Category: News

It seems like Chris Webber and Jalen Rose might on their way to a reconciliation.

Earlier this week, after Webber was named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame 2021 Class, he appeared on ESPN and was interviewed by Rose and Maria Taylor.

“I love you my brother. Congratulations,” Rose said. “You made it to the Hall of Fame. Well deserved.”

“Jalen Anthony Rose, it’s crazy, man,” Webber said. “And thank God for your beautiful, wonderful mother, cause you know what she did for me.” Rose’s mother, Jeanne, died in February due to lung cancer.

It was the first public or private interaction between the two childhood friends and ‘Fab Five’ teammates in several years and, according to Webber, he didn’t know it was going to happen.

“I didn’t know he was going to interview me,” Webber said Thursday on The Dat Patrick Show. “Thought Maria was. … He knows, we got to go into a room and talk, fight, wrestle, something. … That was the first time we talked. It was an awesome moment.”

Webber and Rose grew up as childhood friends in Detroit before both starred on the local prep scene. They then starred together on the iconic ‘Fab Five’ team at Michigan before both had long NBA careers.

The relationship, though, fractured after the Ed Martin scandal. In 2003, Webber pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal contempt and admitted to giving $38,200 Martin, a prominent Michigan booster, in 1994 as partial loan repayment. This led to the Wolverines have to forfeit wins from Webber’s two seasons and Final Four banners being taken down. More recently, Webber declined to participate in a Fab Five reunion and in the 30 for 30 documentary about the team that Rose produced for ESPN — Webber is working on his own documentary on the team currently.

“It was a moment of ‘whoa, I haven’t talked to you in a while,’”, Webber said. “… No matter how it happened, I appreciated the moment, I appreciated being able to share that with all of Detroit, having Jalen do the interview, but yeah we didn’t talk (beforehand), but it wasn’t awkward.”

“Hopefully it’s a start,” Patrick responded.

“Yeah,” Webber said.

The heavyweight division right now in boxing is more interesting than its been in more than 20 years, with Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Deontay Wilder all at the top, with others like Andy Ruiz looking to get in the conversation as well. Making matters even better is that the top fighters in the division all seem to want to fight each other, with Fury having fought Wilder twice, once to a draw and once knocking him out, and had agreed to a two-fight deal with Joshua that was all set for an August date in Saudi Arabia.

However, Wilder had appealed to an arbitrator that he was owed a third fight by Fury and earlier this week the arbitrator ruled in his favor, throwing a major wrench in the plans of Fury, Joshua, and the boxing world. There was plenty of speculation about what that might mean, as some wondered if Wilder would take a significant payment to step-aside and allow Fury and Joshua to fight, with a possible guarantee to fight the winner. That is not what will happen, and to the chagrin of Joshua, Fury has agreed to a trilogy fight with Wilder for July 24 in Las Vegas, per Lance Pugmire of The Athletic.

The fight will either be at T-Mobile Arena or Allegiant Stadium (the Raiders new Vegas home) with a full capacity anticipated. As for what this means for Joshua, he’s going to miss out on a monster payday at least for the moment — each fighter was expected to make $100 million after Saudi Arabia put up a $150 million site fee — and you can guarantee that point will come up should Fury beat Wilder again and look to move back into negotiations with Joshua.

There is certainly no love lost there, as the two got into it on Twitter over the arbitration hearing result coming out and causing their fight to be put on hold.

So, for now, Fury will fight Wilder for the WBC belt and an undisputed heavyweight championship bout will have to wait until at least this winter, but knowing boxing, it might take much longer than that for the two sides to come to another agreement.

Multitalented act Terry Presume arrives with a brand new visual for his latest track, “ZaZa And Some Runtz.” The video finds the Nashville-based singer on the other side of the country, in Los Angeles, for the surreal new effort. It also captures how Presume perceives his world when he’s heads above the clouds thanks to some help from an evergreen substance.

Presume, who also doubles as a rapper and a producer, shows his versatility and ability to master an array of different songs with the new single and video which is directed by Spencer Ford, who has also done work with Brockhampton, Jawny and St. Felix.

Presume’s start in music began as a child with his single mother in their Naples, FL home. There, the singer enjoyed music from the likes of 50 Cent, Eminem, and a bunch of classic R&B records. At the age of eight, he began writing poems and three years later he taught himself how to write and produce music.

“ZaZa And Some Runtz” arrives after he dropped “Did Me Wrong” last month. The April release found him reminiscing on a past lover while moping through the city streets as he reflects on the status of his current life.

