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The Los Angeles Lakers season was nothing short of a disappointment. Between injuries and the rumblings of internal strife, the Lakers stumbled to a 33-49 record on the season and missed the play-in tournament in the Western Conference, leading to the firing of head coach Frank Vogel and a number of questions about what the team can do to improve heading into next season.

While the Lakers lack the kinds of players and picks that could give them a new and improved core around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, much has been made of a potential Russell Westbrook trade now that the team can include an unprotected first-round pick in the 2029 NBA Draft. On Wednesday’s episode of First Take, Stephen A Smith presented a different idea: What if the team just traded LeBron?

Smith stressed that he means it to be a compliment and a testament to James’ excellence on the court that is advocating for this, then dove into his argument.

“He’s the only person that has extreme value,” Smith said. “You’ll never get equitable compensation for his greatness. But it’s the only chance you have to be immediately respectable, if you’re the Los Angeles Lakers.”

Smith laid out all the teams ahead of the Lakers in the Western Conference, then suggested calling teams that have younger star players (the Cavaliers and the Heat) or potentially disgruntled stars (the Jazz and the Blazers) to gauge their interest in a move for James, all with the hopes that they can fid someone willing to “sacrifice my youth … sacrifice picks to make a two-year run at the title.”

“If I’m the Lakers, I know I ain’t going nowhere,” Smith said. “What I got to do is prevent from falling off the cliff entirely and completely stinking up the joint for years to come, because the reality is that I can’t move Russ, in all likelihood — I’ma try, but I don’t think I can pull it off. Anthony Davis, I can’t get equitable compensation, because everybody is telling me he’s too injured, so we not gonna give up a piece for a dude that’s missed half the season two years in a row.”

J.J. Redick, as he is wont to do, broke down all the ways that this “crazy take” is not something he could ever imagine coming.

“Everything you’re talking about is teams, essentially, operating the way the Lakers have operated for decades,” Redick said. “Teams don’t wanna operate that way anymore, and that’s the problem with the Lakers: They have refused to modernize how they operate.”

Big weekend for Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson.

The pair attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where they rubbed elbows with the effusive Martha Stewart (who had a lot to say about Pete). Then they popped over to the Met Gala, where Kim wore a certain item from pop culture history for the red carpet (and the red carpet only). That would be an iconic Marilyn Monroe dress, which the star wore in 1962 while gushing birthday wishes towards JFK.

That dress is now in the possession of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum (who previously purchased it for $4.8 million) in Orlando. The museum allowed Kim to wear the dress, although “armed guards and gloves” were in order to do so. On Instagram, the museum posted a video from a related moment, during which staffers presented Kim with a gift: a lock of Marilyn’s actual hair. She promptly declared that she was going to do some “crazy voodoo sh*t” to “channel” Monroe.

Well, it was a joke and actually a surprisingly good one. The museum’s team also descended upon Kim’s gala dressing room, where they unloaded other Marilyn and JFK memorabilia, and she apparently got to keep that hair. She’s a superfan if there ever was one, and if Netflix already didn’t have a Monroe biopic (starring Anna de Armas) on the way, there’d be cause to watch for Kim hitting them up to play the late icon. But since Kim’s tight with Hulu, who knows, maybe she’ll be phoning them instead.

Eric Holder, the man accused of shooting and killing Nipsey Hussle in March of 2019, will finally go on trial in June, according to HipHopDX via the Los Angeles Criminal Court website. Before that, a pretrial readiness hearing has been set for May 19 in which the defense and prosecution will determine whether or not to resolve the case without going to trial. Holder has pled not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of felony possession of a firearm.

The trial has been delayed multiple times, with the first occurring in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in May 2021, Holder reportedly refused to leave his cell, and then, two months later, both the assigned judge and Holder’s original defense needed to be replaced (the judge due to retirement, the attorney due to death threats against his family). The most recent delay was earlier this year, after the trial was scheduled to begin in January.

Holder was arrested just two days after the shooting in the Los Angeles County suburb Bellflower. Police said that the shooting was motivated by a personal disagreement in front of Nipsey’s Marathon store on Crenshaw and Slauson. A security video allegedly shows the agitated Holder walking up and firing on Nipsey, hitting him and two bystanders multiple times. Nipsey was pronounced dead at the hospital just hours later, leaving the hip-hop world to mourn his loss just as he was finally receiving the mainstream success he’d worked for a decade to get.

The new trial date is June 2, 2022.

