Category: Worldwide

When Nico Harrison was named general manager of the Dallas Mavericks last summer, the organization was caught in a gray zone of ambiguity that left them without a clear path forward. Donnie Nelson, their former general manager for over 20 years, was terminated following a power struggle with Bob Voulgaris. Rick Carlisle abruptly resigned shortly after, leaving the team without the general manager and head coach that led the franchise to a title in 2011. All of this occurred in the aftermath of the Mavericks blowing a 2-0 first round series lead to the Los Angeles Clippers in which Kristaps Porzingis played like a frisky role player.

The team Harrison inherited was one without a clear identity that, after back-to-back first round exits, was staring at the prospects of being the latest team mired in the NBA’s purgatory between a team that was building and and one that was contending — even with a legit star in Luka Doncic. His job was to ensure that didn’t happen and forge a cohesive vision for how the team would be built around Doncic.

You know when you’re at a restaurant reviewing the menu and suddenly realize ordering multiple appetizers looks much better than a singular overpriced entrée? That was the Kristaps Porzingis trade. Replacing Porzingis with Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans provided fengshui to a Maverick roster that was still searching for a way to fully actualize Luka Doncic. The trade restructured roles on the Dallas roster into guard creators, 3-and-D wings, and finishing bigs. That role clarity played a big part in the Mavericks’ Western Conference Finals run this postseason, but eventually their talent deficit at the center position caught up to them.

Trading for Christian Wood fills a large offseason need for the Mavericks. Nico Harrison trimmed end of the roster fat by sending Trey Burke, Sterling Brown, Marquese Chriss, Boban Marjonovic, and the 26th overall pick to Houston. None of the players Dallas sent out played a meaningful minute in the playoffs for the Mavericks — even if every minute spent with Boban is meaningful. The trade opened up a few roster spots for Dallas and provided a clear talent upgrade at the center position. Meanwhile, Houston frees up minutes for Alperen Sengun and their No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft, which figures to be Duke big man Paolo Banchero. Not to mention, the city of Houston receives the beautiful vibes of Boban.

Christian Wood provides scoring dynamism at the center position for Dallas that should pair well with Luka Doncic. Dallas thrived during their playoff run by playing 5-out with Maxi Kleber at center and allowing Luka and Jalen Brunson to feast in isolation. Their strategy broke the conservative drop coverage deployed by both Utah and Phoenix, but it ran stagnant against the Golden State Warriors, because Reggie Bullock, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Maxi Kleber lacked the juice off the dribble to supplement the three lead guards for Dallas. In the regular season, Dwight Powell’s rim running and movement caused defensive rotations that sparked the Maverick offense, but that force was notably absent during the playoffs.

The acquisition of Wood doubles down on Jason Kidd’s system by adding a big man that can both approximate Kleber’s shooting and Powell’s rim running; theoretically creating a strong pairing with Luka Doncic. Wood thrived as pick and pop big in Houston shooting 39 percent on five threes a game without a true playmaking guard to generate looks for him. He initially signed in Houston to complement James Harden, but was left to fend for himself after Harden orchestrated a trade to Brooklyn. Even mild shot creation skills from a frontcourt player will be a welcome sight for a Maverick offense that craves more creation from their non-guard rotation players.

The trade will allow Wood to be the best version of himself on offense, as he’s set to play with the best facilitator of his career. To play with Luka Doncic is to know what it feels to be free for a big man and Wood certainly needs that after wandering through the NBA wilderness for seven seasons. That is where the risk lies for the Mavericks.

This will be Wood’s seventh team in seven seasons after going undrafted in 2015 despite the obvious talent he possessed. His professionalism and commitment to defense has been questioned at every stop in his NBA career. Jason Kidd’s defensive system demands a high level of focus and effort from big man to both defend screens at the level, switch, and make quick rotations. Wood certainly has the physical tools to execute the scheme and has shown flashes of high level, but he has not shown consistent effort on defense thus far in his career. How Wood reacts to playing on a team with true championship aspirations for the first time remains to be seen.

This is a low risk move for the Mavericks to become even more of who they already are. Nico Harrison’s vision for a championship roster has slowly revealed itself over the last year and the move for Wood could be its final confirmation.

By now, everyone’s aware of how Dave Chappelle went back into trans-jokes mode during a 2021 Netflix comedy special, The Closer. Hannah Gadsby, whose Nannette was also a raging hit for the streamer, reacted by calling out Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos for an defending Chappelle to uphold the “amoral algorithm.” And Gadsby further commented upon “the hate and anger” that she receives from Chappelle fans because she dares to push back.

