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It’s no secret that Damian Lillard wants to compete for championships with the Portland Trail Blazers. The team’s All-Star guard has aspirations of lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy in the only city that he has called home during his NBA career, and one of the biggest storylines in the league over the summer was that Lillard wanted Portland to get into a position where its roster could do that.

Ultimately, the Blazers’ front office didn’t take any big swings to give him an All-Star running mate, and the team is currently a half game up on the final play-in spot in the Western Conference. The front office is, however, in the midst of a shakeup following the results of an independent investigation that led to longtime top executive Neil Olshey being removed from his position due to allegations that he fostered a hostile work environment.

On Tuesday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN wrote a piece about the Blazers that suggested Lillard’s hopes for a 2-year, $107 million extension at the end of this season is scaring away some potential people who can take over for Olshey. It appears Lillard got word of the piece, as he shared a tweet that both implicated Wojnarowski and Olshey worked together to slander him and compared them to Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

The piece also reported that Lillard and his camp wanted the Blazers to part ways with CJ McCollum and four first-round picks to bring Ben Simmons to Portland. A report in The Athletic earlier this week indicated that Lillard would like to bring Simmons to Portland, but there were no indications he wanted the team to part ways with McCollum to make it happen — although, that is certainly the player that makes the most sense to be going out in such a deal.

The trial of Jussie Smollett, the actor accused of faking a hate crime in early 2019, is underway, and it’s been even more of a circus than the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. On Monday, the former Empire performer took the stand, and what he said was shocking. For one, he admitted that he got high, hooked up with, and even masturbated with one of his alleged attackers. On Tuesday, Smollett was back in the hot seat, grilled by a top shelf prosecutor, and it did not go well.

That prosecutor was Dan Webb, whose CV includes playing a key role in the Iran-Contra affair in the ‘80s, even doing a desposition with no less than then-president Ronald Reagan. He delivered what The Daily Beast called a “masterclass in how to zero in on details and seal the deal,” zeroing in on what happened during the attack in the wee hours of Jan 29, 2019. Throughout the cross-examination, it was clear Webb had succeeded in getting under Smollett’s skin.

Webb has insisted that Smollett, who had claimed that his attackers were white and MAGA, tried to weaponize race as part of his claim, as per the Beast:

“Did you think by saying that the people that attacked you were white, it would lend credibility to a fake hate crime?” Webb asked.

Smollett replied curtly: “You’d have to ask someone that did a fake hate crime.”

At one point, Webb dug in on evidence that Smollett had repeatedly driven around in a car with his attackers, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, by the area they would later attack him:

“Do you have any reason to disagree with police testimony that you passed by the intersection three times?” Webb asked.

“I don’t know,” Smollett replies. “I circled around the block.”

“How long were you there?”

“Well you have the surveillance, you have to tell me,” Smollett snapped back. “It was three years ago.”

Webb also inquired about the marks left on his face by the attack:

As Webb wrapped up his questioning, he asked Smollett if “getting a few bruises” had really impacted his acting career.

“Mr. Webb, I have a scar under my eye that looks like a bag for the rest of my life,” Smollett replied, while also mentioning a “black circle” on his face. “It’s absolutely a problem.”

Webb then showed Smollett a photo of him during his controversial Feb. 2019 Good Morning America interview with Robin Roberts a few weeks after the attack. In the photo, Smollett did not appear to have any of the markings he’d just described on the stand.

(Via The Daily Beast)

St. Louis rapper Smino is two years removed from his last full-length album, 2018’s slinky, soulful Noir. In the interim, he’s kept his fans sated with a slow but steady trickle of releases, including “Reverend,” “Rice & Gravy,” and “I Deserve,” as well as the 2020 lockdown mixtape She Already Decided and a string of features with the likes of JID (“Baguetti“), Thundercat (“Dragonball Durag” remix with Guapdad 4000), Denzel Curry (“So.Incredible.Pkg” remix), Yebba (“Louie Bag“), Syd (“Right Track“), and Khalid (“Scenic Drive“).

