Category: Worldwide

It was the biggest moment in franchise history. The Toronto Raptors had just beaten the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to win their first-ever championship, and team president Masai Ujiri was making his way down to the court to celebrate with his team.

What happened next is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Alan Strickland, the Alameda County Sheriffs deputy involved in the incident, and a counter-suit by Ujiri. Strickland’s suit alleges that he was the victim of assault and, as a result, has suffered physical and emotional anguish related to the incident. But new body cam footage introduced as evidence this week clearly shows he was the aggressor.

Strickland’s suit claims that Ujiri pushed him first, but two separate camera angles show that Strickland forcefully shoved Ujiri twice as he was showing him his credentials.

New video footage appears to show Raptors president Masai Ujiri didn’t instigate the altercation he was sued over after Toronto won the NBA title in June 2019 pic.twitter.com/mMsD6PuIto

— CBC Sports (@cbcsports) August 19, 2020

Normal Powell, Fred VanVleet, and head coach Nick Nurse all weighed on the development, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter movement that has spotlighted just this type of police aggression against minorities without cause and sought justice and reform.

Norm Powell on the Masai video: “We saw it as a team… I’m just really glad that the video came out and Masai is able to clear his name… It’s exactly what we’ve been fighting for and we’re gonna continue that fight and take out the bad apples in the police force.”

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) August 19, 2020

“The system is crooked and it’s not designed for us.” https://t.co/HPQxmMnlOQ

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) August 19, 2020

The altercation cast a dark shadow over what was supposed to be the most joyous occasion in team history, and the ongoing legal battle has sought to defame Ujiri, but this new evidence should put any lingering doubt to rest and turn the wheels of justice back squarely in Strickland’s direction.

The L.A. Clippers will be looking to take a 2-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night after outlasting the Mavs in Game 1.

However, the task of slowing down Dallas’ offense will get tougher for the Clippers as they will be without Patrick Beverley for Game 2. Doc Rivers announced prior to the game that Beverley is dealing with a calf strain that has him moving poorly at the moment.

Doncic already gave the veteran guard fits in the opener, as he went off for 42 points in his posteason debut and seemed rather unbothered by Beverley’s point of attack defense. Still, the Clippers would like to be able to throw various looks at Doncic and Beverley’s antagonistic attack is one that they hope can wear down the young superstar. If Beverley isn’t moving well, though, he’d become a liability on that end and as such Rivers and the Clippers have scratched him and will move forward with, likely, more minutes for Reggie Jackson and Landry Shamet, who played a combined 24 minutes of relatively low-impact ball in Game 1.

If there is a weakness on the Clippers it is their point guard rotation, and with Beverley out those issues are further exacerbated. How Rivers shifts his rotations and how the L.A. reserves respond to increased roles will be important if they are to take a 2-0 series lead.

According to a new report from TMZ, Tory Lanez may receive an additional charge for the July shooting incident that left Megan Thee Stallion with gunshot wounds in her both of her feet. The Los Angeles district attorney is reportedly now also considering a felony assault on top of the previous charge. Following the incident, Tory was only charged with possession of a firearm, but in the weeks following the shooting, signs have pointed to Tory being the aggressor and the one who shot Megan twice in her foot.

The new report arrives hours after the Houston rapper took to Instagram with pictures of her injuries from the shooting in response to internet rumors that doubted the true extent of her injuries. The rumors most likely arose after fans saw videos of her enjoying herself on different occasions, including out on a boat with Maliibu Miitch. In the photo she posted to Instagram, stitches can be seen on her foot as a doctor works to either remove or insert stitches on her other foot. Megan’s frustration with the internet rumors was palpable in the Instagram caption to the photo. “Why would I lie about getting shot? Why are y’all so upset that I don’t wanna be in the bed sad?” she questioned. “Why y’all upset that I can walk? I got my stitches out my feet like 2 weeks ago and I was ready to go celebrate ‘WAP’ going No.1.”

(via TMZ)

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Nuggets in Game 1 in which Donovan Mitchell had 57 points — the third highest scoring playoff performance in NBA history — the Utah Jazz bounced back to dominate Denver in Game 2 in a 122-96 win.

It was an impressive effort given that it could’ve been easily demoralizing to drop a game in which your star player has a career night, but instead, the rest of the team stepped up around Mitchell and provided him with the support needed to rout the Nuggets in Game 2. With the series now all knotted up at 1-1, we’re going to look at a few key takeaways from Game 2 and what both teams will look to do going forward in this series.

