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The Oklahoma City Thunder entered this summer with an eye on bringing in some frontcourt reinforcements, and on Monday morning, they did just that by acquiring the top free agent center on the market. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Oklahoma City agreed to a 3-year deal worth $87 million with Isaiah Hartenstein, who has blossomed in recent years as a member of the New York Knicks.

The news was confirmed by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, while Fred Katz of The Athletic brought word that the Knicks tried to bring him back but were ultimately unsuccessful.

A journeyman for the first few years of his career, Hartenstein settled into an increasingly large role as a member of the Knicks over the last two season, as he joined the team as a free agent during the 2022 offseason. He primarily came off the bench during his first season before getting moved into a starting role this past year following an injury to Mitchell Robinson. In particular, Hartenstein was spectacular in the starting lineup during New York’s run during the playoffs this past year, as he was a reliable option for Tom Thibodeau as the injuries kept mounting for the Knicks.

Now, Hartenstein will join an upstart Thunder squad, and should provide some physicality in the frontcourt alongside Chet Holmgren. During the regular season, Hartenstein averaged 7.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 25.3 minutes per game in 2023-24.

Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss “Not Like Us” is an undeniable hit, but Drake appears to be taking it in stride. In fact, he seems to be embracing a nickname that Kendrick gave him on the track, when he referred to him as “a 69 god.”

A video shared on Instagram by photographer Astral shows Drake taking his turn at a bowling alley, and the name he chose for display on the score screen is “69god.”

This comes days after Keke Palmer expressed confusion about the lyric, saying in a video on Instagram, “Now this is no shade, no tea, but I have a question, OK? ‘Cause I know the rap kids, they do a lot of little clever lines, especially somebody like Kendrick. But I really am curious of what’s so bad about being a 69 god? I guess what I’m saying is, far as I knew, 69 was something that just made you a reciprocal, right? So if you’re a 69 god, you know, what’s so bad about that? I must be missing something. We’ll see, boo.”

Per Genius, there are a number of possible interpretations of the lyric. One has to do with the “phonetic similarities between ’69’ and ’16-eyeing,’” regarding allegations of grooming and pedophilia. The lyric could also be drawing a connection to Tekashi 69.

“F*ck your ex-man, I’m the man now / Think I feel bad, he was fanned out / Do what you like, you’ve been too nice / He didn’t do right, that’s too bad now,” The Kid Laroi raps on “Girls,” his latest single that figures to threaten “Stay” as the biggest hit of his career. The verse is pretty much the subtext of Laroi’s birthday post for his girlfriend, Tate McRae, in the wee hours of Monday, July 1.

“Happy 21st birthday [smile-crying emoji, red heart emoji],” the Australian supernova wrote atop a photo of him kissing McRae on his Instagram Story. “You make me better! I love yoooouuu @tatemcrae”

Laroi, 20, and McRae sparked dating rumors in January. Laroi ended the month attending the 2024 NHL All-Star Game, where McRae performed at halftime. On February 13, Justin Bieber posted an Instagram photo with Hailey Bieber, his wife of nearly six years, Laroi, and McRae during what sure looked like a double date.

While Laroi’s birthday post erases any question marks around his status with McRae, he cheekily confirmed their relationship during his The First Time Tour concert in Dublin, Ireland on April 14. “I need everybody in here to sing this as loud as they can because my girlfriend is here tonight, and I don’t want to look lame,” he told his crowd, and a fan-recorded video panned over to McRae.

Westeros’ family of silver-haired incestuous little freaks are back at it again, cooking up chaos instead of resolving their generational trauma and prioritizing their vitamin D intake. In House of the Dragon’s third episode, the Targaryens in the Red Keep plan for battle while the ones at Dragonstone mull the idea of peace. (It’s probably a couple of failed assassination attempts and two too many dead children too late, but that’s for them to figure out.) While everyone plots, Daemon gets shit done, and by that we mean he takes a vacation to the countryside and checks into an AirBnB rental he didn’t do enough research on before hand.

