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There are tell-tale signs in a country with a majority continental climate that summer has, or has just about, come to a close. A nip in the air most mornings, foliage flickering through a beautiful array of fall tones, people wearing jean jackets again, and of course, a renewed frenzy and ramped up pride around the Toronto Raptors and their imminent season.

Since 2012, NBA Canada, in tandem with the NBA, have tapped into that excitement and actively sought to broaden it by hosting the NBA Canada Series — official, pre-season games held outside of the league’s lone market of Toronto. Previous match-ups have featured franchises like the Clippers, Bulls, Knicks, and Nuggets in cities such as Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, and the Grizzlies’ former home of Vancouver. The series was put on pause in 2019 due to the COVID pandemic, but is set to make its return this fall with two games presented by Bell.

On Oct. 2, the Raptors will take on the Jazz in Edmonton, a first for Utah as a team featured in the series and for the city as a host for an NBA game. On Oct. 14, the Raptors will face the Celtics in Montreal, a second-time appearance for the recent Eastern Conference in the city and hometown of the Raptors own Chris Boucher, who hasn’t played there since the preseason of Toronto’s title winning season in 2019.

“It’s so good to once again be able to play in front of our fans across Canada,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said of the Canada Series’ 10-year anniversary and return. “We’re looking forward to returning to Montreal, and to playing at Rogers Place in Edmonton for the first time. It’s a fantastic reminder, as we begin a new season, that we are Canada’s team, and we look forward to making Raptors fans proud, no matter where they are cheering from.”

Of the Jazz’s inaugural appearance in the series, Utah general manager Justin Zanik echoed those sentiments. “We’re excited to be featured in the preseason NBA Canada Series,” he said. “It is a unique opportunity for our organization to engage with the league’s Canadian fans in Edmonton. Our players and staff are looking forward to it.”

Canada, oft touted as a kind of tacked on extension of the U.S. market, has a rich history in and rapidly growing fanbase for basketball. The rise of exciting, Canadian stars in the NBA like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Andrew Wiggins, Jamal Murray, and Dillon Brooks — not to mention the Raptors rostering three Canadian players including Toronto-born Dalano Banton — has created a renewed awareness for Canadians of a flourishing Canadian identity in the league. On and off court the stylistic nuances of Canadian players, aided by the volume of talented players being drafted into the NBA each season and expansion of national leagues like the CEBL, has underscored not only that the culture of basketball in Canada is thriving, but that a budding regionality is taking shape. The return of the NBA Canada Series underscores the necessity and value in treating Canada not as a far-flung outpost, but a compelling and completely unique country of basketball, symbiotic in the league’s goal to take the game global.

Generally speaking, when a lawmaker’s attempting to show off movie-based knowledge, this involves Ted Cruz falling all over himself. The Princess Bride superfan previously feuded with Cary Elwes and botched both Watchmen and The Avengers. But Lauren Boebert is here to threaten Ted’s crown of stumbling into Twitter traps. No, she’s not “liking” saucy tweets (like Ted presumably did) late on a Monday night, but she is taking issue with Kevin Costner, and she got trolled mightily as a result.

Costner had decided to throw his Yellowstone weight behind Liz Cheney to support her House reelection campaign. Cheney, although a Republican, regularly angers the MAGA crowd and continues to do so as a prominent figure in the House’s investigation into Jan. 6. And Boebert couldn’t resist tossing a barb at the Bull Durham actor. “How did Kevin Costner go from Dancing with Wolves to slumming with RINOs?” she tweeted.

It’s one of those silly tweets that begged for a little trolling, so the notorious Three Year Letterman account stepped up to do so. He baited Boebert with an equally mindless (and purposefully inaccurate) tweet. “Kevin Costner was not in Dances with Wolves, Senator,” Letterman responded. “He was in Field of Dreams. You’re thinking of Jeff Bridges, so delete and correct this.”

Boebert took the bait, and while this might seem inconsequential (obviously, Costner really was in Field of Dreams), it’s quite something that Boebert’s entrenched enough on Twitter to express well wishes for “Catturd2” but not recognize the Letterman account for what it is. And she fired back: “I’m not a Senator, and Kevin Costner acted in and directed the dang thing. Next!”

Letterman continued to tweet random gibberish about DVDs and how he’d like to be addressed.

And it doesn’t matter, at all, except for the “owning the libs” angle. Also: “Next!”

A young Lizzo fan got some viral attention recently, as a video shared by her mother of her dancing to “About Damn Time” has racked up over 360,000 views on TikTok, with a second featuring more dancing attracting over 420,000 plays. The moves even caught the attention of Lizzo herself, who was moved to tears by them.

Lizzo stitched that first video on TikTok, showing herself smiling and covering her mouth as she’s seemingly on the verge of getting emotional.

