GoneTrending

Mac McClung intends to be involved in the NBA’s All-Star weekend in 2024. McClung, the Philadelphia 76ers guard who won the Dunk Contest on Saturday evening in Salt Lake City, was asked if he wants to come back and try to defend his title when the league heads to Indianapolis for All-Star next February.

McClung didn’t hesitate when asked by Adam Lefkoe of TNT, saying that as long as he is given an invitation to try and be the first person to go back-to-back in the Dunk Contest since Zach LaVine in 2015-16, he’ll be back.

After spending the start of the 2022-23 season in the G League, McClung signed a two-way deal with Philly earlier this week. He had already committed to participating in the Dunk Contest by that point, and on Saturday night, McClung outlasted Trey Murphy, Jericho Sims, and KJ Martin to earn the title of the best dunker in the league.

A former social media sensation during his high school days, McClung got a 50 on three of his four dunks on the night, with his only effort that fell short receiving a score of 49.8. He entered the night as the favorite to win the competition, although Shaedon Sharpe of the Portland Trail Blazers opened as the favorite to win the event before he decided to pass on participating.

Mac McClung is the winner of the 2023 Dunk Contest. McClung, who received his invite to the competition while in the G League but signed a two-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers earlier in the week, came 0.2 points away from throwing down four perfect dunks to defeat Trey Murphy of the New Orleans Pelicans, Jericho Sims of the New York Knicks, and KJ Martin of the Houston Rockets.

Round 1

Mac McClung: 99.8 (50, 49.8)
Trey Murphy: 96 (46.6, 49.4)
Jericho Sims: 95.4 (47.6, 47.8)
KJ Martin: 93.2 (46.0, 47.2)

Murphy led things off in the opening round with a Grand Theft Alvarado-inspired dunk. After pretending to do a dunk, Murphy hyped up the crowd, only for Pelicans teammate Jose Alvarado to run out, steal the ball, throw it off the backboard, and set Murphy up for a 360.

Sims went second and made a very difficult dunk look routine, as he threw the ball off of the backboard and went for a double honey dip dunk. His eyes got up to the rim and his right arm went straight through to the elbow, while his left wrist went in before he slid it the rest of the way.

Martin was up third and enlisted some help from his Rockets teammate, Jae’Sean Tate. After Tate lobbed the ball up from under the rim, Martin rushed in from the corner and threw down an explosive up and under where his head hit the net.

The betting favorite to win the whole thing, McClung ended up going last during the first round of dunks. He got a pair of volunteers, with one sitting on top of the other’s shoulders. McClung jumped over both of them, grabbed the ball, tapped it off the backboard, and finished with two hands over his head.

Martin led off the second go-around and got a little help from his dad. A 3D-printed ball got delivered by his father, who lobbed it off the backboard. His first dunk didn’t work out like he wanted, so Martin reeled in the ball, turned his back to the basket, pumped, and threw it down.

Murphy’s second dunk came after he asked the crowd if they wanted a tomahawk or windmill. The Pelicans standout decided to pump the ball over his shoulders, bring it down to his knees via a half windmill, do a 180, and finish.

For Sims’ second dunk, the Knicks big man had someone bring out a ladder and clip an envelope onto the net. He did another honey dip, grabbed the note, open it after he landed, and revealed that it said 50.

McClung entered his final dunk needing a 45.5 to guarantee he’d move on. He managed to get that by doing a two-handed windmill and a 360, thereby sending himself to the finals against Murphy.

Final Round

Mac McClung: 100 (50, 50)
Trey Murphy: 98 (48.8, 49.2)

Murphy went first in the finals. He went to the top of the key, jumped, threw the ball up between the legs, and caught it for a clean windmill where his eyes nearly got to the rim.

With his first effort in the finals, McClung got some help once again. He ran in from the corner and jumped over his volunteer, than double pumped in mid-air and dunked.

Murphy needed something big with his second dunk to keep the pressure on McClung, who held a lead heading into the final effort of the night. He decided to try and replicate Vince Carter’s first dunk from the legendary 2000 contest, a windmill 360.

McClung did not need a 50 to win with his final dunk, but he got one, anyway. While decked out in his high school jersey, McClung ran in from the corner and did a 540 with a two-handed windmill.

Damian Lillard is the 2023 NBA three-point champion. Lillard outlasted a field of seven other sharpshooters in Salt Lake City to win the competition, as he registered the second-best score in the field during the opening round and outlasted a pair of Indiana Pacers in the finals.

