Fan voting for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game began this week, and fans have already tallied millions of votes for their favorite players across the league, led by Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and Steph Curry, all of whom have already garnered more than 2 million votes each.
Nets‘ Kevin Durant and Lakers‘ LeBron James lead the NBA’s first All-Star fan voting returns. Warriors’ Stephen Curry and Wizards’ Bradley Beal join Durant and James as leaders at positions. pic.twitter.com/ukvOeyx49H
The leaders for the starting units currently are James, Curry, Nikola Jokic, Kawhi Leonard, and Luka Doncic in the West as well as Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Bradley Beal, and Kyrie Irving in the East. Each side features three frontcourt players and two guards, though specific positions don’t matter here.
The fan vote, which accounts for 50 percent of the total vote to decide who starts the All-Star Game in each conference, can be conducted on Twitter or through the NBA’s website or app, where they can submit one ballot per day. Media and player voting accounts for 25 percent each, ending with five-player lineups on each side.
Teams are then drafted by captains (the top vote-getters in each conference), at which point conferences are ignored. The two captains go back and forth selecting players from the total 28-player pool until they each have a full squad. The NBA and the players’ union this week agreed to terms on an All-Star Weekend in Atlanta that will likely include some sort of skills competition in addition to the game.
Earlier this year, a song by Hayley Williams leaked. But rather than the track randomly popping up on the internet, Williams actually leaked it herself — on purpose. Under the cover of night, Williams handed a CD containing the track “My Limb” to a fan, instructing them to post it online. Apparently, Williams’ unconventional tactic was a ploy to drum up excitement surrounding a new release, because the singer has just announced her solo sophomore project is arriving this week.
Williams shared the cover art to her upcoming album, Flowers For Vases / Descansos, on her social media, saying that it’s slated for a release Friday. In a note about the project posted to her Instagram Stories, Williams wrote:
“This isn’t really a follow-up to Petals For Armor. If anything, it’s a prequel, or some sort of detour between parts 1 and 2 of Petals. Whatever it is, it has two names: Flowers For Vases and Descansos.
I had written a long and poetic press release but man, after 16 years of being in the music business, 6 albums, and a lot of ‘strategies’ for how to ‘roll-out’ a project in the right way… writing more words in an attempt to describe better words I’ve written for the album at hand just seemed so boring and silly. So I deleted what I had and this is all I’ll leave you with:
-I wrote and performed this album in it’s entirely. That’s a career first for me.
-I recorded it at my home in Nashville, the home at which I’ve resided since Paramore released After Laughter.
-2020 was really hard but I’m alive and so my job is to keep living and help others to do the same.
-Yes, Paramore is still a band.
Hope you enjoy Flowers For Vases / Descansos. If you don’t better luck next time.”
It’s been less than a year since Williams released her debut solo album, Petals For Armor, but she didn’t stop there. Following its release, the singer shared a handful of acoustic tracks in the form of the EP Petals For Armor: Self-Serenades.
Flowers For Vases / Descansos is out 2/5 via Atlantic.
Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Today, Bridgers wrote on Twitter, “I went to Marilyn Manson’s house when I was a teenager with some friends. I was a big fan. He referred to a room in his house as the ‘r*pe room,’ I thought it was just his horrible frat boy sense of humor. I stopped being a fan. I stand with everyone who came forward.” She added in another tweet, “The label knew, management knew, the band knew. Distancing themselves now, pretending to be shocked and horrified is f*cking pathetic.”
TW:
I went to Marilyn Manson’s house when I was a teenager with some friends. I was a big fan. He referred to a room in his house as the “r*pe room”, I thought it was just his horrible frat boy sense of humor. I stopped being a fan.
Manson addressed Wood’s allegations a few days ago, writing in a statement, “Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality… My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.”
With Trump twiddling his thumbs down in Florida (he can’t use them to Tweet anymore after all), the right-wing media needs a new conspiracy-theory-shouting horse to hitch its outrage wagon to, and there’s an obvious frontrunner in this race: the MyPillow guy.
Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, emerged as Trump’s biggest voter-fraud mouthpiece during the final weeks of his presidency, famously delivering documents suggesting the president invoke martial law in order to overturn the 2020 election. When that didn’t work, Lindell started using his platform, visiting right-wing networks like OAN and Newsmax to tout unproven allegations that Dominion, the tech company that owned machines in Georgia and other states, had somehow tampered with millions of votes. He spread those claims further on Twitter, eventually leading to his suspension (and the deactivation of his company’s account) when the social media site determined his increasingly bizarre statements were a threat to the public.
Which brings us to the current MyPillow Guy controversy: the feud he’s fueling between Fox News knockoffs OANN and Newsmax.
Both right-wing media companies are battling to secure viewership from Trump supporters disenfranchised by Fox News’ lukewarm commitment to sticking to the facts and Lindell seems to be the lynchpin in OAN’s plan for fake news-spewing domination. The network crafted a segment filled with faux outrage over a recent Lindell appearance on Newsmax that ended with one anchor walking off set after “censoring” the CEO’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
the one thing we absolutely deserve in 2021 is a media feud between two right-wing networks over the proper level of devotion to a conspiratorial pillow company https://t.co/qzuVh6Y1Ql
OANN tried to loop its rival network in with big tech “oligarchs halting the flow of information to benefit their own agendas,” claiming Newsmax was no better than Twitter because they demanded facts to backup Lindell’s wilder election allegations. Normally we wouldn’t complain about two right-wing news programs tearing each other apart over the MyPillow guy of all people, but watching these OANN anchors salivate over this chance to sabotage their competitors is kind of like watching the family dog beg for scraps at the dinner table. It’s just sad.
De’Aaron Fox has his eyes on an All-Star nod this season, but that does not mean he thinks the NBA should hold its annual midseason event amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Fox spoke to the media on Wednesday night following the Sacramento Kings’ 116-111 win over the Boston Celtics, and made it clear that he has major opposition to the league’s planned All-Star game this season.
De’Aaron Fox was brutally honest on the NBA’s plan to have an All-Star game this season…
“I mean, if I’m gonna be brutally honest, I think it’s stupid,” Fox said. “If we have to wear masks and do all this for a regular game, then what’s the point of bringing the All-Star Game back? Money makes the world go ’round, so, it is what it is.”
Fox was then asked about potentially participating in the game if he gets voted, and while he said yes, he made clear that his decision stems from the consequences of turning an invite down.
“You know you get fined,” Fox said while laughing. “If you’re supposed to be in it and you’re not hurt and you decide not to play, that’s a hefty fine, so hell yeah, I would play in it.”
This season, Fox is averaging a career-best 22.3 points per game with 6.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 32.6 minutes a night for the Kings, which sit 10-11 and are firmly in the race for a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament. On Thursday morning, a report by Shams Charania of The Athletic indicated that the NBA and its players association have an agreement in place to hold an All-Star event on March 7 in Atlanta.
It’s a problem every high school-set show faces if it airs long enough: what happens when the characters graduate? Buffy the Vampire Slayer sent Buffy to UC-Sunnydale (and Doublemeat Palace); Gilmore Girls separated Lorelai and Rory, and was worse off for it; and Riverdale, well, Riverdale is playing by its own weirdo rules.
In the most recent episode of The CW series, Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica graduated high school, and the couples, Archie/Veronica and Jughead/Betty, decided to split up. But the next episode, the show’s 80th, won’t deal with the fallout from the breakups; we also won’t see the gang in college. That’s because Riverdale is jumping seven years into the future. “A lot can happen in seven years,” Jughead says in the teaser for next week’s episode. “Archie had been in a war. I was a published writer. Veronica was married. And Betty was an FBI agent.” My favorite thing about that voiceover — besides all of it — is that Veronica being married is treated with the same dramatic weight as Betty being an FBI agent. But that’s not even the nuttiest thing about the promo.
