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When Lonzo Ball signed with the Chicago Bulls in free agency in 2021, it was a chance at a fresh start for the young star guard. He was going to a Bulls squad that was trying to make the leap into the East playoff picture, having already traded for Nikola Vucevic, signed DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso, and already had Zach LaVine in town. That quintet was supposed to be the core group that would make them a contender in the East, and in their first year they quickly established a rhythm, jumping out to the best record in the East as the calendar turned to 2022.

However, from there things unraveled, starting with Ball suffering a torn meniscus in January 2022 that has seen several setbacks, requiring multiple surgeries and the expectation that he will miss his second consecutive full season. There are no guarantees Ball can ever come back and play again, and the Bulls will always wonder what could’ve been had he stayed healthy. Since he went down, the Bulls have struggled to find consistency as a team, missing that point guard presence Ball brought on both ends of the floor.

On the latest episode of the From The Point Podcast with Trae Young, Ball opened up a bit about the injury (in the cold open and more fully at the 26:00 mark of the above vide), particularly how he felt bad for the Bulls organization because they’d invested so much in him and built a team he felt was “perfect” for his game to play how he wanted.

It’s going to be a big ‘What If?’ For me I feel bad just for the GMs, just cause I feel like they made the perfect team around me. That was the most I’ve ever been involved in an organization and I finally got the perfect team that I felt like to fit my game and play my way and just do what I wanted to do. That injury, I’m still going through it right now, but that one messed me up early because I feel like we really had a chance and we never got to see what it was.

You can hear the frustration and disappointment in Ball’s voice as he answers the question, noting that after years of trying to fit into situations that weren’t ideal around him, he was finally presented with an opportunity to play for a team built with him in mind. That early success only makes the “What If?” game worse, and seeing the Bulls fall apart since and never make the playoffs the last two years only adds to Ball’s feeling that his injury derailed the organization’s pathway. Of course, it’s not Ball’s fault, but human nature is hard to shake and you can tell he still feels in some way responsible. Hopefully he can make a return to the court in 2024 and start making up for some lost time in Chicago.

Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t seem like the nicest person in the world. She has even been known to tell off a colleague on the House floor and call them “a little b*tch.” She is also openly lobbying to be Trump’s running mate, so if you were hoping that she might tank her own political career, well, that might do it. Greene’s own tendency to be rude and disrespectful, however, doesn’t mean that she deserves the same. And some wonder whether a joke from Law and Order: Organized Crime star Chris Meloni crossed that line.

Meloni has been seen around lately while posing only in socks, but he cannot resist cracking a joke every now and then. And although it could be argued that Greene set herself up here, the joke was still not the greatest look. Many thought the low-hanging fruit that Meloni reached for was funny, oh, but it was also mean. Here’s Greene doing the set up, by the way, by posing in front of “[t]he world famous Iowa Butter Cow!”

Meloni fired right back: “Right, but what’s in the glass case behind you.”

Some Greene defenders stepped up because, generally speaking, one really should not call a woman (or anyone) a cow.

Still, and perhaps because this zinger was so unexpected, more people laughed along with Meloni.

Greene has thus far ignored the chaos. Perhaps she has replies muted on Twitter, but if she zings back, she’ll send that message loud and clear.

“Seen you from the stage in the 100s / Must be eagle eyes,” Drake rapped in his and Central Cee’s On The Radar freestyle, and it wasn’t an empty line. Drake sees everything while on stage for his It’s All A Blur Tour, from a human-sized bra and sleeping, Yeezy-wearing attendee to a handwritten sign.

“This man been holding this sign up all night. I gotta read it,” Drake said in a clip circulated by Our Generation Music over the weekend, presumably from one of his It’s All A Blur Tour stops in San Francisco, California. “This man got a sign that says, ‘My girlfriend cheated on me; she was supposed to be here with me tonight.’”

Drake leaned over and asked the sign-holder for his girlfriend’s — or, ex-girlfriend’s? — name. After a back-and-forth, Drake was confused as to whether her name is Scarlett or Starlet, “like the strip clubs.” The man wrote her name down to confirm it is, indeed, Scarlett. Once that was cleared up, Drake instructed the crowd to shout “Sorry, Scarlett!” on the count of three, and then he added, “Sorry, Scarlett. You can’t be cheating on my dawg like that.”

The It’s All A Blur Tour is headed to Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Monday (August 21) and Tuesday (August 22). See all of the remaining dates here.

Los Angeles might have experienced some inclement weather this past weekend, but that didn’t stop a historical event of a different variety from happening downtown. Earl Sweatshirt kicked off his Doris anniversary tour celebrating the 10th birthday of his debut album at The Novo at LA Live, where he was joined on stage by the founder and de facto leader of the defunct Odd Future clique, Tyler The Creator.

