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The San Antonio Spurs are firmly in rebuilding mode, as evidenced by a 9-20 record and the NBA’s worst net rating (-10) at the start of play in the league on Monday. Still, there are positive signs for the Spurs when it comes to young talent, including Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and a trio of first round picks from the 2022 NBA Draft. One of those selections was former Baylor forward Jeremy Sochan, who started 21 of the team’s first 29 games and has considerable potential as a defender and facilitator.

Sochan does have a current weakness as a shooter, though, and that includes 17.4 percent from three-point range and just 11-of-24 to begin his NBA career at the free throw line. During the first half of Monday’s game between the Spurs and the Houston Rockets, Sochan elected to change his free throw routine and lofted a pair of attempts one-handed.

It isn’t uncommon for players to use this form in a drill setting, especially when working on getting away from off-hand guidance. It is quite odd to see in a live game environment, however, and perhaps the Spurs and Sochan are just searching for anything to fix his struggles. Though his current free throw numbers represent a comically small sample, Sochan also shot less than 60 percent at the college level, which perhaps is part of the calculus.

San Antonio can afford to be experimental given the current state of affairs and the realization that game results aren’t the most important thing. Still, this is bizarre to see, and it will be interesting to see what the rationale might be from a front-facing standpoint.

The weather in Buffalo, New York can be pretty bad towards the end of the NFL regular season. With a new stadium coming for the Buffalo Bills sometime in the next decade, there are plenty of questions about whether or not the team should be required to play their home games in a dome. And in the eyes of their franchise player, believing they should is pretty ridiculous.

“No, I think that’s a fairly soft take,” Josh Allen said in reference to a recent clip from The Dan Le Batard Show in which a producer, Chris Wittyngham, said he believes the NFL should mandate a dome in Buffalo. “I did see that clip. It’s football, man. It’s football weather. We love what we do, to kind of have some of these snow games — again, it’s cold for us, it’s cold for them, there’s snow for us, there’s snow for them.”

Allen, who was in the midst of an appearance on Kyle Brandt’s Basement, went on to say that other stadiums have different advantages, although he made sure to say “I think we all know what I’m talking about.” (This may be a reference to how players will sometimes struggle to get through games in Miami without cramping.)

The Bills played the Dolphins this past week in Orchard Park and won, 32-29, on a game-winning field goal as time expired.

The Toronto Raptors entered Monday evening’s matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers in a tailspin. The Raptors lost the previous five games and, with a double-digit halftime deficit in Philadelphia, the vibes were not immaculate for Toronto. With that said, the wildest moment of the first half between the division rivals took place in the second quarter with Philadelphia leading 44-31 with fewer than eight minutes remaining before the break.

In short, the two teams combined to make a mockery of a pair of fast break situations, yielding no points on either side.

First, Philadelphia simply over-passed in an advantage situation. Shake Milton then flipped up a shot that didn’t draw iron, and that kickstarted what was a favorable possession for Toronto. Pascal Siakam rightly pushed the ball and set up a 2-on-1 fast break for OG Anunoby and Scottie Barnes. In similar fashion to what happened to Philadelphia, the passing wasn’t great and the end result was a lost-ball turnover.

This entire sequence could have been set to “Yakety Sax,” even if there was not any real damage for either team. It’s not as if these teams are incapable of effective transition play either, but the Raptors and Sixers briefly lost the collective ability to function on offense and the results were amusing.

Founder and lead vocalist of British ska-punk band the Specials, Terry Hall, has died at age 63 after a battle with a “brief illness.” After forming the group in 1977, the Specials saw a peak in popularity until the early 1980s. Hall served as the lead vocalist until 1981 and is revered as one of the era’s great unifiers between British and Caribbean music.

The official statement of Hall’s passing reads, “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, following a brief illness, of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother, and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters, and lyricists this country has ever produced.”

The thread continued, “Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love,” adding, “He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… ‘Love, Love, Love.’”