In a follow-up video, Lizzo has tears coming from her eyes as she explains, “I’m like… still processing that feeling of, like… you never think when you’re making music, you have an effect on people or you have an impact on people’s lives, and… it’s like, this is literally why I do it. I’m so grateful that people take my music and do good things with it. It makes them move, it makes them dance, it makes them happy, it makes them feel confidence in themselves. I don’t care about all the other sh*t. The numbers: I don’t give a sh*t. That video is my Grammy right there. That is my award and I’m so grateful.”

After Lizzo’s reaction, the girl’s mother shared a video of her and her daughter thanking fans for the support. The mom also noted how emotional the video made Lizzo and asked her daughter why she thinks that happened. The mom explained, “Because all she wants to do is be an inspiration to little girls like you. Right? And we love watching her videos, right?”

Check out all of the heartwarming clips above.

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

As you might have heard, Game of Thrones had a lot of issues in its final season, from pacing to character motivation to the episodes being too dang dark. “The Long Night,” in particular, was dubbed “one of the most expensive missed opportunities in the history of television” due to how difficult it was to follow the action. Excuses were made, with director Miguel Sapochnik explaining the darkness was an intentional choice to mimic the “feeling of claustrophobia, anxiety, and at times frustration” that the characters were facing. But the only frustration most viewers felt was from having to squint.

It might be worth checking out “The Long Night” again, or maybe even a full series re-watch: every episode of Game of Thrones (including the good ones!) has been remastered on HBO Max ahead of the August 21st premiere of House of the Dragon.

Tom’s Guide reports that “HBO Max added the entirety of Thrones in 4K UHD quality. And it’s not just sharp, either. The seasons are presented in HDR 10, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. That means you’ll see all eight seasons of Thrones with high contrast and strong colors. And it’ll sound immersive.” (The 4K-quality episodes are not available to stream on every device, including PS5s for some reason, but you can find the list here.)

That should help the too-dark issue. Daenerys going full girlboss? That’s a tougher fix.

(Via Tom’s Guide)

King Princess’ (real name Mikaela Straus) new album Hold On Baby dropped last week and it was something Foo Fighters die-hards were surely paying attention to, as the late Taylor Hawkins plays drums on “Let Us Die.” King Princess brought the song to TV last night with a Tonight Show performance, during which she found a simple way to honor her collaborator.

After Jimmy Fallon’s introduction, the first shot of the performance was of the kick drum, which had “TAYLOR” printed on it. From there, Straus and her band put on a dynamic and rocking performance of which Hawkins would have been proud.

Straus recently told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about working with Hawkins, “In between takes, we’d FaceTime and he was just so kind. […] He was just saying he loves playing drums. And to hear that from somebody who’s lived such a life that, at his age and playing for as long as he has in so many different bands and his own projects, for him to just love to play the f*cking drums, that to me is just what we should all strive to be: Somebody who does not lose that love of their instrument.”

Watch King Princess perform “Let Us Die” on Fallon above.

Chance The Rapper is only 29 but given that his debut mixtape, 10 Day, came out when he was just a teenager in 2012, he’s been rapping for a long time. All the while, Chance has been dealing with fans/haters saying he’s “fallen off,” that he’s not as good now as he once was. In a recent interview on Breakfast Club, he offered a passionate response to that.

Charlamagne Tha God asked how Chance deals with online criticism, specifically mentioning that a common theme is people saying he “fell off.” Through smiles, Chance replied:

“Man. I don’t know. To me, it’s like, I could do one of two things: I could either agree with it, or I could live my life, right? If I agree with it, then that means the Breakfast Club fell off, ’cause y’all don’t have people that fell off sitting in your chair, I don’t think, usually. And so I feel like I gotta stay on my path. N****s was saying I fell off when I was in high school! I made four mixtapes! N****s was telling me in high school, ‘Your last tape was better!’ I’m like, ’N****, I’m 15!’ But it’s like, man: I can joke about it, but it is tough, but it’s like, I don’t know, what can I say? Tell people that my feelings are hurt? Like, I don’t know.

The best thing that I could do is like… man, when I get up with Vic [Mensa] and we just go and we just write and we just make sh*t, it’s so undeniable: I’m so good at rapping! I’m sorry I keep saying that, but it’s just like, at this point, I got to just put the words on the screen because motherf*ckers really loving that sh*t. It gives people goosebumps. So I’m like, I could listen to people that think about artists like they’re f*ckin’ Pokémon cards, like these commodified trading cards. It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re f*ckin’ 2K rating just went down.’ F*ck them n****s! These n****s is lame as hell! They never been on! If I fell off, at least I was on, you know what I’m saying?”

Watch the full interview below, with the talk about falling off starting at around 41 minutes into the video.

Earlier this year, Kendrick Lamar dropped Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed Damn. The album was polarizing, with some thinking it was his greatest work yet, while others were not into it at all. The rapper, though, has stayed quiet since the release.