The duo performed their 2013 collaboration “Whoa,” while Tyler led the crowd in a nostalgic chant: “G-O-L-F-dub-A-N-G.” “Make some noise for Odd Future,” Earl commanded.

In addition to Tyler’s appearance, several other members of the former crew also joined the reclusive rapper onstage, including Domo Genesis to perform “20 Wave Caps” and unofficial member Vince Staples, who appeared on “Hive.”

Backstage, it looked like (nearly) a full Odd Future reunion, with Earl, Tyler, Domo, and Vince, flicking up with Casey Veggies, Jasper Dolphin, L-Boy, Mike G, Syd, and Taco. It looked like the only members missing were Hodgy, Left Brain, and Matt Martians.

Much of the crew is expected to perform at the upcoming return of Tyler’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in November, which Tyler is headlining along with SZA and The Hillbillies: Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar.

The NBA regularly touts the growth of its social media pages and the impressions, views, and mentions players generate across the internet, as they were one of the sports leagues to recognize the importance of growing their social presence (and what it could mean for business).

That sort of growth doesn’t just happen and requires lots of hours logged by social media managers to watch games, clip videos and highlights, and craft posts to maximize their reach. While on the outside it’s a job that sounds great, it is also very demanding during the long NBA season and, despite running the public-facing accounts of a multi-billion dollar corporation that reach many millions of people, doesn’t pay a ton. That can wear down employees and, apparently, frustrate them to the point that after they leave they might air out the NBA’s dirty laundry to their millions of followers on Facebook, as happened on Monday morning.

A former social media employee used the NBA’s Facebook account to post about low pay and poor working conditions for social media managers at the league, noting they’d been gone for a few weeks but still had access to the account.

While $50,000 after taxes is a fine salary in some places, given the league offices are in New York, that is not very much money to work in the city. The problem is, like most jobs in the sports media landscape, they are highly desirable because so many people want to work in the field even with long hours and relatively low pay. As a result, burnout isn’t a real concern for employers because there are always folks trying to break into the industry willing to embrace that grind to work covering the sport(s) they love.

Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus ruled Disney Channel in the 2000s thanks to their respective hit shows, Wizards Of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana. All this time later, they’re about to dominate this upcoming Friday of new music, as they both have fresh singles — “Single Soon” for Gomez and “Used To Be Young” for Cyrus — out on the same day. While that puts the two in direct competition when it comes to debut week chart placement, things look friendly between the former child stars.

As ET notes, Gomez shared a clip from her run on Hannah Montana as Mikayla Skeech, Montana’s musical rival who appeared in a few episodes. Gomez wrote in an Instagram Story, “@mileycyrus and I both have a SINGLE SOON and we are releasing on the same day. We have been friends since we USED TO BE YOUNG. Excited for August 25!!!”

Cyrus used the same clip for her own Story, writing, “@selenagomez and I are both dropping our new SINGLEs SOON… I SAY WE #USEDTOBEYOUNG.”

Here’s the clip in question, which sees the two trading jabs as they man the phones for a telethon:

Gomez is currently starring in the new season of Only Murders In The Building, while Cyrus announced a few months ago that she doesn’t plan to tour in support of Endless Summer Vacation.

The first North American leg of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour ended with a six-show run at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California — punctuated on August 9 with confirmation that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be Swift’s next re-recorded release. It was full of Swiftian surprises. Channing Tatum was in full dad mode, Selena Gomez cuddled her sister in the crowd, Halsey made infinite friendship bracelets, and the late Kobe Bryant’s daughter received the “22” hat in a heartwarming moment.

But David Harbour and his stepdaughter’s core The Eras Tour memory took place at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota in late June.

“You’ve got to call in a lot of favors,” Harbour said during the August 17 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Normally, like, the great thing about being a beloved character on Stranger Things is I can call up Madison Square Garden and get courtside to the Knicks. But, man, to go see Taylor Swift?”

Harbour explained that he and his stepdaughter picked Minneapolis because it was “the only weekend we could go” to The Eras Tour, and Harbour has a soft spot for the city. And then, he shared how his stepdaughter landed the ultimate souvenir:

“It was extraordinary because I did say as we went in, I said something like, ‘If there’s an opportunity to say hello’ — but I’m also very conscious because, a lot of times, people want to meet me, and it can be very difficult. So, I was like, ‘Please.’ And they said, ‘She’s leaving on a plane right after this concert.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, then, [never mind].’ And we sat there for about 30 minutes of the opener, and then a woman came out with a letter.

It was addressed to me and my stepdaughter, and it was a handwritten letter on a particular stationary, and it was like, I’ve never seen my stepdaughter speechless. … She did say in the letter at one point, ‘I’ll give you a wave from the stage,’ and at one point during the beginning of one of her numbers, she did turn to our little booth, and [waved].”

