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Mark Cuban has owned the Dallas Mavericks since January 2000, when he purchased the franchise for $285 million. Now, Cuban will cash out on that investment at more than $3 billion, while still remaining a very prominent part of the franchise.

According to Marc Stein and Shams Charania, Cuban will sell his majority stake in the Mavs worth $3.5 billion to Miriam Adelson, who owns the Las Vegas Sands corporation. However, Cuban will maintain some of his shares in the team and will continue to have full control over basketball operations.

It’s a rather bizarre setup, but Cuban cashes out while franchise valuations are incredibly high and gets to still have say over how the Mavs build their team. You’d be hard-pressed to find many folks that would turn down a return on initial investment of more than $3 billion, while still getting to run the whole operation. As for Adelson, she has never been involved in owning a sports franchise and it’s not clear exactly how hands on she figures to be with the organization, particularly if part of the agreement is that Cuban continues to oversee the basketball operations.

We won’t know how this impacts the Mavs, positively or negatively, for a few years, but it seems not too much will change in the immediate, other than who is writing the checks.

Following various allegations and lawsuits filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper, producer, and entrepreneur has stepped down from Revolt, a music-centered television network he cofounded in 2013, according to TMZ, who first broke the news

What was Diddy’s role at Revolt

Since finding Revolt in 2013, alongside Andy Schuon, Combs served as a chairman for the network, however, was not actively involved in the network’s operations, according to a post from Revolt’s Instagram.

“Sean Combs has stepped down from his position as chairman of Revolt,” read the post. “While Mr. Combs has previously had no operational or day-to-day role in the business, this decision helps to ensure that Revolt remains steadfastly focused on our mission to create meaningful content for the culture and amplify the voices of all Black people throughout this country and the African diaspora.”

At the time of writing, TMZ reports that this is currently temporary, however, it is unknown if Diddy plans to step back into his role as a chairman.

Earlier this month, Diddy made shocking headlines after being accused of abuse and sexual assault by his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, better known as singer Cassie. Though the lawsuit was settled within 24 hours, two other women filed separate lawsuits shortly after.

The Distinguished Gentleman has never been seen as one of Eddie Murphy’s finest efforts. It did okay business back in 1992. It’s never been on Blu-ray. It ain’t on streaming, not even as a rental. It’s a lost movie (at least legally). Maybe it’s a forgotten gem! For one thing its plot seems to have predicted one of the battiest D.C. stories in years (not counting the one about the former TV star who’s controlled the GOP for nearly a decade despite his brain being mush, of course).

In a new piece for Politico, Jimmy Carter speechwriter-turned-Hollywood screenwriter Marty Kaplan points out that the story he conceived for The Distinguished Gentleman seems to have come true in the rise and drawn-out fall of Botox and OnlyFans fan George Santos.

What happens in The Distinguished Gentleman? Murphy plays a con man named Thomas Jefferson Johnson who scams his way into Congress by nabbing the name recognition of a newly deceased lawmaker named Jefferson Davis Johnson. He bets that most voters won’t recognize that their names are subtly different. He’s right, and off he goes to become flush with cash through corruption.

Santos wasn’t able to cruise into Congress by mere name recognition, so he had to settle for lying about things like his mom dying in the 9/11 attacks, being a college volleyball star, and producing one of Broadway’s biggest debacles.

“When I wrote the screenplay, I never imagined anyone could actually pull off a scam like that,” Kaplan writes. When he saw stories emerge late last year about Santos’ deceptive yet successful campaign, it was a “spit-take-your-smoothie moment for me.”

Kaplan added, “The Distinguished Gentleman may not exactly have been art, but life was all-in on imitating it.”

There’s one big difference, though, according to Kaplan: Santos was an amateur compared to Murphy’s Johnson:

If only he’d had Eddie Murphy to show him the ropes, George Santos’ grift could have been perfectly legal, and the House Republican conference might still be calling the con man from Queens and Long Island “the distinguished gentleman from New York.”

