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UPDATE: The NBA confirmed Wojnarowski’s report, saying that Green “will be required to meet certain league and team conditions before he returns to play.”

EARLIER: For the second time this season, the NBA has handed down a lengthy suspension to Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green. In the aftermath of his ejection for swinging his arm and hitting Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic on Tuesday night, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Green is going to face an indefinite suspension.

Tuesday’s incident occurred in the third quarter of the game, with Green catching Nurkic in the face and earning a Flagrant 2. He made it a point to apologize in his postgame press conference, although Nurkic told the media that he believes Green “needs help.” The Suns would go on to win the game, 119-116.

The incident came less than a month after the NBA gave Green a 5-game suspension for his role in a fight between the Warriors and the Minnesota Timberwolves. After some shoving between Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert came in and attempted to pull them apart. Green responded to this by putting Gobert in a sleeper hold while pulling him away from the fracas.

Tuesday’s game against the Suns was the sixth since Green returned from that suspension. Green has appeared in 15 games this season for the Warriors, averaging 9.7 points, 5.8 assists, and 5.5 rebounds in 25.1 minutes per game.

Donald Trump has sure amassed a slew of questionable firsts. Perhaps most impressively he’s the first U.S. president to be hit with any criminal indictments. And he’s got four of them! The big guy may even be the first to be sent to the slammer. Another (probable) first: He’s the first to have their attorneys reference Dr. Seuss in a court filing.

Per The Daily Beast, on Wednesday Trump’s forever embattled revolving door legal team took aim at special counsel Jack Smith, who’s leading two of the criminal investigations into the former president: the Jan. 6 one and the government documents one. Specially they formally bristled at his request to expedite the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s review of whether their client has executive immunity from criminal charges. At this rate, appealing that would require Trump’s attorneys to have materials ready the day after Christmas.

“This proposed schedule would require attorneys and support staff to work round-the-clock through the holidays, inevitably disrupting family and travel plans,” read their complaint. Then they referenced one of Dr. Seuss’ most enduring works. “It is as if the Special Counsel ‘growled, with his Grinch fingers drumming, “I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming… But how?”’”

It is kind of mean to force lawyers to work through the holidays, all to keep their chaos agent client out of the clink. Still, CNN’s Jake Tapper couldn’t keep a straight face when reporting about a filing quoting How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, per Mediaite.

“So, the lawyers of Whoville could have a bleak Christmas, I guess is the argument,” Tapper joked on-air.

Tapper also asked guest Maggie Haberman, known around town as the “Trump whisperer,” if this particular trial could be delayed. She said it’s a “real possibility,” adding:

“I think that the March 4th start date has seemed aspirational for some time. The question is, how long? Does it start, say, before the Republican nominating convention in July? Does it start at some point later in the summer? Would the judge feel okay starting it in August? There’s so many variables built in to this, it’s very hard to say when this will begin. It is still seen as the likeliest trial to start before the election, if not the only one. But there’s a lot of moving parts.”

Stay tuned whether Trump’s lawyers referencing Dr. Seuss ensured they didn’t to spend the holidays dealing with someone still hawking NFTs.

(Via The Daily Beast and Mediaite)

Around this time last year, SZA joined the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast and shared (among many things) that she “100 percent did not think” she’d enjoy mainstream success. She also discussed the somewhat accidental start to her now-acclaimed music career in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, posted Wednesday, December 13.

“Some people choose music as a career, and they feel very certain about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, but I was never quite certain, and I really only did music to prove a point,” she said, beginning at the 26:19-mark. After Lowe asked her to whom that mentality was aimed at, she said. “When I started making music, it was to my ex-fiancé because he was paying for everything. My food, my clothes, where I lived, and he was eight years my senior, so I was so co-dependent.”

