Category: Worldwide

Baseball continues rolling along with its shortened, 60-game season despite some hiccups in the form of teamwide outbreaks in Miami and St. Louis. One of the fascinating parts of the shortened season is how, in a sport that is typically defined by being a marathon of 162 games, every game and every key moment is magnified — for better or worse.

On Sunday, for the Los Angeles Angels, Jo Adell had one of those unfortunate moments that may turn out to be painful for his team when Nick Solak hit what should’ve been a fairly innocuous fly ball to the warning track in right field, with Texas up 5-2. However, as Adell tried to reel in the ball for an out, he somehow not only dropped it but slapped the ball up in the air and over the fence for a home run to give the Rangers a 6-2 lead.

It’s the absolute nightmare of every outfielder to have their Jose Canseco moment — although at least this one wasn’t a ball bouncing off his head and over the wall — and while the Angels would get that run back in the top of the sixth, it gave Texas an added insurance run as a gift that L.A. really didn’t want to provide them.

Life in the bubble is hard for everyone, which means things could get pretty weird in Orlando, Toronto and Edmonton over the next few months. The NHL and NBA are in it for the long haul when it comes to their bubble leagues, with the playoff picture in both leagues just getting settled over the next few days. Which perhaps makes what the NHL did on Sunday to thank its “fans” a bit more concerning when put in that context.

The big narrative out of hockey’s two bubble cities was all the Settlers of Catan players hoped to get in while they didn’t do much outside of eat and play hockey, and maybe that confinement is one reason for a very silly joke that happened on Sunday during NBC’s broadcast of a game between the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues. A graphic that read “THANK YOU FANS” appeared on the video board above the ice, while a narration from the National Hockey League thanked “fans” for all their support during the league’s return in the bubble.

“The National Hockey League thanks ALL of their fans for their support during the NHL’s return to play,” the narration read while the camera panned to the seats in the arena, empty save for four standing fans positioned there as mechanical spectators.

It’s a really strong visual joke right out of the old British shows Adult Swim used to air at 3 a.m.

It’s the kind of perfect dry humor that we need to get through this thing. So thank you, hockey. Thockey.

2 Chainz has been fairly busy this weekend. Kicking things off Thursday night, the Atlanta rapper was joined by Rick Ross for a Verzuz battle. The following night, 2 Chainz shared his “Money Maker” single with Lil Wayne, signaling that his Collegrove 2 effort with is, indeed, nearing an arrival. Closing his productive weekend, 2 Chainz officially joined Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote nonpartisan initiative with a message directed at the formerly incarcerated.

In his two-and-a-half-minute message, 2 Chainz urged former inmates to look into laws in their respective states and confirm whether or not they are able to vote in this upcoming election. It’s an effort to clear up a misconception in some cases that former inmates are no longer able to vote following their convictions. In the statement, 2 Chainz lists the main things that are the deciding factors for whether or not a former inmate will be able to participate in an election. While voting rights differ from state to state, 2 Chainz mentions that in most states, ex-inmates will have their rights restored following their release from prison. If ex-inmates see that they do qualify to vote, the rapper urged them to register if they have not in order to participate in the upcoming election.

2 Chainz’s message comes after Snoop Dogg revealed in an interview on Big Boy’s Neighborhood he never voted simply because he was unaware that he could. “I ain’t never voted a day in my life, but this year I think I’m a get out and vote ’cause I can’t stand to see this punk in office,” he said. “For many years, they had me brainwashed thinking that you couldn’t vote because you had a criminal record. I didn’t know that. My record’s been expunged. So now I can vote.”

Listen to 2 Chainz’s message in the video above.

Back in December 2018, Juelz Santana was sentenced to 27 months in prison following a March 2019 incident at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport where a loaded handgun and nonprescription oxycodone pills were found in his carry-on bag. After the discovery, the rapper was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and carrying a weapon on an aircraft. Completing 19 months of his prison sentence, the Dipset rapper was freed last week and according to a report from TMZ, he owes Meek Mill a big thank you.

Sources told TMZ that Mill wanted to ensure Santana’s early release request was filed correctly and that the entire process was followed in the best manner. To make sure this happened, the Philly rapper connected Santana’s wife, Kimbella, with a lawyer who made sure the entire process was smooth-sailing. As a result, Santana was able to come home early and steer clear from serving any time at a halfway house, seeing that most are closed because of the pandemic. He is now on supervised release and must submit to a drug test within 15 days of his release.

In other news, Santana has also committed to giving back to inmates by working with non-profits who aim to overturn sentences for wrongfully convicted inmates. He also aims to create a platform to share the music and movies written by inmates during their sentences.

(via TMZ)

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

Kanye West decided to tease some things he’s working on (outside of the music space) on Twitter over the weekend, with what appeared to be an art installation as well as browsing “underwater homes,” but what raised the most eyebrows was his tease of a Yeezy-Derrick Rose sneaker collaboration with adidas.

