Category: Worldwide

The Milwaukee Bucks’ season came to an end on Tuesday night. The best team in the league during the 2019-20 season fell to the Miami Heat, 4-1, in a series that did not include Giannis Antetokounmpo for essentially half of Game 4 and all of Game 5 due to a right ankle sprain that required a boot.

Even beyond the additional context about his future, it was brutal for Milwaukee to have the reigning league MVP on the sideline with its season on the line. Then, of course, there is the additional context of his future. The Bucks are going to put a supermax extension in front of him the nanosecond that’s allowed, and he will have to make a decision that legitimately could end up shaping the future of the league: Does he stay in Milwaukee, or does he opt to go elsewhere in pursuit of championships?

As is legally required when a guy is in that spot, every word they speak before making to that major decision will be subject to scrutiny. The latest entry into this chapter of Antetokounmpo’s career came following the loss, when he spoke to the media and discussed his desire to build a championship culture with the Bucks.

“Hopefully we can learn from this and get better as a team and come back,” Antetokounmpo said. “Hopefully we can build a culture in Milwaukee that, for many years, we can come out and compete every single year for a championship.”

Antetokounmpo also discussed the decision to keep him on the sideline, something that he admits he wanted to avoid. However, he did express his appreciate for the organization deciding to make his health the No. 1 priority over a game.

While the exact number is up in the air, Tim Bontemps of ESPN noted that the deal the Bucks can offer Antetokounmpo is expected to be around $220 million, which would be about $80 million more than what any other team could give him.

Blackpink is currently rounding the corner to complete their comeback as the K-pop group prepares to release their new album next month. Following extremely successful singles which include the record-breaking “How You Like That,” and their latest collaboration with Selena Gomez, “Ice Cream,” the group returns with another exciting announcement: a documentary on Netflix.

Set to arrive after their upcoming Blackpink: The Album release, Blackpink shared Tuesday an all-access documentary, entitled BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky, will arrive on Netflix on October 14.

Details on the all-access documentary have yet to be revealed, but BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky is certainly poised to satisfy their worldwide fan base. The announcement comes after the K-pop group broke a YouTube record this year with their “How You Like That” video. The visual broke the record for the biggest video premiere ever with 1.65 million viewers checking in for the video’s release. The song was the group’s first single in more than a year. Despite their absence, the group has worked with Lady Gaga on “Sour Candy” from her Chromatica album and more recently with Dua Lipa on “Kiss And Make Up” from her Club Future Nostalgia remix album.

Blackpink: The Album is out 10/02 via YG Entertainment/Interscope Records. Pre-order it here.

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

Prior to Tuesday’s Game 5 between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer noted that veteran forward Marvin Williams could be taking the floor in his last NBA game.

After all, the Bucks were facing elimination against the Heat and, without Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee was seen as the underdog to force a Game 6 against Miami. Despite a hard-fought showing, the Bucks fell short by a nine-point margin and, just minutes after the final buzzer sounded, Williams told Marc Spears of The Undefeated that he will indeed be retiring from the game after 15 seasons.

Williams, who was the No. 2 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, was 10th among active players in games played before retiring, appearing in 1,072 regular season contests across a decade and a half. Though he did not develop into a superstar as some projected coming out of North Carolina, Williams made 828 starts in the NBA and appeared in 59 playoff games. The 6’8 forward suited up for the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, and Utah Jazz before finishing his career in Milwaukee, with Williams scoring nearly 11,000 points and pulling down more than 5,500 rebounds in his career.

In January, Williams told Bonnell that he wants to continue operating in the basketball world, but with “no interest in coaching.”

“I was in New York, but focused on the international basketball operations part of it,” Williams said. “I like the Junior NBA (program) where you are basically a camp counselor all around the world. Basketball Without Borders (the league’s global summer outreach), I’ve done a couple of those: I went to Africa and I went to Indonesia.

“Any opportunity I get to travel and work with kids? That’s what I would love to do.”

Though Williams is perhaps best known for being drafted ahead of both Chris Paul and Deron Williams in 2005, he carved out an impressive career, outperforming the average expectation for even the No. 2 overall pick. It remains to be seen what his next step will be, but a 15-year career is nothing to sneeze at, and Williams is exceptionally well-regarded in and around the game.