However, fans have still looked forward to his third full-length album with increasing anticipation, and today, he shared just enough information to pique their interest and turn up the anticipation from “eager” to “rabid.” Appearing on the latest episode of YouTube Originals’ Bear Witness, Take Action conversation series, Smino joined comedian Teddy Ray for “What Say What?!”, a discussion about the new album and each artist’s respective influences and creative process. During the discussion (at about the 8-minute mark), Smino reveals the title of his upcoming album: Love For Rent. He also explains the meaning behind the title:

“It’s based on different types of love,” he says. “It could be bad love, petty love, obsessive love, real good love, family love. But it’s just about the different ways I lent out my heart to the point where I didn’t have enough left for myself. I just put a pause on a bunch of sh*t. Letting everybody come eat and then you go get the plate last and you like, ‘Damn, I’m hungrier than a b*tch.’”

Later in the episode (at the 10-minute mark), Smino hits a makeshift stage on the set (made up to resemble a kitchen) to perform his new singles “I Deserve” and “Black Luv Ain’t Dead.” You can watch the full episode above and stay tuned for more information about the long-awaited comeback album, Love For Rent.

The Indiana Pacers are reportedly ready to embrace a rebuild. After years of fighting valiantly to remain a mid-seed in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers seem prepared to go down a road they’ve tried to not travel, although it does not appear that they tear it all down and start from scratch. Some key pieces will remain — Malcolm Brogdon, TJ Warren, and one of the bigs seems like the minimum that will be around past early February — but a shake up is in order and Caris LeVert and one of Domantas Sabonis or Myles Turner are apparently gettable.

On top of those big names, the Pacers have some interesting role players who can help contending teams, like Jeremy Lamb, Justin Holiday, and Torrey Craig. If Indiana is indeed open for business in the next two months, there are plenty of front offices that should be working the phones to see who is gettable and for what price.

Here, we’ll look at five teams that should be getting in touch with Indiana to see what the asking prices are on those top three guys and whether they can position themselves to reap the rewards of the Pacers looking to shuffle the deck.

Boston Celtics: The Celtics don’t have any longterm answers in the frontcourt right now, and while Turner has been connected to Boston in rumors in the past, I would be first trying to see what Sabonis would cost if I were Brad Stevens. This is a Boston team that could use some better scoring balance, and Sabonis’ ability to take some of the scoring stress off of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would be intriguing to me if he could be had without needing to give up Brown. Turner also makes plenty of sense as a defensive anchor and floor-spacing big — he’d surely coming at a lower asking price, too — but Sabonis would be a home run addition for the Celtics.

Charlotte Hornets: Another team that’s been linked to Turner for some time is Charlotte, who likewise still don’t have a lot of clarity about their center rotation. They’d presumptively need to part with PJ Washington to land Turner, but for a team desperate for a defensive identity, adding a player with the pedigree of Turner on that end would be a huge addition. They’d have to believe he’s the long-term center to pair with LaMelo Ball, but if they do, it’s the deal that makes as much sense as any.

Memphis Grizzlies: Memphis spent this offseason positioning itself for the future, and I think they should be trying to figure out if they, too, can get in the Turner/Sabonis sweepstakes. Sabonis would give them the frontcourt scorer they lack currently, given Jaren Jackson Jr. takes half of his attempts from three and Steven Adams isn’t exactly a focal point. That would alleviate pressure from Ja Morant come playoff time, and with the floor spacers they have, that’s a duo that could wreak havoc on offense. Turner has a similar profile to Jackson, but as the Cavs have shown, having two bigs capable of rim protection and switching on defense while spacing the floor on offense is valuable. For a Grizzlies team that took a patient approach this summer, I’d like to see them reward another strong start from their young team by pushing some chips in.

Portland Trail Blazers: Everyone’s favorite fake trade partners would indeed make sense to go after either of the Indiana bigs, and Sabonis, given the family ties to Portland and playing his college ball at Gonzaga, will be a popular rumor. However, Turner makes more sense in terms of what Portland desperately needs. Like Charlotte, Portland is a squad that is crying out for a defensive anchor. Whether the Blazers have the players and assets to make that move remains to be seen — and, if we want to get real weird, there’s a world where you could get the Pacers involved in a three-team deal involving Ben Simmons also going to Portland — but this will be a popular combination until the deadline.

Cleveland Cavaliers: I’ll be honest, I don’t know what Caris LeVert’s value is on the market right now. His production so far this season in a bit of a muddied role in Indiana hasn’t been great, but there’s a buy low argument to be made if you’re a team like the Cavs. Adding a secondary ball-handler next to Darius Garland and some more potential perimeter scoring pop would, in theory, bring more balance to their big-heavy attack. Making money work could be a trick, as they would either need to do a Ricky Rubio and picks deal or package Cedi Osman and Collin Sexton, which might feel like a steep price for LeVert. If not LeVert, Lamb or one of the other veteran wings would also be a good add for a Cavs team on the rise but in need of bolstering perimeter and wing depth if they’re serious about a playoff push this year.

