Have you noticed in uptick in basketball imagery lately? You’re not alone! As the NBA finals continue and the USA Olympic basketball team finally takes shape, everyone is chatting up the sport, especially the women who excel at it.
But on the scripted side of things, Hulu is also entering the basketball zone conversation with Clipped, a new miniseries that premiered this month. It has nothing to do with that barber shop sitcom starring Ashley Tisdale from 2015, just in case you were confused.
Clipped is based on ESPN’s podcast The Sterling Affairs, which told the tumultuous downfall of former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. You may or may not remember his racist rant which was exposed by his mistress back in 2014. Now, the ordeal is chronicled in a new six episode drama starring Laurence Fishburne, Ed O’Neill, Jacki Weaver and Cleopatra Coleman. Here is the official synopsis:
Based on the hit ESPN 30 for 30 podcast The Sterling Affairs, this limited series charts the collision between a dysfunctional basketball organization and even less functional marriage, and the precipitating tape’s impact on an ensemble of characters striving to win against the backdrop of the most cursed team in the league.
Episode four of Clipped, called “Winning Ugly,” will hit Hulu at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, June 18th. The synopsis for episode four reads, “Behind every great fortune is the opportunity to sell the f out.” This is also true for real life!
You can stream the first three episodes of Clipped now on Hulu.
Alex Caruso is entering the final year of his contract with the Chicago Bulls, and teams are hoping the Bulls finally make him available this summer if they aren’t able to sign him to an extension.
Caruso is highly coveted because he is one of the NBA’s best and most versatile perimeter defenders, earning second team All-Defense honors this season, and his current contract, paying him just shy of $10 million next year, is an incredible value. Ahead of the 2024 NBA trade deadline, teams made a strong push for Caruso, but the Bulls rebuffed every offer. Among those was an offer that included a top-10 pick in this year’s Draft, as well as a strong effort from the Warriors to bring Caruso to the Bay, per Will Gottlieb of CHGO.
The Bulls took calls on Caruso, but never made them. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the Bulls have received offers from multiple teams, consisting of multiple protected first-round picks. One of those deals included a pick in the top-10 of the 2024 Draft, the source said. The Golden State Warriors were among teams who made a strong offer for Caruso, multiple sources confirmed.
Even considering the relative weakness of the 2024 Draft, you don’t often get teams putting those kinds of picks on the table. As for why they turned it down, Gottlieb noted there was a mandate from ownership to make a playoff push (the Bulls finished 9th, ultimately losing in the Play-In to Miami), which put the brakes on any pivot to the future by the front office.
This summer, Caruso can sign an extension worth just under $80 million, but it’s not clear if the Bulls will offer that or if he’d accept it, given how highly teams value his abilities around the league. If Chicago does not get Caruso signed long-term, they may have to put him back on the trade market, and it’s possible they’ll have passed on the highest pick they could’ve gotten for him, as he’d now be just a one-year rental (with the ability to sign him next summer using Bird rights).
BTS member Jimin had a humongous 2023: He released Face, his debut solo album, which managed a peak at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album also spawned the hit single “Like Crazy,” which hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 to become the first chart-topper by a South Korean solo artist.
So, he’s on a roll, and he’s going to keep that going in 2024 with another new solo album: Today (June 17), he announced Muse, which is set for release on July 19. Here’s the announcement video:
A press release notes that the new project “documents his journey to find the source of his inspiration” and that it “will showcase his expanded musical spectrum across seven tracks.” Among those songs is “Closer Than This,” which Jimin released in December 2023.
Robyn appeared on Charli XCX’s “360” remix. Apparently, that was just an adjacent appetizer for Jamie xx’s “Life” featuring Robyn, described in a press release as the Swedish pop icon’s “first major new release since 2018’s Honey.” The exuberant, disco-infused song is the latest single from Jamie xx’s forthcoming In Waves album, which will be released on September 20.