Today, GQ shared an in-depth interview with the album’s producer, Mark “Sounwave” Spears, in which he discusses the way he and Lamar “knew this album was going to be a tough listen.” “It was beyond rough,” he told the interviewer about working on the LP during the pandemic. When asked about if they had to work remotely, he said, “This was the toughest and longest creative process for me. We didn’t necessarily have everyone come to us; we traveled.”

When asked about creating the sonic palette, he explained, “It’s always going to be different with every artist, but Kendrick, he’s very specific. He knows what he wants and even when he don’t know what he wants, he knows what he wants, if that makes sense. Comparing him to anybody else is night and day. We lock in and for weeks just create ideas. And maybe nothing comes from it or maybe a whole album comes from it.”

He continued, “Like I said, this is probably one of the toughest creative processes imaginable creating this album. We went through so much: starting in early 2019 we lost Nipsey, and then less than a year later we lost Kobe. For me, creatively, that hurts. It took a lot out of me. And then a few months later, what happens? We get locked down. Pandemic.”

Read the full interview here.

In July, DJ Khaled announced God Did, his thirteenth album, the follow-up to 2020’s Khaled Khaled, which featured 21 Savage, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Big Sean, and more. But he didn’t release a single alongside this announcement, and he didn’t offer a tracklist, or even a release date. However, today he unveiled some more information.

In a new Instagram post, DJ Khaled revealed that God Did is arriving on August 26th. The first single “Staying Alive” is out this Friday, August 5, and will feature Drake and Lil Baby. Read the full caption below.

“DJ KHALED FEAT. @champagnepapi @lilbaby #STAYINGALIVE ANTHEM AND VIDEO THIS FRIDAY AUG 5TH

#GODDID
ALBUM DROPPING AUGUST 26TH 8/26 !
Win with us…or watch us win
PRE-SAVE THE ALBUM NOW! LINK IN BIO!”

In November of last year, DJ Khaled teased this song during his own birthday party, letting the crowd know that a new collaboration with Drake was in the offing. “I got some new music with Drake coming out real soon,” he said. “This sh*t sounds crazy too. The vocals are in!” In 2020, the pair also worked together on the track “Popstar,” which also featured Justin Bieber, so this isn’t their first time working alongside one another.

You might remember Mark McCloskey. He was the unhinged lawyer who, along with his wife Patricia, brandished firearms at BLM protesters marching through their gated St. Louis community. They faced felony charges, but pleaded them down to misdemeanors. Mark was immediately hailed as a new GOP star. He and his wife made video appearances at that year’s wild Republican National Convention. Mark was so emboldened that he ran for Senate. Well, anyway, sometimes dreams, they simply don’t come true.

As per The Daily Beast, in the Republican primary held on Tuesday, McCloskey nabbed a mere 3% of the vote. That means he came in a distant fifth. Besides, the race was already dominated by one even more out-there candidate, who also lost.

Like McCloskey, Eric Greitens — the state’s former governor, who resigned in disgrace in 2018 — released a campaign video in which he toted big guns. Unlike McCloskey, Greitens went so far as to fantasize about using them to hunt RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only. Greitens came in third, with only 19% of the vote, with the nomination going to the state’s attorney general, Eric Schmitt.

The general public is notoriously fickle and easy to forget. So it goes with McCloskey, who thought he could ride a deranged public outburst into a position making laws in D.C. Instead, his law license was suspended indefinitely, and an appeal was shot down back in June. Let this be a lesson that pointing guns at people later revealed to be unarmed won’t make you a superstar, not even with the Republican Party.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The greatest to ever sit behind a microphone and take listeners on a journey throughout a baseball game died on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Dodgers announced in a statement on their Twitter account that Vin Scully, who spent 67 seasons calling games for the team before his retirement in 2016, passed away.

“We have lost an icon,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement. “The Dodgers’ Vin Scully was one of the greatest voices in all of sports. He was a giant of a man, not only as a broadcaster, but as a humanitarian. He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers. And he loved his family. His voice will always be heard and etched in all of our minds forever. I know he was looking forward to joining the love of his life, Sandi. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this very difficult time. Vin will be truly missed.”

Scully began his time with the team in 1950, when the Dodgers will still based out of Brooklyn. He joined them when they moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and continued to call their games until he decided to end his career when he was 88. While Scully called NFL games and golf tournaments during his career, and did national baseball broadcast for a period of time, he’ll forever be known for lending his voice and unparalleled storytelling to the Dodgers.

Scully’s final game came on Oct. 2, 2016, the team’s regular season finale against the San Francisco Giants. At the conclusion of the game, Scully said the following to the loyal listeners as part of his final sign off: “You and I have been friends for a long time, but I know in my heart that I’ve always needed you more than you’ve needed me, and I’ll miss our time together more I can say. But you know what? There will be a new day, and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming winter gives way to spring, rest assured, once again, it will be time for Dodger baseball. So this is Vin Scully, wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be.”