The Yeezy line recently debuted its first hoops sneaker — which is banned from being worn on an NBA court because of the reflective material on it — and it appears the next evolution in Kanye dabbling in the hoops space will come with fellow Chicagoan Derrick Rose, who has spent a decade with adidas, himself.

The problem is, no one knows what the hell to make of the picture Kanye put on Twitter on Saturday night teasing the collaboration, because, well, it looks more like an air filter or the cutout of a foam mattress they use to show you all the layers.

Kanye always loves pushing the boundaries of, well, everything — for better or worse — and the Yeezy-D Rose certainly would count as an avant garde attempt at a basketball sneaker. I am unsure how it’s supposed to fit snugly to one’s foot or what kind of support it provides, but it is certainly different. I think that’s about the nicest thing I can say. We will see if this ever actually comes to fruition from what is clearly, right now, a wild concept, but all I know is if it does, whether it’s actually functional or not, hypebeasts will be at your local court wearing these styrofoam coolers on their feet.

Former American Idol and current America’s Got Talent star Simon Cowell broke his back in an electric bike incident in Malibu that sent him to the hospital on Sunday. Cowell — who was just referred to as ‘Simon’ in a report from The Daily Mail, had his representation confirm the reports that the TV personality and music producer, 60, fell while taking a test ride of his new bike and was rushed to the hospital.

‘Simon has broken his back and will be having surgery this evening,’ Cowell’s representative confirmed to both The Daily Mail and Page Six. The latter has more details about the incident and his interest in biking, which he used as part of a weight loss program in recent years. People reported Sunday that Cowell required 5-hour surgery to recover from the incident, though a source described him as “lucky.”

“Simon had surgery overnight and is doing okay this morning. It was a five-hour surgery and he has had to have a number of fusions and metal rod put into his back,” a source tells PEOPLE.

“He landed on his back when he fell from the bike. The injuries are bad but he’s also been told he was lucky,” the source says.

Cowell was reportedly days away from shooting new episodes of America’s Got Talent, though it’s initially unclear if production will be delayed or he will recover in time to film.

Change is tough for everybody, especially when you are suddenly changing a team’s nickname after decades of protests and pleas from people insisting your football team’s logo and nickname was offensive to an entire group of people. For many, Washington’s NFL team losing its racist nickname is a long overdue decision that was made despite the wishes of the man who actually owns the team. Which is why any sort of struggles the franchise has in making that happen is some very satisfying schadenfreude.

The latest example of that is a failed attempt to find a new Twitter hashtag for the team’s upcoming season. On Sunday morning, the Washington Football Team’s official Twitter account tried to announce a new hashtag but quickly deleted the tweet because, well, it wasn’t a hashtag. The team is leaning hard into a traditionalist angle for the upcoming season, with the Established in 1932 aspect of the franchise a major marketing point. Which is why they wanted to change the team’s official Twitter hashtag from #HTTR — hail to the team’s former offensive nickname — to the less offensive #1932. One problem, pointed out by many when the tweet went up, is that the hashtag didn’t work because it doesn’t have any letters in it.

That tweet was quickly deleted, and the team sent out another referencing the mistake and asking fans what they think the team should use.

Even noted Washington NFL franchise fan Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an idea, though like #1932 it didn’t really stand out for a football team.

Most team hashtags are silly and not very clever anyway, so they’ll figure something out eventually. But it is interesting to see a team search for an identity on the fly, especially knowing that if they had changed the name more organically by listening to critics years ago, all of this could have gone a whole lot smoother than it has.

Draymond Green’s long list of fines is a fascinating glimpse at his NBA career, but the latest might be a preview of his post-playing days. Green was fined on Sunday $50,000 for comments he made during an eventful stint on TNT where he openly lobbied for Devin Booker to leave the Phoenix Suns organization.

Green appeared on TNT’s NBA coverage on Saturday night and had a lot of fun going back and forth with Charles Barkley about a variety of subjects. But when Green talked about another breakout performance from Booker as the scrappy Suns fight for the postseason, he apparently crossed the line and got well into tampering territory.

The news hit on Sunday morning, with the NBA making the fine official.

The NBA made it clear the fine was a result of his “get my man out of Phoenix” comments, which even Green admitted was “probably” tampering when he said it live on air. It made for great televison, sure, but as an active NBA player who has spent his entire career with an organization that built a super team and added to it in free agency, it wasn’t a great look for the league.

Booker still has plenty of work to do with the Suns this season, of course, as they try to make an improbable run into the NBA’s bubbled postseason. Green, meanwhile, has plenty of time to keep entertaining on television if he wants to. He’ll probably be more careful about what he says from now on, though.