“I made this track pretty fast (for me), and I loved it from day one,” Jamie xx said in a statement. “When I first heard Robyn’s vocal, it was at 6 a.m. after finishing playing at Pacha in Ibiza; it was the perfect moment. Robyn and I have spent time working together and hanging out for some years now, it’s always a joy and always inspiring. I’m so glad and grateful that she is a part of In Waves. Thank you, Robyn, for bringing this track to life!”
Robyn added, “I just want to see how ‘Life’ gets people dancing this summer. I can’t wait for that. Jamie is such a brilliant creator, I’m excited to be part of his album.”
In the song, Robyn describes someone “giving me life” in various forms (“Sh*tty, pretty, wild”) and wants to “make it last.” This dynamic, mysterious person is giving off “first kiss,” “walk of shame,” and “strong torso” all at once, so, naturally, Robyn is entranced. “No, I’ll never get enough,” she sings in the pulsating chorus. “It’s just a matter of fact / I will never get this back / Let’s make it last all night.”
Listen to “Life” above, and find more information about Jamie xx’s In Waves below.
Jamie xx’s In Waves Album Cover Artwork
Jamie xx
Jamie xx’s In Waves Tracklist
1. “Wanna”
2. “Treat Each Other Right”
3. “Waited All Night” Feat. Romy & Oliver Sim
4. “Baddy On The Floor” Feat. Honey Dijon
5. “Dafodil” Feat. Kelsey Lu, John Glacier & Panda Bear
6. “Still Summer”
7. “Life” Feat. Robyn
8. “The Feeling I Get From You”
9. “Breather”
10. “All You Children” Feat. The Avalanches
11. “Every Single Weekend (Interlude)”
12. “Falling Together” Feat. Oona Doherty
Deluxe LP Bonus 12″ Package
1. “F U” Feat. Erykah Badu
2. “It’s So Good”
3. “Do Something”
4. “LET’S DO IT AGAIN”
5. “KILL DEM”
In Waves is out 9/20 via Young. Find more information here.
Nic Cage has been there for you all those times when you needed him most. He’s been that familiar face who shows up in time, whether it’s in a silly little B movie or to steal the declaration of independence. He’s an action star, a voice actor, the father to many pets. But his next role is of a serial killer, and that’s not something we see Cage tap into a lot, aside from his revenge kills.
Cage stars in Longlegs, the upcoming horror flick from Neon, as the aforementioned serial killer who is being hunted by the FBI after a series of brutal murders.
While Neon has been mysteriously and meticulously dropping little tidbits about Cage’s serial killer, not much else is known about his role in the film, which makes it even creepier. So why shouldn’t they lean into it even more and scare you in the comfort of your own home?
Longlegs’ official social pages have shared a phone number for fans to call if they want to hear “the man downstairs” which sounds a lot like a serial killer version of Nic Cage. You can dial the number 458.666.4355 to hear it.
If you are too afraid to use your own phone to invite Cage’s serial killer into your brain, you can listen to the recording below.
Is a phone call too scary for you? You must be a millennial. There is also a early aughts-inspired website that was launched this week (as viral marketing) to help you piece together Longlegs’ brutal murders. Click if you don’t mine being spooked by basic HTML.
Every year, when EA Sports announces its upcoming edition of Madden, they release information about what they’ve added that will make this year’s version feel and play better than the year prior. The tricky part is, a one-year development cycle isn’t always enough to make major changes to the game — at least, changes that won’t have unintended negative consequences. But the folks at EA have learned their lesson not to rush attempts at innovation.
For example, this year’s big gameplay addition is BoomTech, a new physics-based tackling and ball-carrier engine that (at least, in my opinion) delivers on its promise to create an improved feel to running and tackling, and more realistic interactions between ball-carriers and defenders. It arrives in Madden NFL 25, but as senior game design director Connor Dougan explained, it’s been in development for two years and simply wasn’t ready to ship for ’24.