Fast forward to 2022, and Ricky Gervais decided to punch down, too, with his own new Netflix special, SuperNature, which he defended for its “taboo” nature and embracing of “freedom of expression.” In the process of that explanation, Gervais also declared, My target wasn’t trans folk, but trans activist ideology.” And during a new Hollywood Reporter interview to promote her upcoming new “feel-good” sets (referred to as Body Of Work), Gadbsy sounds like she’s not down to try and engage with Gervais, given the chance, like if they bumped into each other backstage somewhere:

“I’m the sort of person where it wouldn’t matter because people don’t talk to me. I really have a f*ck-off energy and I really enjoy it. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to talk to him because I just don’t think there’s any point. He’s made up his mind. He doesn’t seem like a nuanced thinker. I don’t think we could solve the issues backstage at an awards show. He’s set. There’s no changing his mind. So why bother?”

Fair enough. Choosing one’s battles wisely (and deciding not to expend the energy to do so when it won’t change matters) is a hell of a smart way to live. Hannah also doesn’t sound too interested in taking to Ted Sarandos, either. “He might be a little scared of me,” she offered to THR. “Rightly so, Ted. Rightly so. I’m just joking. It’s very funny, isn’t it? It’s a very funny situation.” Oh yes, it’s terribly funny.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Samuel L. Jackson has, like so many of us, had it with the Oscars.

The Oscars do not, actually, define the best of the film industry, although they do try. Every year since the first ceremony in 1926, there has been what is now dubbed the Oscars snub. Some snubs keep us up at night. Michael Stuhlbarg comes to mind, who should have won best supporting actor for his performance in 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, but did not even get a nomination. Most people just complain about their personal Oscar snubs on Twitter and to their friends who pretend to listen, and celebs rarely speak about them because they are, of course, trying not to talk sh*t about the award they hope to win one day.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Samuel L. Jackson, who has yet to win an Oscar although he received an honorary Oscar earlier this year, called the Oscars a “popularity contest,” a lesson he learned when he did not win for Pulp Fiction (he lost to Ed Wood’s Martin Landau). He also said that he thinks his closest shot at winning was for his performance in 2012’s Django Unchained. “Django was probably my best shot because it’s the most evil character I’ve ever played and they generally reward Black people for playing horrendous s—-,” Jackson told LA Times. Jackson was not nominated for the film, but his co-star Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor. Jackson’s critique of the Oscars continued and turned into a sharp critique of modern Hollywood:

This is the night Hollywood celebrates fucking Hollywood. That thing that we used to have when I was young, watching it and wondering, ‘What am I going to say when I get mine’ was the glamor of it all, the extravagance, the mystique that is Hollywood. Some of that’s gone. You’ve got movie stars who are influencers or people who live out loud, so you know way more about them than you used to know. But it should still be a celebration that you did something that’s great. Like I still say, there should be an award for the movie that made the most money.

Basically, Jackson would rather have fun than chase an Oscar. “I was never going to let the Oscars be a measure of my success or failure as an actor,” he told LA Times. “My yardstick of success is my happiness: Am I satisfied with what I’m doing? I’m not doing statue-chasing movies. You know, ‘If you do this movie, you’ll win an Oscar.’ No, thanks. I’d rather be Nick Fury. Or having fun being Mace Windu with a lightsaber in my hand.”

I hope he’s also having fun doing Capital One commercials with Spike Lee and Charles Barkley because I have fun watching them.

There has been, over the course of history, thousands of people who have been paid lots of money to holler at one another on television. For a period of time, two folks who teamed up to do this were Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take. During a recent cameo on JJ Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast, Smith, who is still at ESPN, told the story of how he came to join Bayless, who has since departed for Fox Sports, on the show.

The gist: Skip approached Stephen A, with whom he was friendly, and said that he brought the show a long way. Despite that, it lacked a certain something in the ratings and revenue department, so Bayless went up to him in a parking lot, said “I need you,” Smith eventually said yes, and they went to No. 1. Here is the clip:

It’s a nice story, but Bayless has a big ol problem with it. A visibly upset Bayless addressed this on his podcast, which apparently has a huge production budget based on some of the camera work going on here.

“Lemme gather myself,” Bayless said. “What!? I cannot tell you how wrong that was. It was so recklessly inaccurate, it was such shocking fabrication.”

Bayless claimed his wife sent this over to him, and his immediate thought was that “my brother Stephen A” turned on him.

“Stephen A was suggesting that he saved, and then made, First Take,” Bayless said. “How can you save and make a show that was already as big a billion-to-one success story as ESPN had ever seen? The ratings and the revenues were impossibly great when Stephen A joined me in 2012. With Stephen A as my partner, First Take would never touch the NFL Monday ratings that it hit in 2011 pre-Stephen A. And I had taken First Take as far as I could? Seriously? I was just getting started, the rocket had just launched the year before in 2011. Stephen A, how dare you?”

It’s a media beef that, quite frankly, none of us saw coming. It has, however, appeared to pique the interest of Kevin Durant.