Everyone’s dumb, no one is prepared for war and that’s why this week’s leaderboard is in such disarray. Here’s where everyone ranks.

Rhaenys Targaryen

If we’re tracking the true origins of this war of dragons, it didn’t start with a decapitated kid or Vhagar’s mid-storm snack, it began way back when Rhaenys was passed over in the line of succession for the unforgivable crime of … having a uterus, we guess? All the shade to Viserys because Rhaenys is a fount of wisdom, a pillar of strength, a saintly example of restraint – all the kingly qualities the former ruler’s sperm donation lacks. She’ll never sit on the throne herself, but she’s putting in the work of guiding Rhaenyra to a peace negotiation and side-eyeing the fragile masculinity sitting around her queen’s council table.

Larys Strong

Larys quietly earned himself a promotion by serving up the most lukewarm of tea, stirring up drama and pouring it into Aegon’s paranoid bird brain. The Red Keep’s resident Gossip Girl is thriving this season.

Rhaenyra Targaryen

Rhaenyra Targaryen has lost two children, separated from her husband, sent three more of her kids off to Pentos, and survived an assassination attempt, all within the span of a few days. Why is this woman not burning all of Westeros to the ground yet? Instead, she’s keeping her composure and coming up with truly absurd (though, well-meaning) schemes to broker peace with her biggest frenemy. We’d rather see all that green burned to ash, but if hearing that her father really did support her claim, even at his opium-fueled end, will steel her stomach to all the bloodshed she’s about to cause, well, the nun habit was kind of worth it.

Alicent Hightower

The time for sad baths is over, Alicent Hightower is making moves. She invited her brother to court, immediately setting his annoying ass on her paramour once she realized Criston Cole was getting a bit too big for his chastity sworn britches. She’s doing her best to wrangle a council of bickering old men while her bloodthirsty sons concoct the dumbest of battle plans that basically amount to “ride dragon, burn stuff.” And she’s doing a bit of mothering with Helaena, which is a fairly new development for her. She’s still sweating like a whore in church because of all those candles she’s been lighting, but she hasn’t been sent packing to Oldtown like her dad, so that’s something.

Baela Targaryen

Baela Targaryen is a baddie. She’s got a dragon, a head of hair that belongs in a TRESemme commercial, she’s betrothed to the hottest Baratheon in Westeros, and she almost burnt Criston Cole to a crisp. Sorry to Rhaena but we know which sister we’d rather be BFFs with.

Daemon Targaryen

On the one hand, Daemon did make it Harrenhal, a trip he’s been dying to make all season. On the other, that dilapidated castle is likely some kind of portal to hell, haunted by ghosts and home to at least one witch. Plus, he can’t even enjoy his peas without worrying they might be poisoned. This whole raising an army racket isn’t as glorious as the maesters make it out to be.

Criston Cole

A shitty haircut, a girlfriend eager to kick him out of her house, and another Hightower intent on making his life hell. Karma is real and it’s finally coming for Criston Cole.

Mysaria

Mysaria could’ve traded the good will earned after saving Rhaenyra’s life for a bit more gold and safe passage out of Westeros. Instead, she negotiated a spot at the queen’s table, intent on getting revenge against the Hightowers. Not the choice we would’ve made, but it’s better than a dungeon.

Aegon Targaryen

No man should know so much about his brother’s sex life. No king should be out drinking at a tavern in Flea Bottom with the goal of getting his squire laid. These shenanigans are going to ruin the world tour, Aegon.

Aemond Targaryen

Aemond’s a coiled snake, just waiting to strike this season. He might feel guilty over killing his cousin, so guilty that he roleplays as a naked baby with a brothel madame every night, but he’s also hungry. For respect. For power. For a chance to prove his enemies should fear him. We can only assume he’s got a list longer than Arya Stark’s running through his head at the moment, but when he’ll act on it is anyone’s guess.

