Category: Worldwide

With their best player, Kawhi Leonard, sidelined due to a knee injury, the Los Angeles Clippers rattled off a pair of wins to eliminate the Utah Jazz in the 2020-21 postseason and were within shouting distance of the NBA Finals, falling to the Phoenix Suns in six games in the Western Conference Finals. A cast of players were responsible for the Clippers staying afloat sans Kawhi, including Paul George, Nicolas Batum, Terance Mann and Marcus Morris. But none exceeded expectations more than Reggie Jackson.

As Los Angeles approaches the 2021-22 regular season, with Kawhi scheduled to miss all or most of the year, Jackson will once again help determine to what degree the superstar wing’s absence is felt. Having drilled 42.9 percent of 345 triples, Jackson has been a dynamite long-range gunner during his year and a half with the Clippers and was a valuable tertiary option throughout last regular season, when he averaged 10.7 points on 57.6 percent true shooting.

Yet the evolution of his role and game during the playoffs was fascinating. Primarily a spot-up guy in the earlier stages and someone who served as a defensive liability, he cleaned up many of his defensive shortcomings and was a lethal on-ball creator by year’s end. He was drilling pull-ups and step-backs, floating in runners, and attacking the cup.

Across 19 contests, he averaged 17.8 points on 62.6 percent true shooting, including 40.8 percent from deep and a staggering 58.2 percent on twos. The dude went supernova and was a potent secondary scorer alongside George. In eight games without Leonard, the veteran guard was even better, posting a 21-4-4-1.5 line on .485/.369/.864 splits. He was a flamethrower during that stretch and vital to Los Angeles’ ability to remain highly competitive in spite of its franchise star’s injury.

Playoff runs are often beholden to small sample stardom like that, though. Expecting Jackson to scale up so well across an entire season and help the Clippers maintain an elite offense is a dubious proposition. He’s 31, has a lengthy injury history and, well, has never been as good as he was in the 2021 postseason. Perhaps, that is the springboard to a full year of step-backs, runners, and torrid shot-making. Sometimes, all a guy requires is the ideal opportunity and context to foster the self-belief necessary to thrive like he never had previously.

Collectively, those eight games following Kawhi’s injury should instill a sense of confidence that this Clippers squad can do more than just survive without him. They have a superstar in George. Tyronn Lue is a superb head coach. Good role players are scattered throughout the roster. Mann looks primed to follow his playoff emergence, which featured a 39-point detonation in the closeout Game 6 against Utah, with a third-year breakout.

Despite all those important components, Jackson’s ball-handling, shooting and creation are paramount to the Clippers maintaining such excellent play. In the playoffs, he broke down defenses, spaced the floor for others to attack, delivered when the ball swung his way for open looks, held up defensively, created for others and complemented George beautifully as offensive focal points. The Clippers constantly had opponents scrambling and Jackson was a primary reason for that.

Los Angeles seems to be conducive to success for him. But there are layers to success and what exactly it looks like for him this season could prove to be the differentiator between a Clippers team vying to avoid the play-in and one competing for homecourt advantage.

Guests at a wedding in Venice, Italy over the weekend were treated to an interesting surprise: A performance from none other than Kanye West. The rapper played a few of his hits at the wedding of D’Estree founder Geraldine Guiotte and Tiffany & Co. Vice President Alexander Arnault, wearing an Eyes Wide Shut-esque mask and an all-black Balenciaga ensemble. Videos from the event popped up on Twitter, confirming that the rapper performed renditions of “Believe What I Say” and “Come To Life” from his new album Donda, as well as fan favorites “Flashing Lights” and “Runaway.”

Prior to the wedding, Kanye’s last performance was arguably his stadium listening events for Donda, where he didn’t so much perform as he did play different versions of the album while hanging out with troubled stars like DaBaby and Marilyn Manson (and set himself on fire for the spectacle).

Meanwhile, Kanye’s got a lot on his plate looking forward to the end of the year, as he’s got a Netflix documentary on the way, he’s reportedly producing Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele sequel, he’s launching a “Donda”-branded tech line, and he’s selling his Wyoming ranch. You can watch videos of him performing at the high-fashion wedding above.

Adele’s comeback is a big deal, so much so that she has secured her own TV special for it.

On social media today, Adele shared a promotional image for something called Adele One Night Only, which is being presented by CBS on November 14.

Her posts don’t offer much info beyond that, but a press release reveals more details. The program is a two-hour special that’s set to air on CBS, from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. ET. One component of the special is a set of performances, which will be filmed in Los Angeles and include both familiar and new songs. Additionally, Adele will also be interview by Oprah Winfrey from her rose garden, about “her new album, the stories behind the songs, life after divorce, weight loss, and raising her son.”