“Although we are still in Riverdale and we are still tied into the school in certain ways, in the time jump I feel like we had to refresh our audience with a new theme, which is the fact that we’re all a lot older,” KJ Apa (Archie) told Entertainment Weekly about the time jump. “And I feel like that in itself, the fact that we’re all older and a lot of time has passed, no one’s really kept in touch, it adds a lot more things to play with.” Including the fallout from fighting a war (in World War II uniforms???) on a high school football field.
Hahahahah oh my god. Never watched an ep, but every time I check in on what’s going on with this show, they’re going apeshit, all for it https://t.co/q7FddZ442k
Okay so Archie fought in a war (in a WWII era uniform) and I swear to god this battle is taking place on the Riverdale High FOOTBALL FIELD. What even is this show #Riverdalehttps://t.co/ypQxvMy2JB
Chicago rapper Cupcakke recently caused a stir due to her back-and-forth battle with fellow rising rapper Sukihana but it looks like she would prefer to get more attention for giving back. In December, she announced her plans to open a homeless shelter in her hometown and today, she tried to help fans who needed day-to-day assistance with a CashApp giveaway. “Tag one person that actually needs $1,000 right now,” she tweeted. “I’ll be sending it from this CashApp. Within the next 10 mins !!! Screenshot will be posted.”
Within minutes, her mentions were flooded and her name was trending on Twitter, but she was still able to pick out a few names to help with the desired assistance. One commenter said that they needed $500 for auto repairs, prompting a hasty response from Cupcakke. Unfortunately, her CashApp account limited the transaction so she sent the money via PayPal instead.
YO @CupcakKe_rapper I LOVE YOU MAMAS. I WAS STRESSED THIS MORNING CUZ I HAD TO MISS WORK BUT BABY U MADE MY DAYYYYYYYYY!!! NOW I CAN GET TO THE BAG I LOVE YOU pic.twitter.com/vr28uTSkWr
Cupcakke shared a few more screenshots, this time in $100 increments, before taking a break. That hasn’t stopped fans from continuing to share their stories with the rapper, with many joking that she’s done more for COVID relief than the US government.
this is my dog ollie he currently has a tumor in his colon and it could be life threatening. i love this dog with all my heart and truly anything would help $kaylaalane0719 pic.twitter.com/pfsvB1uZgy
While it’s clear that there is far more need than one rapper could ever support, it’s still nice to see someone trying to help people in troubled times like these. Despite mourning her friend Sophie, who passed away late last month, Cupcakke still found a way to brighten at least a few fans’ days.
Skillz, one of the biggest mobile games platforms in the world, will partner with the NFL on a new deal that will work to develop new football fans through mobile devices and the growing popularity of eSports.
Big news – we’re teaming up with the @NFL! Our multi-year agreement sets the stage for the future of esports competition, with developers competing to create NFL-themed mobile games! Learn more here: https://t.co/yVoVH7ruxl
The two companies will partner to put on a global game developer challenge that will launch this spring and be open to “all genres except for 11 v 11 simulated games,” a la Madden. The NFL’s longtime collaboration with EA Sports on the console game has generated extreme popularity among gamers and sports fans alike, but fans, especially those who play games on mobile devices, will get a new way to interact with football through Skillz.
“The NFL is an iconic brand that is synonymous with American sports, and Skillz is thrilled to help power their esports competitions on mobile,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz, in a statement.
The announcement comes just more than a month after Skillz’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, at which point the company received nearly $1 billion in funding. From the NFL side, striking a deal with such a large gaming company allows the league to find younger fans and those who may not come to the game from a traditional perspective, plus it allows gamers the opportunity to play a football game that is outside of the Madden universe.