Corlys Velaryon

Bad mouthing your grandkids and polishing your little ship while your wife tries to prepare for war and keep you swimming in hot soup? Corlys Velaryon, you married up bro. Start acting like it.

At the 2024 BET Awards last night (June 30), so many people performed, like Ice Spice, GloRilla, and Megan Thee Stallion. Normani was supposed to take the stage as well, but that didn’t end up happening.

Why Didn’t Normani Perform At The 2024 BET Awards?

Before the show, Normani revealed she had sustained an injury that forced her to call the performance off. In an Instagram Story, she explained:

“I am more frustrated and disappointed than anyone believe me. I wanted to get on here and give you guys an update letting you know that while in rehearsals for BET I had a really bad accident and injured myself. I am normally good for powering through under any circumstance but unfortunately due to my doctor’s orders, I am just not able to make this performance happen. I desperately wanted to give you my best on that stage but performing would delay my healing. I have been going through my process and doing my best to make sense of my feelings regarding this. I am devastated and hate feeling like a disappointment to you but I have to focus on recovering at this time. Trust me, I hear you, and I see you. There is nothing more that | wanted to do than perform for you and also, get back to doing what fulfills me most- BEING ON STAGE. Thank you so much for understanding. Sending my love to BET for giving me and all of the other beautiful black women this opportunity. This is definitely NOT how l envisioned this weekend but best believe I will be championing everyone from home tonight.

I’m sorrrrrrrry guys and love you so much.”

She later shared a photo showing her right foot in a walking boot and her right knee bandaged up.

Find Normani’s posts below.

Heat domes are so hot right now, literally, and that means that after you are finished binging The Bear and taking in the latest House of the Dragon and The Boys episodes, you’ll still be stuck inside. Fortunately, a variety of worthy series are also coming your way in July, even though Stranger Things (sadly) isn’t among them. Remember when that show would land in mid-summer? Delays happen, man.

The good news is that Netflix is reopening the dojo again, and there’s a murder mystery, a few new anticipated animation series, and some sci-fi goodness. Please enjoy the must-see shows for June 2024.

Those About to Die: Season 1 (Peacock series streaming 7/18)

This ain’t Gladiator (or Gladiator 2), but it does bring to mind the famous “Are you not entertained?” line from Russell Crowe’s Maximus. The story does take a swing at “bread and circuses” and the “entertainment underbelly” of Ancient Rome and adapts the story of the real-life Flavian dynasty. Anthony Hopkins will surely be not-at-all disturbing as ruler Flavius Vespasian, whose sons are battling it out over who will succeed dad.

Lady in the Lake: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming 7/19)

Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram star in this modern noir story from Laura Lippmann’s same-named book about privileged 1960s housewife, Maddie, who flees her marriage and launches a new career as an investigative journalist who digs into the murder of Cleo Johnson, and the secrets begin pouring out from unexpected sources in the Baltimore setting. Look for a surreal story with some supernatural aspects and Apple TV+ billing the limited series “as a feverish noir thriller and an unexpected tale of the price women pay for their dreams.” Ouch.

Sausage Party: Foodtopia: Season 1 (Prime Video/Amazon series streaming 7/11)

The ridiculously popular R-rated animated movie from 2016 follows up with a spin off, in which the filthy jokes shall fly for a longer collective runtime. Naturally, Seth Rogen is sill forcing the leading Frank (a sausage) while the group of profane grocery items attempts to come together as a community. That should (not) go well, and Rogen will be joined again by former co-stars Kristen Wiig, Edward Norton, Michael Cera, and David Krumholtz. New characters will be portrayed by Sam Richardson, Will Forte, and more.

Vikings: Valhalla: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming 7/11)

This extremely hairy spin off will return for a final season after a seven-year time jump. Freydis simply wants to find happiness while Harald is pushing for power, and Leif is closing in on Newfoundland. Take a nap, y’all.