Donovan Mitchell Has Taken Another Step

Mitchell was superb again with 30 points and eight assists on a preposterous 10-for-14 shooting, including hitting six of his seven attempts from beyond the arc. Even factoring in Denver’s defensive woes, his 87 points two games into this series demands some reevaluation of his status in the hierarchy of the league’s stars. Mitchell has long been asked to do a lot for the Utah offense, but in the first two games of this series he’s looked more in control of his game and this Jazz offense than ever before. He’s become a masterful pick-and-roll ball-handler, where he’s not just hunting for his own shots but has seemingly taken a step forward as a passer, as he made a couple of absurd dishes to teammates in the corner on Wednesday.

That attribute is particularly important right now with Mike Conley Jr. out, although he seems on track to return by Game 3, but even with Conley in the lineup, Mitchell setting the table for his teammates is so critical to the Utah offense succeeding. We know he can get buckets — and on Wednesday he was lights out off the dribble pulling up over late contests from bigs hedging on the pick-and-roll — but that added dynamic as both an efficient scorer and facilitator gives this Jazz offense some serious life.

Denver Remains Lost On Defense

Denver got absolutely blitzed in this one, and a chunk of that was simply lights out shooting from Utah’s others. The Jazz were 20-for-44 from three on the day, with Royce O’Neale, Joe Ingles, and Jordan Clarkson all lacing it up for a combined 11 threes. That’s likely not sustainable, but Denver’s defense simply looks lost in the sauce right now. They’ve tried both drop coverage and hard hedging on Mitchell in pick-and-roll to almost no success over the first two games, continuing a worrying trend from the seeding round where they were posted a league worst defensive rating.

Being without Gary Harris and Will Barton, the latter of whom has left the Bubble, has created serious problems on the defensive end and they can’t seem to figure out what scheme is best for the personnel they have, maybe in part because they simply don’t have the personnel right now to execute much of anything on that end. Utah is, typically, not an offensive marvel without Bogdanovic in the lineup, but through two games they’ve excelled.

The worst part of this for Denver is it’s hard to see what the answers are with the roster they have available. Torrey Craig is about the only reliable on-ball defender they have on the perimeter, and their hedging approach kept Mitchell out of the paint and off the free throw line. Maybe you just have to live with him hoisting off the dribble threes and hope those stop falling, and continue trying to pressure him into passing the ball and hoping that three-point shooting the Jazz posted in Game 2 goes away. Otherwise, you risk opening up the paint for Mitchell to attack downhill on drop coverage, where he cooked Denver in Game 1. We’ll see what Mike Malone cooks up for Game 3, but it has to be exhausting trying to come up with a defensive game plan this group can execute without Harris and Barton.

It’s Jordan Clarkson Time

With Conley returning, Clarkson won’t have as big a role to play for the Jazz, but he’s still going to be asked to carry a significant load as a ball-handler and scorer for the second unit going forward. On Wednesday, Clarkson had a career night with 26 points, four rebounds, and three assists off the bench, hitting on nine of his 18 attempts from the field and four of his nine threes. Clarkson has never been a marvel of efficiency, but he’s a bucket-getter and provides a much needed dynamic off the bench for Utah. With Denver down two of their three best wing defenders, there’s ample opportunity for Clarkson to eat and he’s never one to pass up a chance to fire away.

What Utah can’t have is Clarkson go cold and continue firing at the expense of looks for the likes of Mitchell and a returning Conley. When Jordan Clarkson Time is good, it’s a whole lot of fun, but when it goes bad, he isn’t one to suddenly stop shooting and he can send the offense into a spiral by forcing it.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Marvel Cinematic Universe mostly focused on white men in movies directed by white men. That’s changed. Since Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, Marvel movies have diversified, casting men and women of color as the superheroes and putting men and women of color in the director’s chair. Only two weeks after it was announced that the Captain Marvel sequel would be helmed by Candyman director Nia DaCosta, making her the franchise’s first directed by a black woman, Deadline reports that Olivia Wilde has signed on to helm an as-yet-specified Marvel movie that will definitely have a female lead.

Mind you, Wilde’s contract is with the Sony wing of Marvel, which controls Spider-Man and Venom, the former of which is on loan to the Disney-led MCU — a deal that last summer infamously almost unraveled completely. While, again, it’s not yet known which character Wilde will nab, it’s believed it will be Spider-Woman, the alias used by multiple women and who first appeared in comics circa 1977.

