GoneTrending

Carmelo Anthony made his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night during their 2021-22 season opener against the Golden State Warriors. It didn’t take long for the future Hall of Fame inductee to be at the center of a memorable moment in his new digs, although that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Anthony went to the free throw line with a little less than 90 seconds to go in the third quarter while the Lakers were trying to push their lead to double-digits. Because he is pretty good at free throws, Anthony made the first, but then, when it came time to attempt a second shot from the charity stripe, this extremely weird thing happened.

Anthony’s pump fake is one of the best in league history, but for some reason, he decided to bust it out while shooting a free throw. Let us review the NBA rulebook, specifically Rule 9, Section I:

The more you know! Anyway, Anthony was able to laugh this off, presumably because this was very funny, while LeBron James was caught on the sideline totally flummoxed by what the heck happened. Anthony will assuredly give an explanation for what happened after the game for why he thought this was the ideal time to go to one of the most effective things he has in his bag of tricks.

Despite being in the midst of a promotional run for his newly-released sophomore album, Punk, Young Thug has still found time to tend to Slime City. That’s what the rapper named the 100-acre plot of land he received for his 30th birthday from his manager, 300 Entertainment A&R Geoff Ogunlesi, and realtor Trey Williams. Thug wants to make the area solar-powered, and to accomplish this, he asked for help from Elon Musk over Twitter.

After sharing Slime City with his client, Williams revealed in an interview with TMZ that Thug hopes to build high-quality homes, a waterpark, a camping site, and much more. He also wants to bring his annual Slime Fest there and include a dirt bike trail for folks around the area to use and enjoy. At the time, Williams said that he’d already spoken to architects and engineers and that work on the land would begin as soon as they received a few permits that they’re waiting on.

Thug’s request comes days after he released his latest album, Punk, which features guest appearances from Drake, Future, Mac Miller, Juice WRLD, Gunna, Travis Scott, J. Cole, and more. He also stopped by Saturday Night Live to perform “Tick Tock” and “Love You More.”

Punk is out now via 300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Dating back to mid-August, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks expressed the view that he was “very confident” in the team reaching contract extensions with Kyrie Irving and James Harden. While Irving’s situation changed drastically since those comments were made, Harden did not reach an extension with the Nets before opening night. Brooklyn still remains in prime position to contend for the NBA title but, after a season-opening loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Harden was prompted on why the two sides did not reach a pact.

“Honestly, I’ve just been focused on getting healthy and getting my body ready, and then preparing for a great season,” Harden said. “The contract and money is going to be there. I don’t plan on leaving this organization and the situation that we have. My focus honestly is just focusing on the season and winning a championship. The contract and all that stuff will play itself out as it should, but my focus is definitely locked in on the season.”

This is a non-answer in some respects, though it is interesting for Harden to express that the “contract and money is going to be there.” That is probably a reasonable stance given the always rampant market for star players, but Harden is now 32 years old and perhaps could reach the point in the next couple of seasons in which he is not a no-brainer candidate for the super-max.

For now, Harden is locked in for $44.3 million this season with a $47.3 million player option for the 2022-23 campaign. As such, he could reach free agency after this season if he so chooses, but the Nets and their fans must now hope that Harden’s indication that he does not “plan on leaving this organization” will be backed up by his offseason contractual actions.

Meek Mill kept his fans waiting almost three years for a new album, but now he’s returned with his fifth album, Expensive Pain. Now there’s a menacing new video for the brash track “Northside Southside,” which features a verse from British rapper Giggs.

In addition to Giggs, Expensive Pain also features appearances from Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Kehlani, ASAP Ferg, Moneybagg Yo, Giggs, Young Thug, Vory, Lil Uzi Vert, and Brent Faiyaz. Meek has also been very busy keeping his fans filled with videos from his latest release. In addition to “Northside Southside,” he’s also made ones for “Angels (RIP Lil Snupe),” “Expensive Pain,” “On My Soul,” “Intro (Hate On Me),” “Blue Notes 2,” “Sharing Locations,” and “Flamerz Flow.”

In other news, Meek recently made a comparison between poverty conditions and the popular Netflix show Squid Game “[P]ay attention how fast people switch and kill each other to survive,” he wrote on Twitter. “Now think about the ‘hood’ poverty …it’s the exact same thing.” He added that improving the living conditions in both areas would translate to a reduction in crime and violence. However, people on social media made it clear that they did not agree with his take.

Expensive Pain is out now video Maybach Music Group/Atlantic Records. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In July, the rumor mill began to churn in earnest with regard to Damian Lillard and his future with the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard denied any notion that he would be demanding, or even requesting, a trade out of Portland. Eventually, the buzz died down to some degree, but not before it came to light that Lillard pushed the Blazers to upgrade the roster, seemingly putting the pressure back on the organization. Now, on the eve of the 2021-22 season, Lillard gave his strongest on-the-record endorsement yet on the topic, telling Jason Quick of The Athletic that he is “not leaving Portland” and that “it’s not going to happen.”

