Category: Worldwide

As LeBron James nears his fourth NBA championship, it appears he is becoming nocturnal in an effort to remain vigilant about the task at hand of closing out the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Prior to a powerful Game 4 win, James reportedly shot his Lakers teammates a text message in the middle of the night with a simple message: That the following night’s game was a must-win.

“We see the message from our leader saying this is a must-win,” Anthony Davis told The Athletic. “and he just left it at that.”

As James would later explain it, the text was not only a byproduct of his fierce competitiveness, but also his inability to fall asleep lately. With Game 4 clinched and the Lakers on the cusp of a championship, James elaborated to reporters about his recent insomnia.

Here’s what he said:

“We understand what’s at stake,” James explained. “The job is not done. We get an opportunity to get our bodies back underneath us with an extra day of rest but also keep our minds sharp. I am looking forward, once again, to looking at the film tomorrow. Do all around the clock treatment and treating it like we play Thursday. I’m going to continue to get the work in and continue to not sleep until the job is done. So, I look forward to the next match.”

It may not seem like a great idea to play a deciding NBA Finals game having not slept in a few days, but at this point James’ judgment probably supersedes ours. If it pays off, he’ll have several months to get plenty of sleep before next season.

There are side effects to the no sleeping plan, as the King gets a little bored late at night in the Bubble. That much was clear when James posted a joking meme overnight following Game 4.

Difficulty sleeping is understandable in James’ position, but it is admittedly pretty funny that he’s actively staying awake in order to keep his game face on.

If you’ve been holding on to a pair of the original Nike Air Wovens, prepare to lose your mind. Your old woven pair of shoes just jumped up in value and sneakerhead credibility. On a new episode of Uproxx Style Editor Eli Gesner’s The Masters, Alife’s Rob Cristofaro (Rob 1970) revealed that each of the original pairs of Nike Air Woven Footscapes released through Alife’s original Orchard Street store in the Lower East Side have a one-of-a-kind tag from Philadelphia graffiti legend Espo hidden under their insoles.

“We took these sneakers and right away we gave them to Espo,” Cristofaro says at the 10-minute mark of the episode. “Espo took them all, took all the insoles out, and signed each insole. So the first Nike Air Woven sneakers that the people have in America all have messages within them, no one even know this shit… If you have the first Nike Air Wovens you can take the insole out and you will find some shit.”

While images of the original Nike Air Wovens and information about the debut colorways are scarce (the sneakers dropped 20 years ago), according to Grailed we know that one of those pairs featured an Anthracite and Neutral- Grey-Spice colorway and resold as late as two years ago for a cool $200. Congratulations to whoever scooped up that mint condition pair!

We also want to say sorry to any person who mindlessly threw their Nike Air Wovens away without ever knowing they were holding on to an Espo original — we sincerely feel for you. Why the team at Alife decided to keep this Easter egg hidden for so long, we’ll never know, but it has us wondering what else the label has been hiding throughout its storied history on the streetwear scene.

To see Eli Gesner lose his sh*t at the news of Cristofaro’s reveal, watch the full episode above.

Petey is a unique creature, combining elements of emo, electronic, and folk music into a sound that is unmistakably Petey. He dropped his short-but-sweet High Life From The Bottle On The Beach EP earlier this year, and now he’s back with more new music, the climactic “Don’t Tell The Boys.”

The track features some characteristically silly lyrics about things like The OC, but also some more heartfelt words, including the closing lyrics, “Don’t tell the boys that we just had our little talk / You know in tougher times, us guys decide we’d rather walk the walk / I’ll always be a lending ear, I’ll be your elephant best friend / Don’t tell the boys we’ve got each other, and I’ll love you ’til the end.”

In mid-September, as part of a run of Gen-Z-themed tweets, Petey tweeted, “Hey party people. sorry to bother you… I just wanted to make an announcement that yes I am gen z. And I will be releasing lit music on spotify soon.” That same day, he noted, “I’m releasing an ep on October 9th called checkin’ up on buds.” There doesn’t appear to have been a more official announcement made about a Petey EP titled Checkin’ Up On Buds, so keep an eye on Petey this Friday in case that drops.