SZA continued:

“And he was so talented, and like, he’s a designer — so brilliant. His ex-girlfriends were all lawyers and businesswomen and artists that went to [Rhode Island School Of Design], and all these things, right? And you know, I’m a college dropout. I’m still bartending at the strip club, so it’s giving — like, I felt like a lacked value. So, when I started trying to make music, it was this thing that I didn’t have to try at but was randomly good at because I’ve always written poetry and always felt emotional.”

The most-nominated artist at the 2024 Grammys went on to explain how ostracized she felt from “the kids from my little suburban town,” her evolution toward how comfortable she feels within herself now, and how she doesn’t “have any more goals” because she’s already achieved more than she ever thought she would. She finished by touching on how she wants “healthy relationships” moving forward.

“My biggest priority now is being an emotionally regulated person with healthy relationships,” she said.

Watch the full interview above.

Just this week we named the Jordan 3 White Cement Reimagined one of the 20 best sneaker releases of the year. The sneaker was a recreation of the 1988 original with a slightly aged midsole for vintage vibes and when it hit the Nike SNKRS app it featured a price tag of $210.

That’s a pretty steep price, so if you skipped out on this drop because of the price we don’t blame you. If that’s a decision you’re regretting you’ll be happy to know you find the shoe on aftermarket sites for just above retail price, or, you could try your luck at your local Ross, where according to several Twitter users, you can pick up the pair for $84.99.

One of the best sneaker releases of the year for under $100? That’s a great f*cking deal.

Brand new sneakers showing up at Ross is nothing new, but hitting up Ross is a gamble — you never know what you’re going to find. As a big-time Ross fan, my advice is this: go to Ross looking for deals, not specifics, and you’ll always leave happy.

Having said that, because this is Ross we’re dealing with you’re lucky if you’re going to be able to find a pair of the White Cement, let alone one in your size. But they’re there, so if you want to try your luck and hit up a couple of Ross’ in your neighborhood, at best you’ll find a pair, and at worst you’ll come up with something to resell or some new furniture.

Happy hunting!

Even though it’s currently the 14th highest grossing movie of all time, Barbie gobbled up all the bucks despite being not being a franchise movie. It’s not even getting a sequel (though it might — maybe, maybe not — get a Ken spinoff). What it did do was inspire toy company Mattel to do the next big thing: launch one of them cinematic universes. They’re making one for Hot Wheels, one for Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, one for Polly Pockets, one for Barney, even one for the Magic 8 Ball. They just announced another one. Thing is, it’s already been parodied by SNL.

Back in April, during the episode hosted by Ana de Armas, the show aired a send-up of Barbie, which was still a few months from conquering the world’s multiplexes. In the pre-taped fake trailer, they joked about the most ridiculous Mattel toy line they could turn into a movie: the American Girl line, which was launched in 1986 and which featured dolls of various ethnicities.

But instead of a feel-good romp, the film would delve into each one’s tragic backstories. One lived in grim Victorian times. Another was a prisoner of war. One is a runaway slave. Another simply has glasses.

“Not all dolls live in a dream, some are bigger, younger, sadder, some dolls are American Girls,” says the narrator. “Did all their family members die of old timey diseases? Absolutely.”

Anyway, jump half a year and this SNL sketch is becoming a reality.

Per Entertainment Weekly, the film will be written by Lindsey Anderson Beer, of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, who in a statement praised the “historically accurate” dolls” and swore that her film based on them would tackle “issues of girlhood in a real and compelling way.”

That does kind of make it sound a lot like the trailer, which is so historically accurate that two of the living dolls die of cholera.

(Via EW)

Last December, SZA released SOS, her highly anticipated sophomore album that wildly outperformed her expectations, spending 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. She’s in the headlines this December as well.

This week, SZA teased Lana, which has been billed as the deluxe version of SOS. She also sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to reflect on the past year.

Just over 26 minutes into the 52-minute conversation, SZA said something that caused fans to do a double-take. She explained that she “was never quite certain” about her viability as an artist, and she “really only did music to prove a point.” Lowe asked to whom she wanted to prove a point. SZA said, “When I started making music, it was to my ex-fiancé because he was paying for everything. My food, my clothes, where I lived, and he was eight years my senior, so I was so co-dependent.”

