Category: News

After a 3-0 start to their exhibition slate with solid wins over Canada, Australia, and Serbia, the USA men’s basketball team looked the part of a gold medal favorite. While there were things to clean up, they were never in significant danger late in any of their games thus far, and few expected that to be the case against South Sudan on Saturday night in London, where the Americans were 43.5-point favorites.

However, they got punched in the mouth early as South Sudan came out bombing away from three, taking a 14-point halftime lead that served as quite the wakeup call for the Americans. LeBron James and Stephen Curry led the way for a third quarter barrage that gave Team USA a 5-point lead going into the fourth. At that point, it seemed the American squad had woken from its slumber and would cruise to a win, but Carlik Jones, Marial Shayok, and JT Thor would not let South Sudan fall apart. They kept their side in the game, clearing the way for a late flurry as Shayok hit back-to-back buckets to cut the USA lead to 99-97, before Thor drilled a corner three with 20 seconds to go to give South Sudan the lead again for the first time all fourth quarter.

Team USA turned to James for their final possession, putting the ball in the future Hall of Famer’s hands as he barreled to the rim for a layup to put the Americans back on top.

On South Sudan’s final possession, Jones shook free of Jrue Holiday and had a good look at a runner, but put it too strong off the glass and a putback dunk attempt went begging to prevent a shocking upset.

LeBron finished with a team-high 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists, while Curry added 12 points, Anthony Davis chipped in 15 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, and Joel Embiid had 14 points and 7 rebounds. The three-point shot betrayed Team USA in this one, as they went 7-for-28 as a team, while South Sudan buried 14-of-33 from beyond the arc to put the Americans under serious pressure. Shayok finished with 25 points, while Jones had a 15/11/11 triple double, and Thor added 14 points off the bench. It was nearly the biggest win in South Sudan’s basketball history, exhibition or not, and they’ll get another crack at Team USA in group play at the Olympics in a couple weeks.

Team USA will have one more tuneup game in London against Germany on Monday before Olympic group play starts on July 28 against Serbia. They’ll face this same South Sudan side on July 31, and will need to be more locked in for that game if they’re to avoid another scare in Paris.

At one point, it appeared that Chance The Rapper couldn’t catch a break with hip-hop lovers. But the “Yah Know” rapper’s slow-and-steady approach in the role out of his forthcoming Star Line album could win him the public favor recovery race.

So far, Chance has released three songs, “Together,” “Stars Out,” and “Buried Alive,” all of which are expected to make the project’s final tracklist. However, even if they don’t according to reports, Chance has plenty of new offerings on the way.

On July 18, Chance held his second listening experience for a lucky group of fans in Atlanta, Georgia. Based on NFR Podcast‘s latest post, during the event, Chance previewed 10 unreleased records and debuted two forthcoming music videos.

Now supporters are demanding that the project receive an official release date as attendees rave about it.

“Chance The Rapper is transforming how we consume music and interact with artists…again lol. Beautiful and inspiring experience. So grateful ,” wrote one user.

“Such a cool experience. I can’t believe how intimate and fascinating it was to unravel music in such a collective way,” penned another.

“One of the best things I’ve ever went to. Such a vibe,” added another.

Chance The Rapper’s next Writings On The Wall listening experience for Star Line will take place in New Orleans.

Although Chance The Rapper might appreciate the anticipation, during an interview BET, he revealed that is not in a rush to put Star Line out.

“I don’t have to rush to put anything and that gives me the confidence and security knowing that it’s cool to wait until I have everything packaged,” he said. “Then, I’ve fallen in love with it over and over again before I release it.”

Star Line will mark Chance The Rapper’s first album since 2019’s The Big Day.

USA Basketball is in the process of getting ready for the Paris Olympics, and on Saturday, that meant playing an exhibition against South Sudan, one of its group opponents once the Olympics begin. And through the first half of the game, things very much did not go as plan, as South Sudan took a shocking, 58-44 lead into the locker room.

