Category: Worldwide

Wednesday was a landmark day in the sports world, as players from four major sports league’s refused to play in protest of Kenosha police shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back on Monday.

The first team to refuse to play was the Milwaukee Bucks, who issued a statement as a team hours after speaking with the Wisconsin attorney general and lieutenant governor on the phone to seek out what their next course of action can be. The Thunder and Rockets soon followed, with the Lakers and Blazers reaching the same decision not to play right as the NBA decided to officially postpone games amid a player strike — in an effort to avoid an immediate termination of the CBA.

From there, the Milwaukee Brewers followed suit by refusing to play their game with the Reds, with the Mariners-Padres game and Dodgers-Giants game likewise being called off after players chose not to play in protest. The WNBA, as they so often do, made a powerful statement with all of the players scheduled to play Wednesday night kneeling together at midcourt in shirts that spelled out Jacob Blake, likewise calling off their games after initial discussion of playing and protesting during the game

The MLS had one game play — Nashville vs. Orlando City — but at halftime of that game the rest of the league, beginning with Atlanta Unite and Inter Miami, decide they too would not play in protest and the rest of the night’s games were postponed by the league as well.

The Black Players for Change group in the MLS issued a statement voicing their support of the movement and the decision not to play made by players in sports all over the country.

Outside of team sports, top tennis star Naomi Osaka announced she would not be playing in her semifinal match on Thursday in protest as well.

It is a powerful movement, and as Chris Webber so eloquently said on TNT earlier in the night, what comes next, while important, is something players can take time to figure out. What is important is how many players are standing together on this issue, across sports, and expressing the need for significant change in this country with regards to police brutality and systemic racism. The Bucks have called for Wisconsin lawmakers to return to session to vote on a bill that includes police reforms that has not been voted on for more than a month, and players from the NBA, WNBA, and elsewhere in the sports world will have more in the way of demands and calls to action from fans and the leagues themselves soon.

Backed by a strong production from Hit-Boy, Nas’ King Disease has gone over well with fans. He continues to promote the album, this time with a video for the song “Ultra Black.” Directed by Spike Jordan, the video boasts cameos from legendary Harlem designer Dapper Dan, Pyer Moss founder Kerby Jean-Raymond, and Hit-Boy himself, all while Nas celebrates the beauty of the homes in Black America. It follows a few families through their daily routines in the video, their lives painted in a beautiful light by Nas’ lyrics.

The video arrives after Nas clarified that his Doja Cat line on the song, which caused some controversy shortly after its release, was simply a result of lyrical wordplay. “I just really was saying a rhyme that rhymed with ‘Ultra Black.’ I rhymed that word with ‘ultra black,’” he explained. “It’s all love. […] It’s bars, it’s just lines. We play with words.”

Nas has been on a heavy promo run following the release of King’s Disease. During his press run, the Brooklyn rapper has discussed missing out on a Notorious B.I.G. collaboration, rushing Nasir with Kanye West, sharing release dates with Jay-Z, and more.

You can watch the “Ultra Black” video above.

King’s Disease is out now on Mass Appeal Records. Get it here.

Back in February, Chris Evans — one of the most likeable of the Avengers, which is saying something — made people mad. How? By taking a picture with Ted Cruz. Granted, it wasn’t just a photo with the controversial Senator and failed presidential candidate; Cruz’s daughter Caroline was in between them. But it seemed jarring that the very progressive former Captain America would willingly be within 30 miles of Cruz, let alone document it for posterity.

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1227683706875371521

The incident, of course, was mostly forgotten, particularly as, well, other, more important matters took up our collective brain space. But half a year later, while chatting on The Daily Show, the actor opened up about it and attempted to explain his reasoning.

He had a couple excuses. “In that circumstance, it was a child,” Evans said, addressing Cruz’s daughter. “I’ll always take a picture with a kid.”

But that wasn’t all. Evans had also started a utopian (or maybe simply overly ambitious) political project called A Talking Point, which is described as a way to “create a bipartisan channel of communication and connectivity between Americans and their elected officials.” Naturally he’d wind up face-to-face with one of the GOP’s most prominent members. So he had another, deeper reason for the Cruz picture:

“[I]n general, just even sitting down with certain politicians ― there are certain people on the extremes of both parties who, there’s no wiggle room for that. And again, what I would argue is, look, if this person wasn’t in power, if this person wasn’t writing bills that affected your life, fine, we can shun them. You know what I mean? We can scream louder than them. But we can’t pretend they don’t have some sort of say, some sort of impact.”

