Category: News

The Houston Rockets are set to shut down Russell Westbrook for the remainder of the seeding games in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble. The team announced that Westbrook suffered a strained muscle in his right quadriceps, and as a result, he will not appear in the team’s seeding game finale against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday evening.

Westbrook had previously been day-to-day with the quad issue in the Bubble, which cost him games against both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings, although he did play 27 minutes in the team’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday. As the release says, the team will evaluate Westbrook prior to the start of the postseason.

Houston is currently in a seeding battle in the middle of the Western Conference, and heading into Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers, it sat in fourth place, 1.5 games behind the Denver Nuggets in third and a game up on the Oklahoma City Thunder in fifth. Westbrook is critical to the chaotic style the Rockets have adopted since the NBA’s trade deadline, so while they would assuredly want him to be able to go right now, it is far more important to make sure he is at 100 percent during the postseason, something that is especially true in the event they make it through the first round and presumably run into one of the Los Angeles squads.

Earlier this year, Bartees Strange introduced his music to the world with his 5-track EP Say Goodbye To Pretty Boy. The Washington, DC musician didn’t wait long before turning out a full-length effort and now, Strange is gearing up for his LP’s release. The musician announces his debut album, Live Forever, with the rowdy and unapologetic track “Boomer.”

In a statement about his music, Strange said he eventually took recording into his own hands. In his experience, studio recording can oftentimes be a white-dominated space and the musician felt that no one but him alone was able to faithfully capture his musical vision:

“I’m often the only Black guy in the room when I’m playing in a band or working in a studio and I’ll be honest, I don’t think the engineer always knew what I wanted to capture, what I was trying to do or what I was referencing. I wanted a space where I could be in control of how it was gonna sound, and have people there to check me that I trust.”

Listen to “Boomer” above and find Bartees Strange’s Live Forever cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Jealousy”
2. “Mustang”
3. “Boomer”
4. “Kelly Rowland”
5. “In A Cab”
6. “Stone Meadows”
7. “Mossblerd”
8. “Flagey God”
9. “Far”
10. “Fallen For You”
11. “Ghostly”

Live Forever is out 10/2 via MemoryMusic. Pre-order it here.

Elena Delle Donne, the 2019 WNBA MVP, is out for the 2020 season nursing a back injury that required surgery in the offseason. She discussed the “agony” she felt throughout the Washington Mystics’ championship run in 2019 in her recent conversation with A’ja Wilson and Naphessa Collier on their podcast, “Tea With A & Phee.”

“I wasn’t ready (for the season),” Delle Done says. “I kind of kept it pretty quiet but I had back surgery in the offseason and then due to COVID, everything got messed up.”

Delle Donne wasn’t able to be at the Mystics’ facility to rehab the injury because of public health rules that prevented WNBA players from going in for treatment for several months, as well as her particular caution due to her diagnosis with Lyme disease.

That Lyme disease diagnosis is ultimately why Delle Donne applied for medical clearance from the 2020 season. She was denied, a very public incident for the league and the most high-profile player from the NBA or WNBA to apply (and the only known case to be denied). But ultimately, the Mystics decided to keep Delle Donne on the roster and keep her inactive with the back injury, ensuring she would be paid throughout the season.

Delle Donne said she kept quiet about the injury so as to avoid stray elbows from opponents last season, and said she would not have been ready to play by the start of the 2020 season even if she did choose to to the Bubble. The hosts asked Delle Donne about the perception that she’s not “tough” because she decided not to play rather than duking it out in the Bubble and defending the Mystics’ title. Delle Donne dismissed it as the type of narrative that comes with being an athlete.

“I was in agony, and it was pretty brutal,” Delle Donne said. “Backs are pretty tough, so this could have some lasting impact.”

This latest situation comes after Delle Donne in the 2018 WNBA semifinals fought through a gruesome, knee-buckling bone bruise to play in a series Washington took to five games.

In order to play in that series, Delle Donne spent hours in a hyperbaric chamber, moved in an Alter G machine, and another several hours in a float tank in addition to the usual icing, stretching and massaging players receive. Delle Donne played five days after the injury.