Round 1

Tyrese Haliburton: 31
Damian Lillard: 26
Buddy Hield: 23
Jayson Tatum: 20
Lauri Markkanen: 20
Tyler Herro: 18
Julius Randle: 13
Kevin Huerter: 8

After Tatum started things off and made the tactical error of putting his moneyball rack first — thereby hurting him, as he did better once he was warmed up — Haliburton stepped up second and threw down a record-tying score that set the bar awfully high for the remainder of the field.

Hield’s 23 put the pressure on Tatum, but the Celtics star was able to stay alive due to Herro struggling between his inability to hit a shot on the first rack and his inability to finish his moneyball rack, which he put last. While Randle did not get blanked on a single rack, he likewise struggled mightily and couldn’t finish his moneyball rack. And in one of the bigger surprises of the evening, Huerter threw down the lowest score in the first round, as he missed all but one shot on his first two racks and could not dig himself out of that hole.

Tatum’s contest looked like it was over as Markkanen had 18 going into his final, all-moneyball rack, but the Jazz star only hit one, which meant the two would go to a shoot-off if Lillard could not exceed their score. But Lillard, decked out in a Weber State uniform, knocked both of them out and got himself into second place.

Final Round

Damian Lillard: 26
Buddy Hield: 25
Tyrese Haliburton: 17

Hield went first in the final round and put up the kind of big score you expect from a former champion. Hield drilled four of the five shots off of his moneyball rack and improved on his first round score with a 25.

Lillard’s round came down to his very last shot. Despite hitting both of the ultra-deep balls to accrue six points, the Blazers star only hit two of the balls off of his moneyball rack. On his final rack, Lillard put himself in position to win if he knocked down his final triple, and he got nothing but net.

Haliburton went into the final round knowing exactly what he needed, but he came nowhere close to his first round. By the time he got to his final rack, there was no way for him to surpass Lillard’s total, making Portland’s talisman the first player in franchise history to be crowned three-point champion.

On Saturday, it was announced that Jimmy Carter — the 39th American president and, at 98, the nation’s oldest-ever commander-in-chief — would begin receiving home hospice care. “After a series of short hospital stays, former US President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” read a statement from The Carter Center. “He has the full support of his family and his medical team.”

It’s not yet known what prompted those hospital stays, but the former president faced — and defeated — a number of health scares over the last decade. He beat brain cancer in 2015, though he faced more trouble after. In 2017 he was hospitalized after facing dehydration. He later underwent surgery to remove pressure on his brain. Not long after, following decades teaching Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, Carter had to withdraw from those duties.

Before going into politics, Carter was a peanut farmer and US Navy lieutenant. In 1962 he ran for a Georgia Senate seat and won, though only after it was uncovered that there had been actual voter fraud that falsely declared his opponent the winner. Less than a decade later he graduated to the state’s governor, and by 1974 he was running for president. In 1976 he beat Republican incumbent Gerald Ford.

Carter’s term was plagued with troubles, including inflation and recession, an energy crisis, the Iran hostage crisis and more. His term wasn’t without its peaks. Among his triumphs was brokering the Camp David Accords in 1978 with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. On a lighter note, his son once smoked weed with Willie Nelson the roof of the White House.

Ronald Reagan conquered Carter’s second presidential run, winning in a landslide victory. Carter’s presidency was looked down upon at the time and, for the most part, since. However, he’s enjoyed a rich post-presidential life. A devoted humanitarian, he founded The Carter Center with his wife, Rosalynn, which works to not only strengthen democracy at home and abroad, but also to reduce diseases in other countries. He’s also long volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, a Christian organization that, among other things, builds “simple, decent and affordable housing” for low-income people.

Once news broke that Carter was entering the final stretch of his long life, people honored his many accomplishments, among them still building houses for Habitat for Humanity into his mid-90s.

Many sent their love.

And others shared incredible photos, such as this one of him rocking an Allman Brothers tee from 1976.

Our thoughts are with Jimmy Carter and his family.

(Via CNN)

During a recent interview, Rihanna opened up about how rough the first days of motherhood can be for a new mom. Fresh off her Super Bowl LVII Halftime performance, the “Lift Me Up” singer sat down with British Vogue to talk about motherhood, her relationship with Asap Rocky, and more.

The Barbadian-bred talked about shedding her old self and ushering in this new chapter, saying, “the feeling, the desires, the things that you enjoy, everything, you just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself mentally to get that far because it doesn’t matter.”

While Rihanna is more than excited about the new stage, it’s also been pretty exhausting, she said.