Notably (but not really), it doesn’t look like Adele’s recent feud with Peppa Pig is on the agenda. Recently, a fan asked Adele if she’d collaborate with the animated children’s television star, and she exclaimed, “No!” A few weeks later, Peppa shared a message with Adele, saying, “That made me really, really sad when you said you wouldn’t collaborate with me. Why not? Don’t you like me?” Thankfully, the situation has been resolved, as Adele was apologetic and said, “Peppa, I’ll always do a duet with you, babes. Love ya!”

Colin Powell, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff who also served as secretary of state during the presidency of George W. Bush, died on Monday due to complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement. He was 84 years old. Powell was fully vaccinated, but he was suffering from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that weakens the body’s ability to fight infections. Fox News left that part out when discussing Powell’s death, however; instead, they continued to cast doubt on vaccine effectiveness.

“The family has made a point on their post on Facebook this morning that Colin Powell was fully vaccinated,” Fox News host Will Cain said on Monday morning. “And as Americans out there wonder what lies ahead for them and they search and they need truth moving forward, we’re seeing data from across the world. We’re seeing data from Europe, from the United Kingdom, the fully-vaccinated people are being hospitalized and fully vaccinated people are dying from COVID.” He called Powell a “very high-profile example that is going to require more truth, more truth from our government, from our health leaders as well. As we talk about this story on a day when state after state and institution after institution are pushing mandates for vaccination.”

Cain added that “everyone watching needs to be aware of limitations, and protections, that we all have all offered ourselves through this pandemic in all of this potential risk.”

Powell being an immunocompromised 84-year-old was never mentioned.

(Via Raw Story)

During a special episode of his Mea Culpa podcast, former Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen reacted to the recent reemergence of the mythical “pee tape,” which allegedly features the former president engaged in some, uh, urinary activities while in Russia. The tape’s existence was first brought to light by Christopher Steele’s dossier during the 2016 election, but the topic had almost completely vanished from the public discourse until Trump randomly blurted out, “I’m not into golden showers,” while talking to Republican donors last week. He also pointed to Melania Trump and said, “She knows, I don’t like to be peed on.” It was a wild moment, and Cohen had some thoughts on his podcast.

“If that in itself doesn’t prove that something is psychologically wrong with him, I don’t know what does,” Cohen said before expanding on the topic with guest Molly Jong Fast who called Trump’s obsession with the pee tape a “compulsion.” Via Raw Story:

“What compulsion?” asked Cohen. “What could possibly be the underlying motive? And you’re right, I know him better than anybody — I, myself, cannot understand what the f*ck this idiot was thinking when he decided in the middle of a donor meeting to turn around and stay to people, ‘By the way, I want you all to know, I’m not into golden showers. I’m not into being peed on.’ What point are you trying to make here?”

Cohen’s podcast was also in response to Steele sitting down for a Sunday interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos where he backed the existence of the “pee tape.”

“I’m prepared to accept that not everything in the dossier is 100 percent accurate,” Steele said. “I have yet to be convinced that that is one of them.”

(Via Raw Story)

Last Week Tonight took the week off from a full-on episode, but John Oliver did find the time to grace us with his presence in a web-exclusive clip. In the process, he squeezed in a dirty Kermit joke amid celebrating his chaos on the auto-commercial front. This follows up nicely on his recent joke about Mickey Mouse getting busy that led into a deep-dive on the ambulance crisis, so we’re definitely getting our Oliver fix in his patented serious-yet-visceral way.

The subject of the evening was Oliver’s followup on observing that a hell of a lot of auto dealerships use the same concept for their commercials. It’s to the point where they’re literally dressing dudes up as pickles and talking about being in a sales pickle. Exactly why this happens is beyond comprehension, but Oliver hit the 1:00 minute mark (above) while declaring, “To quote my favorite pig f*cker, it’s not easy being green.”

From there, however, the host was overjoyed because he had offered up a “very good script” for any auto dealership to accept for free, as long as they actually used the script, word for word. Well, a Minnesota dealer (Zombroda Ford) accepted the challenge, and Oliver remarked upon the chutzpah involved with doing so. “I would argue that that was a hell of an offer on our part,” he observed. “And to be honest, quite a risk for someone to take on. Do you really think we could be trusted with a situation like that? Because I definitely don’t.”

From there, cue the theatrics as the actors in the ad threw themselves into the script. As Oliver remarked, they nearly eclipsed the drama of Scenes of a Marriage. Oh hey, the husband got his new car after the divorce! Good for him. That’s Emmy winning stuff.

Last Week Tonight returns on October 24.

A number of esteemed artists have had the honor of writing the theme song for the James Bond movies, but Coldplay isn’t one of them. That’s not due to a lack of trying, though.