In an apparent effort to try something new out of the break, USA coach Steve Kerr benched his entire starting lineup (Jrue Holiday, Steph Curry, Devin Booker, LeBron James, Joel Embiid) and went with a lineup of Derrick White, Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, Bam Adebayo, and Anthony Davis. The group was able to cut the lead down to eight points before the starters came back in, although Davis had a moment he’ll like to forget, as he tried to rebound a miss by Marial Shayok but did not see that Nuni Omot came flying in. Omot went up and over the Lakers star and threw down a thunderous dunk.

Davis was, however, able to get a little revenge on Omot the next time down the floor, as the former Baylor forward attempted to score in the paint and learned the hard way why Davis is one of the best defensive players in the world.

Davis has been one of the United States’ best players as it gets ready to go to the Olympics, and while he’ll probably want that dunk back, he was at least able to get a highlight of his own not long after.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Candace Parker arrived under the impression she was in for two hours of press at Toca Madera in Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday night, July 19, during 2024 WNBA All-Star Weekend. The three-time WNBA champion, two-time WNBA MVP, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and seven-time All-Star will always show up for basketball — still giving to the game, even after she’d given every ounce of herself to push it forward for nearly two decades and had every excuse to walk away.

Instead, Parker walked through the door at Toca Madera and saw her dearest family (biological and basketball), friends, and peers all gathered to throw her a surprise “Crowning ACE” adidas-sponsored retirement party. She beamed and hugged everyone while wiping tears from her cheeks.

The perpetual giver was the recipient, at last.

Parker announced her retirement in April after 16 seasons, most recently with the Las Vegas Aces. It was a relatively quiet end to a booming career — until Parker was announced as the President of adidas Women’s Basketball on May 8. The work of a disruptor is never over.

“I didn’t want millions of people in the stands [for a farewell tour],” Parker told Dime. “I didn’t want to do the parade because I would cry and because it would be emotional. But I’m super grateful for the people who have been a part of this. I’m humbled by it. I’m blown away. I’m the ‘moment’ person. Sometimes, my wife will get mad at me because I’ll just cry in moments because they’re so special, and this was super special. I had no idea. I was obviously reluctant to be celebrated, but I’m so grateful that the people in my circle planned this and surprised me. I’m still overwhelmed by it.”

She added, “They definitely forced me to take the flowers.”

After the Los Angeles Sparks drafted Parker No. 1 overall in 2008, she played her first WNBA game here in Phoenix, as noted by her mother, Sarah Parker, to emphasize the full-circle nature of the evening. The Lady Vols legend had posted a casual 34 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists in her debut — foreshadowing becoming the first-ever WNBA player to win Rookie Of The Year and MVP in the same season and growing into an omnipresent force every season.

The list of Parker’s immortal accolades and universal influence on the court is exhaustive — though adidas successfully summarized it on a complimentary purple-and-white tee reading, “SHE DID. SO WE CAN.” But the sentiments expressed by those personally touched by her impact is a worthier list, anyway.

For roughly an hour, Parker sat on stage while 12 people, one by one, got up to say it all out loud. A visibly emotional Parker often reached for tissues, burst into laughter, and reciprocated their love.

“You really thought we were just gonna let you ride off into the sunset?” said Justine Brown, her best friend of 18 years and VP of Creative Development & Talent Relations at TOGETHXR.

“I am proof that you’re leaving the game better than you found it,” said Las Vegas Aces perennial All-Star Chelsea Gray, who won two WNBA titles with Parker in LA (2016) and Vegas (’23), rattling off 6’5 women being guards and high school girls dunking as tangible examples of what “changed because Candace came into the league.” (For the uninitiated, Parker is the first-ever women’s college player to dunk in the NCAA and second-ever in the WNBA behind Lisa Leslie.)

“I’m older than you, but I can look at you and tell you [that] you inspired me as well,” said recently retired 13-time All-Star and four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird, who mostly competed against Parker but said she couldn’t help but love her after becoming UMMC Ekaterinburg teammates in Russia.

“I don’t even know what I did in a past life to deserve being a couple of feet away from you,” said Zack Miller, Parker’s WME agent.