Exploding Kittens (Netflix series streaming 7/12)

After several years of portraying the Devil, Tom Ellis is here to portray God, at least in voice form. Strangely enough, God must also mingle with humanity on earth, and he ends up stuck inside of a house cat’s body, and his new home happens to be situated near another cat who is actually the Antichrist. Also, Godcat is obsessed with a pigeon and Devilcat really enjoys naps. You in?

Cobra Kai: Season 6 Part 1 (Netflix series streaming 7/18)

Kreese is fresh outta prison, so watch out, soul of karate. Actually, Daniel and Johnny are already training their joint dojo to take on any recently escaped villainous senseis, and the world championship — Sekai Taikai — sits on the horizon. More importantly, Hawk has grown his mohawk back, which makes the long wait between seasons almost worth it, and I cannot wait to find out if anyone brawls their way into a swimming pool this season. That keeps happening, and we don’t talk enough about it. Time to fix that omission.

Snowpiercer: Season 4 (AMC series streaming on AMC+ 7/21)

TNT very controversially shelved this season after completion, but AMC picked it up, so that we can see what happens in the TV version when people finally get off the train. Somehow, Jennifer Connelly’s character still lives and plans to keep running the Eternal Engine, but Daveed Diggs’ leading man looks more than ready to get rid of his ticket to this hellish ride around the globe while leading Big Alice occupants into the great, snowy unknown. This shall be the final chapter of post-apocalyptic class warfare for this franchise, so let’s hope that a secret oasis awaits.

Time Bandits: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming 7/24)

This series brings the Terry Gilliam book of the same name to the small screen following the cult-classic film of the early 1980s. This version stars Lisa Kudrow and follows the comedic adventures of those ragtag thieves through time and space. They end up on a mission to save their newest member’s parents and somehow end up with the fate of humanity in their hands, too.

The Philadelphia 76ers had two main priorities this offseason. For one, they need to fill out their roster, as they entered the summer with only two players (Joel Embiid and Paul Reed) other contract. The other priority involved Tyrese Maxey, who was extension eligible this summer and was always going to get a big deal from the team that drafted him.

In order to get some free agents on board, Maxey had to wait to put pen to paper on an extension, but in the aftermath of the team bringing in Paul George and Andre Drummond, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Maxey got a 5-year max deal that will pay him more than $200 million.

Maxey joined the Sixers after falling to them with the No. 21 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. At the time, it was believed that Philadelphia got a steal, with Maxey viewed as a potential lottery pick. And after a rookie campaign where he didn’t make a huge impact, Maxey quickly became one of the brightest young guard talents in the NBA, something he’s continued to build on over his first four years in the league. Last year, in the aftermath of James Harden’s dispute with the front office that led to him getting traded, Maxey earned his first All-Star berth and got named the league’s Most Improved Player, showing off a skill-set that makes him a perfect fit alongside Embiid.

Maxey averaged 25.9 points and 6.2 assists in 37.5 minutes per game for the Sixers during the 2023-24 campaign while shooting 45 percent from the field, 37.3 percent from three, and 86.8 percent from the free throw line.

The “Hawk Tuah” girl is making the most of her 15 minutes of fame. Last month, Hailey Welch went viral when she appeared in one of those “guys with microphones stand outside of bars and ask drunk people silly questions” videos. When asked by Tim & Dee TV for one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time, she replied, “You gotta give ’em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang” (you really need to watch the video for the full effect). Since then, the “Hawk Tuah” girl, as she’s been dubbed, has sold thousands of dollars in merch and supposedly been courted by Hollywood talent agencies.

Welch also joined Zach Bryan during the Nashville stop on his The Quittin Time Tour over the weekend. She performed “Revival,” a song from the country star’s 2020 album Elisabeth, and even gave the crowd an enthusiastic “hawk tuah!” before leaving the stage. You can watch the video below.