The Go-Go’s’ guitarist Jane Wiedlin, who previously collaborated with Hall, took to Twitter to share a heartfelt message, “Gutted to hear of the passing of #terryhall. He was a lovely, sensitive, talented, and unique person. Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song ‘Our Lips Are Sealed,’ which will forever tie us together in music history. Terrible news to hear this.”

Fellow British musician Billy Bragg joined in on the online conversation to share his condolences, writing, “The Specials were a celebration of how British culture was envigorated by Caribbean immigration, but the onstage demeanor of their lead singer was a reminder that they were in the serious business of challenging our perception of who we were in the late 1970s. RIP Terry Hall.”

Hall reunited with the Specials in 2008, performing shows until his death, but it wasn’t until 2019 that the group released new music. Their last album, Encore, was released in 2019 following a hiatus longer than 38 years.

The family is requesting privacy at this time.

Last week Tucker Carlson invited an unusual guest to his Fox Nation streaming show: Mike Tyson. It got a bit awkward. At one point, Fox News’ biggest star asked how he felt about his opponents when he was in the ring. Without missing a beat, Tyson replied, “I wanted to kill them.” He later elaborated, saying, “The more you hurt them, the higher you go in life. That’s just my mentality: the more you hurt them, the more people love you.” It was such a brash reply that even Carlson joked (sort of) that he was a bit nervous. Perhaps Tyson’s forthrightness was because he was a little out of it.

Page Six reports that Tyson actually visited Carlson’s home, which is in the New England boondocks, far from Fox News HQ in Manhattan, to do the interview. Tyson had one request: That he be allowed to smoke weed while being his houseguest. It was a fair question: Tyson didn’t want to stink up his immaculate manse. Surprisingly, Carlson, who once used to wear bowties on the regular, was cool with it, even if he did not partake.

“Tucker told him that it’s not his thing personally, but he had no problem with Mike smoking while he was there,” a source told Page Six.

Tyson’s weed habit is legendary. As per Page Six:

Tyson — who was the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 until 1990 and finished his career with 50 wins and six losses — recently said on his podcast that he and his buddy, co-host Eben Britton, smoke about $40,000 worth on his California cannabis farm each month.

He also has his own line of edibles, which reportedly includes one in the shape of Evander Holyfield’s disfigured ear — a pretty tasteless addition given that it was Tyson that bit a chunk out of his colleague during a notorious 1997 bout.

Was Tyson high during the Tucker sitdown? Maybe, maybe not. Weed does tend to chill people out and someone who’d smoked that much probably wouldn’t be out there talking about killing opponents. Or so one would think. Whatever the case, at least he likes pigeons.

(Via Page Six)

Kid Cudi is a jack of all trades — aside from music, he’s working on a memoir, taking skating lessons from Tony Hawk, and acting in movies. Now, he’s considering adding another artistic medium to his roster: Stand-up comedy.

Yesterday, a fan tweeted at the rapper, saying he should do a stand-up set. He quote-tweeted it, writing, “You know, I was thinking of doing a stand-up set one night only for the fans. I feel like I can do it! What do you think?? I got jokes!! All I gotta do is talk about my life, haha.”

In September, Cudi explained he was stepping back from music to focus on other things. “I think I’m going to take a step back from the Kid Cudi stuff and focus a lot more on developing my own things,” he said. “Writing — whether it’s movies or TV shows — producing things, putting stuff together. Just really getting my production company [Mad Solar] up to a place where, in the next three or four years, we’re a household name. I really have goals. We’re off to a great start with the documentary X, Pearl, and now, Entergalactic. I mean, we have four bangers so far, so I just want to see what else we can do and keep going.”

It wasn’t that long ago that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were a kind of not-so-dynamic duo. They both stormed into Congress three days before the Jan. 6 riot, which they helped talk up. They both heckled President Joe Biden during his State of the Union this year (though only Boebert did so while he was talking about his dead son Beau). They haven’t teamed up for something awful in a while, and earlier this year they were yelling at each other. That may explain why on Monday Greene took some time to drag her onetime friend.