In other words, he meant well. He even thinks it’s lofty to converse with someone with whom he, and many of his fans, vehemently disagree about, well, just about everything. Evans said he finds it “far more pernicious to become stubborn and retreat to your corner” instead of having a conversation, attempting to find “landscape of competing ideas,” as he puts it. “Because I think the other way just becomes cyclical, and everyone spirals, and no one listens, and I don’t think you move the ball down the field as effectively as you would if you say: OK, let’s just, you know … out-talk me.”

In any case, best of luck to Evans as he tries to do A Talking Point during what may be the most combative election season in recorded history!

You can watch the full interview in the video above. The Cruz business begins around the 5:43 mark.

(Via Huffington Post)

The NBA announced that it will not hold today’s playoff games after several teams, starting with the Milwaukee Bucks, decided to boycott over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

The coach of the L.A. Clippers, Doc Rivers, shared his reaction to the shooting, as well as to the country’s current unrest over racial injustice in a video that’s been shared widely. Steph Curry, who plays for the Golden State Warriors, wrote on Twitter, “Proud to know you @DocRivers. Sometimes we don’t know what to say every time this hurt happens. We Need Change! There is so much Truth in every Every word of this. Y’all wake up.”

Doc Rivers Delivers Emotional Speech On Jacob Blake

www.youtube.com

Coach Rivers explained the strangeness of the fearmongering coming from the president and the RNC when Black people are the ones who have always had reason to fear. He pointed out the hypocrisy in the way protests for Black Lives are met with riot gear versus the way men with guns who storm capitol buildings are handled with kid gloves by the police. But perhaps the most powerful moment came when he said, “It’s amazing to me…why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back.”

LeBron James expressed himself a bit more forcefully today on Twitter as the NBA announced its cancellation of the playoff games.

As Doc Rivers said, “It’s really so sad. Like, I should just be a coach. And I’m so often reminded of my color. You know, it’s just really sad. We’ve got to do better. But we’ve got to demand better.”

We all need to demand better of our law enforcement system that enforces laws unevenly and of our justice system that serves justice unequally. “My dad was a cop,” said Rivers. “I believe in good cops. We’re not trying to defund them and take all their money away. We’re trying to get them to protect us, just like they protect everybody else.”

Yet another unarmed Black man was shot multiple times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin over the weekend, prompting outrage among the citizens who’ve been protesting just this type of targeting of minorities by law enforcement. Numerous NBA players have spoken out about the incident in recent days, expressing their devastation and frustration about the ongoing systemic mistreatment and oppression of Black people in America.

There was even some chatter earlier in the week that players were considering boycotting some of the upcoming playoff games this week, a scenario that quickly came to fruition on Wednesday as teams made a unified decision to sit out their scheduled playoff games. The WNBA also decided to sit out their games.

George Hill was one of the first to suggest this as a possibility in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, questioning his own decision to participate in the restart amid the nationwide protests, so it was only fitting that he and the Bucks led the charge on Wednesday when they were the first announce that they were refusing to play Game 5 against the Orlando Magic.

Later in the evening, Hill and Sterling Brown read a team statement explaining their decision and using the opportunity to once again demand justice for Jacob Blake, whose parents say he has been left paralyzed by the shooting, and the subsequent shooting of protesters.

Full statement from the Milwaukee Bucks: pic.twitter.com/jjGEyVcCmB

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) August 26, 2020

Here is the full text of their statement.

Full statement from Milwaukee Bucks players who led NBA boycott tonight. pic.twitter.com/AOmHxwUTa7

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 26, 2020

The Bucks owners also came out in support of the players’ decision.

A statement from the Milwaukee Bucks owners: “We fully support our players and the decision they made…” pic.twitter.com/k4Mg63A1N9

— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) August 26, 2020

There’s been no official word about Thursday’s playoff games yet, but we’ll continue to update the situation throughout the night as it develops.