Quick’s piece, which is certainly worth a full read, goes into Lillard’s comments on new head coach Chauncey Billups, who is seemingly a big reason for Lillard’s renewed optimism in his situation. He did acknowledge that there could be bumps along the way by saying that “a rocky start” would not mean that he is “going to flip and do something different than what I’ve always done.” Still, Lillard was fairly definitive about sticking around.

“I don’t expect all times to be great times. Adversity is going to hit. There’s going to be some tough times,” Lillard said in the interview. “So if (this season) starts off rocky, or if it starts off in a struggle, I wouldn’t be happy about it. Nobody would. But I’m not going to jump ship or bail out when that happens. So, I mean, (him leaving Portland) is the easy thing and popular thing to say, but it’s not going to happen.”

The Blazers have relatively modest expectations this season, at least in terms of the preseason betting market and media predictions. Portland did not overhaul its roster to the degree of some other teams, though Larry Nance Jr. is a nice addition, and will instead rely on Lillard, CJ McCollum and a potentially improved defense to carry the team’s effectiveness. Whether that is a recipe for success remains to be seen, but teams potentially eyeing Lillard in trade may have to reckon with the notion that he simply doesn’t want to leave his current situation.

The last two weeks have seen a furor erupt around the Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix stand-up special, The Closer. It’s the fourth such show where he’s devoted a chunk of space to jokes about the trans community, which have enraged the company’s trans employees as well as other comics whose specials have aired on the streamer. The response from Netflix top brass has been fairly chaotic, including firing an employee who organized a (still on) walk-out and a number of strange responses from co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

Now Sarandos is walking his response back — sort of. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the exec addresses the pushback against his much-disliked attempts to mollify the situation.

“I can tell you I screwed up those communications in two ways. One of them was, I should have first and foremost acknowledged in those emails that a group of our employees were in pain, and they were really feeling hurt from a business decision that we made. And I, instead of acknowledging that first, I went right into some rationales. And so first of all, I’d say those emails lacked humanity, in which I like to and I do generally communicate with our teams.”

He also tried to deflect the criticism by claiming the memos, which were sent to staff company-wide, were from a “leaked email out of context,” and that “it was just very clumsy, internal communications that went public.” But he did reverse course on one of his more controversial claims, which was that entertainment didn’t have real-life consequences. “Of course, content, storytelling causes change in the world, sometimes hugely positive and sometimes negative,” he told THR.

All that being said, as for Chappelle’s new special, he said, “No, my stance hasn’t changed.” But he tried to thread the needle about allowing for “artistic expression” and not, you know, contributing to unfair stereotypes about the trans community:

When we think about this challenge we have to entertain the world, part of that challenge means that you’ve got audiences with various taste, various sensibilities, various beliefs. You really can’t please everybody or the content would be pretty dull. And we do tell our employees upfront that we are trying to entertain our members, and that some of the content on Netflix you’re not going to like, and so this kind of commitment to artistic expression and free artistic expression is sometimes in conflict with people feeling protected and safe. I do think that that’s something that we struggle with all the time when these two values bump up against each other.

Sarandos also said he would not be adding a disclaimer to The Closer, as some employees had asked. “The content is age restricted already for language,” he said, “and Dave himself gives a very explicit warning at the beginning of the show, so I don’t think it would be appropriate in this case.”

He also drew a curious conclusion about the palace revolt still going on in his company. “This group of employees felt a little betrayed because we’ve created such a great place to work that they forgot that sometimes these challenges will come up,” he claimed.

(Via THR)

This Giannis Antetokounmpo fella is, it turns out, pretty good at basketball. The Milwaukee Bucks kicked off their first championship defense in five decades on Tuesday night against the Brooklyn Nets, and despite their opponents being viewed as the favorites to win an NBA title this year, the Bucks managed to cruise to a 127-104 win.

The festive environment in Fiserv Forum — where Milwaukee raised a banner and put on championship rings — translated to some absolutely beautiful basketball by the defending champs. And as he oftentimes is, Antetokounmpo was at the heart of everything. The reigning NBA Finals MVP was in total control of his environment, leading the Bucks with 32 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and a steal in a mere 31 minutes of work.

Continuity oftentimes is a huge help for teams early on in the year, but even by that standard, the Bucks already look like a team that is not going to take long to get humming on all cylinders, which is something that Kevin Durant mentioned after the game. A major reason why is Antetokounmpo, which is always the case when good things happen to Milwaukee. He was omnipresent on defense, keyed the Bucks’ offense (particularly after Jrue Holiday left with a heel injury), and was crucial in earning the team extra possessions, as evidenced by his game-high five offensive rebounds.

Above all else, Antetokounmpo looks like someone who has an extra air of confidence about him, something that can only come from finally winning a championship. His flashing of a new-look jumper during the preseason was a reminder that, despite his consistent individual excellence, there are ways for Antetokounmpo to get better. It’s early days, but Antetokounmpo looks like someone ready, willing, and able to find another level for his game. If so, Tuesday night might go down as game one in a special, 82-game campaign.

Was Rudy Giuliani ever okay? The one once dubbed “America’s mayor” over his handling of the September 11 attacks has been on a constant downslope for the last year, if not before. It started in earnest after his client, Donald J. Trump, lost re-election. Untold humiliations followed, as did legal and financial worries. Still, even considering he once sweated black goo during an already chaotic press conference, what on earth is going on here?

