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The Los Angeles Lakers’ hopes of making the play-in tournament could come to an end on Tuesday night if the team loses to the Phoenix Suns. Thanks to the San Antonio Spurs beating the Denver Nuggets earlier in the evening, L.A. is one loss away from seeing their hopes of having any path to the postseason completely destroyed, and unfortunately for them, the Suns are pretty good at beating opposing basketball teams.

There’s been a general malaise around this team all year, and thanks to a hot mic, we learned that former Lakers player and current TV analyst Stu Lantz is among those who just wants this season to be over.

“Get this over with, put us out of our misery,” Lantz was caught saying.

The Lakers entered Tuesday with a 31-47 record. Following San Antonio’s win, the gap between the two teams was 2.5 games, something that was made a little more difficult for L.A. due to the fact that the Spurs held the tiebreaker between the two teams. Further complicating matters for the Lakers was that LeBron James did not suit up to take on the Suns due to an ankle injury that has caused him to miss four of the team’s past five games.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar turned heads earlier this week when he criticized LeBron James. While Abdul-Jabbar has expressed some disappointment in his fellow Laker in the past due to comments and an Instagram post about COVID-19, it did seem like he was taking his critiques to another level when he said “some of the things he’s done, he should be embarrassed about.”

Abdul-Jabbar made it a point to say that James has done numerous good things in communities before he expressed that sentiment, and in the aftermath, he released a statement clarifying that any criticism he levies towards James is done “in the spirit of a loving older brother offering guidance.” And on Tuesday, Abdul-Jabbar appeared on Sirius XM NBA Radio and offered up an apology to James.

“All I have to say is this: I was there to give Carmelo Anthony the Social Justice Champion Award,” Abdul-Jabbar said, per Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been talking to the press since high school. That’s 60 years of making statements. And I haven’t always gotten it right. And Sunday was one of those nights.

“It wasn’t my intention to criticize LeBron in any way. He’s done so much for the Black community as well as for the game of basketball. We may not always agree, but I want to whole-heartedly apologize to LeBron and make it clear to him that I have tremendous respect for him. If he can accept that, I’ll be very happy.”

James has yet to comment on Abdul-Jabbar’s original statement, his follow-up, or his apology.

When it’s over, Star Trek: Picard will only have run three seasons. But in that time it took its time doing something big: bringing the old gang back together. What started out as a simple solo spinoff for Patrick Stewart’s weathered captain gradually added more and more cast members from the original Star Trek: The Next Generation. But when it’s over pretty much everyone (although not everyone) will be back.

As per Deadline, Paramount+ revealed the news on Tuesday: LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn will belatedly join the rest of the USS Enterprise’s TNG-era main crew for its third and last season. When and how they appear, they’ll board a show that’s already welcomed back, at various intervals, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner, all dusting off characters they made popular starting in 1987.

Tuesday was a big day in the Trek-verse: April 5 is First Contact Day, aka the day, on April 5, 2063, when humans first meet the Vulcans — a pivotal day in sci-fi lore.

While Burton had yet to swing by the revamped future of Picard, he had a good excuse: He was busy. Following the death of Alex Trebek in late 2020, he became one of a number of the potential replacements to host Jeopardy! He was popular, too, and when the job went to the ill-fated Mike Richards, then split between Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings, he peaced out, soon finding his own gig. Now this. It’s a good time to be fan of the Reading Rainbow vet.

(Via Deadline)

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the midst of a years-long rebuild, which has led to them rolling out some lineups filled with names that the casual NBA fan may have never heard before. Remember: If a person is in the NBA, they are way way way better at basketball than 99.99999 percent of humans on earth, but for the last few years, the Thunder have been accused of shutting their more established players down early with an eye on losing a ton of games and getting the ping pong balls to bounce in their favor during the NBA Draft Lottery.

This will lead to the occasional odd rotation, like the one we saw on Tuesday night. Oklahoma City took on the Portland Trail Blazers and played seven guys, some of whom made their NBA debuts. And despite this, the Thunder won, 98-94, with one guy (we won’t say who for reasons that will be obvious in a moment, but here is a spoiler) doing something that has not been done since Shaq.

In an attempt to fill the internet with some non-Lakers content, we decided to test the knowledge of basketball fans and also fans of Ray Romano sitcoms. Below is a list of 20 names, seven of them belonging to the guys who played for the Thunder on Tuesday, 13 of them belonging to individuals who, per IMDb, appeared in no more than one episode of Everybody Love Raymond. Here is the list:

Leo Abbe-Schneider
Mike Batayeh
Jack Blessing
Eugene Greytak
Jaylen Hoard
Mitch Holleman
Georgios Kalaitzakis
Dan Kinsella
Vit Krejci
Lawrence LeJohn
Scotty Leavenworth
Lance E. Nichols
Michael Papajohn
Paul Reubens
Isaiah Roby
Olivier Sarr
Zavier Simpson
Geoff Stults
Lindy Waters III
James Worthy

Did you guess? Do you think you did well? We are going to post a YouTube video of the game highlights, and underneath in italics are the names of the Thunder players from the above list.