Last year, Wilde, the actress best known for House, Tron: Legacy, and Drinking Buddies, added feature film director to her CV with the much-loved high school comedy Booksmart. Not only will she follow the path of many indie filmmakers who’ve graduated to big-budget comic book movies, but she’ll also join a growing number of female filmmakers who’ve worked in the genre, among them Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984), Anna Boden (co-director of Captain Marvel), Cathy Yan (Birds of Prey), Cate Shortland (Black Widow), Chloé Zhao (The Eternals), as well as the aforementioned DaCosta. May there be many more.

(Via Deadline)

The Brooklyn Nets are staring at a 2-0 hole in their series against the Toronto Raptors. Following Wednesday afternoon’s game, a 104-99 loss in which Brooklyn fought valiantly but couldn’t quite see out a win, the team announced a bit of news that would make the already daunting task of coming back against the defending champions a little more difficult.

The Nets announced that ultra-reliable sharpshooter Joe Harris had to leave the Bubble. It is not clear exactly why he had to depart, but as the team described it, Harris needed to go tend to a non-medical personal matter.

Obviously the No. 1 priority is that everything is ok with Harris and whatever he needs to go addressed is resolved quickly. Losing him is a tough blow for an already-shorthanded Nets squad that only used eight players in their loss on Wednesday. Harris was particularly good against the champions, scoring 14 points and pulling in a career-high 15 rebounds.

As the team mentioned in its statement, it is unclear what Harris’ availability will be moving forward this postseason. This season, he averaged career-highs in scoring and rebounding, as he went for 14.5 points and 4.3 rebounds a night. Game 3 between the Raptors and the Nets will take place on Friday afternoon, with the festivities tipping off at 1:30 p.m. EST on NBA TV.

It’s one of the less painful headaches of the modern era, especially during the quarantine era: You switch on Netflix, hoping to kill an evening, and you spend most of that time flipping through their seemingly endless wares, despite all the “50 Best [Whatever] On Netflix” lists out there. If this problem — Springsteen’s old “57 channels and nothing on” multiplied several times over — happens to you, then here’s some good news: Netflix has been testing out a shuffle feature that will do the deciding for you.

This comes from Tech Crunch (as caught by Entertainment Weekly), which reports that, back in July, the world’s first major streaming service began testing out a shuffle button on a select number of viewers. By August they’d expanded the testing pool, though it’s not how many subscribers will have the option of throwing up their hands and just watching, say, a few episodes of Highway to Heaven or the John Travolta cyber-thriller, Swordfish.

For those on the lookout for the shuffle button, be warned that it doesn’t appear in the same place on everyone’s screen, if it appears at all. It can pop up below the profile icon or in the side menu or in the “billboard” area where they show trailers and new releases. And it’s not a pure shuffle option, offering you a title purely by random. Instead, it’s tailor-made for you, based on what you’ve already watched and guesstimating what you might not turn off. (It’s also worth noting Netflix did a version of this last year, where they let users pick a random episode of a specific TV show, but that was limited to one show per shuffle.)

Mind you, Netflix’s shuffle feature is still in the testing phase. But who knows? Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones and suddenly find yourself watching the Larry the Cable Guy-Bill Engvall-DJ Qualls comedy Delta Farce.

(Via Tech Crunch and EW)

No question about it, in 2020 we all lost a summer. No music festivals, no raging pool parties, and definitely no summer treks into some new city to soak up the local culture. The only travel that’s really safe right now is a domestic road trip into one of the nation’s many secluded forests or national parks, taken only with people in your quarantine bubble.

So news of a dramatically-socially-distanced treasure hunt for a cool million dollars? Yes, please. Let’s all go be Goonies.

The Blackbeard Treasure Hunt consists of 10 hidden treasure chests each loaded with $1 million, spread across the states of California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. As for the other 40 states? Sorry, you’re just not pirate material. For $49.99 — there’s the kicker! It’s a business! — prospective treasure hunters can download one of the ten maps, which are filled with clues and riddles that require you to “think like a pirate,” and task you with figuring out how to interpret a treasure map in the era of GPS.

“With the Blackbeard Treasure Hunt, our goal is to get people excited about getting outside, either by themselves or with friends and family, in order to have the adventure of a lifetime,” says Justin Cohen, managing director of the Blackbeard Treasure Hunt. “In the process of having the time of your life, you may just unearth a fortune.”