HBO’s fiery and fearless I May Destroy You (created by and starring Michaela Coel) got snubbed by the Golden Globes nominations list, and while a few good things happened elsewhere on the list, there’s a lot of reasons to shake one’s head over that glaring omission. Another very good exploration of sexual consent, Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman starring Carey Mulligan, did not get snubbed, and to add further insult to injury, Emily In Paris got nominated for Best Comedy. Whether or not I May Destroy You belonged in any particular category (Limited Series, Comedy, Drama) isn’t really the issue at hand, it’s more about how Emily, at best, lacked substance and how the French were not thrilled about it being an “insulting” depiction of the country.
There’s also the added aspect of Emily In Paris title character feeling like an unintended personification of white privilege, which gives the Hollywood Foreign Press Association another bad look by snubbing not only I May Destroy You but also Da 5 Bloods. What a mess, and guess what? An Emily In Paris writer, Deborah Copaken, agrees and explained why in an op-ed for The Guardian. In the first place, she’s rather stunned that Emilygot nominated:
“I tried to avoid reading its criticism, but I don’t live under a rock. It never occurred to me that our show would be nominated [since it’s about] a white American selling luxury whiteness, in a pre-pandemic Paris scrubbed free of its vibrant African and Muslim communities.”
Copaken is not upset that Emily was nominated since she’ll be able to attend the ceremony, but she’s admittedly feeling “rage” over the snub issue:
“I May Destroy You was not only my favorite show of 2020. It’s my favorite show ever. It takes the complicated issue of a rape — I’m a sexual assault survivor myself — and infuses it with heart, humor, pathos and a story constructed so well, I had to watch it twice, just to understand how Coel did it… [my] excitement is now unfortunately tempered by my rage over Coel’s snub. That I May Destroy You did not get one Golden Globe nod is not only wrong, it’s what is wrong with everything.”
Those are harsh words for the HFPA, which has of course remained silent on the subject, although social media is obviously feeling much differently about the lack of recognition for Michaela Coel’s stunning and layered creation, which was one of the Best TV Shows of 2020.
Tom Brady is headed to his 10th Super Bowl on Sunday when his Buccaneers play a home game in Tampa against the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes. It is a battle between two quarterbacks with very different styles, as Brady is among the last of the prototypical pocket passers of yesteryear and Mahomes is the prototype for the next generation of superstar quarterbacks, with a rocket for an arm, precision accuracy, and mobility that allows him to extend plays.
Eli Manning is quite familiar with seeing Brady in the Super Bowl, as he and the Giants went a perfect 2-0 in big game showdowns with Brady and the Patriots in 2007 and 2011. The recently-retired Manning will enjoy watching Brady and Mahomes go at it from the comfort of his home. Before that, he spoke with Uproxx Sports this week on behalf of Frank’s RedHot about the two QBs that will face off in Tampa, his own Super Bowl memories, and possibly dumping 100 gallons of hot sauce on TikTok star David Dobrik this week.
Super Bowl week is something you’ve experienced on a couple of occasions. When you look back on your Super Bowl experience is there anything that particularly stands out when you reflect on your two Super Bowls?
Yeah, I mean, I think there’s so many positive memories. The fact that you were there twice and you win both of ’em, I don’t have a bad memory or a bad experience with one. I think the week’s different than a normal week, just because for the last 20 weeks, you’ve basically had the same routine every week, Monday through Sunday, gameday. Now all of a sudden, except for Tampa who’s playing a home game basically, your schedule can be a little different. For me, it was all of a sudden that week you’re in Arizona for practice, you’re taking buses to practice. It’s a lot more bonding with the team on those bus rides, at night your family is not there all week so you’re having dinner with your buddies, just casual, and so I think you have a lot of great moments right there, just hanging out with your teammates all getting ready to play the biggest game of your life. There’s obviously a seriousness to that and a focus to it, but it’s still kind of a boys will be boys and when there’s time to relax and laugh we had a great crew of guys who knew how to flip that switch and never got too goofy, but like to laugh and be around each other during those bus rides after the day was done.
So all those, and also the celebration after the game when you walk into your party with your friends and family, and high school buddies and college buddies greet you. You kinda figure out that when you win a championship it’s not just the New York Giants and the owners and the fans, but everybody you played high school and college football with that didn’t get to go on to the next level, they’re winning a championship with you. And I promise you they celebrate like they just won a Super Bowl as well. So there’s a lot of great memories.