The Portland Trail Blazers are in the market for a new top executive after an independent investigation led to Neil Olshey’s ouster last week. Whomever takes over will step into a situation with a superstar who has not been shy about his desire for the franchise to become more competitive, as Damian Lillard stressed on several occasions during the offseason.

That didn’t quite happen — Portland largely opted to run it back with its core players this season with a few changes in its rotation — and now, the team sits 11-14 and is holding onto the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament. Lillard hasn’t demanded a trade or anything like that, and according to a new report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, he’d actually like a contract extension this offseason, one that would pay him $107 million over two years. This, when tacked onto his current deal, would pay Lillard $51 million in 2025-26 and $55 million, the largest single-season sum in league history, the following year when he would be 36 years old.

According to Wojnarowski, this has actually developed into something that has led to a bit of trepidation among some folks who might be interested in taking the Blazers’ top executive job.

Among several top-level GM candidates who fit the profile of Portland’s applicant pool, there’s no enthusiasm to grant Lillard his massive extension contract through the 2026-27 season. In fact, several executives told ESPN they would be far more interested in the Blazers job with ownership’s blessing to move Lillard sooner than later.

This is the latest bit of news about Lillard’s future in Portland, as it was reported earlier this week that he’d like it if the team pulled off a trade for disgruntled Philadelphia 76ers standout Ben Simmons. Currently, Lillard is sidelined as he works his way back from an abdominal injury.

Thanks to Yellowstone becoming a ratings juggernaut, Taylor Sheridan is dominating the TV landscape, and now, Sylvester Stallone is getting in on the action. In what will be his first lead television role, the Rocky actor has signed on to play an Italian mob boss in Kansas City, a new series coming to Paramount Plus from Sheridan and veteran TV writer Terrence Winter, whose worked on such prestige hits as Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos.

Via Variety:

The series, set in present day, follows legendary New York City mobster Sal (Stallone), who is faced with the startling task of reestablishing his Italian mafia family to the modernized, straight-shooting town of Kansas City, Missouri. There, Sal encounters surprising and unsuspecting characters who follow him along his unconventional path to power.

Despite a misunderstood Instagram post that found Stallone pegged as a QAnon cultist, which he quickly denied, The Expendables star is moving right along while following up his fan-favorite role as King Shark in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Stallone also recently released Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director’s Cut, which was an intense passion project for the Rocky creator. Not only did he painstakingly add 40 minutes of newly-restored footage to the ’80s classic, but he also produced a 90-minute documentary on the making of the “Ultimate Director’s Cut” that was chock full of anecdotes from the set of Rocky IV.

In short, there’s a lot of love for Sly out there, so it only makes sense to pair him with the creator of one of the most popular shows on TV right now.

(Via Variety)

The campaign for Halo Infinite will become available to everyone on December 8. We think it’s worth checking out, especially since it’s on Game Pass, but it’s worth noting that a lot of the game feels missing. We already know about certain features that are going to be patched in later, such as Forge and co-op, but it turns out that even more is going to not make it to final release.

After players finish the final mission of the campaign and watch the credits roll, they are given free rein to explore the world as they see fit. This is a great opportunity to clean up any missing collectibles and generally explore. Unfortunately, what the player can’t do is replay already completed campaign missions. So all those missions where the game breaks from the open-world environment and goes back to a traditional Halo experience are gone for good.

While that might be normal in most games, it is not normal at all in the history of Halo. Part of the fun of Halo has always been going back and re-experiencing those old missions after the game is finished. Replaying them is an essential part of the Halo experience. Thankfully, it is currently being worked on and will eventually be patched in. So it’s not gone forever, just temporarily. Via The Verge:

“We haven’t announced a date but that is being worked on,” 343 Industries associate creative director Paul Crocker said in an interview.

“We want to have replay that works well, and when you have a more open game, it gets a lot trickier,” he said. “So we made a decision to improve the quality of the single-player campaign to ensure that, as a foundation, that it’s as strong as it possibly could be so that we could then add the other features back in.”