“I can see you wanted more, the words appear on your face,” he raps. “I’m always up, you always down now we in two different states.”

You can watch the video for “ZaZa And Some Runtz” above.

The Canadian teams finally got into the Stanley Cup Playoff on Thursday night, but one of the division’s biggest stars had a scary collision early in the action. Toronto forward John Tavares was stretchered off the ice in Game One of the first round of the postseason against the Montreal Canadiens after a scary collision with two Montreal players.

The hit happened midway through the first period in Toronto on Thursday night. Tavares was skating backward waiting for a pass in the neutral zone when Habs defender Ben Chiarot stepped up to disrupt the play by the faceoff dot. Tavares was separated from the puck, crashing to the ice as play continued up ice.

The hit happened right in front of an official, but it wasn’t necessarily illegal. The problem was another Montreal skater, Corey Perry, was flying up ice to backcheck, and he slammed into Tavares while he was splayed on the ice. His knee hit Tavares in the head, who lay motionless as play immediately stopped, and a worrying scene then unfolded at Scotiabank Arena.

According to TSN, Tavares was transported to a Toronto hospital. But not before a very scary scene where Tavares apparently regained consciousness with a shock.

Tavares was down on the ice and not moving as Toronto’s medical staff signaled for the assembled Emergency Responders to bring a stretcher. As the EMS personnel descended, Tavares was put into a sitting position and appeared to pass out momentarily. When he came to, Tavares was seemingly disoriented and had to be calmed before the medical staff could continue.

Thankfully, Tavares gave the thumb’s up before he left the ice, though his status as of Thursday night is still not known and the optics of both the hit and his reaction are extremely worrying.

Hopefully Tavares is OK, but it was a harrowing start to a highly-anticipated matchup in the NHL postseason that will certainly be less entertaining without Tavares on the ice for the Leafs.

Damian Lillard doesn’t have to work too hard to find a chip on his shoulder. The Blazers superstar guard has long felt underappreciated and undervalued, going back well before he arrived in the NBA. He has always used slights and doubts to fuel him, steadily climbing the NBA ladder to be among the game’s very elite.

A year ago, Lillard enjoyed his best season as a pro, averaging 30 points and 8 assists per game on 46.3/40.1/88.8 shooting splits, dragging the Blazers to the 8-seed in the Bubble with one of the most incredible two week-long runs you’ll see from an individual player in Orlando. In the process, Lillard garnered some MVP buzz, but the Blazers struggles as a team kept him from truly entering the conversation, as he finished seventh in voting. This year, Stephen Curry is an MVP finalist for leading the Warriors to the 8-seed, averaging a league-leading 32 points per game on 48.2/42.1/91.6 shooting, along with 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Curry has gotten MVP backing from the likes of LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal, the latter of whom will scream at you for disagreeing, and he has undoubtedly been among the three to five best players this season. Still, Lillard can’t help but recognize how differently the discussion is about the Warriors being in 8th compared to Portland being in the same position in the West last season, and expects that to still result in Nikola Jokic taking home the MVP award, as he told Sam Amick of The Athletic this week.

I don’t go tit-for-tat. I just call it like I see it. I think Steph has had a great season. Obviously, there has to be a conversation about him being in the conversation. But I don’t think he wins it. At the eight seed, I just don’t see how that works. Last year, it was people like (ESPN’s) Stephen A. (Smith saying) ‘Man, I love what Dame is doing but he can’t be the MVP because they’re the eighth seed.’ You know what I’m saying? But last year, I averaged 30 points and eight assists on 46 (percent) from the field, 40 from the three-point line and 90 from free throw (it was actually 88.8). But last year, they’re like, ‘Man, we can’t consider him an MVP because they’re the eighth seed.’ And now it’s like it’s ok. For me, that’s the way that I’m looking at it. (Curry) is definitely in the conversation. There’s no way that you don’t have him in the conversation. But I think when you really look at it, and you see that Jokic has played in every game and he’s dominated the way he has, they’ve had injuries with so many guys out and missed games and he’s kept them rolling. He’s kept them where they are.

The question was posed as to whether Dame believes if Curry is getting MVP buzz then he should too, and he points out that the similarity is more to his season last year when his numbers were even more comparable to Steph’s on a similar situation. Obviously each year is different in who is in the mix, and this season’s general weirdness and how many guys missed time impacted how many players at the top of the league were in the mix for MVP — i.e., none of Brooklyn’s Big 3 played enough to merit real consideration due to injury. As such, Curry is maybe higher up than he would’ve been in a field like last year, but the point from Lillard is taken. He expects that to be the reason Steph ends up behind Jokic, who has put up ridiculous numbers himself and, as Dame points out, has kept the Nuggets in third in the West even as the likes of Jamal Murray and others have gone down with injuries.