If there is one thing we know about the parties involved in this beef, it is that there will be a lot more said about it over the next however many days. They are professional arguers, after all.

Disney XD is getting a new face! Ten-year-old Roman McConn from Evans, Georgia, has spent most of his life rescuing animals. Literally, most of his life: He’s been rescuing animals since he was 4 years old! So when we saw The Washington Post’s profile of him, we knew we had to share this story with the Upworthy audience.

Roman began rescuing animals from local shelters when he was living in Texas, but because he couldn’t bring them all home, he would create videos of the animals at the shelter, which his mom shared to social media to try to bring attention to them. He made it a personal mission to find every shelter pet a home, especially those that were harder to get adopted and at risk of being euthanized.

Currently, many animal shelters and rescues are overwhelmed with pets in desperate need of being adopted—many the result of “pandemic puppies.” And with puppy and kitten season in full effect, shelters need more help than ever to find homes for these animals. Adults can help by ensuring that stray animals are spayed (normally inexpensive or even free at local humane societies) and by volunteering to foster animals or adopt from shelters instead of purchasing from a breeder.

Roman’s mission to see every pet from a shelter get adopted is a lofty aspiration but one he is embracing full-on. According to The Washington Post, Roman and his mom founded Project Freedom Ride, a nonprofit organization that transports dogs from Texas to northern states where adoption rates are higher. The nonprofit has rescued 4,200 dogs since its founding in 2016. Seventeen of those dogs appear on Roman’s new Disney XC show, “Roman to the Rescue,” which has so far released 7 of its 17 episodes. In each episode, Roman and his team focus on one dog to figure out its personality and show it in the best light.

It is amazing to see how one kid’s efforts have started not only an organization rescuing thousands of animals, but hopefully a movement for young people via his show. If you want to catch his new show to see how he gets these 17 dogs adopted, you can find it on Disney XD on DisneyNOW.

When the news broke that Jack Harlow would be starring in a remake of the classic 1992 basketball comedy White Men Can’t Jump, many of the original movie’s fans were distraught. After all, remakes of classics are rarely as good as the originals (or so goes the conventional wisdom about such things), and Jack Harlow is far better known for rapping about Tyler Herro than imitating him on the court. As I noted way back in my interview with Jack for the Bleacher Report two-on-two for NBA All-Star, though, he’s a committed, regular hooper, so I always liked the casting.

It turns out one of the original film’s co-stars agrees with me, so I feel even better about this assessment now. During an interview with Yahoo Entertainment about his upcoming film The Man From Toronto, the hosts asked Woody Harrelson how he felt about Jack Harlow potentially recreating his role as hot-headed trash talker Billy Hoyle in the remake. Woody’s answer is unequivocally enthusiastic as he gushes, “I’m feeling great… I think Jack’s gonna crush it. They’re gonna make a better movie than we made. I’m looking forward to watching it.”

Those still skeptical about the “First Class” rapper’s basketball chops needn’t worry. Earlier this year, Jack showed out in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, knocking in a couple of long-range jumpers — harder for the average person than NBA fans might realize, considering the length of the NBA three-point line — and played some respectable defense. He also appears in an ad for Kawhi Leonard’s New Balance sneakers alongside the Clippers star, which means he probably got at least a few pointers. And while the whole “acting” component of starring in a movie remains a question mark, the film’s producers were obviously confident enough in his audition to give him a shot. With Woody’s co-sign, the torch has officially been passed. Now, let’s see what Mr. Harlow does with it.

Twelve-year-old Jazlyn Guerra, aka Jazzy, is a hustler on the non-stop grind. You might remember seeing her interview with Jay-Z last November on the streets of her native New York, where her youthful exuberance coaxed some words of wisdom from Hov about what it takes to be successful. Well, she’s at it again as the latest guest on her Jazzy’s World TV YouTube channel is J. Cole.

Jazzy met up with Cole backstage at last weekend’s Governor’s Ball Festival and wasted no words in cutting straight to the chase with Cole. Bubbly, but beyond composed, Jazzy’s first question to the rapper was about persistence. “Why is persistence so important… no matter how many ‘no’s’ you get?” Cole got philosophical with his response:

“Let’s say you want something really bad and you keep trying and you keep trying and you keep trying. And on the 10th try you don’t get it still? And then you say, ‘Uhh… OK, it must be a sign that I need to stop doing what I need to do.’ But what if you didn’t know that on your 11th try you would’ve made it happen and got what you wanted to get? If you really truly love something and you truly believe, you should just do it for the love, and even if you don’t get to where you were trying to go, you’re still doing it for the love.”