Bryan is making a habit out of big-name guests, having performed live with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Sexyy Red. Here’s another: earlier in the Nashville show, he and Kacey Musgraves performed the lovely “I Remember Everything” together — Kacey did not walk off with a catchphrase.

Paul George will be heading back to the Eastern Conference for the first time in eight years, as he will join Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and a refreshed Sixers roster next season. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN broke the news that George will get four years and $212 million to join the Sixers, with Shams Charania of The Athletic confirming.

All the way up until Sunday evening, George’s future seemed very much in the air. First was a strong pursuit of the star by the Golden State Warriors, with George apparently signing off on a deal to the Warriors only for their offer to be shot down by the Clippers. From there, his first meeting of free agency was with L.A., but the two sides couldn’t get close on a deal and the Clippers released a full statement thanking George for his time and confirming he would not be back with the team before he even signed with anyone else.

With Orlando signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Oklahoma City chasing Isaiah Hartenstein, that left the Sixers as the only cap space team that made any sense for George, and the two sides met in Los Angeles to work out a deal. The result was a 4-year, $212 million max deal that gives George the financial commitment he was seeking that L.A. wouldn’t offer — they held firm at the same deal Kawhi Leonard signed last season.

George joined the Clippers ahead of the 2019-20 season as part of a package deal with Kawhi Leonard. The pair had aspirations of winning a championship in Los Angeles, but injuries have frequently derailed the team’s effort of winning the Larry O’Brien trophy for the first time in franchise history — the Clippers only made the conference finals one time in the five years since George and Leonard came to town.

George is coming off of an All-Star campaign in L.A., one in which he averaged 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.5 steals in 33.8 minutes per game on 47.1 percent shooting from the field, 41.3 percent shooting from three, and 90.7 percent shooting from the free throw line. Now he’ll slot in between one of the most potent two-man combos in the league from a year ago in Embiid and Maxey, and look to provide them with the support they haven’t been able to get to make a real push in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

The Sixers also signed Eric Gordon and Andre Drummond to open free agency, as they work to fill out their roster around their triumvirate of stars.

In 2019, Lizzo played the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Now, she would be one of the bold-name headliners, but she was booked before her positivity anthems like “Truth Hurts” and “Juice” made her famous enough to eventually get mocked on South Park, so she was scheduled for an early evening set on one of the festival’s mid-sized stages. This proved to be a miscalculation of her popularity. By the time her set neared, Lizzo’s crowd was big enough that it swelled into the small-by-comparison camp (including me) waiting for iconoclast Robyn’s headlining performance at an adjoining stage. The mass of people was so large, there were genuine safety concerns.

Something similar is happening with Chappell Roan.

The “Red Wine Supernova” singer and burgeoning queer-pop icon reportedly pulled in larger crowds than headliner Ed Sheeran at last month’s Boston Calling. She was also the biggest story at New York’s Governors Ball, where she came out dressed as the Statue of Liberty. To prevent a Lizzo-like incident, Bonnaroo — arguably the second most influential music festival in the country, after Coachella — moved Roan from a tent to the much-larger Which stage. She’s gotten so big, so fast, that she’s turning down invitations to perform at the White House (although that was also an act of protest against the Biden administration for failing women, trans folks, and “all oppressed people in occupied territories”) and publicly expressing her struggles with her fame.

“I guess I just want to be honest with the crowd,” she said at a recent concert in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I just feel a little off today ‘cause I think that my career is going really fast and it’s really hard to keep up. So I’m just being honest that I’m just having a hard time today. So sorry that — I’m not trying to give you, like, a lesser show. It’s just, there’s a lot… Thank you for understanding. This is all I’ve ever wanted. It’s just heavy sometimes, I think.”

It’s not the kind of thing that you would expect to hear from someone in a profession that demands constant ascension, but little about Roan’s charting-in-dozens-of-countries rise has been predictable.