On Tuesday evening, the Milwaukee Bucks took the floor in a playoff game without Giannis Antetokounmpo for the first time since April 28, 2013. While the top-seeded Bucks performed valiantly in his absence, the Miami Heat finished off an upset series victory, outlasting Milwaukee by a final score of 103-94 in Game 5.

Here are three takeaways from what transpired.

1. Miami had to turn it on after a shaky start

Though the Heat entered as solid favorites against the Giannis-less Bucks, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Miami scored only 11 points, while committing six turnovers, in the first eight minutes of action, and Milwaukee took a double-digit lead as a result.

Some of Miami’s issues could be traced to strong work from Khris Middleton, who opened the game with nine points and four assists in the first quarter.

From there, the Heat came alive, though, using a 30-9 blitz to take a 45-37 lead, and a buzzer-beater from Goran Dragic got things going at the end of the first quarter.

Miami held Milwaukee to 30 percent shooting and 1-for-6 from three-point range in the second quarter, seemingly setting the stage for a comfortable victory. The Bucks didn’t go quietly, though, with Donte DiVincenzo scoring seven quick points to open the third quarter.

Eventually, the Bucks climbed within one but, almost on cue, Milwaukee’s offense sputtered, failing to score for more than six minutes and allowing the Heat to zoom to a 12-point advantage. Milwaukee did maintain relative contact, even slashing the margin to four in the final three minutes, but Jimmy Butler then scored four straight and found Dragic for the eventual dagger in crunch time.

Given the absence of Antetokounmpo, this was not a performance to be disappointed with for the Bucks. Middleton, carrying the weight of the world, struggled with efficiency, but Milwaukee was competitive and pushed Miami to the point where key plays were needed to preserve the series-clinching victory.

2. An uncertain, and highly important, offseason looms for the Bucks

At this point, everyone knows the stakes. Antetokounmpo can sign a record-setting supermax extension during the off-season and, if he chooses to do so, a lot of the noise will dwindle in Milwaukee. That decision will be litigated at every turn in the coming days but, even beyond the looming decision for the reigning MVP, the Bucks have questions to answer.

Can they bank on Eric Bledsoe? The veteran point guard was named to an All-Defensive team on Tuesday and, against Miami, he performed at a high level on that end of the floor. On the flip side, Bledsoe converted only two of his 12 attempts from the floor in Game 5, leaning into the perception that he falls short on the offensive end in playoff settings.

What about Mike Budenholzer? The former NBA Coach of the Year is established as a fantastic culture builder, lifting the Hawks to impressive heights during his first head coaching stint and transforming the Bucks into the best regular season team in the NBA. Still, Budenholzer did absolutely nothing to quiet doubters about his playoff coaching style during this run and, if anything, he could be on the hot seat if the Bucks elect a nuclear option.

Remember that Malcolm Brogdon decision? Without litigating it yet again, the Bucks had the ability to bring Brogdon back and they chose not to do so. Milwaukee did get some value in a sign-and-trade but, in observing this series, it is impossible ignore the contributions he might have made.

How aggressive can Milwaukee be? Even if Antetokounmpo signs up for the future, the Bucks don’t have much, if any, salary cap flexibility and Antetokounmpo is due for a substantial pay raise. If Milwaukee was worried at all about the luxury tax previously, that will be an issue moving forward, and the Bucks will need to reassure Antetokounmpo that they are the place to provide him with a championship situation.

That might be a tall task after this series but, if nothing else, the Bucks did string together a heck of a regular season. In a few weeks (er, months?), they may be able to take solace in that but, at the moment, this feels like a monumental failure, even with the caveat of Antetokounmpo’s injury absence at the end of the series.

3. The Heat are live underdogs in the Eastern Conference Finals

Miami will have a rest advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals, even if the Boston Celtics manage to close things out in Game 6 against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday. If that doesn’t happen, the Heat will have even more time to rest but, broadly speaking, Miami is probably the underdog in the next round.

That isn’t a shot at a Miami team that executed brilliantly against Milwaukee, but the Heat were a dreadful matchup for the Bucks and that was on full display. Against teams better suited for their attack, the Heat will need to be even better to reach the NBA Finals, though it helps to lean on a pair of genuine stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

Miami’s next step will be quite interesting, with Erik Spoelstra given a bit of time to prepare for his next challenge. This is a team that, at its best, can deploy lights-out offensive lineups with shooters like Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro. In the same breath, Miami can pivot to defensively stingy units with Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder, all while pressing the right buttons with the strength of a top-flight head coach.