“A good example of that is actually with what we’re doing with BoomTech and gameplay,” Dougan said. “So we talk about an initiative which gives players more control more, more dynamic outcomes, less animation base. That’s a hard problem to solve, right? And we’ve been on this for two years. If we could have shipped it last year, we would have, but we now understand, especially like what we’re talking about with sports titles, you got to spend more time innovating, and maybe making some mistakes and taking the time to get it right. And I think from a Madden perspective, we’re really realizing the benefit of that in the product.”
That intent to build the game out not just for the immediate release but with the long-term in mind is also at the core of their efforts to revitalize Franchise mode. As EA Sports has spent years building up Ultimate Team and the game’s online functionality, fans have felt that Franchise mode has been a bit neglected. This year, they’re taking more of a focus on expanding and improving Franchise, with principal game designer Josh Looman returning to the Madden team this year and taking over the mode’s development. As Looman and Dougan explained to UPROXX, they wanted to push the team to create more immersion and make the game more dynamic, tasking the player with making tougher decisions that have impact beyond just the week-to-week and giving them a more realistic experience of running an NFL team.
“We’ve really got to nail immersion,” Looman said of his focus in returning to EA Sports. “Like, we’ve got to make this mode feel alive. We’ve got to keep doing that moving forward, but this year, especially, and let’s talk about how we can do that because, you know, that was my main feedback as I played the game last year. It was like there’s a lot of great new features, and they’re awesome, but I really would love to feel some surprises. You know, give me some new ways to develop my players and some things that I don’t expect and things I’ve got to manage and that kind of stuff along the way. And so I think that was our priority coming in.”
From a game design element, Dougan noted that the immersive element needed to not just be in creating a deeper story, but making sure the presentation matched that effort.
“When you think about what we’ve delivered in Franchise over the last two years, where, we’re really getting to a spot where we go, ‘Okay, what are we missing?’ Our fans, our players have told us that they need more, we’re delivering more and more and more,” Dougan said. “The experiences themselves are great experiences, but what we talked about — like free agency, what we could do with relocation in Madden 24 — but they’re also very menu based which is, a lot of players love that, don’t get me wrong. But creatively, I think there’s a huge opportunity, and obviously the franchise team agrees, to give you that immersion, to find new ways for you to control your team, and some surprise and delight moments. Josh and the team have added a ton of that, and then on top of that, so you got the immersion pillar, but then what else do Franchise players want? They want deep customization, we talk about that. And then of course, more depth everywhere, and they want this tuned, that tuned, this problem fixed that’s been nagging them since Madden 18 or whatever it may be. And there’s no shortage of things to improve in the mode from both a feature standpoint and just from what we call a core depth systems.”
Looman made it clear in his presentation at the Madden launch event in Orlando that he felt Franchise mode hadn’t been doing enough in terms of providing that immersive experience recently. So, when he returned to the EA Sports team, he dove in on developing a storyline that would give players a more realistic feeling of running a team, hoping to lay a foundation to continue building on for future iterations of the mode.
The result is at least 74 new dynamic storylines (with that number possibly growing by the time the game launches, “depending on how much sleep I get,” Looman noted) that will task players with more than just weekly checkpoints that pop up in the menu. During the season, you’ll see game-planning storylines pop up that are opponent specific, but also various dynamic storylines that can trigger based on what is happening in your season, and can last throughout the season — for example, managing a receiver on pace for a historic season and whether you push the ball more his way at the risk of getting out of your typical offense. As Dougan notes, the toughest part was whittling away at the countless ideas Looman brought to him, and dialing in what was vital to building that foundation and hitting on the things that would bring the biggest return on investment in this first year.
Having more in-season stories that go beyond single-game goals is exciting, but what I’m most intrigued by is how they are beefing up the offseason. What was once a list of checkpoints will now be much more built out, with the NFL Draft as a central focus now rather than a brief event on the calendar, and more roster management storylines in place. The goal was to give it a more lifelike feel, but also to force the player to think a bit deeper about their decision-making and create more consequences for actions.
