score, with not a single radio song in the whole thing. It has traditional character arcs, amazing performances, a solid third-act resolution. A handful of people have seen it.”

Ayer added that he’s never fully told his side of the story and never will. Why? “I’m old school like that. So I kept my mouth shut and took the tsunami of sometimes shocking personal criticism,” he wrote. Ayer finished by praising The Suicide Squad director James Gunn and that he supports Warner Bros. and he’s thrilled “the franchise is getting the legs it needs… James’ brilliant work will be the miracles of miracles. I appreciate your patience. I will no longer speak publicly on the matter.” The top reply:

You can read the entire note below.

While it might not be his most iconic comic book role, there’s no denying that seeing J.K. Simmons portrayal of Commissioner Gordon in Justice League left DC fans wanting even more. Luckily for us, it seems we might be getting just that. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Simmons and Warner Brothers are currently negotiating the actor’s return to the iconic role, and the DC universe, in the upcoming Batgirl film.

This news follows last week’s announcement that In The Heights actress Leslie Grace had been cast as the film’s titular hero, Batgirl, who you might also know as Barbara Gordon or — wait for it — Commissioner Gordon’s daughter. While the film’s plot is being kept under wraps, the father-daughter combo is incredibly important to the Batman universe at large, and their arcs frequently involve one another’s involvement, making Simmons’ reprisal of Commissioner Gordon all the more important. The great news? It seems pretty important to Simmons, too.

According to Simmons in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he previously agreed to play the role of Gordon in three DCCU movies, and is still hopeful “there’s more of that in the future.” As of right now, the actor is sitting at just one with 2017’s Justice League, meaning we’ll hopefully be getting a couple more films featuring the lovable, gruff grump.

As of right now, there is no set release date for Batgirl, though the rapidly growing cast can only mean filming is just around the corner. In addition to Simmons and Grace, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are attached to the film as well as Birds of Prey and the upcoming The Flash script writer Christina Hodson. If all goes well, we’ll hopefully see Batgirl in theaters and on HBO Max sometime next year.

When Outer Wilds came out in 2019 it was a game that many people considered revolutionary. A game about exploring and learning as much information as possible before the end of the universe occurs sounds morbid, and in a lot of ways it is, but the mystery of the game is what pushed players forward. Almost everyone who played Outer Wilds had high praise for it and many have called it not just a great video game, but one of the best ever made.

However, the game of Outer Wilds was extremely self-contained with an ending that didn’t leave much room for elaboration. That’s why it was a bit of a surprise when on Thursday it was announced that the game would be receiving an expansion. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye will release in September and it will be the only expansion the game receives. It’s time to go back and explore the universe one more time.

This creates so many questions. Does this mean there will be more worlds to explore? More story elements? Is it setting up for Outer Wilds 2, which got teased back at E3 with a cheeky trailer that had no actual info other than it was in development? Whatever the case, with a September release date, we won’t have to wait too long for it to come out. We’ll find out more when we finally get our hands on it, but for now, we can only speculate about what is going to be entering the Outer Wilds universe with this expansion.