“You don’t sleep. At all. Not even if you wanted to,” she told British Vogue.”You’re a zombie for the most part. You’re just going through the motions, and even then, you’re so paranoid.”

The “Work” hitmaker also pointed out how grateful she was to have Rocky by her side, saying that the pair are “best friends with a baby.”

“Everything changes when you have a baby, but I wouldn’t say it’s done anything but made us closer,” she said.

At the time of the interview, Rihanna didn’t know that she was pregnant with her second child, but she did share that she wasn’t opposed to having more children. The couple has made it a point to shield their growing family from the public, going as far as not even revealing their firstborn’s name.

Regarding music, Rihanna said that she never stopped recording but is in no rush and wants to “have fun” with her next project. She also hinted that fans could expect new music sometime in 2023, saying, “honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year.”

Kehlani is officially in album mode. Hot off the tour for her most recent album, 2022’s Blue Water Road, she said she is ready to begin work on her next project.

She took to Instagram to share the news, and in the post, she shared pictures of herself wearing tank tops, thongs, heels, and her hair cut short, reminiscent of her 2017 debut era for her SweetSexySavage interview.

“sweet.Sexy.Savage. 2.0. back in my bag. tour over, it’s album time,” she said in the post’s caption

Over the course of her several eras, Kehlani has enjoyed going on tour, blending a multitude of genres, and seeing how fans react differently to her music. In an interview with Billboard, she shared what sets a Kehlani tour apart.

“We headbang, we call ancestors, we celebrate love, people get engaged, we sing petty things about exes, we call in new love, [and] we talk about community,” she said. “I think that that’s what makes this tour so unique. People are coming to be everything they are and meet other people in their ‘everythingness.’ It’s a cool f*cking room full of people who don’t even exist in anyone’s binaries, just f*cking celebrating.”

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The internet is abuzz over the NBA Celebrity All-Star game this weekend. Several notable entertainers have hit the court over the past two days to show up their skills on the court, including Simu Lu, Janelle Monáe, and 21 Savage.

Today (February 18), the “Rich Flex” rapper accomplished a rather fateful feat. At one point in the game, 21 Savage scored the 21st point in the Celebrity All-Star Game.

Surely, this accomplishment marks another milestone in 21’s career, making his hometown of Atlanta all the more proud.

Last year, 21 was granted his own holiday in the state of Georgia. In a recent interview with Complex, 21 said he only wants to keep his accomplishments on an upward trend.

“I just want to drop a good ass album that everybody loves so it helps solidify me,” 21 said. “I want that level-up album. You know how everybody has those moments in their career where it’s like, ‘He was doing this and this and then he dropped this.’ I feel like I’ve had those albums for every stage of my career. I had all my mixtapes, then Savage Mode came, and that was a pivotal moment. Then Issa Album built up, “Bank Account” built up, and then I Am > I Was was another pivotal moment, with “A Lot” with J. Cole, the Grammy, all that sh*t.”

You can see the clip from the NBA Celebrity All-Star game above.

Paolo Banchero is well on his way to being named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year. Banchero, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, has been a revelation for an upstart Orlando Magic team that has an outside shot at sneaking into the Eastern Conference play-in tournament this season — with the league paused for its All-Star break, Banchero and the Magic find themselves in 13th place in the East with a 24-35 record, a full four games behind the 10-seed.

If Orlando doesn’t make it, the franchise can take plenty of solace in knowing that the future is as bright as it’s been in the post-Dwight Howard era. Guys like Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Wendell Carter make up one of the NBA’s most appealing young cores — the oldest player on the roster is 28-year-old Gary Harris, while seven of the team’s eight top scorers on the year or 24 or younger.

Banchero has parlayed his success during his first year in the NBA into a few things during All-Star weekend. On Friday, Banchero was part of the winning team in the Rising Stars game, and on Saturday, Banchero will team up with fellow rookies Jaden Ivey and Jabari Smith Jr. in the Skills Challenge. In between those two things, Banchero spoke to Dime from the Panini Prizm lounge in Salt Lake City to discuss his first year in the league, his jam packed All-Star weekend, and much more.

I can only imagine this is a real busy weekend for you.

It’s been crazy, but I’m having fun.

Before we get into the basketball stuff going on this weekend, I’d love to know what you have going on with Panini.

Been here chilling in the Prizm lounge, playing Pop-a-Shot, playing pool, having fun, mingling with everybody. It’s a dope setup here.

Were you a big trading card kid growing up? Any kind of card — Pokemon, anything like that?