“Really, it came down to looking at what teams do in real life, and coming up with a question of like, what’s your plan for the offseason?” Looman explained. “We have dynamic storylines where you could have a quarterback come to you and go, ‘I don’t have anybody to throw to. I don’t have a true number one wide receiver, and I want you to go get me one.’ And you can tell your quarterback how you’re going to do that, but you have to make some sort of promise. Or you can just say, ‘Look, you got to be fine with the guys you have,’ and he’s not going to be happy about that. But really presenting you with those moments that feel special, that makes sense contextually, and also like, force you to make tough decisions along the way. Like it’s another thing I’ve hated in stories in the past in all sports games, is sometimes it just feels like you’ve got two options and you’re like, ‘Okay, that one doesn’t matter and that one doesn’t matter.’ And I don’t want that. Like, I want to give you plenty of rewards with these things, but I also want you to have to make promises and hold to them. Because part of that is helping you develop your team and build your team down the road. So your quarterback’s right. Bryce Young does need weapons. Like he needs you to build around him and if bringing that to you through a storyline helps guide you through the process of making your team better, that’s a good thing.”
On the Draft side, they got Roger Goodell scanned into the game for the first time and built out the Draft presentation to look more like it does in real life. However, a better presentation can only get you so far with players, and as the Madden team knows, they have to continue to go back and look at how the game is playing and be self-critical about the areas that need improving. With regards to the Draft, they realized there wasn’t enough realism in the way guys moved up and down boards throughout the process, with little in the way of smaller moves within rounds and too many random guys jumping up a ton of spots.
This year, they’ll have guys shuffle up and down more from the Combine to Draft night. As the GM, you’ll have to be more aware of that movement on the draft projections to know if your top target will still be available when you’re picking, or if other teams have moved him up and you might need to look at trading up. As Looman notes, the Draft is too big a part of the NFL calendar to have it be a secondary element of Franchise mode.
“I think for me, it comes down to, it’s such an important part of real life,” Looman said. “It’s doing justice to real life in delivering that experience in Franchise mode, so that as you’re drafting you get this immediate feedback of like, there’s the actual guy and he’s holding up the jersey and like, this is a special moment for me. And then beyond that, it’s looking at all the systems around it, like we talked about and making sure that they all make sense too. So the fact that like nobody’s moving up and down draft boards at all, or you’ve got one fourth round guy that moves up 87 picks for no reason. It’s making sure that we keep an eye on that kind of stuff and carefully look at each of those things every year and go we gotta get that right. We know what happens in real life. That’s what our fans expect. Let’s deliver that same experience. If we’re not delivering it now.”
“When I look at the Draft or where the Draft is gonna end up, like, I think our players are going to be really happy with the result,” Dougan added. “But there’s always, in game development, there’s always more we can do. Like I mean, you look at the real NFL Draft and it’s a spectacle.”
Knowing what happens in real life and delivering on that in a video game is a tricky task, though, and goes beyond creating a story that captivates the person playing the game. The 31 other franchises also have to be running their teams in the background, and those decisions made by the game’s AI are just as impactful to the playing experience as the decisions Dougan, Looman, and their team are making on the story front. As such, they wanted to clean up some things that have been issues in the past, like getting players to age more realistically and having teams make roster decisions that make more sense.
“Those are our core systems that are a big part of Franchise mode, that every year require a lot of love,” Looman said. “Like you gotta do that due diligence and sit down and play it as a fan, and look at every decision that’s made. And look at them and go, why is that happening right there?”
“And every team has unique circumstances, because of salary cap, roster,” Dougan added. “So just in terms of like the matrix of all the different possibilities and scenarios, like there’s a lot of tuning and a lot of work to handle all the different cases for all the teams.”
“It really does come down to like understanding the fans’ perspective, and looking at all of the different systems, like progression and being able to recognize Derrick Henry should not be getting faster when he’s 31,” Looman noted. “It just shouldn’t be happening. So spending the time and effort to recognize those things and then be able to fix them.”
When the game releases on August 16, players will get the chance to see how much they’ve been able to improve the Franchise experience for Madden NFL 25. The team’s approach was to try and come at this as a fan of the game and be honest about what needed to change — Looman was that fan on the outside prior to his return to EA Sports.