On a mostly peaceful Tuesday night (albeit not for Steve Bannon), social media was hit with the above video. What is it? It shows Giuliani using…an Abraham Lincoln filter to attack Terry McAuliffe, former governor of Virginia who’s running for his old job again. “just listen to Abe,” he wrote in the caption.

“Virginia, vote against the man who dishonored our past by selling my bedroom hundreds and hundreds of times to scoundrels in a pay-for-play scheme!” Giuliani says, while seemingly trying to sound like a ghost (or something). “In my time, we had a name for men who sold bedrooms for one night. In your time, the name is Terry McAuliffe! End the Clinton sleaze once and for all!”

Okay, but why Abraham Lincoln? And what does Bill or Hillary Clinton (or both) have to do with this? Raw Story figured it out:

Giuliani is referring to a controversy in the early 1990s in which the Bill Clinton administration was accused of renting out the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House to campaign contributors. Terry McAuliffe worked in the Clinton White House at the time, but fact-checkers have debunked the frequently repeated claim by Republicans that McAuliffe was the mastermind of the scheme.

Well, then! Mind you, Giuliani did once host SNL, during very different times, so perhaps he thought he was doing a comedy bit. But everyone else was left scratching their heads, even for a Giuliani appearance.

Some felt bad for Abraham Lincoln.

This is far from the most embarrassing thing Giuliani has done in the last year-plus, but only because he’s raised the bar so high.

(Via Raw Story)

Maxo Kream dropped a new album, Weight Of The World, earlier this week. Now he returns with a new video for the album’s opening track, “Cripstian.” It follows a young man who finds himself stepping onto a lavish estate after dying in the back of an ambulance. Upon entering the building and running into family members and friends who presumably passed away, he realizes that he’s in the afterlife.

“Cripstian” joins “Big Persona,” “Greener Knots,” and “Local Joker” as songs from Weight Of The World to receive the video treatment. Throughout the album’s 16 songs are guest appearances from Tyler The Creator, ASAP Rocky, Freddie Gibbs, and fellow Houston natives Monaleo and Don Toliver. It arrived on Monday, October 18, which goes against the industry’s tradition of releasing albums on Fridays, but in a trailer that Maxo released before dropping Weight Of The World, he explained why he chose that date.

“10/18 is symbolic,” he says. “10/18 hold a lot of weight. That’s the day Woodrow [his late cousin] died, you feel me? And that’s the same day Jalae [his niece] was born, and that’s the first show Mmadu [his younger brother] ever missed.”

You can watch the video for “Cripstian” above.

Weight Of The World is out now via RCA Records. Get it here.

Steve Bannon has not been quiet about his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He even admitted he and Trump plotted to “bury” the Biden presidency the day his election was set to be certified by Congress. The certification happened anyway, though not for lack of trying. But now it appears he may wind up paying, however slightly, for his actions. According to The New York Times, the committee investigating that fateful day have voted unanimously to recommend charging Bannon with criminal contempt.

His major slip-up? Obeying his old employer Donald Trump’s orders and refusing to obey a subpoena demanding he provide documents and answer questions pertaining to the events of Jan. 6. As such, the committee declared that he is in “contempt of Congress.” The full House will vote on the matter on Thursday. If voted on, a warrant will be issued for his arrest.

“It’s a shame that Mr. Bannon has put us in this position, but we won’t take no for an answer,” said Missouri Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, head of the committee. “If there’s no accountability for these abuses — if there are different sets of rules for different types of people — then our democracy is in serious trouble.

“Mr. Bannon will comply with our investigation,” Thompson added, “or he will face the consequences.”

Bannon, the committee stated, is believed to “have had multiple roles relevant to this investigation. He helped construct the “Stop the Steal” PR effort to spread awareness of the gathering in D.C. the day the of the certification. He was also involved in events in a “war room” held in a D.C. hotel, which involved he and other Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani, hoping to overturn the 2020 election.

The day before, on Jan. 5, Bannon hyped up the Capitol event. “Now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack — the point of attack tomorrow,” Bannon told his listeners. “It’s going to kick off. It’s going to be very dramatic.” He added, “It’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen,” promising it would be “extraordinarily different. And all I can say is: Strap in.”

Bannon and his lawyers have cited “executive privilege,” as Trump himself has, which keeps certain official communications secret as part of a president’s prerogative. Thing is, Trump is no longer president and Bannon, formerly his Chief Strategist, was no longer in his employ during the day’s events. But maybe there’s another part of their plan, as per NYT:

Many Democrats fear that case, as well as any the Justice Department might decide to bring against Mr. Bannon, may drag on for months, potentially long enough for Republicans to gain the House majority in 2022 and bury the inquiry — and with it, any hope of revealing fresh information about what precipitated the riot.

In other words, clog the courts with possibly frivolous lawsuits and delay, delay, delay. But maybe that old line won’t work this time. Should the House vote for his arrest, he faces a jail sentence up to a year and a fine of up to $100,000. And this time, he doesn’t have a sitting president to bail him out.

(Via NYT)