A full-blown series preview can’t arrive until Boston and Toronto are done battling but, in the coming hours, Miami will be able to rest and prepare for what should be an entertaining and uber-competitive series with a trip to the Finals on the line.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, off the heels of a season in which they were perhaps the biggest surprise in the league, will be on the lookout for a new head coach this offseason. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the team and head coach Billy Donovan will part ways after the two sides were unable to come to an agreement on a contract extension. Donovan’s deal ran out at the conclusion of this season.

As Wojnarowski noted, it does not seem like this was a rash decision, as both sides understood the situation. The Thunder, which ostensibly has a rebuild on the horizon due to Danilo Gallinari’s contract ending and Chris Paul being mentioned as a potential trade candidate from essentially the moment he joined the franchise last offseason, do not appear to match up with what Donovan wants in a team right now.

Donovan joined the Thunder prior to the 2015-16 season. While he had flirted with a move to the NBA in the past, he took his time before deciding to leave the University of Florida, where he had a decorated coaching career and won a pair of national titles. In five years at the helm in Oklahoma City, Donovan accrued a 243-157 record and made the postseason each year. However, outside of his first year with the team, he never advanced past the first round.

This season, Oklahoma City went 44-28 and nearly beat the Houston Rockets in the first round of the postseason before falling in seven games. While Donovan is out, it should be an appealing job, as the team boasts a building block in the backcourt in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a treasure trove of future draft picks.

Just over five months removed from their first unofficial Verzuz battle back in March, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland have spent the spring and summer pairing some of music’s favorites for thrilling battles that leave viewers captivated for its 2-3 hour duration. Recent highlights from Verzuz include battles between Snoop Dogg and DMX, Rick Ross and 2 Chainz, and the most recent one between Monica and Brandy which roped in more than a million viewers on Instagram and over six million across Verzuz’s Instagram and Apple Music livestreams.

Taking it back a few decades for their latest battle, Verzuz has announced Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle will go to head-to-head in their next battle.

Making their return to Instagram and Apple Music this Sunday, September 13, Verzuz opens their doors for some classic 70s and 80s records with Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle’s appearances. Across the 20-song battle, fans can expect to hear classics from Gladys Knight that include “That’s What Friends Are For,” “Midnight Train to Georgia,” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” with the latter two coming from her soul group Gladys Knight & The Pips. As for Patti LaBelle, fans will be able to enjoy “If Only You Knew,” “On My Own,” “Lady Marmalade,” and much more during the battle.

Tune into Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle’s Verzuz battle on 9/13 at 5pm PST/ 8pm EST.

Ghostbusters was such a big hit in the comedy world that it’s tough to imagine a time when its stars had to ask people to watch it, but that’s exactly what happened back when the movie was made. That’s what made for a charming viral video this week of Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray in Ghostbusters gear pitching theater owners on showing the film when it was released in 1984.

As explained in the tweet, the video was meant to lure independent theater chains into showing Ghostbusters at their theaters. Which is why there are some jokes tailored specifically to some small theaters and a bit of inside baseball on the budget of the movie, which cost $30 million to make in 1984. As referenced by the video, it was played to a gathering in Las Vegas and included some cheeky jokes about how much fun theater owners could have in Las Vegas.

“You guys really know how to have a good time, there’s no question about it,” Akroyd said, deadpanned. “Some of those chaps from General Cinemas are just wild. I heard about one who swallowed 12 roulette balls and took a ride in a clothes dryer.”

Murray and Akroyd riff a bit back and forth, but they get to the point: exhibiting what Akroyd called “perhaps the greatest comedy motion picture of all time.” The camera moves to a close-up on Murray, who gives a pitch-perfect approximation of the film’s greatness.

“I mean, this is gonna make E.T. look like Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know what I’m saying?” Murray said, with a signature stumble. “This is the kind of thing that your children are gonna say ‘Dad, I can look up to you now. And I never could before. Isn’t it worth it? Isn’t it worth it?”

The two speak briefly about the great “cheap movies” they made with smaller budgets and mentioned that, well, this one with ghosts and special effects cost a bit more to make. And they really give the hard sell on it being kid-friendly, too.

“And it is PG,” Akroyd said, stealing the show with a line that made Murray break into laughter in the middle of the take. “I’m f*ckin’ telling ya, it’s PG.”