“I’ve supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. President Trump has supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. Kevin McCarthy has supported and donated to Lauren Boebert. She just barely came through by 500 votes,” Greene tweeted, alluding to the re-election race that Boebert very nearly lost.

Marge went on: “She gladly takes our $$$ but when she’s been asked: Lauren refuses to endorse President Trump, she refuses to support Kevin McCarthy, and she childishly threw me under the bus for a cheap sound bite.”

She then pivoted away from party in-fighting to slam a greater foe (while still subtly jabbing at Boebert). “The country is facing extremely difficult times. Americans expect conservative fighters like us to work together to Save America and that is the only mission I’m 100% devoted to, not high school drama and media sound bites.” She concluded, “Save America! Defeat the Democrats!”

It’s another sign of Republicans in disarray. The party hasn’t been doing so hot, and not only because of the “red wave” that failed to happen during the midterms last month. The party is split between the MAGA unit, which includes both Greene and Boebert, and those who want to finally move on from the possibly doomed Donald Trump. But now that Greene and Boebert are feuding, it’s clear there’s in-fighting even in certain factions of the party.

Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson might want to look out, there’s a new musician-hosted talk show heading to our screens. Grammy-award-winning vocalist Mary J. Blige is heading to daytime television. According to Deadline, the “Amazing” singer’s production company, Blue Butterfly, has inked a wide-ranging deal with the cable channel BET.

The entirety of the deal has not yet been revealed, but the first project in this new production will include Blige hosting a talk show titled The Wine Down. The show executive-produced with Blige and her partners Ashaunna Ayars and Nicole Jackson, as well as Lisa Erspalmer, and John and Jordan Davis (of Davis Entertainment) is described as a “raw, provocative, insightful, and real conversations” over wine with some of the biggest names in entertainment, sports, social media, and politics. Hosting should come naturally to the entertainer, having previously interviewed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

When asked about the venture, the multi-hyphenated entertainer said in the statement shared with Deadline, “BET has been one of my biggest supporters throughout my career. Being able to now create together, [and] for them to be so supportive of my vision for the type of content I will create, is something I am grateful and excited for. We already have multiple projects in the works, and there is much more to come.”

Those sentiments were echoed by the network’s EVP of Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy, Connie Orlando. The executive shared her thoughts on the partnership stating, “As we strive to provide our audience with the best in biopics and documentaries, we are poised to remain at the forefront in offering high-quality, authentic on-screen portrayals of the lives of the culture’s most significant Black talent; and we are proud to supercharge the portfolio of content through our collaboration with Mary J. Blige’s production company, Blue Butterfly.”

Orlando went on to add, “Throughout her legendary career, Mary has blazed trails to become a global superstar. With Blue Butterfly, Mary develops awe-inspiring stories of the Black experience while uniquely using music to set the foundation. Mary has been a vital part of the BET family, and we are eager to see our partnership flourish through this partnership.”

As an added bonus, Blige’s company has also landed a first-look scripted TV deal with Lionsgate Television. Blige’s lengthy film and television work has seemingly prepared her for this next venture in her career.

The air date of the talk show has not been made public.

It took two years, but a section of Congress finally tried to formally hold Donald Trump accountable for the Jan. 6 riot. On Monday, the House select committee investigating that fateful held its final hearing, which not only summed up their findings but offered some criminal referrals to the Justice Department. One of them was for Trump himself, who they accused of four separate crimes. No doubt there was plenty of ketchup stains on Mar-a-Lago walls, but eventually he pulled himself together to write a sober — if fact-challenged — response.

“These folks don’t’ get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me,” Trump wrote on his rinky-dink Twitter clone. “It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

He then made some pretty questionable claims. “Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to prevent violence on Jan 6, and that I went on television and told everyone to go home,” he said, referring to a not entirely sincere video he released hours after his violent supporters stormed the Capitol, leading to multiple deaths.