Now, it’s the back. Delle Donne is one of the few WNBA players who does not go overseas in the offseason to compete professionally and supplement their income, yet she can’t seem to avoid major injuries. That, in addition to taking dozens of pills per day to treat Lyme disease, only makes Delle Donne’s dominating 2019 MVP and championship run all the more magical. It also gives hope that sitting out the Bubble season might finally be the type of rest she needs to come into 2021 healthy.

All things considered, it’s been a good year for Gunna. His new album, Wunna, enjoyed a No. 1 debut on top of the charts, and he has been active in promoting the record (and its deluxe edition). He continues to ride the Wunna train today as he drops off a fresh visual for “Wunna Flo” (not to be confused with the album’s title track, “Wunna,” which previously received a video of its own). In the clip, as Gunna has tended to do this album cycle, the rapper (alongside the song’s guest, Yak Gotti) shows off his lavish lifestyle by dancing around his private jet, counting stacks of cash while sitting on top of fancy cars, and more.

Gunna has kept busy since releasing Wunna. On the album’s release day, he gave a special livestream performance, which he dedicated to George Floyd. He later appeared on Pop Smoke’s deluxe album and put out a deluxe record of his own, an expanded version of Wunna. He also recently celebrated his 27th birthday and got lavish gifts from his hip-hop friends.

Watch the “Wunna Flo” video above, and revisit our review of Wunna here.

Wunna is out now via YSL Records/300 Entertainment. Get it here.

The Trail Blazers came into the Bubble ready to gun for the eighth seed, and outside of a hiccup against a Clippers squad resting its stars, Portland has looked far more like the team that made a Western Conference Finals run in 2019 than a group scratching its way into a playoff berth.

Having Damian Lillard on your team has proven, over the past five years, to be quite the difference-maker when the margins are slim. Few players have the clutch track record that Lillard has, and pandemic basketball with eight games to make up a four-game margin certainly counts as a slim margin for error. The Trail Blazers couldn’t afford to come in sloppy, and Lillard looks like a man possessed so far, capping off his incredible seeding-game run with a monstrous 61 against Dallas on Tuesday night.

They’re also healthy. The real reason Portland was meandering on the outside of the playoff bracket all season was that they were without Jusuf Nurkic, who sustained an injury all the way back in the spring of 2019, and Zach Collins, who was lost for the season early on. With both bigs back, the Trail Blazers no longer have to rely on the likes of Wenyen Gabriel and Caleb Swanigan to play big minutes.

All these factors led starting forward Carmelo Anthony to tell Rachel Nichols of ESPN that the Trail Blazers don’t see themselves as an eighth seed.

“Our mindset is not an eighth-seed mindset,” Anthony said. “We consider ourselves a very good basketball team coming together at the right time, at the right part of the season.”

The lineups with Nurkic and Collins on the floor together have looked like a breath of fresh for Portland in terms of having capable decision-making and defense in the frontcourt, but it’s actually not been great for the team statistically. The starting unit is getting outscored by 10 points per 100 possessions in the seeding games, mostly because it struggles to defend opposing lineups, such as in an Aug. 8 loss to the Clippers minus Kawhi Leonard. Collins, while an upgrade over the Trail Blazers’ other options, is still largely the same guy we watched at Gonzaga: A very athletic and mobile big man who is best-suited to be a center, but who fouls far too much to make it work at the 5. He fouled out in the first game in the Bubble and has had fewer than three fouls just once.

But two things have helped Portland counteract their jumbo front court, even when both share the court. One is to get Anthony off the floor and juice the offense, which cuts down turnovers and allows Portland to play a set defense more often, which makes better use of their size. The other is Gary Trent Jr.

The former five-star Duke recruit has been a revelation in the Bubble, making good on the shooting potential he flashed back in high school. The Blue Devils struggled to make use of him in a strikingly similar situation to what he faces now, with two lottery bigs clogging the paint. But when Trent is on the floor now, Portland plays faster and more spread-out.