Hoard, Kalaitzakis, Krejci, Roby, Sarr, Simpson, Waters

Congratulations to everyone who got all seven right, congratulations to those who remembered that Worthy appeared on the sitcom one time, congratulations to the Thunder on the win, and congratulations to Everybody Loves Raymond for nine seasons of pretty good television.

In just a few days, Syd will release her sophomore album Broken Hearts Club. It’s her first solo release since 2017’s Fin and Always Never Home. Aside from that, the album will be the first musical project she’s been a part of since The Internet’s 2018 album Hive Mind. The project was a strong follow-up to their 2015 Grammy-nominated album Ego Death. The Internet got its start as a band in late 2011, and after almost 11 years together, it seems like their time together will come to an end soon. At least, that’s what Syd says.

During a recent profile with NME, Syd made a surprising announcement about The Internet’s future. “The next Internet album will also be our last,” she said. “I have no idea what’s next. I don’t know. Maybe we’ll create an Internet label. We talked about that – just signing ourselves.” It could mean more solo projects from the band’s remembers like Syd’s upcoming sophomore release.

Broken Hearts Club is led by singles like “Could You Break A Heart,” “Fast Car,” and “Right Track.” The project, which will arrive with 13 songs, will also include guest appearances from Lucky Daye, Smino, and Kehlani.

You can read Syd’s full profile with NME here.

Broken Hearts Club is out 4/8 via Columbia Records. You can pre-save it here.

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

A stopped clock, they say, is right twice a day. Donald Trump tells the truth even less than that. On the off-chances he does it’s usually by accident. The former president has been known to inadvertently admit he lost re-election in 2020. Now we know it’s happened more than once.

In a video posted by The Atlantic (as caught by Insider), Trump spoke to historians via Zoom back in July. Perhaps his guard was down. Whatever the case, he let slip a fact even he, deep down, may believe is true: Joe Biden kicked his butt.

Trump was in the midst of discussing his relationship with South Korea, who he never seem to like as much as he did the dictatorship to its north. He bragged about effectively ripping the nation off, forcing them to pay more than they would for its own defense. Trump claimed he’d cut a great, if inequal deal … which was then scotched by him not being re-elected.

“By not winning the election, he was the happiest man — I would say, in order, China was — no, Iran was the happiest,” Trump told the historians. Though what he uttered was classic Trump word salad, he did slip a fact in there: He didn’t win in 2020. Trump went on, saying South Korea had been all set to fork over $5 billion a year. “But when I didn’t win the election, he had to be the happiest — I would rate, probably, South Korea third or fourth happiest.”

So there you go: an admission that he lost. Or is it? There are indeed many, countless problems with Trump, and one of them is that he’s such a terrible speaker that he can’t always be held accountable for what he says — or at least claim he didn’t mean what he did say. A man who’s been known to deny saying words of which there are clear records will undoubtedly do the same in this instance.

Perhaps Trump’s right: He probably didn’t mean to admit the truth, especially not about the 2020 election. And yet there it is, video of a former president who’s spent the last year-and-a-half spouting the contrary, uttering those magic words: “I didn’t win the election.”

You can watch that video over at The Atlantic.

Later this month will mark five months since the music world was met with the unfortunate news of Young Dolph’s death. He was shot and killed in his hometown of Memphis while shopping at a bakery. An autopsy that was late conducted revealed that Dolph was shot a shocking 22 times. Three people were arrested in connection with his murder, so it appears that justice will be served for his death. Key Glock was one of many people that were affected by Dolph’s and it’s due to their close relationship. They are cousins by marriage and they collaborated musically on several occasions like 2019’s Dum And Dummer and 2021’s Dum And Dummer 2.

Key Glock recently sat down for an interview, his first since Dolph’s death, with Complex’s Speedy Mormon and it’s here that he opened up about his well-being. “I’m maintaining,” Glock says afterMormon asked how he’s been doing since Dolph’s death. “Like, I’m not getting better, I’m not getting worse. I’m just here right now.” He continued, “I can’t shake it, man. I ain’t even gonna lie. I can’t even shake it. It is what it is.”

Mormon then asked Key Glock to share the moment he learned about Dolph’s death. Glock said he was at home resting when someone shouted his name to inform him of the news. “You know how you can hear how somebody call your name, like the tone of they voice, like you know something wrong you just don’t know what it is?” he said. “That’s what it was.”

You can view the full interview in the video above.

There are many critics of Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which ostensibly protects very young students from sex education but has been accused of simply marginalizing already marginalized communities. Among its most creative detractors is Eric Adams. On Monday, the new NYC mayor unleashed an advertising campaign in the Sunshine State: a series of digital ads trolling the newly signed bill by advising residents to relocate up north. And it appears to have touched some nerves.