In a new NME interview, Chris Martin revealed that the band has been attempting to write a good Bond theme for decades, saying, “We kept trying to write one for 20 years, but never submitted them. We have Bond themes for about five movies, but they’re not very good, to be honest. Also I don’t know if we’re spiritually on the same trip as James. As much as I like the films, I don’t know if us singing would do it for him. He’d be like, ‘That’s not what I’m into at all, fellas. I like guns and sh*t. All this hippie stuff just isn’t going to work.’”

Meanwhile, the band performed with Billie Eilish and Finneas at a Global Citizen concert last month, and Martin said he’s a fan of their No Time To Die theme. He also said, “It was equally wonderful singing with them. I mean, [Eilish and Finneas] wrote ‘Ocean Eyes.’ I know when a song is great when my body goes into absolute furious jealousy for a minute — when I heard that song, I was like, ‘You f*cking bastards.’ But then I have to go, ‘This is really inspiring,’ and it becomes fandom. I love how much of a bond those two have.”

Check out the full feature here.

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

Squid Game is a huge hit for Netflix — it’s officially the most-watched series in the streaming service’s history, beating Bridgerton. It’s also been hugely lucrative. The Korean series is “worth almost $900 million in value for the company,” Bloomberg reports, “underscoring the windfall that one mega-hit can generate in the streaming era.”

Squid Game stands out both for its popularity, and its relatively low cost. The South Korean show, about indebted people in a deadly contest for a cash prize, generated $891.1 million in impact value, a metric the company uses to assess the performance from individual shows. The show cost just $21.4 million to produce — about $2.4 million an episode. Those figures are just for the first season, and stem from a document that details Netflix’s performance metrics for the show.

The entire season of Squid Game cost as much as two episodes of Game of Thrones or HBO’s upcoming The Last of Us. This isn’t quite a “The Blair Witch Project making $248.6 million on a $500,000 budget” situation, but it’s still an unexpected windfall for Netflix — which is capitalizing on the show’s success with Halloween costumes.

Netflix estimates that 132 million people have watched at least two minutes of Squid Game, the amount of time the streamer counts as a “view.” As for what’s next for the show, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk said “there are a lot of possibilities out there for season two storylines.” The budget will probably be slightly bigger for season two.

(Via Bloomberg)

Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian have apparently been close for years now, but it was just in February they confirmed that they’re in a relationship. Now things appear to be going extremely well on that front, as the two just got engaged.

Kardashian shared the news in an Instagram post last night, which includes photos from Barker’s proposal. It went down on a beach, inside of a giant heart-shaped arrangement of roses and candles. Kardashian captioned the post, “forever @travisbarker.”

The post itself doesn’t confirm that the two are engaged — these photos could be of a general, non-engagement-related romantic gesture, after all. However, Barker shared posts confirming the news, including one from Kim Kardashian. That post is of a video, set to Bruno Mars’ “Marry You,” of the betrothed enjoying a kiss, with the engagement ring clearly visible in the shot.

According to a “source” via E!, “It happened during the sunset at Rosewood Miramar [Beach in Montecito, California]. They had just got back from NYC and decided to do a day trip to Montecito. Kourtney thought it was going to be a casual day, as they always go to Rosewood, and she was totally thrown off. It’s one of their favorite places and they have a lot of memories there.”

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

Succession brought “killers” back, y’all, at least metaphorically. The third season has drawn battle lines following Kendall Roy’s decision to light the Waystar Royco world on fire, and everyone’s here to take a side in his war against Logan, i.e. King of the F*ck Offs. Speaking of which, Logan promised to go “full f*cking beast,” and that hasn’t happened yet, but give it time because the premiere was all about lining up who’s on what team.

In short, the civil war is looking pretty imbalanced at the moment. Shiv and Roman and their assorted associates/love interests/and so on are all Team Logan, and Team Kendall includes… well, Cousin Greg. We’ll soon see Alexander Skarsgård and Adrien Brody join the chaos, but for now, it’s all about playing with language, meaning that Logan’s getting Shakespearean again up in this motherf*cker, and Cousin Greg is making awkward-as-hell cultural references. That leaves us with a pretty fitting reference for Kendall, who finally proved to dad that he’s a “killer,” while Greg’s thrilled to be in a chase-like situation that will remind everyone of a certain white Bronco that carried O.J. Simpson in the mid-1990s as he fled from murder charges.

This led to the greatest line of the premiere. No, I’m not talking about Logan’s “I get the sh*ts, we’re f*cked.” Rather, let’s reflect upon how Cousin Greg (while being in a vehicle that’s the center of national news coverage) almost rapturously proclaimed, “This is like O.J….you know if O.J. never killed anyone.” Kendall was all like, dude, who told you I never killed someone, and he added, “Juice is loose, baby!”

It says a lot about Kendall’s mindset in an ongoing way. And yeah, people loved this, almost too much. It’s good to have Succession back again.

HBO’s Succession airs on Sunday nights.