Trent has scored at least 17 points in six of seven seeding games and has the ultimate green light from deep. After signing Anthony and trading for Trevor Ariza and Kent Bazemore, Portland has found its best wing internally, a player who doesn’t need the ball and has good size, making him a good fit with the rest of the roster. Seth Curry was a huge part of Portland’s success last year, and even if Trent can emulate Curry, the Trail Blazers will be one of the best offenses in the Western Conference playoff bracket.

Rumors circulated this week that Lillard was trying to recruit Ariza into the Bubble after Ariza opted out to spend time with his son amid a custody battle. If Ariza can make it work, that certainly won’t hurt, but Portland has shown they are quite good as-is. Anthony’s right: With mostly their full roster available and Lillard at the peak of his powers, the Trail Blazers are one of the hottest teams in Orlando and a sure bet to make life hell if they break through and face the Lakers in the first round.

Since releasing her stunning sophomore record Punisher in June, Phoebe Bridgers has found creative ways to stay engaged with fans. In April, the singer cleverly performed “Kyoto” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! from her bathroom and Wednesday, the singer returned to the bathtub to chat with fellow musician Fenne Lily in an Instagram live session. The two discussed everything from their careers to their personal lives, and Bridgers even revealed one of her more embarrassing stories: Bridgers recalled the time she accidentally pooped her pants on stage.

In their chat, Bridgers and Lily reminisced on the good ol’ days of playing shows before the pandemic wiped out the live music industry. Bridgers said she took a lot of her “bad” shows for granted, especially the times she played in dingy bars and was merely concerned about the filth rather than the hundreds of bodies packed tightly together with little ventilation. But the singer then remembered a particularly traumatic live performance, one she does not wish to relive:

“I had food poisoning and the label was like, ‘Well, if you’re sick, that’s fine, but it’s really cool you got booked.’ They didn’t put pressure on me, I was just trying to underplay how sick I was. I was like, ‘I’m fine,’ and I was sweating. Then I got on stage and three songs in…”

Bridgers assured the singer “it was only a little bit” and she had been wearing a long dress at the time. Thankfully, no one else but Bridgers herself had noticed. “It wasn’t like a f*cking destroyed myself,” Bridgers laughed.

Watch a clip of Phoebe retelling the story above.

Punisher is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.

Sarah Cooper has been dominating social media with her viral impressions of Donald Trump’s bungling efforts to contain the pandemic, and now, she’s taking her game to the next level: Her very own Netflix special. Set to premiere this fall, Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine, will be the first comedy special for the writer/comedian whose meteoric rise to fame has been one of the very, very few bright spots to come out of the nationwide quarantines. Via Deadline:

The variety special will feature vignettes “dealing with issues of politics, race, gender, class, and other light subjects,” according to Netflix. Cooper will be joined by special guests who will participate in short interviews, sketches and more.

The special will be directed by Natasha Lyonne and executive produced by Maya Rudolph, Danielle Renfrew Behrens and Lyonne via their Animal Pictures, along with Cooper and Paula Pell.

The announcement of Cooper’s Netflix special on Wednesday seems timed to coincide with her most high-profile gig yet. The viral comedian filled in as a guest-host for Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night where she, naturally, brought along her trademark Trump impressions, but the former Google employee also got a chance to showcase a different side of her personality.

After starting out on TikTok, Cooper’s videos where she lip-synchs President Trump’s often erratic public statements quickly caught the attention of stars like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Stiller, Halle Berry, Chrissy Teigen, Cher, Jane Lynch, Jerry Seinfeld, Seth Meyers, and Bette Midler. Thanks to each of those celebrities having millions of followers, it didn’t take long for Cooper to become a social media favorite as users eagerly awaited her latest take on the president’s ramblings. In fact, Cooper recently made headlines after Trump threatened to ban TikTok, which prompted many to wonder if the comedian’s scathing videos were behind the president’s rash decision.

(Via Deadline)

R. Kelly has been in the midst of legal proceedings surrounding sexual misconduct allegations for months now, and the situation has just developed further: The New York Times notes that today, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced that three people — Donnell Russell, Michael Williams, and Richard Arline, Jr. — have been arrested over separate schemes to threaten and bribe Kelly’s accusers. One of those incidents includes setting a car, which belonged to a woman who has publicly accused Kelly, on fire.

