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Joel Embiid is entering this season fresh off an MVP campaign, and after years with Under Armour, he’s set to make a considerable change in footwear. On Wednesday, the Athletic’s Shams Charania and Mike Vorkunov reported Embiid is expected to headline Skechers’ foray into the basketball space, with Julius Randle and Terance Mann likewise set to get on board, as they continue their move into the performance sports shoe space.

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, the NBA’s reigning MVP, is nearing a deal to become Skechers’ star pitchman, industry sources briefed on the talks told The Athletic. A deal has not been signed yet, but Embiid wore a Skechers shoe for the first time during 76ers practice Wednesday with the brand’s performance staff on site as he begins to test out the sneaker, sources said. Embiid will begin wearing the new Skechers shoe in games once the deal is fully complete, according to a source.

Embiid’s time with Under Armour featured a poorly timed signature sneaker launch — it was announced a month before the world shut down — and never really picked up momentum despite Embiid continuing to grow in popularity. There has always been a gap between big men and the general public in the shoe-selling world, with Shaq as one of the very few to ever bridge that divide. Embiid’s pitch for his Under Armour was even to make clear it was not just a shoe for bigs, but for versatile players like himself who played all over the floor. Even so, it did not take off and now Skechers will try and launch its basketball brand by taking a rather sizable risk with Embiid.

Not only is Skechers building a brand around a big man, which has never gone particularly well in terms of moving signature sneakers, but they’re also going to be under immense pressure with the design of their first shoe if they’re putting Embiid in it. Given Embiid’s history of lower body injuries, any foot, ankle, or knee injury suffered will draw immediate scrutiny to whether it was caused by wearing an unproven shoe — even if that has nothing to do with it.

There is of course upside for Skechers, as you don’t often get the chance to launch a basketball sneaker line with the reigning league MVP and the bar is pretty low in terms of promoting Embiid compared to his previous sneaker deal. That said, this might be the highest risk-reward sneaker signing in years, and there will be plenty of attention paid to how Skechers’ shoes hold up under Embiid this season.

Kali Uchis will ring in 2024 with her new album, Orquídeas, which arrives at the top of the year. This album will be sung primarily in Spanish, demonstrating Uchis’ talents across various musical landscapes.

Ahead of the album, Uchis has shared the song “Muñekita,” which features rapper El Alfa and JT from City Girls. She is also dropping a new single, “Te Mata” this Friday (October 20).

Today (October 18), Uchis has taken to Instagram to reveal the album’s tracklist, which features all Spanish titles (with the exception of a song called “Young, Rich & In Love”), as well as some promising collaborators. Though the tracklist artwork doesn’t reveal the features, a Spotify billboard shared a more detailed tracklist in tandem with Uchis’ reveal.

Peso Pluma, Karol G, and Rauw Alejandro are all expected to appear on Orquídeas, and these collaborations are guaranteed to be fire.

You can see the Orquídeas tracklist below.

1. “¿Cómo Así?”
2. “Me Pongo Loca”
3. “Igual Que Un Ángel” Feat. Peso Pluma
4. “Pensamientos Intrusivos”
5. “Diosa”
6. “Te Mata”
7. “Perdiste”
8. “Young, Rich & In Love”
9. “Tu Corazón Es Mío”
10. “Muñekita” Feat. JT and El Alfa
11. “Labios Mordidos” Feat. Karol G
12. “No Hay Ley Parte 2” Feat. Rauw Alejandro
13. “Heladito”
14. “Dame Beso / Muévete”

Orquídeas is out 1/12/2024 via Geffen. Find more information here.

Say Sue Me, a South Korean shoegaze band, is back with a brand new song titled “4am.” The track deals with the waves of emotions that hit late at night. “Tomorrow will be like today / I’m sick of the way / I feel everything fades away / When I open my eyes,” Sumi Choi sings, according to Genius.

“Byungkyu wrote the intro line of the song about five years ago, and it was finally completed this year,” Choi said in a statement, according to Stereogum. “This is a song about anxiety and sleeplessness. It contains the sadness and anxiety that come at that time when you close your eyes to fall asleep at night, and the restlessness of not being able to easily.”

Earlier this year, the band kept busy by putting out another track titled “Mind Is Light.” They also made waves last year by releasing their third studio album, The Last Thing Left. Fans across the globe will have the opportunity to catch them on the road throughout the rest of the year.

Check out Say Sue Me’s “4am” above. Below, find a complete list of their upcoming tour dates.