Meanwhile, we spoke with Petey back in May and he shared advice for his 18-year-old self that could apply to anybody at any stage of life: “Let time do its thing. Don’t be scared. Get scuba certification. Be nice. Talking sh*t is a projection of your own insecurity. Take advice with a grain of salt. Stop trying to read, just listen and look at stuff for a really long time. Trust yourself. Stop trying to focus. Keep spacing out. Don’t buy new clothes. Don’t be embarrassed. Try to make choices out of love not fear. Increase physical strength.”

Watch the “Don’t Tell The Boys” video above.

The second free Free Guy trailer (starring Ryan Reynolds as an video-game NPC character who gains awareness) debuted two days ago, and that’s notable for a few reasons: (1) The first trailer surfaced in November 2019, but you-know-what-happened to the original June 2020 release date; (2) People are truly craving new movies, and that’s reflected in the trailer’s almost absurdly huge view count. According to Hollywood Reporter, all of the platforms that are airing the trailer have gathered up a total of 55 million views so far.

Yes, people always want to see Ryan Reynolds, and this looks like a fun movie (also starring Jodie Comer as Molotov Girl, along with Taika Waititi and Alex Trebek in a cameo), but people could use a Good Guy now. And as Hollywood Reporter points out, last year’s trailer scored around 40 million views, so that’s a sizeable bump. (People are missing movie theaters, and that can’t be denied.) For comparison’s sake, the Shawn Levy-directed movie is outdoing his last wildly popular movie, and an MCU entry:

In terms of comps, this week’s Free Guy trailer surpassed Levy’s Ready Player One (44.5 million) and Marvel’s family-friendly Ant-Man and the Wasp (50 million), according to those with access to the stats.

The trailer is spread out all over the place, from Twitter and Instagram accounts to YouTube, where Reynolds’ page has scored about ten times the amount of 20th Century Fox’s page, so they definitely cast the right guy in this movie. Of course, there’s virtually no way that the film’s current release date (December 11) will actually happen in theaters, given that almost all the tentpoles have pushed into 2021. Soooo… will we see Free Guy hot-drop on VOD anytime soon? After the very welcome reception to the trailer this week, surely people would open their wallets to watch this at home (and soon).

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Schitt’s Creek co-creator and star Dan Levy is calling out Comedy Central India after the channel aired a promo for season five of the Emmy-winning series. In the clip tweeted out by the Comedy Central India account, a same-sex kiss is noticeably edited out, which did not sit well with Levy, who has championed Schitt’s Creek as a celebration of inclusivity.

“You showed the kiss between two women, you showed the kiss between a woman and a man, then removed the kiss between two men?” Levy wrote. “This is a show about the power of inclusivity. The censorship of gay intimacy is making a harmful statement against that message. #loveislove”

Unfortunately, with Twitter being Twitter, users mistakenly thought Levy was calling out the entire Comedy Central network, which forced him to issue a follow-up clarifying the target of his criticism: “I thought I made this pretty clear but for those who are confused, this is about a channel in India. @ComedyCentral in America is not censoring the show,” Levy tweeted. “They have been lovely and respectful. Thank you for your time.”

You can see the clip along with Levy’s statement below:

Of course, Levy is concerned with the representation that played a central part of Schitt’s Creek. As the show geared up for its final season, he told Uproxx that hearing how the show continues to empower the LGBT community has been a comfort to him as he moves onto the next chapter.

Because meeting people and hearing their stories, and hearing how the show has affected their lives or has changed the way they feel about themselves or other people, their kids, particularly when it comes to the LGBTQ community, it’s been incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. And I think we’ll always have the show around us in some capacity. It’s just what happens when something hits like that. And in a way, that’s comforting as well.

All six seasons of Schitt’s Creek are now available for streaming on Netflix.

(Via Dan Levy on Twitter)

There is hardly any precedent for what Breanna Stewart has accomplished as a basketball player.

The 2020 WNBA Finals MVP just capped off a clean sweep through the playoffs with her Seattle Storm that ended in her second championship. That upped the ante from a 2018 campaign in which she won regular season MVP and swept Washington for her first title and Finals MVP. And before she ever was drafted, Stewart won four national championships at UConn as well as four NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player trophies and three College Player of the Year awards. There’s also a gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in the middle. At age 26, with just five professional seasons under her belt, the 6’4 scorer is unparalleled in her accomplishments.