With Murphy’s character, Thomas Johnson, as his sherpa, Santos could have stayed within the lines, such as they are. Instead of using a campaign debit card to pay for Botox, OnlyFans and Ferragamo, a Santos leadership PAC could have whitewashed his self-care expenditures by bending, but not breaking, the rules. Instead of charging his campaign for getaways to Harrah’s and Caesars Atlantic City, Santos could have cultivated a circle of billionaires who enjoyed his company, flew him to glam locales and kept their largesse on the down low.

Right now Santos is awaiting a likely vote to finally expel him from Congress. Santos himself is sure he’s doomed, and he’s decided to go out the classy way: by calling one of his chief tormentos a “p*ssy.”

You can read Kaplan’s piece over at Politico.

It’s that time of year again. Time to look back and reflect on our favorite music of 2023. And thankfully, streaming data makes it easy to do so.

Today (November 28), Apple Music users can see their Apple Music Replay — an interactive summary of their listening habits over the course of the past year. Apple Music Replay will show listeners their most played albums, songs, artists, and genres of the year. They can also see the amount of time they’ve spent listening to music.

To see their Apple Music Replay, Apple Music users must first open the Apple Music App. From there, they will receive a prompt on-screen to look at their Apple Music Replay.

Should a prompt not appear on screen, Apple Music users can also look at their Apple Music Replay by clicking here.

Granted, at any point in the year, Apple Music Users can see a playlist of their most played songs by opening up the Apple Music app, clicking the Listen Now icon at the bottom of the screen, then scrolling down to the Replay section. This playlist is said to update every Sunday from the beginning of each calendar year, until the end.

Apple Music users can also see their replay playlists from previous years.

LaMelo Ball has been a bright spot amid a difficult start to the 2023-24 season for the Charlotte Hornets. Unfortunately for both the team and the player, Ball won’t be able to suit up for an undetermined period of time, as Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that Ball suffered a “serious” ankle sprain that is going to keep him on the sideline.

Charania noted that there is some good news, as Ball did not suffer any sort of fracture in the ankle. But because this was the ankle that limited him to 36 games last season, the team apparently plans on slow playing this, and he’s currently using both a walking boot and crutches.

The report was confirmed by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who said the expectation is that Ball will miss “multiple weeks.” Ball suffered the injury during the second quarter of Sunday’s 130-117 loss to the Orlando Magic — he went up for a layup and got challenged by Paolo Banchero, and was in some very obvious pain as he made his way into the locker room.

Ball suffered a right ankle fracture last February, which prematurely ended his season. He’s played some of the best basketball of his career since returning this year, as he’s averaging 24.7 points, 8.2 assists, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in 33.4 minutes per game.

Matthew Perry died a month ago as of this writing, and though he’s gone he’s far from forgotten. Pals are still sharing stories about him, people are still digging up old interviews, and colleagues are still expressing how much he meant to them. People are also inevitably doing deep dives into his vast body of work. There are 236 episodes of Friends, and you better believe a ton of people have been watching them.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, for the week of October 23 to the 29th, Nielsen streaming charts reveal that the show that made Perry a superstar amassed a total of 583 million minutes of viewing. That might not seem like too much compared with that week’s winner, the newly popular Meghan Markle-featuring Suits, but bear in mind that Perry was found dead on the 28th. That suggests throngs immediately began bingeing Friends, enough for it to nab the No. 7 spot on the list of Acquired Shows, like Suits and Grey’s Anatomy.

That number is also a 31% increase from the previous week, as well as the biggest total watch time it’s had since February of this year.

Elsewhere, Perry’s memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing also climbed the charts in the aftermath of his death. Earlier this month USA Today reported that it nabbed the No. 1 spot on Amazon’s Best Sellers list.

Elsewhere in Nielsen streaming news, the Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings debuted at the overall top of the charts with 1.13 billion minutes viewed. Freak hit Five Nights at Freddy, meanwhile, bowed at No. 8 with 740 million.

Friends can be viewed on the messy but still pretty great streamer known as Max.

(Via THR)

When the NBA’s best point guards are discussed, it often feels like De’Aaron Fox is on the outside looking in. The shooting struggles early in Fox’s career made it seem unlikely that he would ever reach the upper echelon of lead guards despite his special speed and athleticism, a talented player who became another casualty of the perpetual Sacramento churn.