Time out. Ex-fiancé? SZA keeps her private life private, so some people were surprised to hear that she had previously been engaged, though she also briefly mentioned him to Rolling Stone earlier this year.

“When we talk, she doesn’t divulge her ex-fiancé’s identity, though she describes him as a fashion designer who doesn’t post on social media,” Rolling Stone‘s Mankaprr Conteh wrote in October. “They became unengaged five or six years ago, she says, having been together for a total of 11 years and engaged for five. I do some quick maths and conclude that they must have started dating around the time she was in high school. ‘I was fresh from high school,’ she concurs.”

SZA hasn’t publicly offered up much detail about ex-fiancé — and it doesn’t seem like she plans to — but she damn sure wouldn’t tell us if she’s ever been married. Based on everything we do know, though, it would seem that she has never been married. She did give Conteh insight into her mindset toward relationships moving forward, as excerpted below:

“Having spent her youth ‘around a n***a, up under a n***a, trying to get up under a n***a, like, needing that constant validation, companionship, like scared to be by myself and sh*t,’ she’s now concerned she won’t settle into another relationship while she’s in her prime, as if when she’s older she won’t still be the incredible beauty she is now.

‘I feel like I have more to offer than the way I look and my energy, but it’s like, I’m human, that sh*t is all-encompassing,’ she reasons. ‘I want to stunt like me when I meet the person I envision me being with. I envision them falling in love with me the way I am. But I guess it’s like I have to release that idea. Maybe it’s because I don’t know if I’ll like the way I am later?’”

After rising through the ranks of the DIY Chicago music scene, one of indie rock’s most exciting new acts, Friko, are preparing the release of their debut album, Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here.

Made up of vocalist/guitarist Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger, Friko’s debut album features whip-smart, frenetic ballads about getting older and growing up. “One of the main things we want to do as a band is talk about what’s happening right now and everything we’re feeling, with an honesty and directness that gets through to people,” Kapetan said in a statement. “I hope that our music helps everyone feel more deeply, but in a way that goes beyond just reacting to the songs.”

Head of the release of their album, which is out February on ATO Records, Kapetan and Minzenberger sit down with Uproxx to talk Modest Mouse, Thai food, and Lord of the Rings in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Kapetan: Visceral, Cathartic, Dynamic, Fun.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Kapetan: We put all of ourselves into it and it makes people feel youthful and whole in some way.

Minzenberger: I hope it is remembered as being lively and emotional. We try to put our all into every show; I hope that it can be remembered as a space where people can let things go, even momentarily.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Kapetan: From the beginning probably my dad. He’s the one who introduced me to a lot of music that is still my favorite music and showed me how to play guitar when I was 7 or 8. He was also the only one who heard all the music I was writing in middle and high school ‘cause I wouldn’t share it anywhere else.

Minzenberger: I would also say my dad. Him playing guitar around the house when I was growing up inspired me to start playing myself, and he really kick-started my passion for music (as well as my sister). I have learned so much from both of them.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life and what was it?

Kapetan: Thai Lagoon, it’s our go to Thai place right by us in Humbolt Park and it’s the best Thai food I’ve ever had. We have it like once or twice a week lol.

Minzenberger: A few months ago some friends of mine threw a lovely dinner party in their backyard. They had a beautiful table setup with name cards, flowers, and a full dinner and drink menu. One of the courses was a butternut squash pasta that blew me away. Both the dinner and the company were a dream.

Tell us about the best concert you’ve ever attended.

Kapetan: The Microphones at Thalia Hall was so incredible, they only played Microphones in 2020 and the bass was so impactful, it was the most I’ve cried at a show ever.

What song never fails to make you emotional?

Kapetan: “Bankrupt On Selling” by Modest Mouse.

Minzenberger: “Reason To Believe” by Karen Dalton.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Kapetan: The “Supreme” Brick.