“There will never be another you,” said Phoenix Mercury All-Star guard Kahleah Copper, who also thanked Parker for “taking me under your wing” as teammates in Chicago, where they won the WNBA title in 2021.

“Part of me is sad I wasn’t born earlier,” said reigning WNBA Rookie Of The Year Aliyah Boston, who cried when explaining how meaningful it is to have someone like Parker as a role model.

And then, it was time to hear from Anna Petrakova, her wife of five years, and Lailaa, her 15-year-old daughter. Parker had mostly kept it together throughout the night, but she wept as Lailaa struggled to get her sentences out — their unspoken, unshakable bond heavily palpable. Like her mom, she pushed through discomfort and saw her message through, citing Parker telling her that “women can do everything” as the reason “I want to work harder in everything.” Lailaa sat on Parker’s lap to watch the adidas Basketball tribute video, which Lailaa narrated.

This tribute had been in the works for weeks, and Parker was oblivious.

“It’s all about respect,” Eric Wise, global GM of adidas Basketball, told Dime. “We preach family at adidas Basketball, and this is just putting our actions where our words are. It’s consistency. It’s not just a PR announcement. It’s not just what we’re doing tonight. This is who she is and how we help usher in [her next chapter].”

Parker repeatedly grinned, shook her head, and said, “I can’t believe I got got!” After a room-wide toast led by Brown, Parker asked for the mic. They may have gotten one over on her, but Parker always gets the final word. Parker intended to “keep it short,” but she’s never abided by half measures, so why start now? Instead, she delivered a masterpiece of a 10-minute speech with such effortless composure that it served as one more reminder that Parker is one-of-one.

“It took my head a couple of months to catch up with what my heart and my body knew — that it was time to move on from the game. I think it’s the hardest thing, at this current time, I’ve ever had to do,” Parker began, adding, “I am so grateful for where the game is right now. […] I’m just so proud of this generation of athletes who are unapologetic, that take up space, that are demanding what’s rightfully ours.”

This night was deservedly hers.

Caitlin Clark is not going to the Olympics as a member of USA Basketball, but she will get the chance to compete against the red, white, and blue before they make their way over to Paris. Clark was selected to the WNBA All-Star Game, which will see some of the top players in the league take on Team USA in Phoenix on Saturday night.

The game will be the only thing Clark does over the weekend, as she did not participate in the Skills Challenge or 3-Point Contest on Friday night. While Clark’s skill-set lends itself extremely well to both of those events, she explained to Michele Steele of ESPN that she frankly just needed a break.

“To be honest, I’m pretty mentally, physically, emotionally exhausted,” Clark said at the 1:10 mark of the above video. “I’ve been competing for a year straight, tolls can be taken, and obviously, I’ve been very fortunate to have so many great opportunities over the course of the last year, and I know there’s gonna be so many more great opportunities for me to come.”

Clark stressed that she’ll be in the event at some point down the road, but that she’s proud of herself for giving herself a break. The spotlight has been on Clark for years at this point, but she’s in the middle of an especially difficult stretch because of the brutal transition from the college basketball season to playing in the WNBA, which holds its draft in mid-April before the season tips off a month later. The good news for Clark is that she’s about to get a bit of time to decompress, as the league takes a break from July 21 to August 14 for the Olympics.

Joel Embiid is headed to the Olympics as a member of USA Basketball. Despite being born in Cameroon and eligible to represent France in international play, Embiid made the decision to suit up on the international stage for the United States, which gives the Americans even more ammunition as they head to Paris with their eyes on winning a fifth gold medal in a row.

Doing that would be one of the high points of Embiid’s career, right up there with the time he was named league MVP. Unfortunately, team success hasn’t followed him in his NBA tenure, thanks in large part to horribly timed injuries. In fact, during a recent sit down interview with the New York Times, Embiid expressed his belief that the way injuries have prevented him from becoming a champion has hurt his case for being the greatest player of all time.

“I think so,” Embiid said when asked if he’d be in the GOAT conversation without injury problems. “I think I’m that talented. Obviously you need to win championships, and to win championships you need other guys. You can’t do it by yourself. I want to win so bad. But if you don’t, you just got to understand that as long as you care about the right stuff, if it doesn’t happen, maybe it wasn’t meant to happen. So, yeah — I kind of forgot the question.”