This year you’re partnered with Frank’s RedHot for The Big Pour to support Tackle Kids Cancer. How did that partnership come about and why is it so important to work with this organization in Tackle Kids Cancer for you?
Yeah, you know, it’s been a great relationship with Frank’s RedHot. We have a new commercial that’s out right now where I’m handling retirement and doing different activities and pouring Frank’s all over everything and using it in every activity I do. I got introduced to them at the beginning of the pandemic when Peyton was playing in the golf Match and I was on Twitter to tweet some heat towards him and attacking Brady when he was playing in that. I think Frank’s and their brand and their sense of humor matches up with mine, kind of a dry sense of humor. They take their business very serious but don’t take themselves very seriously though. And so I think it’s been a great relationship and they approached this idea of pouring 100 gallons of Frank’s RedHot on someone and I’m just glad I don’t have to get it poured on me.
But David Dobrik was willing to take the pour and it’s because it’s for charity and Tackle Kids Cancer, which has been a charity very close to me these past five years and dealing with that and helping out research and patient care programs. It’s been a great fit and hopefully the Big Pour — we’re trying to hit that 100,000 tweets with the hashtag #FranksBigPour coming up — and it should be pretty exciting. I have no idea how it’s gonna look or work out or go down, but it should be interesting to say the least.
You mention the commercial where you put Frank’s on everything, which is their slogan. What’s the strangest food that you put hot sauce on that folks might not think?
Nah, I think that’s the great thing about Frank’s is I don’t think there’s anything too strange you can put it on. Obviously the wings are great and I put it on my eggs, but I don’t know if there’s anything totally outrageous. I think anything’s acceptable and wouldn’t be frowned upon putting Frank’s on.
I want to get your thoughts on the game on Sunday and particularly these two quarterbacks, because they’re very different in terms of playing style but they’re two of the best we have in the league right now. Obviously Tom’s been doing it for a long time and somebody you know well, and then Patrick is the new guy coming up. When you look at their games what are the things that stand out the most when you watch those two?
You know, I think they have a similar quality and it’s hard to put a finger on, but that “it” quality where at the critical moment of the game they seem to be able to raise their level of play that much more. And they get that much more focused or make that key throw, make that key play. So the moment is never too big for them and I think you just see it over and over again. Patrick through the playoffs last year, Tom Brady through his whole career and other championships. So it’s a matter of, this game, it could be a high scoring game throughout the entire game — you never know how it’s going to play out — but I can tell you in the fourth quarter both teams will be scoring, because those quarterbacks will know it’s crunch time and each drive in that fourth quarter is so important to get points to try and either take a lead or extend a lead.
So you just know there’s going to be a lot of fireworks going on in that fourth quarter of the game.
And they both have Super Bowl experience. How does that change your approach going from your first Super bowl into a second Super Bowl because you know that extra stuff like how the routine changes and a better understanding of the magnitude of everything?
Yeah, I think, well, I know one thing, that winning a championship does not make you content. You’re not like, “Oh, I’ve done it all.” It is a feeling and a high that you can’t replicate, and you want to have that feeling again. You want that feeling that you are the world champion. That you get to hoist up the Lombardi Trophy. That you get to celebrate, you get that ring. Those are just feelings that you can’t replicate in other ways, so it makes you want to do it and take advantage of that opportunity. So I don’t think either team will be distracted or think that it’s going to be automatic.
They both know the challenge ahead of them and the opponent they’re playing is worthy of being in this situation and being in this game, so I think they’ll both come out ready to play.
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) and I swear to god this battle is taking place on the Riverdale High FOOTBALL FIELD. What even is this show 
(@ItsKaylaAlane) 
(@tytacobell) 
Our multi-year agreement sets the stage for the future of esports competition, with developers competing to create NFL-themed mobile games! Learn more here: 