Born in 1998 in Willard, Missouri, Roan (real name Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) grew up in a strict Christian household, but, as she explained in a 2023 interview with Variety, “I had this part of me that wanted to escape so bad. I just wanted to scream. I snuck out a lot, but I still went to church three times a week, you know what I mean? So it was just this dichotomy of trying to be a good girl, but also wanting to freaking light things on fire.”

Roan found her creative outlet on YouTube, where she caught the attention of Atlantic Records. She was signed at 17 years old, and made her stage name Chappell Roan in honor of her late grandfather (Dennis K. Chappell) and his favorite song (“The Strawberry Roan” by singing cowboy Curley Fletcher). In 2017, Roan released the folk-tinged EP School Nights, but “I just wasn’t ready,” she admits now. “It’s so cliché, but one weekend I was playing coffee shops and the next weekend I was signed to Atlantic Records. It was very, very unhinged… I just genuinely didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t feel like I had a lot of help.” Roan felt disconnected from the music she was making, but there was enough momentum that she moved to Los Angeles in 2018. “That changed everything,” she told Rolling Stone. As did a visit to a gay bar.

“Pink Pony Club,” the first song of Roan’s that sounds like it was made by Chappell Roan, not Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, was inspired by a night at Los Angeles institution The Abbey. “I grew up thinking being gay was bad and a sin. I went to the gay club once, and it was so impactful, like magic. It was the opposite of everything I was taught,” she said. The dreamy single — produced by Dan Nigro, who also worked on Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Sky Ferreira’s Night Time, My Time, and Carly Rae Jepsen’s best-pop-album-of-the-2010s E•MO•TION — made some noise, especially in gay clubs, but it didn’t catch on enough for her label. Roan was soon dropped by Atlantic. This was during the pandemic, and she ended up moving back home to Missouri to save money by working at a coffee shop, among other odd jobs. She was also going through a break-up with a long-term partner. It must have been miserable at the time, but it proved to be a fruitful experience for her songwriting.

Fast forward to 2022. Roan is out of the Midwest and back in Los Angeles, where she lands a publishing deal. She starts transforming herself into “a thrift store pop star,” which allows her to crack her naturally introverted shell and sing about getting freaky and kinky and making the bed get squeaky. The viral Tiny Desk Concert and support from the queer community and The Tonight Show appearances would soon follow. “I think Chappell’s a drag-queen version of me because it’s very larger-than-life,” she explained about finding herself to Vanity Fair. “Kind of tacky, not afraid to say really lewd things. The songs are kind of the fairytale version of what happened in real life.”

Whether real or not, the songs on Roan’s funny, vulgar, and honest debut album, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, are undeniable. Opener “Femininomenon” begins with lovely strings before a self-aware Roan asks “um, can you play a song with a fucking beat?” and the bubbly energy jumps from a ! to !!!; the bratty “Red White Supernova” keeps the enthusiasm going with an ode to drinking and smoking and f*cking. Later, on the throbbing “Casual,” Roan asks, “Knee deep in the passenger seat and you’re eating me out / Is it casual now?” She even has her own calling-card dance with “Hot To Go!” The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess sounds like the work of a pop-star lifer, not someone who was making coffee in Missouri two years ago.

Roan is one the biggest success stories of 2024. In June 2023, she was getting 130,000 daily streams on Spotify; a year later, she’s up to 16 million. “Good Luck, Babe!” is expected to hit No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 200 next week, which would give Roan her first top-10 hit, and her social media accounts (Roan’s TikTok is full of gems like this) are showing “explosive growth.”

There are a lot of factors to explain Roan’s rise to the pop star major leagues: her obvious talent, her opening slot for Olivia Rodrigo on the Guts tour, her work ethic, her Lady Gaga-like theatricality, her decision to “stop trying to impress the music industry and start trying to impress gay people.” But the biggest reason is also the simplest: her songs are fun! With big hooks! And melodies you can hum! People want to dance and sing and dress up in pink (Chappell Roan is Barbie for people who watch RuPaul’s Drag Race), and she provides an outlet for a good time. Hopefully for a long time.