It would be a stunner for Curry to beat out Jokic, no matter what a loud few say, and Dame’s point will likely ring true. Team success has always played a role in MVP voting, and while there’s no doubt Steph has put forth one of the best individual seasons in the league this year, he likely will finish second or third in voting.

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Paulie Walnuts presents: A Goomba’s Guide to Loving Your Mom.

Fresh from the oven like some scones Carmela Soprano baked for the “Fabio of The Sopranos,” as guest Desi Jedeikin from the Hollywood Crime Scene podcast calls Furio, there’s a piping hot new episode of Pod Yourself A Gun. It’s about dang time Matt and Vince got Desi on the show, as she introduced former guest and Hollywood Crime Scene co-host Rachel Fischer to The Sopranos in the first place. Her and the boys are talking about season four, episode twelve, “Eloise.”

This episode is more fun than taking a bunch of old ladies to see The Producers on Broadway, and if you say otherwise I will personally come to your place and smother you to death with a pillow like Paulie does to that old crone Minnie. Or, at least I’ll settle the dispute they had on the podcast about whether or not it’s possible to smother someone to death with a pillow. Don’t make me find out. You look like you have weak lungs.

To complement the pillow talk, there is also a bangin’ Bada-B story song parody about standing too close to a helicopter while urinating, and a discussion of Paulie’s performative mom love. He loves Nucci, but also he needs everyone in his immediate vicinity to know how much he loves Nucci. It’s sweet but gross — kind of like your mom.

Now that you have been thoroughly berated, tell us how great we are in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.

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-Description by Brent Flyberg

This fall will mark three years since Lil Peep tragically died from a drug overdose while on his tour bus prior to a Tuscon, AZ show. A resulting toxicology report labeled his cause of death as an accidental overdose due to a mix of the pain medication, fentanyl and Xanax. Marijuana, cocaine, the painkiller Tramadol, and a number of opioids were also found in his system. At the end of 2019, the late rapper’s mother sued his management team and alleged that they encouraged his drug use. One example includes one of Peep’s managers gifting Peep with a bottle of pills during his 2017 Peep The Show.

The lawsuit process has taken a toll on Peep’s mother, Liza Womack. According to Pitchfork, Womack revealed she’s suffered two strokes since her son passed away. “I’ve had two strokes, and I am not going to die until I take care of this matter,” she said. “I’m going to live. I have a mission.”

Womack also shared how she remembers her son and continues the fight for his justice.

“There’s one woman who is a helicopter pilot, a photographer, and also an artist, and I asked her if I could buy her painting — it wasn’t even for sale — and she would not take any money,” she said. “She had an art dealer send it to me. We texted a little bit, and I told her I talk to it. I don’t believe in the afterlife, which is one reason why this was so horribly painful, because he’s gone, he’s gone.” Womack added, “But I told her I do talk to the painting and I tell him, ‘Gussie, I got ya.’ I am not stopping. I’m not giving up, ever.”

The finalists for the 2020-21 NBA Awards were unveiled on Thursday night ahead of the Eastern Conference play-in game between the Pacers and Wizards on TNT, and as is always the case, it sparked further debate about who should win the awards.

The MVP debate has been rather tepid this season, as Nikola Jokic’s performance in Denver from start to finish has been nothing short of superb, leading the shorthanded Nuggets to the 3-seed in the West despite the late season injury that took away star guard Jamal Murray. Still, as Stephen Curry has erupted to take the league’s scoring title and drag the Warriors into the play-in, where they’ll battle Memphis for the 8-seed on Friday after a thriller in L.A. on Wednesday, there have been plenty of folks stumping for him to enter the conversation seriously.

He was announced as a finalist alongside Jokic and Joel Embiid, and for Shaq, there’s no question in his mind that Curry is the MVP. As Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson explained, the MVP is almost always on a top team in the NBA, and that the Warriors finished eighth in the West, fairly or not, was going to impact the voting. This made Shaq very mad, as he started screaming across the table at Chuck who delighted in the opportunity to point out how Shaq was going to be wrong.