There’s no denying the success Chika has seen so far in 2020. The Alabama native shared her debut EP Industry Games back in March and has seen rave reviews from some of the industry’s best and most popular acts, including Cardi B. Chika hopes to continue that success in the film world as she prepares to make her acting debut on August 14 through the upcoming Netflix movie, Project Power which stars Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Taking a moment to kick it with fans on Instagram Live, things took a turn for the better when a rap legend joined the livestream.

To Chika’s surprise, Snoop Dogg joined her livestream late Saturday night and her excitement was very clear. “What the f*ck, Snoop in here?” she asked, ecstatic at the rapper’s presence. Snoop would eventually join the livestream where he used the opportunity to praise Chika and her music.

“I’m here to give you your flowers,” he announced. “I’m here to tell you I f*ck with your music. I love your sh*t. I play it. I enjoy it. I wanted to tell you that. I didn’t want to like let you hear about it. I want you hear it from me, from the Dogg’s mouth.”

Overwhlemed by his praises, Chika thanked Snoop for his compliments and returned some of her own to him calling him, “a f*cking legend, an actual goddamn pillar in our community.” The two would eventually agree to collaborate on a song after Snoop requested that he write one for her. In response, Chika said “I’m writing you a country song. It’s gonna be a Black country song,” to which Snoop replied, “Make it work. You gonna make it do what you do.”

While we wait for their upcoming collab, fans can give a listen to Chika’s new single, “U Should.”

Watch their full Instagram Live conversation above and see Chika’s reaction to the conversation in the tweets below.

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

There are a lot of frivolous purchases you can make when it comes to video games, but buying a second dock for the Nintendo Switch is certainly up there at the top. Unless your first one breaks, a second accessory device that’s mostly used to charge the hybrid console and connect it to a TV feels like excess, especially with rumors of a next-gen Switch looming.

While some gamers will go for whatever Switch is available in these trying times, the ability to play games on a TV in addition to its built-in screen is a huge asset for the console itself. It’s made the Switch a great device for things like Jackbox Party Packs, and bringing your entire console to another Switch dock elsewhere is a satisfying benefit of buying things on the console.

If you’re trying to travel with the dock itself, though, things are a bit trickier. It’s a nifty device but not meant for suitcases or backpacks. If you happen to have the perfect-sized book to wedge in its slot you’re likely not to crack it in half, but not everyone reads as light as I do. It’s a slight inconvenience for most, but the ability to travel with a Switch and put it on any TV has long been a quiet wish for many gamers.

Which is why the Genki Covert Dock for the Switch drew so much fanfare when the accessories company launched a Kickstarter for it in 2019. The AC plug did all the work the Switch dock does in a much smaller package, turning the slotted dock into a smaller wall jack with room to charge your Switch and port its video to a TV through an HDMI cable. The Kickstarter generated more than $1.7 million for Genki, making it the third most profitable campaign for gaming hardware behind the original Oculus Rift.

There isn’t much to say about the Covert Dock’s capabilities that offers any insight: it works great. Plug it in, connect an HDMI cable to a TV and a USB-C cable to the Switch and it fires right up. The USB input charges accessories and connects controllers and does everything the same port on the regular Switch dock does. If there’s anything to review here, it’s that it feels just like it should. There aren’t connectivity questions or concerns it might not work. It does what it should and doesn’t add any extra steps to playing games.

The benefits of the Covert Dock itself are obvious to the Switch, but independent of its HDMI capabilities it’s a great option as a travel charger in general. The Covert Dock comes with international adapters, and the fold-out prongs make it easy to switch to a more exotic power source. If you’re not using (or charging) your Switch at all hours, it can effectively charge MacBooks, phones and anything else that’s at its best charging at 30 watts. It also doesn’t seem to get too hot, which is always a concern when you’re swapping out device-specific chargers.

Though the device has the “covert” naming convention that’s definitely more about its size than function. It’s not the most elegant solution in practice, though, mostly because there’s nowhere to put your console once it’s connected. If you’re hiding it in a cabinet it’s not an issue, but traveling with it will look a little like this.

When you’re on the go, any gaming setup is temporary and size matters first and foremost. Which is why the Genki Covert Dock really is great: it does what it’s supposed to, and takes up far less space than what it’s replacing. The $74.99 sticker price is high compared to other docks but saving you the trouble of untangling your cables to pack up your dock might already be worth that price tag for some. The flexibility it offers on where and on which screens you play your Switch in your home is always nice, too.

The biggest problem with the potential purchase is the fact that, well, most people aren’t going anywhere right now. Its greatest utility is as a travel device first and foremost, both for the Switch and other devices that can use its small package to keep gadgets powered on the go. While testing out the Covert Dock in my bedroom I thought about all the times I could have traveled lighter with it or changed things overseas with less stress. It was a bit of a downer, honestly, to know it won’t be fully utilized in the foreseeable future. Until then, the dock is a bit of an investment in a future where the Switch’s portability is once again more asset than aspirational.