After getting reminded what the question was, Embiid said, “Yeah. If you think about it, the thing that stopped me all these years is just freak injuries. Every single playoffs, regular season, people falling on my knee or breaking my face — twice. It’s always freak injuries at the wrong time.”

Embiid has objectively suffered some absolutely brutal injuries at terrible times during his career, which have played a role in his well-documented playoff roles. He’s famously never made it past the Eastern Conference semis, and he’s gone from averaging 27.9 points per game on 50.4 percent shooting from the field and 34.1 percent shooting from three during the regular season to averaging 24.9 points on 45.9 percent shooting from the field and 28.9 percent shooting from three in the playoffs. At the same time, even beyond injuries and illness, a player of Embiid’s caliber is expected to perform to a higher standard in the postseason, and he just hasn’t been able to consistently do that.

The good news for Embiid is that the Philadelphia 76ers are as well-positioned to compete in the Eastern Conference as they have been during his tenure with the franchise. Between himself, the recently-extended Tyrese Maxey, and prized free agent acquisition, the team has arguably the best big three in the NBA. Whether or not this helps get Embiid into the GOAT conversation should he remain healthy, however, remains to be seen.

Big Sean has proved time and time again that he’s going to ride with his home team. This brother of musical bandits, still includes Kanye West (Ye). Yesterday (July 19), the “Precision” rapper made that clear.

During a livestream, Big Sean shutdown online fan theories that Ye was the person behind his supposed Better Me Than You album leaks.

“I know he didn’t do that because look at this,” he said. “You see this plaque right here? That’s 185 million records sold under GOOD Music. I love GOOD Music. He done made more money off my music than I did.”

Although Pusha T, GOOD Music’s former president, has hanged up his public support of Ye, Big Sean surely hasn’t. In fact, Big Sean stood by Ye’s character while doubling down on the rejection of rumors that he could have professionally betrayed him.

“I had access to a lot of exclusive [things],” he said. “[And it’s] not just him—other people too. I would never leak nobody’s sh*t. So I know he ain’t do that. Whoever started that rumor, y’all on some bullsh*t.”

Watch the full clip below.

Better Me Than You is out August 9 via FF to Def Entertainment. Find more information here.

This week marks one of the biggest moment in Blxst’s career. The “Doin Yo Stuff” musician released his debut album, I’ll Always Come Find You. Sadly, in the midst of this celebratory time in his life, Blxst’s family has been faced with a frightening incident.

Yesterday (July 19), Blxst took to his official Instagram page to reveal that his home was burglarized with a spine-chilling video. Although he did not disclose the day of the crime, Blxst revealed that in the early hours of the morning his Los Angeles-area property was forcible entered by assailants. While Blxst wasn’t home, his sons and other family were present. It is unclear if anyone was injured during the matter, but despite his anger, Blxst shared a heartfelt message online.

Watch the full video and read Blxst’s statement below.

The level of strength it takes to not crash out right now, smh. Imagine being across the country away from my family during one of the heights of my career & waking up to my son face timing at 4 a.m. saying, ‘I think bad guys are in the house.’ Words can’t express the frustration & the emptiness in my heart and soul not being able to be there to protect my boys. God know my heart… why play with mine? I take pride in being humble and pure but to be honest I don’t know who to trust, I’m just glad my family good overall. Thank GOD, I’m in position to go to war and willing to die behind mine… PRAY FOR MY FAMILY.

I’ll Always Come Find You is out now via Red Bull Records / Evgle LLC. Find more information here.

Murder Inc founder and producer (for acts like Ashanti and Ja Rule), Irv Gotti is reportedly ready to battle it out in a court of law.

On July 11, Irv Gotti (real name Irving Domingo Lorenzo) was named in a sexual assault lawsuit. In the Miami court documents, an alleged former love interest (only referred to as Jane Doe) accused Lorenzo of forcing her to perform oral sex on him, among other things. Now, a representative for the mogul has come out to deny the allegations and suggest a countersuit could be on the way.