“Heck, it might even take like a 1,000 years until you get it, right!?” the spritely Jazzy replied before asking an even harder-hitting question: “You Left North Carolina… How can leaving your hometown or your comfort zone help you mentally?” Cole was floored for a second by this one. “Hoo… that’s a deep question!,” he said, before being incredibly honest once again:

“It’s the fastest way for growth. It’s hard to grow when you’re comfortable. You’re not stretching yourself or your limits. When I left a small city in North Carolina for New York, I was for sure uncomfortable — and just like you interviewing Jay-Z — I felt some nerves. But more importantly, I felt focused and ready for the task.”

“I think that’s really important especially for kids, and everyone else, too,” Jazzy replies. “Because if you step out of your comfort zone, you might learn new skills and gain new hobbies because you stepped out of your comfort zone.”

“How old are you?” Cole asks, clearly impressed by the young journalist. “12 years old,” Jazzy says, before Cole responds, “Yeah! For sure, you got it. You already understand life, so you got it.”

Props to Jazzy for literally embodying the two traits she asked Cole about. Something tells us she’s got some more tricks up her sleeve and she looked ready for the next interview as she signed off, “Until next time, Jazzin out!”

Watch Jazzy’s World TV’s interview with Cole above.

Mike Breen has become the voice of the NBA Finals and has authored some of the most iconic calls in recent basketball memory, with his trademark being the “Bang!” call after a big shot.

Breen isn’t as constantly excitable as some commentators, instead choosing to be more discerning about when to raise his voice and let a “Bang!” fly. That wasn’t always the case, as he explained recently on the NBA Today (and more broadly on the ESPN Daily podcast), explaining that the “Bang!” call first started when he was simply watching Fordham basketball games in the stands as a student after made baskets. He would try it as he started his broadcast career but noted he didn’t like it, shelving it for awhile before eventually bringing it back — Breen also is sure to note that he’s not the first to use it, as longtime Celtics radio man Johnny Most did so across his five decade career.

It’s good that Breen did bring it back because it has become one of the iconic lines in basketball vocabulary, and as Richard Jefferson notes in the video, it’s both exhilarating to hear when its for your team but one of the most deflating sounds when it’s for the other team. There are few things quite like a fourth quarter “Bang!” in a big game, and we’ll see if either the Warriors or Celtics can author such a moment in Game 6 on Thursday night.

WARNING: Spoilers for Ted Lasso Season 2 below.

After playing Nate Shelley, the under-estimated equipment boy in the first season of Ted Lasso who works his way up to assistant coach for AFC Richmond, actor Nick Mohammed had his work cut out for him as Nate made a surprising heel turn in the second season. Feeling neglected by Coach Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) who Nate felt “abandoned” him, the character began a slow, toxic descent that was only accelerated after he engineered a game-winning play. By the finale, Nate had fully betrayed Lasso and the team by accepting a job at their rival West Ham.

In a new interview on what it’s been like playing the now-hated character, Mohammed revealed that he actually had to play things very carefully around town where the British are known to take their football fandom very seriously. Via The Wrap:

Mohammed lives in the Richmond area of London, home to the AFC Richmond team that Ted coaches in the series. (He was there long before the show came along, he hastened to point out.) And that means he and his wife and kids often frequent some of the same places as the characters in “Ted Lasso” — places where Nate would once have been welcome, but now not so much.

“There was a time when some of the other cast members were a bit concerned for my welfare,” he said with a laugh. “West Ham sent me a shirt after Season 2 with ‘MOHAMMED’ on the back. And I messaged them and said, ‘I don’t know if I can wear this out just yet. I might get attacked.’”

Fears for his safety aside, Mohammed is nothing but appreciative for the chance to stretch his acting chops beyond his usual comfort zone of “slightly bumbling, awkward kind of comedy.” He relished the challenge of taking Nate down a more serious, less joke-filled path.

“In my experience, if you’re a supporting character, you don’t usually get the opportunity to go on those journeys,” Mohammed said. “The lead characters get to develop and change, but the supporting ones are often just a constant foil for them. So this was very fun.”

(Via The Wrap)

In January, FKA Twigs kicked off 2022 by dropping her Caprisongs mixtape. She’s been pushing the release over the past few months, but now we’re moving on to something new: Today, Twigs shares “Killer,” a smooth alt-pop tune. The song is her first post-Caprisongs single and its release comes not long after Twigs debuted the song during her NPR Tiny Desk Concert last week.

Twigs says of the track:

“‘It’s dangerous to be a woman in love’ — when at its worst the effects of heart break can define one’s trajectory much more than the beauty of the love itself, in my song ‘Killer’ I explore this concept. The navigation, the hunt and the kill. The death of promises, dreams and the future that was once promised. But like the wildest plucked roses, I find myself more beautiful delicately wilted, in shadow, forced solace, darkened at the edges and achingly thirsting to be tended to again.’”

It’s set to be a big year for Twigs: In addition to a press release noting that 2022 will bring more new music from Twigs, it was recently revealed she will be starring in a reboot of The Crow.

Listen to “Killer” above.

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