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The NBA Is Investigating Ja Morant For Appearing To Flash A Gun On His Instagram

Early on Saturday morning, a video began circulating of Ja Morant in a nightclub flashing a gun. The video appeared to come from Morant’s Instagram account, where he went live from a nightclub at some point in the aftermath of the Memphis Grizzlies‘ loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday. If you would like to watch the video, you can do so here.

Considering a recent Washington Post report that laid out some off-court issues Morant has ran into in recent months, the video led to Morant receiving plenty of criticism. And right around midday on Saturday, the NBA released a statement indicating that an investigation into the video is ongoing.

The reporting from the Post laid out a trio of incidents in which “Morant and people close to him have been accused of threatening and even violent behavior.” Two of these incidents — a fight in which Morant “repeatedly punched a teenage boy in the head” during a pickup game at his house over the summer and a moment after a game where someone with Morant pointed a laser at members of the Indiana Pacers — had previously been reported, while an additional incident involving Morant and a number of his friends going to a mall in Memphis due to an alleged confrontation between a Finish Line employee and Morant’s mother was new.

Via Washington Post:

Confronted by the director of mall security, Morant and his friends refused the security guard’s demands to leave the mall parking lot. Police arrived and a “verbal confrontation” escalated, the report says, until someone in the group allegedly pushed the security director in the head.

“As the group was leaving the premises … Ja Morant said, ‘Let me find out what time he gets off,’ ” police wrote in the report.

The video of Morant with a gun came after the Grizzlies traveled to Denver and fell to the Nuggets, 113-97, although it is unclear if the video came from a nightclub in Denver. Memphis is on a four-game road trip, with their next two games taking place against the Los Angeles squads on Sunday and Tuesday.

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Grandmaster Flash Was The Voice Behind The ‘Polar Bear’ Character In His Reveal On ‘The Masked Singer’

During this week’s episode of The Masked Singer, viewers were shocked to find out that the person behind the Polar Bear costume was none other than Grandmaster Flash.

“In the world today, there’s a lot of sadness and when I seen this show on a rough day I had for business – I was laughing!” Grandmaster Flash said according to HipHopDX. “It actually had me laughing. It allows you to let your guard down and just have fun. It’s a great show. It’s a great show.”

While the new season recently started, he still managed to make it to episode three before facing elimination. Grandmaster Flash performed Blondie’s “Rapture” during his time on the zany competition series.

“I sung horribly, but I sang it the best way I can and sitting down with the musicians and the vocal coaches in doing the best I can do with it,” he told Variety about how he felt during the performance. “But I had to do it with this 15 pound [costume] on me and do it in a cool way. I’m trying not to laugh but it was so stupid, but it was so fun.”

As the story goes, “Rapture” was written for him after Debbie Harry attended one of his shows with Fab Five Freddy.

Watch Grandmaster Flash’s reveal on The Masked Singer above.

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Maisie Peters Puts An Indie Pop Spin On One Of Green Day’s Biggest Hits In Her ‘Like A Version’ Cover

Maisie Peters made a recent appearance on Australia’s Triple J to deliver a performance of Green Day’s “Basket Case” for their Like A Version series.

Compared to the original, Peters’ cover opens with a member of her band playing the violin and slows down the pacing to give a haunting-yet-captivating feeling of the 1994 song. However, by the second verse, the energy starts to pick back up, making it a truly fun watch.

Peters, who is currently touring as an opener for Ed Sheeran, revealed that her choice of song stemmed from her longtime love for the band, which she discovered as a tween. She is set to release her sophomore album, The Good Witch, in June.

“I wanted to do something slightly unexpected and Green Day were one of the first bands I discovered when I was 12. I loved that song, I loved ‘21 Guns’ and ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends.’ They were real pillars of my adolescence,” she said. “I loved the spirit of all of those Green Day songs. I loved the energy and the fire.”

Ahead of her performance, Peters noted that she pulled inspiration from folk, country, and The 1975’s song, “Part Of The Band,” to craft the sound of her take.

Check out Maisie Peters’ Green Day cover above.

Green Day is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Trump Is Reportedly Still Trying Out Some (Not Very Good) Ron DeSantis Nicknames

Donald Trump loves his childish nicknames. There’s an entire Wikipedia page devoted to the dozens of schoolyard taunts he’s bestowed upon his many, many enemies. Some are better than others. Some are even full-on bigoted. But so far he’s been unable to find a good one for his top rival for the 2024 Republican presidential ticket: Ron DeSantis. And based on a new report from Bloomberg, he better keep trying.