In a statement provided to TMZ, the spokesperson rejected Doe’s claims and alleged that Lorenzo was being extorted. Read the full statement below.

[The lawsuit] was filed after Mr. Gotti rejected the attempt by this individual to coerce a payment of money from him. The lawsuit contains a single page of ‘facts’ which are unsworn to, sparse by any measure, and which Mr. Gotti categorically denies.

The allegations represent an affront to women who have truly suffered abuse. Mr. Gotti has been surrounded by strong women the entirety of his life – his mother, five sisters, and daughter. The top employees at his company are women. Mr. Gotti’s relationships with women have been characterized by mutual respect, honesty, and empathy. Mr. Gotti’s reputation has been placed at issue.

The represent also hinted that Irv Gotti was considering taking legal actions of his own—by filing a countersuit for defamation.

Imagine retiring early and spending the rest of your life on a cruise ship visiting exotic locations, meeting interesting people and eating delectable food. It sounds fantastic, but surely it’s a billionaire’s fantasy, right?

Not according to Angelyn Burk, 53, and her husband Richard. They’re living their best life hopping from ship to ship for around $100 a night, depending on the cruise. “Cruise costs vary quite a bit, our goal is to average about $100 per night, for the couple, or less across and entire calendar year,” Richard told Upworthy.

The Burks have called cruise ships their home since May 2021 and have no plans to go back to their lives as landlubbers. Angelyn took her first cruise in 1992 and it changed her goals in life forever.

“Our original plan was to stay in different countries for a month at a time and eventually retire to cruise ships as we got older,” Angelyn told 7 News. But a few years back, Angelyn crunched the numbers and realized they could start much sooner than expected.

“We love to travel and we were searching for a way to continuously travel in our retirement that made financial sense,” she said. They looked into deals they could find through loyalty memberships and then factored in the potential sale price of their home and realized their dream was totally affordable.

The rough math makes sense. If the couple hits their goal of spending $100 per night to live on a cruise ship, that’s $36,500 a year. Currently, the average price of a home in Tukwila, Washington—where the couple has a house—is about $607,000. Let’s say you moved there today, put down 20% and financed the rest, the mortgage would cost you around $44,000 a year.

Plus, on a cruise ship, the couple doesn’t have to pay for groceries.

The Burks are able to live their dream because they’ve spent a lifetime being responsible. “We have been frugal all our lives to save and invest in order to achieve our goal,” she says. “We are not into materialistic things but experiences.”

Angelyn says that cruising takes the stress out of travel. “It is leisurely travel without the complications of booking hotels, restaurants, and transportation while staying within our budget,” she told 7 News. The couple travels lightly with just two suitcases between them and if they need anything, they just buy it on the ship or in the next port.

The one thing to consider before embarking on a never-ending cruise is COVID-19. The coronavirus is easily spread in close quarters and a cruise ship that recently docked in Seattle had 100 people on board who tested positive for the virus. The CDC recommends that people get vaccinated before going on a cruise and that immunocompromised people should consult with their physicians before traveling.

Richard told Upworthy that he believes COVID-19 safety is still very important and has had both his shots and a booster. “I would suggest wearing a mask at all times when out in public no matter whether on a ship, in a movie theater, at a restaurant or even meeting with friends inside or outside,” he said.

After leaving their jobs and the mainland behind, the Burks completed a 21-day cruise via the Panama canal. They look forward to a 50-day cruise around the Adriatic Sea, taking in the sights of Europe, as well as a 51-day cruise from Seattle to Sydney, Australia.

The Burks’ favorite destinations, no matter how they get there, are Italy, Canada, Iceland and the Bahamas, but their ultimate favorite is Singapore.

Looking to give it all up and go on a permanent vacation just like the Burks? Angelyn has some advice for those wanting to get started.

This article was updated on May 17, 2022, after a conversation with Richard Burk.

The hosts of our podcast, “Upworthy Weekly” had a pretty funny take on the story.

This article originally appeared on 05.11.22