The video also has a big of an unused Ghostbusters theme song in it, which you can hear more of below.

For fans of the movie, it’s a great little easter egg that makes for a fun story. And maybe another thing to quote related to the movie, which is f*cking PG, after all.

Following Drake’s Nothing Was The Same and Lil Wayne’s That Carter IV albums, the Young Money duo would embark on a nationwide tour entitled “Drake Vs. Lil Wayne” Inspired by Capcom’s Street Fighter video game, the tour featured both rappers going back and forth with their most popular songs at the time, before entering a rap battle where they went song for song with tracks like “A Milli” and “0 to 100.” At the end of the show, fans were allowed to pick a winner for the night through an app. Standing as one of the last decade’s most successful tours, fans have wondered if Drake and Lil Wayne would consider a second round in the near future and according to Lil Wayne’s manager, Cortez “Tez” Bryant, they have.

“They talked about it. I do think we need to do it again,” Tez said on Brian “B.Dot” Miller’s Art of Facts Instagram show. Tez also said the tour was one of his favorites of all the Young Money tours.

“My favorite tour of them all was this Drake vs. Lil Wayne tour,” he said. “It was at a time when Drake had arrived as an artist. Seeing him from the inception and as a superstar himself and mentor and mentee going on stage.”

This is not the first time Drake and Lil Wayne have possibly considered a second joint tour. Lil Wayne teased the idea back in 2018 in a congratulatory message to Drake following the success of his Aubrey Vs. The Migos tour that year. “I can’t wait to get back on that stage and we do our own tour again. ‘Drake vs. Tune, Wayne’…whatever you wanna call it,” Wayne said. “You will never win, you never do. Congratulations.”

Check out the interview with Tez in the Instagram post above and scroll to the 15-minute mark to hear him discuss the possibility of another joint tour.

In advance of the NBA’s restart in Orlando, the league announced the decision to delay both the Draft and free agency to mid-October. That came as no surprise given the league’s timeline, with the Draft Lottery occurring in late August as the newly announced plan outlined. In the ensuing weeks, though, rumblings emerged that the league was examining a further delay to its major offseason events, citing the potential for salary cap uncertainty and an unknown projection for when the 2020-21 season might begin.

On Tuesday, formal reporting emerged to that end, with Shams Charania of The Athletic bringing word that the NBA and the NBPA are now in agreement to push back the previously announced dates to an unspecified time.

This is simply the first of many steps in what could be a drawn out process. The 2020 NBA Finals aren’t scheduled to be completed until mid-October and, from there, the league and the Player’s Association must negotiate the parameters for next season, fully acknowledging a drop in revenue and very little uncertainty moving forward. As such, additional time may be needed, and both players and teams (as well as agents) would undoubtedly love to know what the 2020-21 salary cap looks like before the Draft and free agency.

Charania did note, however, that the current plan is for the Draft to still take place some time in October.

2020 is providing seemingly endless curve balls, both in the sports world and beyond, and this is simply the latest development for the NBA. For teams making deep playoff runs, a bit of extra time may not feel terribly out of the ordinary, but for the “Delete Eight” franchises that have not participated in game action since March, this reported agreement represents yet another delay and even more uncertainty to navigate.

With no NBA Awards show this year, the league has steadily been rolling out this year’s award winners during the playoffs. Montrezl Harrell won Sixth Man of the Year, Nick Nurse earned Coach of the Year, and Giannis Antetokounmpo took home Defensive Player of the Year.

On Tuesday, the league announced this year’s All-Defensive teams, which unsurprisingly were headlined by the DPOY in Giannis, along with Lakers star Anthony Davis — who some felt could and should’ve been the DPOY — and Rudy Gobert also making it onto the first team frontcourt. In the backcourt, Ben Simmons and Marcus Smart got the nod for their efforts on the defensive end this season, with the pair being two of the league’s most versatile defenders.

The full All-Defensive teams are as follows:

There aren’t really any surprises here, with the second team being filled with two Bucks and two Clippers, which isn’t surprising given their excellent team defense this year, along with Bam Adebayo who is sensational for Miami — and has shown his value on that end in their series with Milwaukee in taking on Giannis.

The rest of the voting and those that just missed the cut, headlined by P.J. Tucker and Jimmy Butler among forwards and Kris Dunn and Kyle Lowry, saw some curious votes — first team votes for James Harden and Luka Doncic are all nearly impossible to justify.