The burning took place early in the morning on June 11 in Florida, when a potential witness in Kelly’s trial woke up and discovered that her vehicle was in her her driveway, engulfed in flames.

This is not the first time Kelly and/or his associates have stood accused of intimidation. In October 2019, he was accused of sending letters that threatened his alleged victims and their families. In one instance, he allegedly “sent a typewritten letter to a lawyer then representing Jane Doe #5, threatening to release compromising and potentially embarrassing photographs of Jane Doe #5 if she pursued her civil lawsuit against the defendant.” Prosecutors also claimed, ‘With respect to multiple women, he directed the women, prospective witnesses against him, to pick a side, and strongly implied that choosing the wrong side — i.e., not his side — would result in harm to them or their families.”

Summer 2020 belongs to the Air Jordan. All season long — and really since ESPN’s The Last Dance dropped — we’ve been treated to week after week of must-have Air Jordans. We got the metallic silver CP.JP AJ1s last week, and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air inspired Ghost Green colorway Air Jordan 5s dropping this week. It’s a damn good time to be a Jordan fan, which means this week you’ll be faced with some tough decisions.

For all the non-Jordan heads, the pickings are a lot slimmer. There’s a single Adidas release that hit the list, a Patta collab, and a low key refresh of the Reebok Club C by Eric Emanuel. Not a ton to get you hyped.

On the apparel side, we have new releases from Palace and Adidas, a Futura COMME des GARÇONS collaborative capsule, and a new collection from Teddy Fresh. BAPE also took it upon themselves to drop a $35 face mask that looks almost identical to a plain white surgical face mask. Nice try, BAPE.

Here are the week’s best sneaker and apparel drops, let’s go!

Air Jordan 1 Zoom Zen Green

Nike went for a Japanese Zen garden look for this new iteration of the Air Jordan 1 Zoom. Sitting atop a modern Zoom Air cushion, this sneaker features a leather upper with soft green suede paneling and matching accents along the collar and stitching. Not everyone is going to be able to rock a pair of grass green sneakers but paired with the right outfit of contrasting colors, these kicks will stand out in the best way.

The Air Jordan 1 Zoom Zen Green is set to drop on August 14th for a retail price of $175. Pick up a pair at select Nike retailers or the Nike SNKRS app.

Air Jordan 5 Ghost Green/Alternate Bel-Air

Nike takes us back to Bel-Air with this alternate colorway of the sneaker made to pay tribute to the pair of Air Jordans Will Smith wore in the opening title sequence of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Featuring an all-white leather upper, the AJV Ghost Green sports era-appropriate neon green and pink accents, a dark royal midsole, and a geometric collar pattern straight out of the ‘90s. Honestly, Fresh Prince connections aside it’s hard not to love this beautiful makeup of the Air Jordan V.

The Air Jordan 5 Ghost Green/Alternate Bel-Air is set to drop on August 15th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS app or at Foot Locker.

Adidas x size? Vintage Euros Gazelle “Dentist Chair”

You wouldn’t know it from all the constant Nike love shown on SNX DLX on a week-to-week basis (credit where credit is due), but one of my favorite sneaker silhouettes of all time is the Adidas Gazelle. It seems my love for this silhouette isn’t shared by the average American sneakerhead because all the best Gazelles come out of Europe, and this pair even features “Euros” in the name, just to mock me!

Alternately known as the “Dentist Chair,” this sneaker colorway has a long and storied history that is chronicled on size?’s webstore and has something to do with international football. It’s worth a read but it isn’t the history of the sneaker that makes this such a fire drop. Featuring a crisp white leather upper, a dual-toned three-stripe, premium stitching, yellow tongue tab, all atop a gum sole, the Dentist Chair is a near-perfect colorway. Don’t think I didn’t consider conveniently not mentioning this release!

The Adidas x size? Vintage Euros Gazelle Dentist Chair is set to drop on August 14th for an unannounced price exclusively at size?.