While this is a bit of a disappointment, this is fairly standard for how Halo Infinite has gone through finishing development. The game was originally slated to release in 2020, likely alongside the release of the Xbox Series X/S, but it was delayed. The delay ended up paying off well, because the game that is there is great, but a lot has been left to be patched in at a later point. Sometimes a difficult decision has to be made in development to ensure that a game releases in a good state and the team at 343 Industries clearly had to make a lot of tough choices to make sure Infinite was as good as it needed to be.

If you were one of the many people a bit too COVID-cautious to hit up a theater earlier this year, we’ve got some great news for you: while it might not be one year later, The Green Knight is returning to theaters on December 10.

Despite the Arthurian arthouse film now being readily available to purchase physically or stream online, beloved indie studio A24 has announced it is bringing David Lowery‘s critically-acclaimed film back to select theaters (via Collider). Considering the film’s inciting incident takes place on Christmas, it seems safe to say the studio is doing this to celebrate the film’s unique “holiday spirit,” as well as give fans who missed seeing The Green Knight in theaters the chance to fully experience the film. The only downside? The film will only be in theaters for one night, so except the fight for tickets to be nearly as vicious as Sir Gawain’s against the The Green Knight himself.

Based on the Arthurian poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Green Knight follows King Arthur’s reckless nephew Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) after he engages in an act of thoughtless violence that has extremely grueling physical and mental consequences. What ensues is an unusual coming-of-age story that pits Gawain up against ghosts, giants, thieves, temptation, and himself. In addition to Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan, and Ralph Ineson all star in the film.

Heralded as extremely abstract and “poetically-vague,” it was met with mixed reactions from audiences but received a fair amount of praise from critics. It could be this second theatrical release is a way for A24 to encourage folks to revisit the film, and perhaps even consider nominating it for a few Oscars as awards season draws nearer.

The Green Knight returns to select AMC theaters exclusively on December 10.

The Uncharted series is one of the more interesting franchises out there. Naughty Dog went out to create a clone of the Tomb Raider series, but at some point in development, the game shifted away from puzzle solving and became focused on action. This would turn out to be the best decision they could have made because the Uncharted series ended up being the closest thing players would get to starring in an action movie. Huge set-pieces, exciting gunplay, and a lot of climbing ended up becoming staples for the franchise. After five games, the series appears to have wrapped up but there’s always an opportunity for a sequel.

For now, though, they’re content re-releasing those original games. All of them will be available in the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PlayStation 5 and PC. Not only is this an opportunity for anyone who hasn’t experienced the series to play them all in one place, but shortly after the collection is released we will see the upcoming movie starring Tom Holland hit theaters.

Platform: PlayStation 5, PC at a later date
Price: $70
Release Date: 1/28/2022
Genre: Third-Person Action-Adventure
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Rating: T
Where can I buy this: PlayStation Store, Steam, Epic Games Store, brick and mortar stores
Single Player: Yes
Multiplayer: Possibly
Early Access: No
Microtransactions: No

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene gave a truly bizarre speech on Tuesday claiming that insurrectionists involved in the Jan. 6th attack on Capitol Hill are being treated poorly “because of the color of their skin.”

Greene was joined by fellow far-right lawmakers Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar as she lamented on the “rights” being denied to the Trump supporters who tried to overthrow our democratic process earlier this year. The trio was part of a Republican-backed report on the conditions faced by MAGA rioters currently being held in a D.C. jail. According to Greene, the criminals who were part of the Jan. 6th insurrection are being treated unfairly compared to other prisoners.

“They were isolated in a separate wing of the jail, where they are abused, where they are ridiculed, where they are mocked because of their political beliefs and because of Jan. 6 and because of the color of their skin,” Greene said after claiming the prisoners were also denied access to education curriculums, job training, and mock-trial exercises provided by visiting law students.

Greene went on to rail against the system for forcing the majority white, male insurrectionists currently being housed in the jail to “denounce President Trump” and for treating the prisoners like cult members.

“They are told that their views are the views of cult members,” Greene said. “These are men that, every single night at nine o’clock, they put their hand over their heart and sing the national anthem voluntarily.”

Yeah … that doesn’t sound like cult behavior at all.

Oddly enough, Greene’s grievance with the prison system seems to be focused on how one jail is treating insurrectionists and not the larger, more perverse problems facing incarcerated individuals of color. That might be because she allegedly helped the criminals housed in the D.C. jail plan their attack on her fellow members of Congress, or it might just be because she hasn’t gotten around to visiting Riker’s Island yet. Who knows?

You can watch the full video below:

(Via Raw Story, Aaron Rupar, and C-SPAN)