10/20 — Fukuoka, JP @ Satsumanian Spinoff @ Voodoo Lounge
10/22 — Kagoshima, JP @ Great Satsumanian Festival
11/03 — Tokyo, JP @ BiKN Festival @ Spotify O-East
11/13 — New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
11/14 — Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
11/15 — Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
11/16 — Austin, TX @ Parish
11/20 — CMDX, MX @ Korea Spotlight @ Auditorio BB

The news that Sophia Bush is dating former USWNT keeper Ashlyn Harris has caused absolute chaos amongst lesbians and women’s soccer fans. (Read: the words “lesbian” and “women’s soccer fans” are interchangeable here.)

The One Tree Hill alumn split with her husband Grant Hughes just a few months ago with the pair officially calling it quits in August after 13 months of marriage. Bush is a part owner of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) club Angel City, and has reportedly known Harris for years. The pair run in the same social circles, sharing friends like WNBA legend Sue Bird and her partner, USWNT star Megan Rapinoe. But, according to sources, sparks didn’t fly between the two until both had ended their respective marriages.

“After being friends for years, Sophia and Ashlyn went out on their first dinner date a couple of weeks ago,” a source told PEOPLE. “This is so recent, and they are both beginning new chapters.”

Harris, who retired from the sport in November 2022, was married to fellow USWNT veteran Ali Krieger for four years. The two met in 2010 while playing on the national team and share two children. Harris filed for divorce just prior to Krieger’s final stretch of NWSL games (she had announced her retirement at the beginning of the 2023 season) but sources say the two had been living apart since the beginning of June.

“Although it’s new information to the public, Ashlyn and Ali’s divorce began months ago and they have been living apart since the summer,” an insider told PEOPLE, claiming that there was nothing “salacious” about Bush and Harris’ relationship. Neither have commented on the story so far, but Bush’s ex-husband, Hughes, wished her the best, with his rep saying he “is supportive of all that makes her happy and fulfilled.”

(Via PEOPLE)

Ever since LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh decided to team up in Miami with the Heat we have been hearing about how it is the player empowerment era in the NBA. That has continued with more stars pushing their way to different teams via trades, and some have suggested things have gone too far.

However, the truth is “player empowerment” is really just “star empowerment,” and the number of legitimate stars capable of wielding power is incredibly low. Rich Paul has represented one of those for some time, as LeBron James is the single most powerful player in the league when it comes to dictating how his team operates, but that’s largely due to three factors that Paul recently broke down on the Old Man And The Three podcast with J.J. Redick: Approach, Play, and Professionalism.

As Paul explains, only about two percent of the 450 players in the league (aka, 9 or 10) have actual power and it’s only valid if you’re playing at a high enough level to warrant it and you carry yourself in a manner that ownership and front offices are going to respect and, in Paul’s words, enhance that power.

“It’s your approach, your play, then your professionalism. That equals your power,” Paul says. “Because if I have a guy whose approach is right, is playing at that level, and is a professional, I’ve got all the power in the world. And the owners, they’re going to respect and accept and enhance that power. Very few guys in the league actually has the power to move the needle and have an impact on things. But because you may be making max money, you feel like you do, and we all know that is not true. That’s why I hate that word, max. Because it gives you this entitlement, and that’s where you lose it all. Between the entitlement and your ego, it really stunts the growth of you professionally.”

There’s no agent in the NBA more keenly aware of how to leverage player power than Paul, but it’s fascinating hearing him talk about this because it does a very good job of explaining how there are even tiers to the “max” money guys. Even though you might make the most you can in the league, it does not mean you’re in that ultra-elite tier where you can dictate what goes on, and when you start trying to wield power you don’t have, then you start slipping on the professionalism aspect of the formula Paul talks about.

This summer has been quite the example of the limits of star power in the league, as Damian Lillard ultimately had to open his list of destinations up beyond Miami to get his trade done and the James Harden saga is still ongoing in large part due to Harden’s history limiting his value around the league and leaving the Sixers with one suitor, who won’t give up all that much for him.

Jada Pinkett Smith’s memoir, Worthy, finally came out yesterday. Maybe now we’ll be free from minute-by-minute updates about their relationship.

Just kidding.

The actress shared that she and husband Will Smith built a “love nest” in their house that was supposed to be off-limits to their kids, son Jaden and daughter Willow. “To give us our own space, I had even built a separate, beautiful love nest for us two grown-ups in our bedroom, complete with a domed ceiling full of twinkling stars,” Pinkett Smith wrote in the book. “But over time, the kids hijacked that room as well.” Just like the Smiths have hijacked our lives.

Along those lines, the Oscar-winning actor shared an “official statement” on his Instagram following the revelation that he and Pinkett Smith have been separated for years, among other disclosures. “I’ve got something for you. Here’s the thing: My opinion…” Smith begins before sneezing, which activates a zoom out to what Entertainment Weekly describes as “different CGI terrains across the planet — seeming to imply that there are much bigger problems in the world than this one celebrity couple’s relationship.”