As per the report, allies have — like most people — not exactly warmed to his most frequent DeSantis moniker: Ron DeSanctimonious. Trump seems set on it anyway, but that allegedly hasn’t stopped him from spit-balling some other ideas. Alas, these aren’t very good either: “Ron DisHonest,” “Ron DeEstablishment,” and the succinct “Tiny D.”

Thing is, he did reportedly stumble on one that’s both funny and genuinely mean. The New York Times reported a few weeks back that he’d been trying out “Meatball Ron” — an apparent poke at DeSantis’ Italian heritage and his weight. (Not that Trump is a spring chicken himself.) Alas, Trump has denied that he came up with that one, so for now, the clunky Ron DeSanctimonious it apparently is.

In other Trump nickname news, last week he debuted one for the Biden administration’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, which was, of course, straight-up homophobic.

(Via Bloomberg)

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Kellyanne And George Conway May Be Getting Divorced, And Of Course Trump Offered His Congratulations

On Friday, Page Six reported that one of the most chaotic couples in America, Kellyanne and George Conway, were getting a divorce. The story, based on multiple insiders, has not been confirmed, but if true, it would mean an end to a 22-year marriage between two Republicans who, at least until Donald Trump came along, saw eye-to-eye. Since then their union has been very publicly messy, and after word that they were calling it quits, no one was happier than one of his fiercest haters, Kellyanne’s former boss.

“Congratulations to Kellyanne Conway on her DIVORCE from her wacko husband, Mr. Kellyanne Conway,” Trump wrote on his rinky-dink Twitter clone, as per Mediaite. “Free at last, she has finally gotten rid of the disgusting albatross around her neck. She is a great person, and will now be free to lead the kind of life that she deserves…and it will be a great life without the extremely unattractive loser by her side!”

According to the report, both Conways have “lawyered up.”

Kellyanne first became known to the public at large in 2016, when she was hired first as Trump’s campaign adviser then later his campaign manager. After his election she stayed with him as his senior counselor. She became notorious for her interactions with the press, including infamously making up the “Bowling Green massacre,” which is not a thing.

Meanwhile, George became an outspoken critic of his wife’s boss, even co-founding The Lincoln Project, comprised of old school Republicans who teamed with Democrats to ensure Trump didn’t serve a second term. They remain active, as Trump is eyeing a third term.

Trump routinely went after George, despite him being married to one of his closest cronies. As for Kellyanne, she’s criticized him, too. Kellyanne and George have long been very public about their disparate views. Things got so intense that in the lead-up to the 2020 election, their daughter Claudia attacked her parents on social media, even vowing to seek emancipation — a move that caused Kellyanne to resign from Trump’s team. And now this.

(Via Page Six and Mediaite)

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The National Bring In The ‘Tropic Morning News’ With An Electric Late Night Performance Of Their New Song

Last night, March 3, The National dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to treat viewers to an electric performance of their new song, “Tropic Morning News.”

Complete with red lighting and a moody, moving backdrop, lead singer Matt Berninger carried the entire band through a five-minute take. “I was suffering more than I let on / The tropic morning news was on / There’s nothing stopping me now / From saying all the painful parts out loud,” he emotionally sang.

The song is featured on the group’s forthcoming album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, alongside the other recently-released single, “New Order T-Shirt” and some soon-to-come collaborations with Taylor Swift, Sufjan Stevens, and Phoebe Bridgers.

Fans can also expect to catch them playing selections from the new record when their tour begins in May. More information, along with a complete list of dates, is available here.

As Berninger notes in a statement via Rolling Stone, he was in a “very dark spot where I couldn’t come up with lyrics or melodies at all.”

“Even though we’d always been anxious whenever we were working on a record, this was the first time it ever felt like maybe things really had come to an end,” he said.

Check out The National’s “Tropic Morning News” performance above.

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Travis Barker Shared A Touching Post-Surgery Message To Fans, After Blink-182 Had To Postpone The Tour

After announcing needing surgery for a broken finger last month, Travis Barker took to social media to share a recovery update and offer some heartfelt words to the fans who’ve supported him and Blink-182.