If you do find a chest, you and your pirate crew will find $1 million in cash, a location beacon, and a hidden camera to catch you in the act of making your claim. Once you find the chest, you’ll need to place a phone call to a given number to officially be declared winner. There are other rules, too, along with enough talk of disqualification that it seems almost 100% certain that the chests don’t contain real cash or gold and are instead filled with some sort of voucher.

Only Forrest Fenn was ballsy enough to do real doubloons.

If you believe so strongly in your treasure hunting skills, the Blackbeard Treasure Hunt is also offering a few treasure hunters the chance to be followed and filmed by a camera crew as part of the upcoming reality show The Hunt For Blackbeard’s Treasure. To be considered, email the Blackbeard treasure team after purchasing your map and let them know why you should be featured. Treasure hunters will need to bring their maps, riddles, and clues, along with a shovel, flashlight, cell phone, and a compass on their hunts.

In order to join the hunt you must be at least 16 years of age, unless you’re part of a larger team headed by a parent or guardian. Cheaters can be fined $250,000/ Treasure maps, clues, and riddles may not be resold to the public. No social media posts allowed. But… but… it’s a pirate treasure hunt, right? Have you read up on how horrible Blackbeard was? If anything, a little mischief and skullduggery should be embraced!

Hard Knocks was back this week, and we still don’t have full preseason games or full contact scrimmages. But hey, at least the quarterbacks can actually throw to the receivers now, right? That’s something. If they have competitive wind sprints next weeks I might shit my pants from the pure excitement.

With no football action to anchor the hijinks and repetitive drudgery this year it’s like watching a series of human interest stories adrift on the ocean, unmoored from the ship that was meant to hold them. I want to care about this third-string undrafted wide receiver, but do I dare get invested when I know I won’t be able to watch him muff a punt in a fourth quarter preseason game against Tampa Bay?? I thirst for those moments when Cinderella story meets cruel reality.

Okay, enough jibber jabber, let’s get to the depth chart.

Buff Coach

STARTER: Anthony Linn

SECOND: Sean McVay

McVay came out hot with this shirt off in episode one, but getting an eyeful of both yoked coaches in episode two I think I have to give Linn the slight edge in swolness. I’m just going to say it, I think McVay has skipped a few leg days. PC Principal lookin’ ass.

Aspirational Real Estate

STARTER: Jared Goff’s house

For just about everyone I know in Los Angeles, the worst part of living there other than the traffic is high rent and the prospect of basically never being able to afford a house. Meanwhile, Jared Goff has a pitch and putt in his yard:

Being an NFL quarterback: Nice work if you can get it.

Hey, Jared Goff’s brother, your hip turn is a little weak. “Squash the bug” with that back foot, man.

SECOND: Jalen Ramsey’s potential house.

This week treated us to a nice little package of shutdown corner Jalen Ramsey getting wooed by a real estate agent. Did you know that if you’re an NFL star, they decorate an open house with pictures of you and your family? Wild stuff. Also… is that actually a good thing? Who’s your agent, single white female?

Anyway, the house looked pretty good, though this felt like dubious quote attribution:

“Amenities include saltwater infinity pool, his and hers clawfoot tubs, subzero appliances, and pre-installed inspirational word art.”

Definitive Food Review

I miss the football action but I’m happy whenever Hard Knocks fills the hole with clips of large men talking about their favorite foods. I could watch that all day.

STARTER: “That branzino be fine though.” — Melvin Ingram III, on his favorite fish.

SECOND: “Taco Bell got wings now. I bet them joints smack.” — Jalen Ramsey

THIRD: “Fudge, man!” — Clay Johnston, seventh-round drafted rookie Rams linebacker

To be fair, I think that the third one may not have been an actual food review, it’s just the way Clay Johnston swears. I went to Wikipedia to find out whether Clay Johnston was Mormon and it didn’t say, but I did discover that he has three brothers named Kody, Kole, and Cade. He’s definitely Mormon, whether or not he knows it. (Sidenote: Do you think his parents dropped the K naming convention after two to keep from looking racist?)

Inspirational Quote From Strength Coach John Lott

Rookie running back Darius Bradwell showed up to Chargers camp weighing 253, up from his college playing weight of 235. For most people, it’s hard to say what difference 18 pounds will make on a person’s play without seeing that person actually play, but football coaches aren’t most people. They can tell just by looking at you whether you have “the right body.” So Darius Bradwell got sent down to Chargers strength coach John Lott (A+ strength coach name, by the way) for a pep talk.