Two major moves started to change the narrative on the former Kentucky standout. First, the team drafted Tyrese Haliburton in 2020, and his shooting and playmaking paired with Fox’s relentlessness turned them into one of the league’s premier young backcourts. And then, a trade that will be argued until the end of time happened, as Haliburton was sent to Indiana for Domantas Sabonis.

Fox has been one of the biggest winners of the trade, which no doubt propelled him from a promising young guard into a full-fledged star last season. This year, he’s built on that success and is making his case for a seat at the table as one of the league’s biggest lead guards.

Last season, his first year under Mike Brown, Fox led the Kings to their first playoff appearance since the Bush administration while averaging 25 points per game, piloted the league’s most dynamic offense, won the NBA’s inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award, and became an All-Star for the first time. It’s safe to say Fox had a breakout year, one that was buoyed by his new partnership with Sabonis, whose screening and playmaking at the top of the key remapped the terrain for Fox on the court. Fox could get to his pet spots on the floor with much less resistance and always had Sabonis as a safety valve when he saw a wall at the rim.

While Fox and the Kings were a blast to watch in transition, their efficiency in the halfcourt was the primary driver behind their league-best offense. Last season, Sacramento was second in halfcourt efficiency according to Cleaning the Glass. In addition to the Fox-Sabonis pairing, Fox’s efficiency inside the arc made the Sacramento offense unstoppable. On jumpers between 3 and 10 feet, Fox shot a career-high 56 percent; he had never shot over 46 percent from that range in any season. That 3-10 foot range can be murky waters for an NBA player because it’s difficult to determine what kind of shot to shoot from there. Fox’s ability to get to that range at will and hit at a high clip also led to his high quality play in the clutch — that’s typically the area of the floor defenses will funnel a player towards and Fox routinely made defenses pay for that decision.

Fox has spent the early part of this year building on the foundation he built last season. He’s unfortunately missed a few games due to injuries, but in the 10 games he’s played this season, Sacramento is 7-3 while Fox is averaging a tick under 30 points per game. (They’re also on the verge of winning their In-Season Tournament group, and Fox has gone for 43 and 36 points in his two tournament games.)

Fox’s short jumper efficiency has extended beyond the arc this year. He’s shooting 37.2 percent on 8.6 threes per game, including a ridiculous 44 percent on pull-up threes, which ranks third in the league. If the pull-up efficiency is here to stay, it vaults Fox into a new tier of player. Going through his makes this season, Fox is consistently punishing players for going under screens or even just leaving him a little too much space. He’s not shooting like a player who is hitting threes at an above league average clip for the first time since 2019.

Fox’s shooting has forced teams to change their defensive coverages in ball screens. Going under is no longer an option against Fox and opponents are finding out that fighting through a Sabonis screen is…we’ll say difficult. The hard screens also force the opposing big to play much higher to prevent Fox from pulling a quick trigger three or getting to his spot in the mid-range. During one of his aforementioned monster In-Season Tournament games, Brown deployed a play that caused consistent problems for the Timberwolves, who have the league’s second-best defense. Setting a screen for Fox near halfcourt gave him ample space to either blow by the big or use their forward momentum to manipulate them. Minnesota was specifically vulnerable to this because they play so many two big lineups, but even defending these actions with a wing proved to be difficult.

A creative head coach and a brilliant pick-and-roll partner turned Fox into a nightmare, but he’s somehow become even scarier now that his jumper is becoming a more consistent threat. The list of solutions for him grows shorter by the day. And now, when the league’s best players are mentioned, Fox should start hearing his name.

Fast food breakfast is where it’s at. Hear me out here for a second — as much as we love our double cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches, the breakfast hours offer us more inventive meals and in some cases, better food than the daytime menu. Truly.

Take McDonald’s for instance, a typical double cheeseburger is fine, it gets the job done, but a Sausage and Egg McMuffin? That’s a mouthwatering sandwich that’ll leave you truly satisfied. The same goes for Wendy’s, where the best side order is the breakfast potatoes. But to eat those, you’ll have to get to a drive-thru before 10:30 am. And don’t even get us started on Chick-N-Minis, breakfast burritos, and the Breakfast Crunchwrap. These are all must-order food items that you should experience at the very least, once a month.