As May 4th is the official “post a meme about Star Wars” day, many fans are reflecting on their favorite moments from the galaxy not-so-far-away. Despite the fact that the franchise has become a massive Disney property with some debatable installments, it’s still a great time to look back at all of the fun tidbits about the series, especially the originals, which featured the scariest villain ever at the time, Darth Vader, voiced by James Earl Jones.

The EGOT winner has been open about his love of the character and has reprised the role as often as he could. But with an instantly recognizable voice like that, it’s only natural to wonder if he used his Vader voice for evil outside of the movies.

In an interview on The Dick Cavett Show in 1995, Jones discussed his iconic Vader voice, which he admitted he did use in public, at one point. Only after he began scaring people is when he decided to quit it.

“I was driving across the country with a CB radio and I used ‘Darth Vader’ as my handle,” the actor explained. “It freaked a lot of people out. When I got to the truck stop, there was a buzz about it. So, I decided not to do that anymore.” Maybe he began using “King Mufasa” instead?

Jones then discussed how he has complicated feelings about his voice, as he used to struggle with a stutter. “I can’t string ideas and words together that well,” the actor admitted, though Cavett said he actually sounds very eloquent. Plus we all know of some words he can string together.

Check out the interview here.

Kumail Nanjiani makes a blink and you’ll miss it appearance in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer, but that was enough of a tasty morsel for Star Wars fans to go absolutely nuts on social media. While Nanjiani is only briefly shown, his character is seen wearing what looks like a Jedi robe, and he appears to be hiding from the Inquisitors, who are featured prominently in the new trailer.

For you non-nerds, Inquisitors are an elite force of assassins tasked with hunting down any remaining Jedi after the Emperor destroyed most of the laser sword monks with his devious Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith. They also seem to be particularly obsessed with finding Obi-Wan, who not only survived Order 66, but left his fallen pupil Anakin Skywalker for dead following a fiery duel on the planet Mustafar.

With the new trailer suggesting that Nanjiani’s character is hiding from the Imperial assassins, that has led many fans to speculate that he’s the Jedi on the run mentioned in the first teaser. Star Wars buffs are also speculating that Nanjiani’s possible Jedi character brings the Inquisitors to Obi-Wan’s doorstep, kicking off the events of the show, which will eventually culminate in a rematch between the Jedi Master and Anakin, who is now the villainous Darth Vader.

You can see some of the fan reactions below, and clearly, Star Wars fans are here for Nanjiani living his best nerd life with both the MCU and now Star Wars under his (maybe) Jedi belt:

Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 27 on Disney+.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is under federal investigation over whether he engaged in sex trafficking and had a sexual relationship with an underage girl, had a predictably terrible take on the all-too-real possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned. “How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no bumble matches?” he tweeted, which probably delighted fellow far-right cronies like J.D. Vance and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and no one else.

It’s beyond parody (because parody is no longer possible) that Gaetz sees a woman being “over-educated,” whatever that means, as a bad thing, considering…

In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Gaetz sent his friend, accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900… When Greenberg made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money as being for “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”

As one Twitter user pointed out, “The very concept that a woman can be ‘over-educated’ tells me all I need to know about this. And the idea that the only women who want rights must be unattractive and frigid is the oldest misogynistic trope in the book. This is a sitting member of Congress.” Another tweet reads, “Matt Gaetz’s dates definitely aren’t over-educated, they aren’t even old enough to have a Bumble account.”

Here’s more:

Jack Harlow‘s upcoming sophomore album, Come Home, The Kids Miss You features a promising selection of collaborators. Fans, however, have already gotten a taste of some of the upcoming tracks in the form of a leaked Drake collaboration, which surfaced online last month. The track was revealed to be titled “Churchill Downs” yesterday, following Harlow’s unveiling of the album’s tracklist.

In an interview on Hot 97, Harlow admitted that he was upset by the leak.

“It hurt my feelings,” he said. “I’m really tight about leaks. I don’t bounce my music so I haven’t had leaks in a long time. I don’t ride to my music while I’m working on an album… the only time we get to experience it is in the studio. [The leak] was heartbreaking, especially because [Drake]’s an idol of mine. I wanted to control that moment, but it’s destiny.”

Harlow mentioned that Drake was also sad about the leak, but as an artist who has dealt with his music leaking for years, Drake was able to offer Harlow some words of encouragement.

“[Drake] kind of, you know, nudged me like, ‘Aye, don’t trip. This what was meant to happen,’” he said. “I think his experience, he let me know like, ‘You think this is gonna affect your life? Like, it’s fine.’”