On Monday, St. Vincent will share her audio project, St. Vincent: Words + Music, as a part of Audible’s Words + Music series. The project will find St. Vincent discussing her influences, lyrics, and the “discovery of her authentic self.” And ahead of its release she sat down for an interview with The Los Angeles Times to discussing the project, her love for podcasts, and her ability to be creative during the pandemic.

St. Vincent explained her decision to give fans a new piece of her life that she previously left untouched, including her father’s imprisonment in the 2000s. “I’ve always wanted people to enjoy and take in my music for what the music was. I don’t want it to be like a piece of art on the wall that needs an explanation in order to enjoy it. I want it to be enjoyed and interpreted on its own merit,” she said. “I think that in the past I felt way more protective of my family and my privacy because he was still in there. But since then, he’s been released, and we have a great relationship… That’s why I feel fine about throwing it out there, because frankly, it had the happiest possible ending.”

St. Vincent also discussed one of her obsessions. “I’m obsessed with podcasts and audiobooks. I probably listen to more audiobooks than I do music.”

She also talked about her creative process during the pandemic and how it changed her process. “I’m doing OK. It’s been a really productive time, but in a different way. I have this theory that people who are creative for a living were dumbstruck, creatively, by the pandemic, because we all need an element of chaos in our day to be able to grab inspiration,” she explained. “People who are creative for a living have had a very hard time being creative during the pandemic. But a lot of people who aren’t necessarily creative for a living are like, ‘It’s a great time. I’ve finally learned how to knit and I finally wrote that short story that I‘d been meaning to do.’”

(via The Los Angeles Times)

It’s been a historic day in the world of professional sports. After much discussion in recent days about the possibility of NBA players sitting out upcoming games as a form of protest to the latest police shooting involving an unarmed black man, players formed a unified front and decided to postpone Wednesday’s playoff games.

The Bucks kicked things off when they refused to play Game 5 against the Orlando Magic, and the Rockets and Thunder quickly followed suit, marking a historic moment in the fight for social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement across America that has taken hold the past several months. Some MLB teams in the Brewers and Mariners followed suit, and as the WNBA prepared for games in the Wubble at IMG Academy there were various reports of how they would proceed.

After initially planning to play and protesting by stopping play every seven minutes, players decided to join the NBA in sitting out the night’s games, as teams joined each other on the court to take a knee in shirts spelling out Jacob Blake’s name.

The scene from the WNBA bubble, where no games will be held tonight pic.twitter.com/PvM4OFJSXT

— Kelyn Soong (@KelynSoong) August 26, 2020

Elizabeth Williams then read an official statement about the cancellation on ESPN.

Center @E_Williams_1 reads statement on @espn as the representative for all @WNBA players. Tonight’s games have been cancelled. pic.twitter.com/xDz4uCQSiD

— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream) August 26, 2020

It’s a watershed moment for the NBA, the WNBA, and the world of pro sports in general. We’ll learn more about what the NBA plans to do moving forward after a player meeting on Wednesday night, but it’s clear that across the country, players are in lockstep with the importance of this moment and movement.

With NBA players going on a wildcat strike after the Bucks refused to take the floor in protest of a police officer shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin, TNT held a 30-minute special with the Inside the NBA crew being joined by Chris Webber and Stan Van Gundy from the Bubble.

Kenny Smith chose to walk off set in solidarity with the players at the start of the show in a powerful moment. Webber, meanwhile, explained that he wanted to come on to be a voice that isn’t often heard. What followed was one of the most powerful three minutes you’ll see on the topic of racism on any TV network.

“Well EJ, it was reported that four years ago today in a preseason game that Kaepernick first took a knee. No this has never happened before, but I’m sure Dr. Harry Edwards, Dr. John Carlos, Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, and others have been praying for this day. Shout out to Kenny that walked off. I wanted to have a voice in this because I feel like we only have the same couple voices talking during these times, so it’s very important for me to come over here. I keep hearing the question, “What’s next? What’s next?” Well, you’ve got to plan what’s next. You have to figure out what’s next. I’m very proud of the players. I don’t know the next steps. I don’t really care what the next steps are because the first steps are to garner attention, and they have everybody’s attention around the world right now. Then leadership and others will get together and decide the next steps. We know it won’t end tomorrow. We know that there’s been a million marches and nothing will change tomorrow.