Alas… nothing stings like rolling up to a breakfast drive-thru only to hear that the breakfast hours are over and now you’re left improvising your order at the last minute. So we listed every big fast food chain’s breakfast hours so you’re never caught off guard in the drive-thru.

Bojangles — Bojangles breakfast biscuit combos and Bo-Tato Rounds are available at any time of day.

Burger King — BK’s breakfast hours run from 6:00 am to 10:30 am nationwide. Currently, BK restaurants in Detroit and parts of Texas are testing out the Breakfast Grill’wich sandwich, which features bacon, Black Forest ham, or sausage between a grilled flatbread bun with scrambled eggs and cheese. Sounds tasty!

Carl’s Jr/ Hardees — Car’s Jr’s breakfast hours run from 6:00 am to 10:30 am.

Chick-fil-A — Chick-fil-A breakfast hours run from 6:00 am to 10:30 am. You can order lunch at any time so if you want Chick-N-Minis or a Spicy Chicken Biscuit and an order of Waffle Fries, you can do that! You don’t have to settle for those hashbrowns if you don’t want to.

Del Taco — Del Taco’s breakfast hours run from 5:00 am to 10:45 am. Why that extra 15 minutes? Who knows, but we aren’t complaining.

Dunkin’ — Dunkin’s breakfast hours extend all day or until they run out of food.

Jack in the Box — If you’re a hardcore breakfast fan you’ll be pleased to know that Jack in the Box serves breakfast 24hrs.

Let’s face it… if you’re coming here, you’re probably stoned, so breakfast at any hour sounds like a major win.

Panera — Panera’s breakfast hours end at 10:30 am sharp. They are very strict about this.

McDonald’s — Most McDonald’s restaurants will open between 5:30 am and 6:00 am with the breakfast hours running until 10:30 am. Because McDonald’s restaurants are franchised you may find some that will serve breakfast until 11:00 AM but for a vast majority of stores, 10:30 is the sharp cutoff.

Sonic — Sonic’s breakfast hours run from opening to closing.

Starbucks — Starbucks’ breakfast sandwiches are available for as long as supplies last each day.

Taco Bell — Taco Bell’s breakfast hours stop at 11:00 am at all locations nationwide.

Wendy’s — Wendy’s breakfast begins at 6:30 am and runs for four hours until 10:30 am nationwide. That leaves you only four hours to score those delicious potato wedges.

White Castle — White Castle breakfast menu is available during all open hours.

Whataburger — Whataburger has some of the most unique breakfast hours in all of fast food, beginning at 11 pm and running until 11 am for 12 hours of delicious breakfast.

The wordsmiths over at Merriam-Webster have announced their official “Word of the Year for 2023,” they say it’s something we are “thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more” than ever.

The word is authentic.

According to the dictionary, the most common definitions of authentic are “not false or imitation,” “being true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character,” and “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.”

Merriam-Webster says the word saw a “substantial increase” in lookups this year. That’s probably because we now live in a world where artificial intelligence, deepfake technology and questionable memes challenge our basic notions of reality.

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Authenticity is also seen as a commodity at a time when influencers build their brands on social media while attempting to seamlessly pitch their “favorite” products. These days, the average person scrolls through over 43 feet of content every day on social media. After being exposed to countless images of people, it becomes easier to spot the phonies from those who are being their authentic selves.

“When we look at common threads across the thousands of influencer marketing campaigns we’ve run at The Outloud Group over the last 15 years, the similarity between all of our best-performing brand creator partnerships is pretty simple: true authenticity,” Bradley Hoos, CEO of The Outland Group, a full-service influencer marketing agency, writes in Forbes.

Merriam-Webster adds that authenticity is a trait people strove to find for themselves in 2023.

“Celebrities like singers Lainey Wilson, Sam Smith, and especially Taylor Swift all made headlines in 2023 with statements about seeking their ‘authentic voice’ and ‘authentic self,” Merriam-Webster writes. “Headlines like Three Ways To Tap Into Taylor Swift’s Authenticity And Build An Eras-Like Workplace associate this quality with pop-culture superpower.”