In addition to Drake, Harlow also collaborated with Lil Wayne, Pharrell Williams, and Justin Timberlake on the album.

Check out the full interview above.

Come Home, The Kids Miss You is out 5/6 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

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

In times of stress and strife, it’s only natural to want to lash out and blame someone for the situation. With the leak of the Supreme Court’s opinion draft about overturning Roe v. Wade and setting our entire country—not to mention women’s rights and health care—back by a half-century, Justice Samuel Alito, who penned the opinion, would be the most obvious choice. (And is a totally valid one.) But as Stephen Colbert pointed out, so would Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett “I Love Beer” Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, who were all in agreement with Alito’s opinion… despite indicating otherwise during their confirmation hearings.

But Colbert offered one additional target who is equally deserving of your understandable ire: Maine Senator Susan Collins. On Tuesday night, The Late Show host launched into a tirade against Collins, the “moderate” Republican who has regularly seemed to pretend like she’s really considering which way to lean on an issue just before siding with her party—then seems surprised when she learns that someone in her party has lied to her. As Colbert noted:

“Collins, who says she supports abortion rights, got a lot of people mad at her in 2018 when she supported Brett Kavanaugh, even though everyone knew he would not hesitate to overturn Roe vs. Wade…

This morning, Collins released a statement saying: ‘If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office.’

OK, so she’s just another gullible grandma. ‘I don’t understand why they lie. We pinkie swore in my office. This is just like that time my niece sent me the email saying she was stranded in Guadalajara and needed money to get out of jail. So I sent her $10,000, then found out I don’t even have a niece.”

You can watch Colbert’s full‚ and very animated, segment above.

The Golden State Warriors announced that defensive ace Gary Payton II suffered a fractured left elbow during Tuesday night’s Game 2 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Payton went up for a layup during the first quarter and got clotheslined by Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks, who was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected.

The foul — along with a few other moments during the opening 12 minutes of the game — drew the ire of Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who accused Memphis of playing dirty during his interview with TNT in between the first and second quarters. And after the game, Kerr ripped Brooks for breaking a code among players.

“I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Kerr said. “Playoff basketball, it’s supposed to be physical, everybody’s gonna compete, everybody’s gonna fight for everything. But there’s a code in this league, there’s a code that players follow where you never put a guy’s season/career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in mid-air and clubbing them across the head, and ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow.

“This is a guy who’s been toiling the last six years, trying to make it in this league, finally found a home playing his butt off this year,” Kerr continued. “In the playoffs, this should be the time of his life, and a guy comes in and whacks him across the head in mid-air. He broke the code, Dillon Brooks broke the code. That’s how I see it.”

There is no word on whether or not Brooks will be assessed any further penalty for the foul.

If you’re just waking up and checking Uproxx before your Twitter feed, number one, thank you. Number two: Batten down the hatches. You’re in for a wild day.

Last night, Dave Chappelle performed at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the ongoing Netflix Is A Joke Fest, which has seen seemingly the entirety of the comedy community descend on LA for a month-long slate of events. However, it seems unlikely that any will top the outrageous happenings toward the end of Chappelle’s headlining set. As Dave was closing out the show, an unidentified male assailant tried to rush the stage, apparently brandishing a replica handgun.

He was able to tackle the comedian before a group of people, which reportedly included rapper Busta Rhymes (with whom Chappelle is soon to launch the Dave And Busta Tour, no joke) and the multitalented Jamie Foxx, intervened, packing the attacker up and taking him backstage. Later, he emerged on a stretcher doing his best impression of a human pretzel, as seen in a video posted to social media. He was loaded into an ambulance for transport to a local hospital, where I’m sure doctors will try their best not to practice their own tight fives as they sort his arms back into some semblance of their original shape.

Fans on Twitter have naturally been buzzing, expressing awe at how badly beaten up the attacker looks (here’s your reminder that Busta is 6’1 and well over 200 lbs.) and comparing the incident to Will Smith and Chris Rock’s recent Oscars outburst — including Chris Rock.

For his part, Chappelle seemed unharmed and like Rock, played it off with his own improvised riff, which Foxx joined. “I been doing this 35 years, I just stomped a nigga backstage,” joked. “I seen Busta Rhymes, he was like, ‘That’s how you do it, god.’”

That is, indeed, how you do it. Let’s all hope no one else gets any ideas about trying this stunt again.