The goal is to lay a foundation that makes the game more enjoyable and provides that richer, deeper experience. Creating that for the core Franchise player that’s playing deep into a career is a particularly unique challenge, and one Looman says is a work in progress. His goal this year was to create situations that have more depth, while also creating enough variance and unique stories to more specific situations so that players won’t feel like they’re running into the same recycled stories every single season.
“There are some limitations. Like it’s difficult to have a story that lasts like two years or something like that. But what I’ve tried to do is you are going to have some stories throughout the season that makes sense based on your opponent, right? So, like you’re facing somebody that’s got a weak offensive line, that makes sense, because that’s the team you’re playing that week and that kind of thing,” Looman explained. “But there’s also special situations, storylines that only trigger once you draft a rookie quarterback, or when you’ve got a high-round wide receiver or halfback. Like what’s your plan for that guy this year? Or, you know, we’ve got a great wide receiver right now that’s on pace like Tyreek Hill was last year halfway through the season to really like have an amazing year, that’s only going to trigger in that special situation. So you’re not going to run into that every year. But you could run into it in those moments where it makes sense over time. What I’ve tried to be careful of is, like, I don’t want the repetitive ones that show up every single week over and over and over. Your game plan ones will show up more, and setting your culture at the start of the season and that kind of stuff, but there’s others that really only are specific to your roster and show up when the situation presents itself, and I’d love to do more of those in the future.”
Uproxx was invited on a hosted trip by EA Sports for reporting on this piece. They did not review or approve this story. You can find out more about our policy on press trips/hostings here.
Some House of the Dragon viewers expected “A Son For A Son” to roll out the Blood and Cheese scene in a way that outdid the Game of Thrones‘ so-called “Red Wedding” episode (“The Rains of Castamere,” Season 3 Episode 9). Those viewers have expressed their disappointment, although it’s worth mentioning that the way that Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) reacted is in accordance with how her TV version of the character is almost certainly neurodivergent from the beginning of HBO’s adaptation, and some changes to characters of George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood book are bound to happen.
That audience disagreement aside, this premiere episode did contain other emotional scenes, and a certain scene especially, that hit hard. The episode began with Jace Targaryen (Harry Collett) visiting Winterfell, where he met with Cragan Stark (Tom Taylor) in an effort to round up support for Queen Rhaenyra’s rightful place on the Iron Throne. This gave us a glimpse of Jace’s new position of diplomacy, and when he reported back to his mother, Jace delivered news of his progress (including Cragan’s promise “of 2,000 men”) in as business-like a way as possible before his voice broke. That led to an embrace that could crush the heart of any TV viewer.
idc what anyone says but this episode was OWNED by Harry and Emma kinda crazy how even in green centered episode with only few lines Jace and Rhaenyra’ hug managed to evoke more emotions than Blood and Cheese pic.twitter.com/3paAMzPb0E
the way she had to mentally prepare herself to meet jace’s eyes im launching myself into the sun pic.twitter.com/BVOlgRdUEa
— pepper! is team black (@rhaenyrastyx) June 17, 2024
We don’t yet know how much more of Jace’s travels that we will see (and showrunner Ryan Condal has revealed to Entertainment Weekly that we won’t see much of Cragan Stark this season). However, Jace clearly had success with the Starks while zooming around Westeros, and also, it sure was nice to see Winterfell again, if only for a few moments.
During a recent Midwest Princess Tour show, Chappell Roan opened up about the “heavy” pressure she felt because her “career is going really fast.” Hopefully, Roan felt a little bit better after meeting “Baby Chappell,” a toddler named Juliet Wasson who has gone TikTok viral for dressing like Chappell Roan, at Kentuckiana Pride Festival over the weekend.
The moment was captured in Kelsey Wasson’s TikTok showing Baby Chappell running around backstage and turning around to be greeted by the real Chappell Roan. It took about 40 seconds for Juliet to realize she was standing before Chappell Roan, and once she did, she beamed in awe. “I love you,” Juliet said.