Definitely went through that phase growing up, collecting a lot of football cards, a lot of basketball cards. My dad, actually, he really collected them. I kind of just did it for fun, but my dad, he collected baseball cards and he had a whole binder full of them. And then my mom, obviously, she had her own card when she played professional. So, definitely grew up around some cards, man, so it’s crazy seeing myself on them now.

A good way to get your own card is to be involved in All-Star weekend, and this is your first one as a player. What’s it been like just being out there and around everything that comes with that?

Man, it’s crazy. It’s a crazy thing, just seeing all these great players and NBA legends, all in one space, in one area, just mingling. You get to meet a lot of guys that you never would have thought you’d get to meet, and it’s just been a blessing for me. I’ve always dreamed of stuff like this.

Was there one guy that you got to meet this weekend who maybe had you a little bit starstruck?

I’m not sure, I’ve met a lot of people. I don’t think I’ve met anyone … I met Dominique Wilkins in the lobby. It’s really, more than legends, all the all the players now I’ve seen and met, but like, just a lot of NBA legends that are retired, you never really see. So getting to meet them has been the coolest part.

Talking to you before the Skills Challenge tonight. What are your thoughts on getting to compete in something like that?

Yeah, I’m excited. That’s a dream come true. I grew up watching the All-Star weekend festivities every single year, I never missed it. So, being able to actually be a part of it and being in the Skills Challenge, it’s crazy, but I’m ready. Hopefully I can get a win.

I’ll be honest with you, I might have you guys winning this. So I’m gonna need a gonna need a real big performance tonight, but I think you’ve got a good team out there.

Yeah, we can do it. I think me Jaden, Jabari, we got young legs, we’re gonna be ready. We’re not gonna do the cool guy thing where you jog through, I think we’re all gonna go hard. So, we should win.

And last night, you got to play in the Rising Stars game. I know they’ve tweaked that format in the last year or two. What were your thoughts on this new way of playing in that game that wasn’t back and forth, first one to 150 points wins?

That was dope, because it makes the game a little more serious — especially that second one, because it’s only to 25, so every bucket matters. But it was fun just being out there with the guys. I had a great team and we were able to get the win, which was our goal from the start.

One thing that I really loved about the game is that you obviously spent a lot of time playing against Franz. How much fun was it getting to go up against him?

Man, it was crazy. It was a little weird. Me and him never really matched up before. Not even in practice, really, we’re always on the same team. It was fun though, man. First time I had the ball against him, he’s sitting there guarding me, he’s like, “I know all your moves,” and then I hit the shot. So, it was funny playing against him.

I want to shift to talking about the Magic a little and I want to start with him. I think a lot of people know that Franz is good. But as someone who is around him everyday, what is it about him in your eyes that makes him such a special player?

He’s just a winner, he’s wired to win. That’s really all he cares about. He’s super competitive, he’s very talented — me and him are pretty much same height, both both can play one through five, can play on the perimeter, can play inside. People kind of underestimate how good he is as a finisher, every time he drives to the hoop, I think he’s going to finish, whether it’s a floater, a Eurostep step, inside hand, left hand, right hand, he has all types of finishes. He can do everything on the court, he can shoot, pass, dribble.

He’s just an all-around player, and he’s only gonna get better. I’m excited, we’re gonna build something special over these next couple of years and just keep on going, man. We want to win.

On that, Magic fans have been waiting for guys like you, like Franz, like some of those other dudes you have to get you guys back to where Shaq had them. Penny had them. Dwight had them. Is that something that motivates you guys? Or is the mindset, listen, those guys were special, they did their own thing. We’re our own thing. And we don’t want to be defined by those past eras of Orlando Magic basketball?

You definitely want to pay respect to those eras. Shaq, Penny, Tracy McGrady, Dwight Howard, all the great players that came through Orlando. But like you said, you also want to be — me, Franz, rest of the guys, we want to build our own legacy, we want to make our own mark. And we feel like we really can do that. And we can do it with our own style, our own play style, and add our own flair to it. It’s a new era, and I think we’re ready to really build.

It’s not often that rookies come into the NBA and have some of the success that you’ve had as such a versatile and effective score. What’s the thing that you think has helped you the most as you’ve gotten used to life in the league over these past couple of months?

I think for me, just being able to attack the basket, draw contact, and create my own shot. Obviously, for me, it hasn’t been easy. It’s been a lot of learning, but I think I’ve done a good job. And it encourages me because the games that you do struggle, it’s rough, it only makes you want to be better. So, I want to finish out this season strong, but once the season’s over, I’m gonna have a whole 82 games of tape to watch and learn what I need to be able to do better and improve on for the next year.