Curry has been nothing short of sensational for the Warriors, but the matter of consistency all season, Jokic’s health, and the team success in Denver even as his star teammates battled injuries has set up a near perfect storm for him to be a runaway winner. Steph’s efforts to pull this Warriors team into contention has been tremendous and being a top-3 candidate is a worthy honor, but while he’s made his case — and LeBron has too — it would be a genuine surprise for him to win. Barkley notes this and Shaq is having absolutely none of it. The funniest part of the exchange is that it started by Shaq using the All-Star MVP as an example, to which Ernie pointed out even that award always goes to a player on the winning team.

The 2020-21 regular season has come to a close and as the play-in tournament wraps up with the two remaining battles for the 8-seed in the East and West, the focus has shifted to the playoffs and who will walk away with the 2021 NBA Championship.

There is also the matter of sorting out who will win the NBA’s annual end-of-season awards, which, as a reminder, are regular season only awards that have already been voted on by the members of the media who are given a vote. The winners of those awards aren’t announced until later in the playoffs, but on Thursday they unveiled the finalists for the six regular season awards on TNT — finalists listed in alphabetical order.

MVP
Stephen Curry
Joel Embiid
Nikola Jokic

Rookie of the Year
LaMelo Ball
Anthony Edwards
Tyrese Haliburton

Sixth Man of the Year
Jordan Clarkson
Joe Ingles
Derrick Rose

Defensive Player of the Year
Rudy Gobert
Draymond Green
Ben Simmons

Coach of the Year
Quin Snyder
Tom Thibodeau
Monty Williams

Most Improved Player
Jerami Grant
Michael Porter Jr.
Julius Randle

There aren’t any real surprises on the list, although the TNT broadcast had plenty of debate including Shaq screaming at Chuck for daring question whether Steph was MVP — with Chuck, sagely, noting that Jokic is going to win the award. We’ll learn the winners of each award as the playoffs wear on because, like last year, there is no NBA Awards ceremony planned this season.

When you have a flower that only blooms once a decade or so, you probably want to share it with the world when it does.

Nursery owner Solomon Leyva decided to wheel his rare corpse flower out to an abandoned gas station in Alameda, California on May 18 to share the joy—and the stank—of it in bloom. The corpse flower is so named because of its rotting smell when it’s in full bloom. (The smell has been described as “worse than a thousand pukes,” which may also explain why Leyva brought it out into a wide open space during its flowering phase. Even though it only blooms for a day or two, it’s probably not too pleasant to have that smell indoors, even in a greenhouse.)

The first bloom of a corpse flower takes around seven to 10 years. After that, it’s anyone’s guess how often it will bloom. For some, it’s every few years, for others it can be several decades between blooms.

Just that normal thing that happens in Alameda where a guy brings a corpse flower to an old empty gas station and h… https://t.co/0AIdBTVL8n

— Peter Hartlaub (@peterhartlaub)
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Corpse flowers are huge, growing up to 10 feet in height, and most of the time they sit with their “petals” (actually a singular frilly leaf called the spathe) wrapped up around their towering centers (called the spadix). When in bloom, the spadix actually creates heat, and a combination of chemicals put off a mix of smells described as cheesy and garlicky, sweaty feet-ish, and rotting fishy.

In other words, the rare blooming corpse flower is a feast for both the eyes and the nose.

Leyva told the San Francisco Chronicle that he shares his extremely rare plants on Instagram, and when he saw people showing interest in his corpse flower, he decided to bring it out for the public to enjoy.

“I grabbed my wagon, went down to my greenhouse, put it in with the help of a friend of mine, dragged it down here to this abandoned building and people just started showing up,” Leyva said.

Leyva sat near the flower in a folding chair and answered people’s questions. He didn’t set any rules for viewing, but as more and more people arrived, they formed an orderly line on their own, sometimes stretching down the block. By late afternoon, Leyva estimated that at least 1,200 residents had visited the flower.

“Everyone is commenting to me that the last time they’ve seen this was in San Francisco, and there was a barrier, and they had to wait for hours, and they weren’t allowed to get near it,” he said. “I think everyone’s tripping out that they can walk up and wiggle it and smell it.”

The combination of the bloom being a rare event as well as a putrid curiosity is likely what brought so many people out to an abandoned gas station to see a single flower. But the flood of visitors may also have been because Leyva’s instinct to share something special with the public in such an unlikely place, expecting nothing in return, created a sense of community that we’ve all been craving during the pandemic. No cost, no fuss, no hassle, just “Hey, I’ve got this big ass flower that only blooms every ten years or so and it’s blooming now so come take a look! And by the way, it reeks!” And the people came.

Thank you, Solomon Leyva, for sharing your cool, rank flower and reminding us that sometimes people will do something awesome for people just because it’s an awesome thing to do for people.