Minzenberger: “Fritz Glarner”

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Kapetan: There was this hotel that ended up being inside a church and the church was in this boarding school town and we had no idea how we’d got there. This was by Carleton College in Minnesota.

Minzenberger: I stayed in a tiny cabin on a campground that took about an hour or so to find this past summer. We got to the property at midnight and drove around in loops looking for it; it ended up being perched on top of a really thin, steep, gravel-covered hill. We weren’t given the cabin number when we rented it, so we had to look around in the dark with no service. The journey to finding it was the weird part! Definitely an adventure.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform and what’s the city you hope to perform in for the first time?

Kapetan: Other than Chicago, Urbana-Champaign house shows are always so fun, also New York. I really hope to play Berlin, Germany, or Hamamatsu, Japan.

Minzenberger: Chicago is definitely my favorite, but New York has always been a blast. Chaotic, but a lot of fun.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Kapetan: Don’t go to college for one year and dropout, just do the music thing when you graduate high school, it’s just gonna put you in debt and nothing else haha.

Minzenberger: Remember the importance of sleep and real rest!

What’s one of your hidden talents?

Kapetan: I can do 500 juggles with a soccer ball on a good day.

Minzenberger: I can make a water-drop sound by flicking my cheek.

If you had a million dollars to donate to charity, what cause would you support and why?

Kapetan: Right now Doctors Without Borders to help the people and especially children of Gaza.

What are your thoughts about AI and the future of music?

Kapetan: I can only hope its impact will be as minimal as possible. There will be a place for AI as there is with any type of technology, but hopefully not in music.

Minzenberger: I agree with Niko here, as well. AI can be a useful tool depending on the context, but the thought of it being used to create music is worrisome to me.

You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location it would be held.

Kapetan: Yuck, Sufjan Stevens, The Replacements, Frank Ocean, David Byrne, Held in Vancouver BC Canada

Minzenberger: Westerman, Cocteau Twins, Alex G, The Sundays, Kate Bush, Somewhere near the Smoky Mountains.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on social media?

Minzenberger: My sister! She is a really talented ceramic artist, and runs a studio in Chicago (The Digs). I love keeping up with her work! @zoe.minz.ceramics.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

Kapetan: I’m reallyyy looking to get more the next couple years but as of right now I’ve only got two, and my first one is “xo” which I got in honor of the Elliot Smith album with the same name.

Minzenberger: I have a Clary Sage flower tattooed on my side. I was on a long trip with a good friend of mine a few years ago, and while we were stopped in Portland I impulsively decided it was time to get that tattoo done (I had been thinking about it for a while). The artist that I wanted to get it from was booked out for months, but ended up having a cancellation a few days before we left town. It felt serendipitous, and I love it!

What is your pre-show ritual?

Kapetan: We huddle and do 3-5 deep breaths and hype each other up as much as possible. Also tequila sours right now.

Minzenberger: Yes, the huddle and breaths! It helps a lot to calm down and connect with one another.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

Kapetan: Emma Stone.

Minzenberger: Aragorn from Lord of the Rings.

You have a month off and the resources to take a dream vacation. Where are you going and who is coming with you?

Kapetan: I would take all my bestest friends to Greece (Because I am Greek and have never been).

Minzenberger: I would love to spend time in the Smoky mountains with close friends and my sister! Staying in a cabin and hiking/swimming/camping sounds perfect.

What is your biggest fear?

Kapetan: Falling into a pit of snakes.

Minzenberger: Probably the ocean. It’s beautiful and I have a lot of reverence for it, but it definitely scares me.

Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here is out 2/16 via ATO Records. Find more information here.

It has now been about six and a half years since Jay-Z asked and answered, “What’s better than one billionaire? Two,” on “Family Feud” from his confessional album 4:44. In that time it’d be reasonable to wonder whether his wife Beyoncé has joined him in billionaire status since he crossed that threshold in 2019. With her Renaissance World Tour grossing half a billion alone — before you throw in a $22 million opening weekend for the film project that came out of it — she can’t be far off, right?