You’re four months into being a professional, there’s always going to be a lot of growing that comes, but where’s the area where you feel like you’ve grown the most as a player between that first game against Detroit and where you are right now?

I think more my mentality really than anything to do with my game. I think my mentality on the court, just how I go about each and every game, whether it’s a good or bad game, I think staying level headed, not getting too high, not getting too low, it’s helped me a lot. And I just want to keep improving on it, improve on every other facet of my game.

You hear guys in their first year always talk about having that welcome to the NBA moment. Do you feel like you’ve had something like that?

I think playing against Kevin Durant for the first time, for me, was my welcome to the NBA moment. He’s a killer, I think he had 45 points. So, I would say that was. I think my first ever NBA game was also my welcome to the NBA moment, but in a good way.

When you go up against a guy like KD, and he gets 45, obviously you’re a competitor, but do you have to kind of learn how to take in stride that like, listen, some guys are just all time greats, you can’t let a performance like that linger?

That’s probably the one of the greatest scorers ever, if not the greatest scorer ever, so you can’t. You’re silly if you get down on yourself when he scores a basketball, he’s gonna score, you can’t stop him. But you just want to compete, and it’s fun playing against a guy like him. It’s a real challenge every single time down the court. It just makes it even more fun to have to try and accept the challenge and try and get a stop, even though I didn’t get many of ’em.

Hopefully you get a little bit of rest and relaxation after today, but what’s your main priority as a player, for the team, once you get back to Orlando?

Definitely just locking in on this last 20 — whatever it is — 23 games, or 22 games, and trying to get in that play-in and playoff spot, and just finishing strong as a team. We’ve been playing good basketball, so we wanna keep that up.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Roald Dahl wrote many beloved, macabre books for children. (And for adults as well. Check out the nightmarish short story “Skin” sometime.) He was also an open anti-Semite whose works often traded in racial stereotypes. His work has sometimes been altered. For instance, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas were originally Black African pygmies. (Dahl himself changed that one.) But a new line of editions of his children’s books may have gone too far.

As per The Guardian, Puffin Books hired “sensitivity readers” to pore over Dahl’s books and ensure they “can continue to be enjoyed by all today.” They made hundreds of changes. The adjective “fat” was removed from several books. Augustus Gloop, the rotund child from Chocolate Factory, is now only described as “enormous.” The antiheroes of The Twits are no longer “ugly and beastly,” but simply “beastly.”

Many were minor, arguably arbitrary tweaks. Miss Trunchbill in Matilda, originally described as a “most formidable female,” is now a “most formidable woman.” The Oompa Loompas used to be “small men”; they’re now “small people.”

You can some more changes below.

While Dahl’s real-life bigotry is fairly well-known, his work continues to be read and adapted into movies and TV shows. Netflix forked over tens of thousands last year for his complete works. Willy Wonka is coming to the big screen for a third time, now as hot Timothée Chalamet. The 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory remains a stone cold classic.

Will these revisions protect young readers from retrograde mores? Or is it destroying a late artist’s work? (Again, Dahl was responsible for the Oompa Loompa change.) Whatever the case, the changes seemed to please few, with many marveling not only at the extent of the changes, but also at their poor quality.

Some suggested what publishers and readers alike could do instead.

(Via The Guardian)

Lil Wayne will be making an entryway into the virtual gaming world very soon. The New Orleans rapper has been revealed as a new playable character in NBA 2K23. 2k Games, the video game’s publisher, made the announcement late last week. The latest installment of the basketball simulator will be released on February 24.

The Young Money rapper will be available as a Crossover Card in “MyTEAM” mode for a limited time only. Players will be able to unlock the “A Milli” hitmaker after finishing the Lil Wayne Spotlight challenge. The Grammy award-winning rapper’s character captures him perfectly, complete with his locs and tattoos, and has been given an 89 overall rating.

2k Games has plans for more updates in the future including an array of apparel and extra content, the will be released before the end of the month.

With a career spanning nearly three decades, Lil Wayne has certainly earned all the recognition he gets. Aside from being apart of the new season of NBA 2K, the rapper was honored by the Recording Academy —along with Missy Elliot and Dr. Dre— with the Global Impact Award.

Last year, “Lollipop” arguable one of Weezy’s biggest hits, was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Additionally, the rapper has teamed up with Rolling Loud for the Welcome To Tha Carter Tour, which kicks off at the Fillmore in Minneapolis in April.