Harbour added that Swift is a “force of nature,” and he was unaware of the gravity of her superstardom prior to attending The Eras Tour, but seeing her perform for three-plus hours essentially without pause converted him into a Swiftie. (He also wondered aloud, “I don’t know when she pees!”)

Watch Harbour’s full Happy Sad Confused appearance above; The Swift talk begins around the 32-minute mark.

Forget IMAX 70mm. The best way to watch Oppenheimer, a movie about the ugliest, most destructive event in human history, is to look away when boobs are on screen. It’s the way Christopher Nolan intended.

A woman named Jourdan, who goes by @thatsnotlove on TikTok, revealed that her husband was made to look away from the screen during the scenes in Oppenheimer where Florence Pugh is topless. “OK, so I research everything before we watch it, but especially this movie. Obviously I heard about it, yes we wanted to see it, it has an amazing rating. We prepared ourselves. I didn’t know when the scene was going to happen and I also didn’t understand how the scene was happening. I thought it was just several minutes straight of…,” she said, mouthing the word “sex” like a dog owner spelling out “w-a-l-k.”

She continued, “But it wasn’t, it was actually broken up into like it would be a flash of that and then it would be a flash of normal life and then it would be a flash of the scene. It was very back and forth so it was really difficult to avoid it.” She and her husband came up with a “game plan” before the movie, so “when things were happening, he literally closed his eyes and laid his head on my shoulder… And then I would just let him know when it was over.”

Jourdan uploaded another clip to the video-sharing platform a few days later to reveal that she has been suffering from “betrayal trauma.”

She told her followers: “I went through betrayal trauma 10 months ago after nine years of marriage, 10 years of being in a completely monogamous relationship. I was fully under the belief that he didn’t look at other women, he didn’t self pleasure at other women, porn was the furthest thing from my mind. I never would have thought or believed that he was using porn but he was and I found out about it on September 17, 2022. That was the hardest day of my life. It was the hardest following weeks and following months of my life.”

You can watch the TikTok below:

(Via the Daily Mail)

When ESPN announced a number of high profile layoffs this summer, the most surprising name among them was Suzy Kolber, who had been with the network for 27 years and was the longtime host of Monday Night Countdown. Keyshawn Johnson was also part of ESPN’s layoffs, and it became clear that the network was going to be making wholesale changes to its NFL studio show lineup alongside big changes to NBA broadcasts.

On Monday, ESPN finally announced its new Monday Night Countdown crew, headlined by Scott Van Pelt taking over as the new host of the show. Van Pelt will be joined by two new analysts in Ryan Clark and Marcus Spears, who have become two of the best at ESPN, with Robert Griffin III remaining from last year’s group alongside Michelle Beisner-Buck doing features and Adam Schefter handling news and notes from around the league. Larry Fitzgerald and Alex Smith will also be occasional contributors, joining the show at various points during the season.

Overall it is certainly a younger look for the show and it’ll be interesting to see how much they change things up with the structure and format — i.e., will they look for new segments or stick with longtime bits like C’mon Man. One reason for the delay on the announcement may have been hammering out the full details on a new contract for Van Pelt, who ESPN has re-signed to join Countdown while also remaining in his midnight ET timeslot for SportsCenter most nights, including the postgame SportsCenter live on site after Monday night games. Clark and Spears will also continue their work on NFL Live, as ESPN looks to consolidate its talent across shows.

If Chris Christie accomplishes anything during the Republican primary, it will be aggressively prosecuting every word out of Donald Trump‘s mouth as he continues to run for president despite facing four indictments.

This time around, Christie went after Trump’s recent remarks about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The former president told Fox Business that Vladimir Putin would’ve never entered the country if he was still in office.

“Putin would have never gone into Ukraine, but that was just on my relationship with him,” Trump said via Newsweek. “My personality over his. [He] would have never gone in. I used to speak to him. I was the apple of his eye, but I said ‘Don’t ever do it.’ It was tough stuff there, but he would have never done it.”

Trump bragging that he’s the “apple of Putin’s eyes” is, obviously, a very weird thing for a former American president to say, and Christie made it a point to call out the quote while speaking to Erick Erickson at a conference in Atlanta over the weekend.

Via Politico:

“We have folks in this race who have called Vladimir Putin brilliant, a great leader,” Christie said. “Just yesterday, Donald Trump called him that he was the apple of Putin’s eye. I have to tell you the truth: I don’t want to be the apple of Vladimir Putin’s eye.”

“A Christie administration would stand up for our friends around the world and work with them,” he added.

The former New Jersey governor also called out fellow GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy who suggested pulling back on America’s commitment to Taiwan.

“We need to stand up for people who want freedom,” Christie said. “And if we let the Chinese do that kind of domination game, because we’re unprepared or unwilling to deter them, then they will not stop there. And we’ve seen this act before.”

However, despite the Putin remarks and several indictments, Trump continues to significantly dominate the GOP primary. For now.

(Via Politico, Newsweek)