STARTER: “This ain’t no pie-eatin’ contest!”

(This lack of preseason football is really taking its toll on Hard Knocks‘ watchability, which raises the question: what if it was a pie-eating contest?)

SECOND: “Don’t be eatin’ no stinkin’ tacos at midnight!”

(good thing the Chargers moved out of San Diego, eating tacos at midnight is the official civic pastime).

THIRD: “Tip your waiters!”

I actually don’t even know what that third one meant, I think John Lott’s catchphrase dispenser just got stuck. That happens with coaches some times — you have to take out their playbook and blow on it and put it back in.

First World Problem

STARTER: “I have to live in a hotel.”

Look, I’m not saying playing football for a living is an easy life, or that non-superstars don’t make all kinds of sacrifices and suffer hardships, but Hard Knocks dedicated an entire package to rookies complaining about living in a hotel. Really? You’re upset about living in a hotel? You come home to a made bed every day and when you get done using a towel you can throw it on the floor. Living in a hotel rules.

SECOND: “I got COVID from my nanny.”

As the resident grey beard, I’ll definitely be rooting for Andrew “The Juggernaut” Whitworth (knowing how f*cked my back is from playing rugby a few times a week until my mid-20s I truly can’t imagine being 100 pounds heavier and playing professional football into my late 30s), but I admit I almost choked on my drink when he revealed that his family got COVID from their nanny. And here I thought having to be simultaneous childcare providers, telecommuters, and homeschool teachers was a burden. But I guess the flipside is that you could always get COVID from your nanny. A grass-is-always-greener kind of sitch, I guess.

Inspirational Underdog

This one is damn near a pick ’em. It’s kind of a “choose your fighter” situation for the players on the bubble. Do you prefer the fat guy, the white guy, the surfer, or the goofball?

STARTER: Darius Bradwell, Chargers Rookie Running Back (the fat guy)

I just love a fat running back, man. Can’t get enough of ’em. Don’t you dare lose that weight, Bradwell. Stay swoll.

SECOND: Justin Herbert, Chargers Rookie Quarterback (the surfer)

To be fair, Herbert is a first-round pick, and thus not especially an underdog, not to mention an Oregonian, and thus probably more of a pretty boy than a surfer. Whatever, I’m sticking with my initial stereotypes. This week gave us both a package of Herbert trying to learn a snap-count and a loving montage dedicated to his glorious spirals (“I love his balls,” as one awed teammate put it last week). I don’t know whether I’m rooting for him or just rooting for the inevitable moment when those glorious spirals turn into glorious interceptions the first time Tyrod Taylor gets benched.

THIRD: Dont’e Deayon, journeyman cornerback, Rams (the goofball)

Hard Knocks is trying real hard to make Dont’e Deayon the comic relief this season. I don’t know that it’s working but I appreciate the effort.

FOURTH: Clay Johnston, seventh-round rookie Rams linebacker (the white guy)

Essentially the white equivalent of Dont’e Deayon. The very white equivalent. Fudge, man!

The James Harrison Memorial Award For Terrifying Swollness

STARTER: Still Aaron Donald

I didn’t appreciate the way Aaron Donald was all coy about taking his shirt off for the cameras this week. Let us objectify you in peace, you strong, strong man.
‘Hard Knocks’ airs every Tuesday on HBO. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

The Portland Trail Blazers rewarded those that put great faith in them despite being the 8-seed (like Charles Barkley) by beating the Lakers in a thrilling Game 1 that saw Damian Lillard do Dame things in the closing stretch to pull away from L.A.

The question now facing the Blazers is whether they can keep it going, particularly on defense where they were the beneficiaries of some horrific shooting from the Lakers role players — although, making those guys take shots is by design. Making this challenge more difficult is the news that arrived for Portland on Wednesday, as they learned Zach Collins, who sat out Game 1 is likely out for Games 2-4 as well with a Malleolar stress reaction in his ankle after having an MRI.

Collins will be re-evaluated in a week, but with the Blazers playing three games before then, it stands to reason he won’t be available until Game 5 at best. Wenyen Gabriel got the start for Collins in the opener and the Blazers had some great success deploying their two center lineup of Jusuf Nurkic and Hassan Whiteside when the Lakers went big with Dwight Howard or JaVale McGee. However, that does create some spacing problems on offense for Portland and Collins’ absence further shortens an already tight rotation at the four-spot.