The dictionary also highlighted more words that trended in 2023, including:

“Rizz” — Internet slang for “romantic appeal or charm” (noun) or “to charm, seduce” (verb), popularized by YouTuber Kai Cenat, was added to the dictionary.

“Deepfake” — Altered images or recordings that convincingly misrepresent someone’s actions or words, making it hard to distinguish between real and fake.

“Coronation” — The crowning of a new British monarch, King Charles III, sent people to the dictionary’s website to learn the term’s meaning.

“Dystopian” — In 2023, “dystopian” was a verb applied to many frightening real-world issues and was used to describe the trend in video games, books and movies depicting a dark future.

“EGOT” — Lookups for “EGOT” spiked in February when Viola Davis won a Grammy for the audiobook version of her memoir. That made her one of the 18 people to become an EGOT, or winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.

“X” — When Twitter was rebranded as X on July 23, searches for the term spiked at Merriam-Webster.com, where curious people went to discover more about the mysterious letter.

“Implode” — When a submersible that went to visit the remains of the Titanic in June imploded, the term had a considerable spike as people attempted to learn more about the passengers’ fate.

“Doppelgänger” — This term got hot multiple times in 2023. It trended twice due to stories out of Germany and New York involving the attempted murder or suicide of someone’s lookalike. Further, September saw the release of Naomi Klein’s book, “Doppelgänger: A Trip Into the Mirror World.”

Generational differences have long been the bread and butter of TikTok humor, but lately, millennials have been a prime target for their younger Gen Z counterparts.

Clips of Gen Zers mocking stereotypical millennial behavior, otherwise known as “millennial core” is particularly popular—everything from a millennial’s affinity for skinny jeans and self-deprecating humor to their love of the word “adulting” is current fodder for ridicule.

Things have gotten so heated that millennials have, as the kids say, begun serving clapbacks—accusing Gen Zers of acting superior, nihilistic and completely disconnected due to their over-reliance on social media.

But earlier this month, comedian and self-described “elder millennial” Iliza Schlesinger went viral for her rallying cry for both generations to unite. It’s a delightful blend of unhinged and insightful that Schlesinger has truly mastered.

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Shlesinger began her onstage bit by asking which of her audience members were Gen Z. After getting a modest cheer in response, she quipped “not so bold outside of a TikTok comment section, are we?”

She then went into her message to Gen Z “from millennials,” using her signature high pitched goblin shrieks to list out all the ways the younger generation has been “not nice”—like calling millennials “cheugy,” aka outdated, and making fun of side-parts.

But instead of attacking Gen Z back, Shlesinger pleaded for mercy.

“You’re angry, and I get that. We are angry too, but we have heartburn and our backs hurt, but we are right there with you!” she exclaimed, pointing out that both Gen Zers and millennials were thrust into financial hardship, hustle culture and a housing crisis against their will.

She even argued that Gen Z simply targeted millennials because they were the only two age groups who heavily use social media, dubbing it “violence by proximity.”

Urging for the verbal attacks to stop, Schlesinger reminded Gen Zers that millennials should be seen as the cool older sibling, rather than an overbearing parent.

“Never forget, we forged social media. Never forget that we walked on Instagram so you could run on TikTok,” she said, begging Gen Z to just “be nice” to millennials because they’re “allies”…and because millennials are exhausted.

@ilizas Millennials walked on Instagram so Gen Z could run on TikTok 🏃‍♀️ #standup #genz #millennial #eldermillennial ♬ original sound – iliza

Turns out—Schlesinger just might get her wish. The clip garnered 8.8 million views online, with tons of encouragement from Gen Zers.

“Love you millennials!” one wrote.

Another noted, “It’s the younger Gen Z that hates on millennials older Gen Z stands proudly with millennials.”

Many agreed that, at the very least, the fighting should be put to a stop in order to join forces against Gen Alpha, the next generation to decide what’s cool and what’s lame.

We can’t stop the clock, but maybe we can stop the violence. May TikTok be a place of intergenerational harmony. I know…what a millennial thing to say.