Trump then moved into pity party/conspiracy mode. “The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party.”

Those who paid attention to the Jan. 6 committee hearings know the middle section is misleading at best. He never signed an order to deploy tens of thousands of troops, and he refused to call off his hordes until they were already dispersing — and then praised them. The video is one of the reasons he was permanently suspended from Twitter: because he was in danger of inciting more violence. That was undone by its new (and possibly vacating) owner, who’s surely peeved that Trump can’t even use his old Twitter account lest he add yet more bit of trouble to his towering woes.

Shortly after the original Power series came to an end at the beginning of 2020, 50 Cent and the crew officially launched the Power Universe. Nearly, two years later that universe consists of three spin-offs of the original Power series, with plans to keep expanding. The first of the three spin-offs, Power Book II: Ghost, is set to make a return in 2023 for its third season. The series is centered on Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.) and his new life as a college student. Complications from his father James St. Patrick’s death, and a continued life in the drug game, have made Tariq’s life as a student much different than usual.

Season two of Power Book II: Ghost ended in typical dramatic Power fashion. Monet (Mary J. Blige) killed Mecca (Daniel Sunjata) and Zeke (Daniel Bellomy) was accidentally killed by Lorenzo (Berto Colon) who mistook him for Mecca. Brayden testified at Tariq’s trial and said that he was the only one who was dealing drugs out of their dorm room. This led to a judge dismissing the case and freeing Tariq. Lauren was allegedly killed in a car accident, but with the incident being tied to Effie, fans have some questions about the whole ordeal. We’ll see how things progress when Power Book II: Ghost makes its return next spring.

Release Date

Season three of Power Book II: Ghost will premiere on March 17 on STARZ. That’s right, Tariq St. Patrick’s return to the small screen will land on St. Patrick’s Day. The first of ten episodes in season two will be available to watch that day on the STARZ app at 12 AM EST and it will air later on in the day on the STARZ channel at 8 PM EST. The season three premiere will come a little over a year after season two conclude with the deaths of Mecca and Zeke as well as Tariq’s release from prison.

Cast

The cast in season three of Power Book II: Ghost includes the following returning main cast members: Michael Rainey Jr. as Tariq St. Patrick, Gianni Paolo as Brayden Weston, Method Man as Davis MacLean, Mary J. Blige as Monet Stweart Tejada, Shane Johnson as Cooper Saxe, Woody McClain as Lorenzo “Cane” Tejada, LaToya Tonodeo as Diana Tejada, Alix Lapri as Effie Morales, Larenz Tate as Rashad Tate. New names to the main cast include: Moriah Brown as Keke Travis, Monique Curnen as Blanca Rodriguez (who was in the original Power series), David Walton as Lucas Weston, and Keesha Sharp as Harper Bonet.

Plot

Here is the official plot overview for season three of Power Book II: Ghost:

The third season of Power Book II: Ghost kicks off with Tariq St. Patrick determined to get his trust, get back to his family, and get out of the game for good. The emergence of a ruthless new connect interrupts Tariq’s plans to reunite with Tasha and Yaz and puts him, Brayden, and Effie back into business with the Tejadas as they’re challenged to move more weight than ever before.

When Brayden brings Tariq in as an intern at his family’s hedge fund Weston Holdings, the drug business expands beyond Stansfield and the streets onto Wall Street, while Tariq is also shown an alternate, legitimate path to success. Monet Tejada, set ablaze by the death of her son Zeke Cross, is willing to pay a hefty price to avenge her firstborn and keep the rest of her children – and the business – in line as she works closely with Davis MacLean to solve Zeke’s murder and keep the feds off her trail.

Business is booming when a staggering reveal forces Tariq to reckon with a betrayal from those closest to him… and a R.I.C.O. investigation mounting into the entire drug enterprise, pulling Tariq deeper into the business and even closer to the legacy of his father.

Trailer

You can view the official season three teaser trailer for Power Book II: Ghost below:

Season 3 of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ debuts on STARZ on March 17.