“Baby Chappell” went viral last week when Kelsey Wasson posted a TikTok in which Juliet corrects her mom: “I’m not Juliet! I’m Chappell Roan!” She’s dressed in a pink sequined onesie and white boots. The TikTok has been viewed 8.4 million times.
According to WDRB News, Kentuckiana Pride Festival was Juliet’s first concert, and Chappell Roan’s PR team had planned to surprise Juliet with a meet-and-greet.
“After the concert, [the Wassons] stayed at Waterfront Park for about 30 minutes because people recognized Juliet from TikTok and formed a line to take photos with the young child,” the local news report relayed.
Last week, the US House Of Representatives passed a measure that automatically registers men between the ages of 18 and 26 for selective service (as Fox 11 Los Angeles reports). The last draft call was in the 1970s, so we probably won’t see a military draft any time soon. Still, if one were to happen, Cardi B isn’t feeling too confident in the state of our country’s young men.
In a video reacting to the news, Cardi said:
“So I just read an article saying that the House just passed a bill that they’re going to automatically register men from 18 to 26 for war, OK? And all I wanna say is, to America: good luck with that [laughs]. These new little n****s are TikTokers, baby. These motherf*ckers ain’t going to fight no war. You gon’ die! You might as well just keep motherf*cking investing money in y’all guns, ’cause these new kids? You want to send these new kids to fight these wars? The TikTok f*cking hip-shakers? Out of your mind [laughs].
This is a new America, baby, this ain’t the 19-motherf*cking… No, like, seriously, you gonna draft these kids that be TikToking all day to fight them, what, most likely what, them Russians? Them motherf*ckers that be fighting bears and sh*t, and motherf*cking clammy monsters to go to school and whatever? I got some news for you motherf*ckers.”
Tems delivered a beautiful NPR Tiny Desk concert ahead of her Born In The Wild album release on June 7, and it incidentally gave fans a taste for what to expect during Tems’ Born In The Wild World Tour. The Nigerian artist’s first-ever global trek kicked off in London, England, last week, and she most recently staged a show at L’Olympia in Paris, France on Sunday, June 16.
Tems’ Born In The Wild World Tour Setlist
The below setlist is from Tems’ show in London on June 12, as chronicled by fans on setlist.fm.
1. “Higher”
2. “Avoid Things”
3. “Replay”
4. “Damages”
5. “Wickedest”
6. “Turn Me Up”
7. “Burning”
8. “Ice T”
9. “Forever”
10. “Born In The Wild” (Played From Tape)
11. “Boy O Boy”
12. “Found” (Tems Feat. Brent Faiyaz cover)
13. “Unfortunate”
14. “Not An Angel”
15. “Love Me JeJe”
16. “Essence” (Wizkid cover)
17. “Me & U”
18. “Crazy Tings”
19. “Free Mind”
08/22 — Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore
08/24 — Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Cafe
08/26 — Dallas, TX @ Gilley’s South Side Ballroom
08/28 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
08/30 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
09/01 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
09/03 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
09/05 — New York City, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
09/07 — Toronto, ON, Canada @ History
09/08 — Toronto, ON, Canada @ History
09/11 — Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena
09/13 — Montreal, QC, Canada @ L’Olympia
09/15 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09/17 — Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom
09/22 — Vancouver, BC, Canada @ The Queen Elizabeth Theatre
09/25 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SODO
09/27 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
09/29 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Theatre At Virgin Hotel
10/01 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
Africa
TBA
Asia
TBA
Australia
11/09 — Melbourne @ Margaret Court Arena
11/12 — Brisbane @ Fortitude Music Hall
11/15 — Sydney @ The Hordern Pavilion
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(@VISVNYA) 
(@rosechehrazi) 
Zande
(@KongoZande) 
.+Wil / Tarot+. 
what an amazing person and an amazing family! They set Juliet up like a celebrity! 