“Thank you for all the love and prayers and understanding this week as I went into surgery,” Barker wrote. “It was a hard decision to make but ultimately I couldn’t continue to play the drums without it. It was inevitable that my finger would have dislocated again without fixing the torn ligament surgically.

“So grateful for Dr. Shin and that my surgery was a success so that I can keep doing what I love,” he added. “See you guys on tour soon. (trigger warning: last photo is hard to look at).”

Before Barker’s injury, the band had been rehearsing for their massive reunion tour — marking the first time that he, Mark Hoppus, and Tom DeLonge have played live together since 2014. It was scheduled to start with shows in South America next week but has since been postponed.

“This has been something we’ve been aiming to do for so long and we work so hard and we just kind of had one of those freak accidents that nobody saw coming,” DeLonge shared earlier this week, according to Billboard.

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

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Julius Randle’s Last-Second Three Lifted The Knicks Over The Heat

Julius Randle had one of the best nights of his NBA career on Friday in the New York Knicks’ game against the Heat in Miami. Randle scored 43 points and made eight of his 13 attempts from behind the three point line, with his final made triple coming in the final moments to secure a 122-120 win.

New York led by as many as 17 points on the evening, but was unable to fend off a second half surge by Miami. Behind a 29-point night from Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler scoring 18 of his 33 from the free throw line, the Heat were able to get back in the game and, eventually, take the lead midway through the fourth quarter. While the Knicks eventually got it back, Miami kept chipping away and went ahead with 23 seconds left due to a layup by Herro.

And then, it looked like things were headed towards disaster, as Randle struggled to shake Jimmy Butler as the clock wound down. He eventually threw up a prayer, and somehow, it was answered.

The shot was so big that it got a rare double bang out of Mike Breen. With the win, the team’s eighth in a row, the Knicks moved to 38-27 on the season.

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Ice Spice And North West Linked Up For A Hilarious Dance Video (And It All Started From A Drawing)

At nine years old, North West is living the dream. Over the past year, she’s garnered nearly 15 million followers on her TikTok page, which she shares with her mother, Kim Kardashian.

In her videos, fans can see North as she and her friends and family make milkshakes, apply makeup, and draw some of her incredible drawings. Last month, she shared a clip of an uncanny portrait she drew of rapper Ice Spice, as the latter’s verse in PinkPantheress’ “Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2” played in the background.

A little over two weeks later, it appears North manifested something special. Today (March 3), Ice Spice shared a video on her TikTok page at the Kardashian home, where she is seen dancing with North and one of her friends.

In the above clip, the three bust moves to Spice’s viral track, “In Ha Mood,” which is mashed up in a special remix with ad-libs from The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star.”

North also shared a video clip on her and Kim’s TikTok page, which featured another portrait of Ice Spice.

@kimandnorth

We love you, ice spice, 🧊🧊🌶🌶

♬ In Ha Mood – Ice Spice

“Just met Ice Spice,” read the text in the above clip, “literally screaming. She is so nice.”

PinkPantheress is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Riley Keough, Elvis’ Granddaughter, Apparently Dropped An Easter Egg About Him In ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’

The first three episodes of Amazon Prime’s rock-inspired show, Daisy Jones & The Six, dropped last night — and one very eagle-eyed fan caught something interesting during it. The series, which stars Elvis‘ granddaughter Riley Keough in the title role, seemed to pay tribute to the King with a simple accessory choice.

“Spoiler Alert – in episode two of Daisy Jones, looks to me like Riley is wearing the same pattern guitar strap as Elvis in the ‘68 Comeback Special,” the user tweeted, sharing a side-by-side comparison of the two relatives.

The post has since gone viral as fans are going wild over it being the exact same guitar strap — proving that the costume and styling team paid true attention.

“We didn’t talk about her family that much or her lineage – I was very respectful of her private life,” the show’s costume designer, Denise Wingate, told People about Keough’s style, “but I did find this woman named Love Melody who made rock and roll clothes in the Seventies.”

As it turns out, the Elvis connection that was embedded into the show’s style goes even deeper.

“She actually made two jumpsuits for Elvis Presley, so I had her make two beautiful, long coats for the show,” she added. “One is a denim leather patchwork long coat and the other a beautiful rust leather. She made those.”

Continue scrolling for some more fan reactions to the fun easter egg.