As per New York Daily News, DeSantis — who has flipped out at his critics while misleadingly characterizing their critiques — struck back at Adams’ campaign, which recommends that Floridians come to a city “where you can say whatever you want,” among other suggestions. “They are saying you can say whatever you want,” DeSantis charged, as per Louisiana Illuminator. “But they are the ones that will force a mask on your face and muzzle you in public.”

DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw, who has defended the bill by dusting off old homophobic conspiracy theories about “grooming,” pushed back as well. “If anyone is so opposed to @GovDeSantis defending parental rights that they leave for a crime-ridden dystopia, Florida will be better off without them,” she wrote, implying she was fine with losing the state’s queer denizens. She later added, “Do the humanitarian thing, Mayor Adams! Pay for their flights and moving trucks to NYC!”

When unveiling the Florida campaign, Adams described his city as a place to be “proud” to “talk about how you can live in a comfortable setting and not be harassed, not be abused—not only as adults but also as young people.”

The Florida bill, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education act, bans teaching “sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” Its language, critics have said, is vague and makes room for discrimination against LGBTQIA+ persons. In response, the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene have gone on the attack, even if it means biting a hand that feeds them.

(Via NY Daily News)

Tyler The Creator is riding high at the moment. He just won his second Grammy award thanks to a win in the Best Rap Album category for his sixth album Call Me If You Get Lost. It makes for his second Best Rap Album win following his 2020 crown for Igor. Tyler was not in attendance at the Grammys as he’s currently on tour with Kali Uchis, Vince Staples, and Teezo Touchdown in support of his sixth album. However, that didn’t stop him from showing his appreciation to fans and once again throwing shade at DJ Khaled after learning about the win.

At his latest tour stop in Portland, Oregon, Tyler took a moment to celebrate Call Me If You Get Lost and explain the true meaning behind the album’s title. “And when I say Call Me If You Get Lost, I don’t mean when you don’t know what to do,” Tyler said. “I mean when you call me, I want you to be telling me the sh*t that you on, the sh*t that you doing, you out in the world getting lost doing your sh*t. I don’t want n****s calling me like, ‘Oh, I’m sad, I don’t know’ — no, f*ck that.”

He continued, “Call me and let me know that you on your sh*t ’cause I’m on my sh*t, and maybe we can get on that flight and meet up and see what the f*ck we on. That’s what I meant by that.”

Elsewhere, Tyler spoke about how Q-Tip’s 1999 album Amplified impacted him. “[Q-Tip] was the weird backpack n**** that put this album out where he was like, ‘Hey y’all, don’t get it twisted, I’m f*cking whoever, I’m driving whatever, I’m doing whatever,’” Tyler said. “And without that album, Call Me If You Get Lost wouldn’t exist, so thank you Q-Tip for setting the blueprint.”

You can hear Tyler’s speech in the video above.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ season is mercifully coming to an end sometime soon, as the team needs a miracle at this point to get into the play-in tournament and have any shot at playing postseason basketball. With the writing on the wall, it’s hard not to look at what went wrong for them this season, and earlier this week, Anthony Davis posited that injuries were just too much for them to overcome.

“I think the biggest thing that I think about personally is what we could have been, had we stayed healthy all year,” Davis said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “What could we have been. … Guys feel like, ‘OK, what could we have been if I was healthy all year, [LeBron James] was healthy, [Kendrick] Nunn was healthy.’ You think about those things. We put this team together and it looked good on paper, but we haven’t had a chance to reach that potential with guys in and out of the lineup.

“So the most frustrating part of this season is not being sure of what we could have been.”

In the eyes of Stephen A. Smith, a whole heck of a lot more goes into this than just the injuries. Smith was asked about this Lakers season and explained that he thinks this entire year was a top-down failure, and if the team remained healthy, it would be around-.500 and “destined to go home in the first round.”

“Let’s just get this out of the way, please: The Lakers are a national basketball atrocity,” Smith said. “Let’s just call it what it is. They’re an atrocity, and it starts from the top-down. It starts from Jeanie Buss allowing Linda Rambis to have power, it goes from there and disintegrates down to Rob Pelinka, who feels that as long as you’re wearing the purple and gold and you’re a Laker, you’ll be just fine. It sits further down to Frank Vogel, who lost the team because they stopped listening to him a long time ago.”

Smith then called out LeBron James, not for what he does on the basketball court, but for how he throws his weight around behind the scenes.

“You coulda had Ty Lue as your coach, but you caved into management when they wanted you to keep Jason Kidd,” Smith said. “You coulda had somebody else, like a Jason Kidd, but you didn’t, you wanted him on your bench, but you were afraid to let him be the head coach. You settles for Frank Vogel, let Jason Kidd go to Dallas, and now, he’s a coach of the year candidate. Everywhere you go shows ineptitude, shows inefficiency, shows an embarrassment of arrogance that is undeniable. They are a basketball atrocity, and Anthony Davis can point to all the injuries he wants to. It’s legit, but it doesn’t negate the fact you still wouldn’t have gone anywhere.”

The Lakers will try to keep their slim hopes of making the play-in alive on Tuesday night against the Suns. James will not play due to injury.