“We know vote. We keep hearing vote. Everybody vote. But I’m here to speak for those that are always marginalized. Those that live in these neighborhoods where we preach and tell them to vote and then walk away. Charles Barkley came to my high school. Just seeing him in the locker room, seeing his hands and seeing his body, that inspired me. You can’t see something — you can’t be something til you see it. And when I tell you the little kids that have called me, upset — I have a godson with autism and I just had to explain to him why we aren’t playing. I have young nephews that I’ve had to talk to about death before they’ve even seen it in a movie.

“If not now, when? If not during a pandemic and countless lives being lost. If not now, when? That’s all I want to hear from the rest of the night when everybody’s pontificating and thinking and soapboxing and all of that, we know nothing is going to change. We get it. If Martin Luther King got shot and risked his life, Medgar Evers, and we’ve seen this in all of our heroes constantly taken down. We understand it’s not going to end, but that does not mean young men that you don’t do anything. Don’t listen to these people telling you don’t do anything because it’s not going to end right away. You are starting something for the next generation and the next generation to take over. Do you have to be smart? Yes. Do you have to make sure you have a plan? Yes. Do you have to be articulate about that plan? Yes. All of those things, but that’s what you’re going to do. They’re professionals, they know how to be the best of themselves. So I applaud it. I applaud it because it’s the young people, the young people leading the way. And I applaud them.”

In three minutes, Webber dives into so much, eloquently expressing the frustration and exasperation of Black people around the country to continuing to see police violence and racism, to seeing their protests and calls for justice ignored, time and time again. At the same time he expresses optimism and a call to action to young people to never give up the fight, no matter how often people tell you it’s a fruitless venture. It’s a powerful message and one that, hopefully, everyone takes heed of. His presence on Wednesday night’s airwaves were vitally important, as his perspective was much needed and what he said got into issues that are rarely presented.

The NBA’s players led a strike on Wednesday afternoon. The Milwaukee Bucks kicked things off, refusing to play their game against the Orlando Magic in response to the police shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake of Kenosha, Wisconsin. The remaining four teams in the league scheduled to play on Wednesday followed suit, and now, a meeting is scheduled for 8 p.m. among players where they are expected to discuss next steps in the aftermath of this demonstration.

A pair of MLB teams, the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, have joined in as of this writing. A pillar of the NBA on TNT crew decided to join in on the movement, as Kenny Smith explained how he was feeling, took off his microphone, and left the set for the evening.

“For me, I think the biggest thing now is to kind of — as a black man, as a former player — I think it’s best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight,” Smith said. “And figure out what happens after that.”

It was a powerful moment, and it is unclear if Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and those involved in producing the show were aware that this was coming.

Hurricane Laura is 2020’s latest blow to humanity and, as of this writing, it hasn’t even made landfall yet. Currently classified as a Category 4 storm (but with Category 5 potential), it’s set to make landfall near the border of Louisiana and Texas Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. The Weather Channel advises residents of those areas to prepare for a major strike. Some sources are even blunter about the destruction en route. Even a local New Orleans news meteorologist was just barely able to hold it together while delivering a dire warning to viewers during a live shot.

Margaret Orr, Chief Meteorologist at WDSU-TV, found herself having to interrupt her colleagues on the air after receiving still more alarming news. The message came from the National Hurricane Center, and before she read it aloud, Orr’s introduction didn’t exactly inspire confidence. “It truly reminds me shades of Katrina,” Orr said, looking back at the devastating 2005 hurricane that destroyed large swaths of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

The message Orr relayed was made public by the National Hurricane Center’s Twitter account.

“Unsurvivable storm surge with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage from Sea Rim State Park, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, including Calcasieu and Sabine Lakes,” the message read. “This surge could penetrate up to 30 miles inland from the immediate coastline.”

After reading the words — among them “unsurvivable storm surge” — aloud on-air, Orr simply took a deep breath and told viewers, “That’s all I have to say,” then walked off.

As per the Associated Press, Hurricane Laura grew in size by nearly 70% in just 24 hours, with winds currently estimated to go as high as 145 mph. AP estimates that the storm is “capable of sinking entire communities,” and authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders in places that are expected to be directly hit.

Even well before the hurricane was expected to hit, harrowing footage has been appearing on social media.

Stay safe, everyone.