It’s basically this iconic Jaden Smith tweet:

You can watch Smith’s “statement” below.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

At long last, Blink-182‘s new album, One More Time arrives this week. The album features the band’s classic line-up — Mark Hoppus, Tom Delonge, and Travis Barker — reuniting for the first time since the 2011 album, Neighborhoods. Ahead of One More Time, Blink-182 has shared several songs from the album, including “Edging,” “Dance With Me,” and “Fell In Love.” Today (October 18), the band has given us one more taste of the album before its release.

On their latest single, “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got,” the band reflects on their temporary disbandment and the healing reunion that brought them together again.

“One phone call wiped out a year / Like waves swept under the pier / Long weeks of impending doom / Stuck in life’s waiting room / Always so close to goodbye / Pushed so far over the line,” sings Hoppus on the song’s opening verse.

In addition to dropping a new song, Blink-182 finally revealed the album cover for One More Time. Over the past few weeks, the band had shared the pre-sale information, along with a placeholder cover which cleverly reads, “THIS IS NOT THE ALBUM COVER.”

You can listen to “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” above and see the One More Time artwork below.

One More Time is out 10/20 via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

Devoted Warrior Nun fans might be feeling a bit of whiplash. First, the show was cancelled by Netflix after two seasons. Fans, for whatever reason, then lobbied Kelly Clarkson to help them save the adaptation of Ben Dunn’s manga-style Warrior Nun Areala comic. Somehow, this worked, and earlier this year, creator Simon Barry dropped some surprising news, which was that “Warrior Nun will return and is going to be more EPIC than you could imagine.”

From there, word surfaced from The Hollywood Reporter that the revival would be a movie trilogy, not a series, and that this would not be happening with Netflix. Executive producer Dean English then confirmed the trilogy news but declined to comment further due to the writer and actor strikes. One of those strikes has now resolved, but it sounds like the Warrior Nun original creative team is anything but resolved.

Again, Simon Barry has shared an update, and it’s not good. He tweeted, “I am not part of the team producing the movies, and have no deal in place for any writing or directing services. I am [insert peering eyes emoji] with you.”

What does that mean? It means that a whole lot of Warrior Nun fans are angry in Barry’s replies. Did they really scuttle the series creator? Yep, and there’s been no updates on whether these films will star the original cast. Alba Baptiste, by the way, recently married Chris Evans, which is making me wonder how, exactly, a Captain America/Ava crossover would go. Surely, that idea can’t be any more chaotic than the mystery situation right now.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee are gearing up for the release of their joint album, Los Angeles, next month. Ahead of the album, the supergroup has shared a new single, “We Got To Move,” featuring Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse.

The song is accompanied by a colorful visual featuring comedian and actor Fred Armisen. In the video, Armisen is seen in LA’s famous Break Room, where he breaks several glass objects, including teapots, mugs, and even a large toilet.

Brock also appears in the video on a small screen, warning Armisen, “We got to move!”

“Isaac is one of the most unique voices that we have. He’s brilliant,” Jacknife said in a statement. “He gave us this weird, anxious, beautiful rush of a song. To pump up the duality within the song my daughters and I came up with a chorus that made us giddy with its ridiculousness. The song is absurd. The sound is absurd. And it’s about bugs.”

Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee is respectively comprised of the former drummer and keyboardist of The Cure, the drummer from Siouxsie And The Banshees, and an Irish music producer who’s worked with artists like Modest Mouse and U2.

You can see the video for “We Got To Move” above.

Los Angeles is out 11/3 via Play It Again Sam. Find more information here.

The Philadelphia 76ers held practice on Wednesday, but were without the presence of star guard James Harden, who is reportedly in Houston as he continues to push for the Sixers to trade him. The problem, as its been all summer, is that the Clippers are the only team interested in Harden and they aren’t interested enough to bid against themselves by offering what Philly wants — either in the form of multiple picks or Terance Mann.

While Harden skipped media day he did report to camp in Colorado and, at least initially, seemed like he would be playing nice amid his trade request, recognizing the need to build his value by being available. However, with reports indicating talks have once again stalled, Harden seems to have decided to return to the “make things uncomfortable” playbook, skipping out on practice.

Head coach Nick Nurse, who Harden heaped praise on in his initial comments to the media from Sixers camp, admitted he was surprised by James’ absence but said all the team can do is move forward and continue preparing as they normally would, with or without him.

Joel Embiid, who is a veteran of these sorts of co-star distractions, shrugged it off as only he can, noting that maybe Harden just had something he needed to do.

That really is the only way to handle it for Embiid, who I’m sure is a bit frustrated to be dealing with this type of situation for the second time in three years, but also knows there’s nothing he can really do about it and the better job he does deflecting the less he’ll have to talk about it.