From Stewart’s perspective, standing with her teammates in the WNBA’s Bubble and celebrating a championship was anything but guaranteed. It was almost exactly 18 months ago that she ruptured her Achilles tendon during a game overseas. She missed all of the 2019 WNBA season and it was an open question what she’d be capable of this year while rehabbing such a serious injury in the Bubble.

While Stewart did make it back to play in Russia last winter, the WNBA is the best women’s league in the world, so the level of competition is much higher, and this year’s condensed regular season schedule meant teams played every other day for basically two months straight. The Storm committed as a team to playing this season out even as racial justice protests raged around the country and Stewart (along with teammate Sue Bird) continued to recover from major injuries. What they would be able to accomplish, even as the title favorites, was unclear.

Stewart made it known quickly. She scored in double digits in every game but one this season and played the best defense of her career as the Storm rolled to an 18-4 record, tied for best in the WNBA. With a career-high 28.9 percent usage and an elite 57.8 true shooting percentage, Stewart came back equally impactful as a shot creator, if not quite as efficient. Not many bigs are fluid enough to be used like Stewart is, flexing through screens and knocking down shots from everywhere.

Seattle’s depth and institutional knowledge made it easier for Stewart to come along slowly during the regular season (yes, her version of that is a near-MVP level), and the Storm got nine days off before their first playoff game by way of finishing No. 2 in the league. Despite a cold streak late in the regular season, the final four games of Stewart’s playoffs were unthinkably good. She awoke, like every Hall of Fame player, once a championship came within reach.

From Game 3 of the semifinals against Minnesota through the three-game sweep in the Finals, Stewart averaged 29 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game while shooting 63 percent from the field. Again, that was in a Bubble, less than 18 months removed from rupturing her Achilles. It’s hard to imagine a better couple of weeks than that. Now, Stewart faces forward. What comes next for someone who’s already accomplished basically everything? First, of course, there will be a celebration of what the Storm just accomplished.

But after that? It was difficult for Stewart to take stock of her career in the immediate aftermath of the championship, but she was rightly proud of her journey back from injury to retake the WNBA throne.

“To be able to be here, to get through all that we’ve gone through as a team obviously individually, it’s an amazing feeling,” Stewart said postgame. “There’s so much of an unknown that you don’t know after rupturing my Achilles, but I’m super … I don’t know if I’m proud of myself but, you know, proud of what I’ve done. I think it’s hard to see it because it was so close, but really proud of just being able to be back.”

As someone whose standard operating procedure is filling up her already gigantic trophy case, you believe Stewart when she says winning was the only indicator she was looking at this season. Head coach Gary Kloppenburg called her “one of those generational players who come through once in a while who can face adversity and get stronger because of it.”

Yet Stewart did allow herself the blessing of perspective for a few moments after Game 3. This second WNBA championship gave her, if nothing else, hope for the future.

“To be here and see myself playing like this and having so much potential going forward, it’s exciting,” Stewart said. “I guess it just makes you appreciate more, and I’m just appreciating my basketball career (more).”

Stewart now sits on a tier of basketball greatness rivaled at her young age only by Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Both Hall of Fame inductees won multiple championships in college and rose to the top of the NBA in short order. Abdul-Jabbar famously boycotted the 1968 Olympics, but Russell won a gold medal in 1956 prior to his rookie season at a time when NBA players did not participate in the Games. True greatness felt easier to come by back then, when basketball was less visible and the most athletic and competitive folks tended to have the upper hand. Yet Stewart is matching them even as the widespread growth of sports theoretically means nobody should have the huge advantage she keeps over her competition.

Stewart’s resume is the type of stuff most don’t believe possible in this era of player movement and modern medicine. At this rate, Stewart is reconstructing our perception of a player’s ceiling. The most damning injury basketball players can suffer did not slow her down. After what she did in the Bubble, it’s fair to wonder if anything can.

Sprinkled throughout Bernie Sanders interviewer Halsey’s newest album, Manic, is a series of interlude tracks, on which she lets another singer take the vocal reigns. On “Dominic’s Interlude,” that honor goes to noted Fortnite concert streamer Dominic Fike. Now, he and Halsey have shared a video for their collaboration.

The clip shows Halsey, Fike, and others dancing to the song on a tennis court. The video is actually derived from the visual Halsey played on tour between performances of “Forever … (Is A Long Time)” and “I Hate Everybody,” which mirrors the sequencing of the album. Fans have pointed out the two videos aren’t exactly the same, though.