So…

Is Beyoncé A Billionaire?

Not yet, but she is close. According to Billboard, which reported on Forbes‘ latest estimates of Beyoncé’s wealth, the “Flawless” singer’s net worth has grown since Forbes listed her at No. 48 on its annual ranking of “richest self-made women” (ha) in America. Back then, she sat around $540 million. But then the receipts for the Renaissance tour came in, adding $100 million after taxes. Then, Forbes took another look at its valuation of her catalog, putting that at around $300 million. Finally, adding in Parkwood Entertainment and her joint holdings with Jay-Z — such as a $200 million mansion in Malibu — Forbes estimates Beyoncé’s net worth to be around $800 million. Not to poke any sore spots but you have to wonder if she’d have cleared that last $200 million with a renewal of her Adidas deal, which ended in February with a loss on Adidas’ side. Maybe she’ll be able to get Ivy Park back up and running and clear that final hurdle.

Earlier this year Apple TV+ dropped the limited series Platonic, which reunited Neighbors couple Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne. The two were a fantastic pair the first time they teamed up, for the Neighbors films, and for their second they decided to do things a bit differently: Instead of playing spouses, they were, well, just really, really good friends. The results were so charming that people demanded more, despite it, again, being a one-off. So any word on that? Yes and no.

Rogen and Byrne recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, who asked them, point blank, if there were would be Season 2, the whole “limited series” classification be damned.

“Yeah, it looks like we’re going to do more,” Rogen replied.

Alas, following Rogen’s positive response was a more pragmatic editor’s note, pointing out that Apple TV+ has not confirmed more Platonic is en route.

Rogen admitted that he was simply being practical, if not paranoid, about wanting to do more Platonic before it was even seen by the public:

“Honestly, we had talked about it during the first season, but I get really nervous about how it’s going to be received. I’m not a count-your-eggs-before-they-hatch guy. I’ve done that thing where I drive around Friday night of opening weekend for my movies and go to the theaters and there’s no one in them. I really just wanted to see if we were happy with it when it came out — and if everyone else was happy with it. I was kind of nervous about how high my standards were for what we were doing, and I wanted to make sure that we could actually do it. And then once I saw that we could, I was like, “OK, we should keep doing it.

So if you liked Platonic, or simply enjoy how Byrne, a serious thespian who’s proven herself skilled at comedy, and Rogen, a comic actor who’s a pretty good serious thespian himself, there’s (probably, maybe) going to be more of them together.

(Via THR)

In a new interview with Zane Lowe, SZA revealed that she first started making music to prove a point to her ex-fiancé. She’s talked about this mysterious individual before — at least, in print — but for many fans, the real surprise of this story was that SZA has an ex-fiancé (because nobody reads anymore, y’know?).

In the quote, she said, “Some people choose music as a career and they feel very certain about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it… I really only did music to prove a point… When I started making music, it was to my ex-fiancé, because he was paying for everything… I was a college dropout still bartending at the strip club, so I felt like I lacked value. So when I started trying to make music, it was this thing I didn’t have to try at, that I was randomly good at.”

So, who is SZA’s ex-fiancé? Well, she hasn’t revealed many details about him. In this interview, she says he was a “designer” and his ex-girlfriends were all lawyers, businesswomen, and artists. That doesn’t exactly narrow it down. Meanwhile, when she’s previously talked about him, as she did in a Rolling Stone feature earlier this year, she noted that he’s a Capricorn, which… again, tells us less than nothing (I’ll save my zodiac girlies rant for another article).

Rolling Stone also noted that the SOS song “Nobody Gets Me” is about this mysterious suitor, and says he proposed before she went on tour. However, per the line, “You was feelin’ empty, so you lеft me,” it seems that he couldn’t handle her newfound fame and broke things off. There aren’t any other identifiers in this song, but perhaps when the deluxe version of SOS, Lana, drops soon, SZA will reveal more.