Patta x Mizuno Sky Medal

This Patta and Mizuno collaboration is simply beautiful. Inspired by the roadrunner bird, this running sneaker borrows Mizuno’s Runbird logo, and features a mesh upper with black and white paneling and tan and orange detailing. All the design lines give the Sky Medal a very aerodynamic look, resulting in one of the most stylish pairs of running-focused sneakers released all year.

The Patta x Mizuno Sky Medal is set to drop on August 15th for an unannounced retail price. Pick up a pair at the Patta webstore.

Eric Emanuel x Reebok Club C

Eric Emanuel has been cranking out solid Reebok collabs all year and this week’s release of his take on the Reebok Club C continues that trend. While not a flashy take on the Club C by any means, Eric Emanuel’s newest iteration features a crisp all-white leather upper with a fuzzy fleece collar with a matching heel tab in your choice of blue, purple or orange. Like we said, it isn’t flashy but we appreciate Eric Emanuel’s decision to get out of the way and let the Club C silhouette do all the heavy lifting. Altogether it feels like a worthy tribute to an iconic sneaker.

The Eric Emanuel Reebok Club C is set to drop on August 14th for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair exclusively at the Eric Emanuel webstore.

Palace x Adidas SunPal Summer 2020 Capsule

A late summer collaboration between Palace and Adidas has left us scratching our heads. Don’t get us wrong, we welcome the collaboration, but a collection inspired by summer while the season comes to a close? All right, whatever! This latest collection is inspired by the feel of a Balearic summer and features beach essentials, shorts, jerseys, long sleeves, sun visors, and even goggles and water shoes (we didn’t include these), all dressed in your choice of bright orange or black.

We dig it — probably because its the only apparel collection all year to actually make us feel like we’ve hit the summer season since quarantine has put us in a perpetual winter of indoor living.

The Palace Adidas SunPal Summer 2020 capsule is set to drop on August 14th. Shop the collection at the Palace webstore.

Teddy Fresh August Collection

Teddy Fresh is adding new pieces to their August apparel collection beginning at 10am PST on Thursday. The drop consists of short and long sleeve t-shirts, hoodies, shorts, and hats all dressed up in Teddy Fresh’s signature playful pastel aesthetic. This feels like a significant year for the label. It’s remained remarkably consistent throughout the year, dropping some of the best pieces in the label’s short history.

Shop the Teddy Fresh August Collection this Thursday at the Teddy Fresh webstore.

Futura x COMME des GARÇONS F/W 2020 Shirt Collection

We stay watching what famed graffiti artist Futura does in the streetwear space in part because we dig the dude, but mostly because his art makes for seriously sick t-shirt designs. This latest collaboration between the street artist and COMME des GARÇONS consists of two long-sleeve shirts, four t-shirts, a few bags, and two coach jackets all adorned with four different pieces of Futura’s vivid artwork and reimaged by Rei Kawakubo.

The Futura x COMME des GARÇONS F/W 2020 Collection is available now. Shop the looks at the Dover Street Market.

After getting a huge boost in exposure thanks to her appearance in Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” video last week, emerging star Rubi Rose capitalizes on the extra attention with the video for her latest single “He In His Feelings.”

Strutting through an extravagant garden in a luxurious ensemble that includes a bodysuit, baggy chaps, and a beaded veil, Rubi holds court as attendants watch her perform her verses. Later shots find Rubi inside of a mansion in posing in lingerie and sitting in the back seat of a Rolls Royce as she spits her fierce boasts and dismisses the song’s thirsty subject.

Rubi Rose’s profile has risen considerably over the past several months after her self-released viral hit “Big Mouth” went viral and led to a deal with LA Reid’s HitCo Entertainment. Since then, Rubi has collaborated with another pair of rising stars, NLE Choppa and Yella Beezy, on her Birdman-sampling “Hit Yo Dance,” showed off her self-confidence with “Pretty MF,” and teamed up with fellow burgeoning rapper Day Sulan for the runaway viral hit, “Big.”

The Lexington, Kentucky model-turned-rapper has come a long way since appearing in Migos’ “Bad And Boujee” video in 2016. Now, thanks to Cardi B, she’s in the perfect position to be one of rap’s next big-name stars.

Watch Rubi Rose’s “He In His Feelings” video above.