Halsey previously explained the song’s role on the record, saying, “Every album of mine has what we call a trio: three songs smack in the middle that serve as a transition and are meant to be listened to in succession. On Manic, it’s ‘Forever … (Is A Long Time),’ ‘Dominic’s Interlude,’ and ‘I Hate Everybody.’ On [‘Forever’], I’m falling in love. […] And then I start getting in my own head. […] And now I’m sabotaging this relationship and feeling paranoid, this is going to be bad. And then Dominic tells me [on ‘Dominic’s Interlude’] I’d better go tell my man he’s got bad news coming.” She also noted, “The interludes represent different relationships in my life: Dom represents brotherly love.”

Watch the “Dominic’s Interlude” video above.

Crocs are apparently making a comeback. Last week, Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny announced he was collaborating with the shoe brand for a pair of glow-in-the-dark Crocs. Now, Justin Bieber shares that he also has a Crocs design in the works.

Bieber made the collaboration announcement on social media, offering a preview of the shoe. Designed in part by his clothing brand Drew House, the shoes features a canary yellow exterior along with several playful Drew House accessories. “We’ve been a longtime fan of his and we’re excited to bring the magic to all of you on 10.13,” the company wrote alongside a preview of the shoe.

Officially unveiling the collaboration in a video, Bieber said, “This one is a cake but the collab is very real. I’ve been wearing Crocs since the beginning of time and now I have my own design. See there? I did a little rhyme. […] I did a collab with Drew House with Crocs and it’s going to be coming really soon.”

According to HotNewHipHop, the Bieber x Crocs announcement made waves. After Bieber revealed the collaboration, Crocs’ stock apparently jumped 11 percent.

Bieber and Bad Bunny aren’t the only musicians to have teamed up with the shoe brand. Back in 2018, Post Malone shared his Crocs design, and the shoes sold out completely within ten minutes of their release.

Watch a clip of Bieber announcing the collaboration above.

Bieber’s Crocs hit stores 10/13 at 12 pm EDT. Get them here.

Everyone’s favorite Cranberry juice sipping, Fleetwood Mac singing, skateboarding riding TikTok star Nathan Apodaca — who you might know affectionately as DoggFace420/420DoggFace208 — has just been given a new truck from the people at Ocean Spray. It was delivered filled with cranberry juice, making this perhaps the only good thing to come out of this chaotic year. God knows we need bright spots like this.

The truck was gifted to Apodaca from Ocean Spray and a local Idaho Falls Nissan dealership and follows several fan donations given to the viral star after people discovered he needed a new RV. Apodaca has been incredibly generous with the donations he’s received thus far — sharing the wealth with his extended family — so if anyone deserves a truck for absolutely no reason, it’s him.

In less than a month Apodaca has managed to introduce Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” to a whole generation of people and has done more to make us want to guzzle down some Ocean Spray — straight out of the bottle of course — than the brand’s ads ever have. In a post that we’re sure is bound to go viral as well, Apodaca shared the moment he was surprised by the cranberry-colored truck and has already started uploading new content riding around and blasting music in that supremely chill way that only DoggFace can.

Check some of the new DoggFace adventures below.

Billie Eilish has performed a bunch during the pandemic. She and Finneas were just on The Tonight Show, they put on a Tiny Desk concert, and she performed at the virtual Democratic National Convention. Now, though, she is ready to put on her first ever global livestream concert, as Eilish has announced Where Do We Go? The Livestream.

The show will be performed live from Los Angeles and hosted on Eilish’s website on October 24 at 6 p.m. ET, powered by the Maestro interactive streaming platform and with interactive production by lili Studios.

Eilish wrote on Instagram of the performance, “miss doing shows so muuuuuch [crying emoji] soo I’m doing a livestream october 24th and i can’t wait to be performing agaaaain. get your tickets now!”

Tickets are currently on sale for $30, and from now through to October 11 at 9 p.m. PT, early ticket purchasers will have exclusive access to Eilish merchandise at a discounted price. Additional merch will be revealed between now and the show day and be available for all ticketholders. Proceeds from select merch items will go towards Crew Nation, a charitable fund created to help crew members impacted by all the canceled events in 2020. On top of that, fans will also get a Postmates code for free delivery in the US to complement the concert experience.

Get tickets for Where Do We Go? The Livestream here.