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The final days of any long-running talk show are always an A-list affair (unless we’re talking about The Chevy Chase Show), as Conan O’Brien’s recent lineup of guests has proved. On Wednesday night, he got a last-minute and rather unexpected visit from the always-entertaining Nick Offerman, who apparently contacted Conan’s producers himself to ask if he could come and say goodbye to the host in person. Of course, they obliged.

After telling Conan that he “would like to sincerely congratulate you on an amazing 28 years,” Offerman—in true Offerman style—spent the next several minutes delivering what essentially amounted to a piece of fabulous performance art.

A totally stone-faced Offerman delivered several moments of awkward silences and long, unblinking glances directly into the camera. But the stoicism of his appearance stood in direct contrast to the words he said, as he apologized for losing his “composure.”

“I’m sorry, gentleman, that you have to see me like this. This lack of physical control and hysterical display is nothing short of an embarrassment… I’ll be honest, I thought I’d be able to hold back these tears, but instead what you see before you is a quivering puddle of a man. A duckling torn from the feathery bosom of its mother duck. I stand here naked and ashamed. A bald discredit to the Offerman name… Clips of this blubbering spectacle will surely go viral and haunt me, Michael Jordan-like, on the world wide web forever.”

You can watch the full clip of Offerman’s “high-pitched caterwauling and decadent simpering” that will bring the Parks and Recreation star “nothing but infinite shame” below.

In 2007, Chris Crocker achieved viral fame with their famous “Leave Britney Alone” video (which was recently sold as an NFT). That’s a video people have been thinking about more lately as Britney Spears’ conservatorship situation has come to a head. After Spears made a statement in court yesterday, Crocker has apparently had a ton of people asking about their thoughts on the situation, and now they have offered a reaction.

In a video shared on their Instagram Story yesterday, Crocker said, “I’ve been getting a lot of people reaching out to me today, wanting my thoughts on everything, and et cetera. I never know how to speak on anything because I don’t want it to be about me. This is about Britney, this is about her being able to be free, and this is about her being able to finally be heard, and that is what is important: Not what I have to say, what Britney has to say. And I hope that she gets that freedom and that happiness. That’s what we all want for her.”

In a February 2021 interview on Tamron Hall Show, following the release of the Framing Britney Spears documentary, Crocker was asked if they feel “vindicated” in light of the newfound attention brought to Spears’ conservatorship. Crocker’s response was similar in tone to their new video, saying, “I don’t think it was ever really about me. It’s not that I feel vindicated or anything, I’m just happy that the conversation seems to be going to a place were people are wondering why they didn’t listen to me in that video. It’s more always been to me just about, if you see someone going through a hard time, you know, be empathetic to that.”

Conservatives have been reeling after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley dressed down Matt Gaetz for accusing the military of being “woke” because it teaches critical race theory in its academic curriculum. While Gaetz fired back with a lame attempt to insult Gen. Milley, Fox News host Laura Ingraham took things a step further by calling for Congress to defund the military. “Go after their budget,” Ingraham argued to an audience that not too long ago was setting Nike shoes on fire because Colin Kaepernick was “disrespecting the troops” by not kneeling for the National Anthem.

Via The Wrap:

“We are sending out tax dollars to this military in an attempt to weed out so-called ‘extremists,’ which just means conservative evangelicals as far as I can tell,” she raged. “We’re paying for that? Why is Congress not saying, ‘We’re not going to give you a penny until all of this is eradicated from the military budget. Nothing. This is my offer to you. Nothing’? That’s what I would say. I am totally outraged by him and his ridiculous response today.”

During a House hearing on Wednesday, Milley had defended the importance of studying America’s racial history particularly in light of the January 6 attack on the Capitol building, which he believes are not separate issues.

“I want to understand white rage — and I’m white,” Milley said in response to Gaetz’s accusations of wokeness. “What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?”

(Via Acyn on Twitter)

Just when you think Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s well of batshit ideas, conspiracy theories, and other lies () might have possibly run dry, she manages to dredge up another whopper. This time it’s a new piece of legislation she recently proposed, which she’s calling the “Fire Fauci Act,” which itself is a misnomer. Which is exactly what we should all expect from a 47-year-old woman who only just learned about the Holocaust. On Wednesday night’s show, Jimmy Kimmel made a beautiful segue between a story about cows run amok in California to MTG’s latest cause:

“Speaking of out-of-control cows, the top Karen in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has introduced legislation that she is calling the ‘Fire Fauci Act.’ Which would not actually fire Dr. Fauci, it would just reduce his salary down to zero dollars a year. Isn’t it amazing that she thinks she deserves the $174,000 a year we pay her and he doesn’t?

Klan Mom accuses Dr. Fauci of failing to provide people with ‘accurate information’ about the COVID-19 pandemic. This from the woman who believes that Hillary Clinton eats baby meat pepperoni on her pizzas.”

Amazingly, as Kimmel noted, the Fire Fauci Act “is actually getting some traction among Republicans in Congress, partly thanks to a release of Dr. Fauci’s emails, which has given the QAnuts a new blanket to chew on.” One of MTG’s complaints? That Fauci told former president Donald Trump that millions of people would die because of COVID-19 if measures weren’t taken when, in fact, only 603,000 Americans have succumbed to the virus (so far). Which she sounded sort of disappointed about?!

Kimmel made a new proposal: “How about instead of a Fire Fauci Act we pass a Fire Marjorie Taylor Greene Out of a Cannon Act?”

You can watch the full segment above, starting around the 1:20 mark.

It’s one way to start your morning by taking your time to get ready for another work-from-home day at 9:15 a.m. But then there’s beginning your day with a Zoom call to talk about your life, work, and your future at 6:15 a.m. Woosung is experiencing the latter. Calling in from his humble abode in Los Angeles, the 28-year-old singer-songwriter and frontman of The Rose hopped on the call, camera off, with a soft hello hinting he may have just awoken from slumber. But that didn’t stop him from opening up to me during our conversation.

Dating back to a decade ago, Woosung first made his appearance during season one of Korean music survival show K-POP STAR, joining and meeting other young hopefuls that wished to get into the K-pop industry. Though he may not have stuck until the end, the young artist managed to befriend and stay in touch with other contestants who soon became artists like him.

A couple of years after reality survival music shows, Woosung made his debut as the leader of alternative rock band The Rose in 2017. It was from that moment on that Woosung’s professional history began to overflow with vast opportunities to showcase his true self through singing, songwriting, producing, touring, and emceeing. By 2019, the singer released his first solo EP WOLF with the lead single “Face;” a pop-rock track consisting of a funky-disco bassline that compliments flirty lyrics bluntly saying “I like your face.”

Fast forward to today, and even through the struggles, Woosung continues to pave the way for himself by creating a company of team members that he has single-handedly picked and trusted for years. Releasing his newest single “Lazy,” there’s irony in a title that stands in opposition of the person Woosung has been for the last ten years. Moving from the US to South Korea and back to complete his debut while juggling band life and a solo career, Woosung has not only carried the weight of his endeavors, but also continues to discover his voice and identity within his music and the Asian-American community.

Let’s talk about “Lazy.”

To be honest, I had this song for around 2 years. I wrote this song right after my first solo mini-album. So I’ve had it for a while but it really just came from, you know, I was busy for like a couple of months and when I’d come home and when we’d come back from a big tour, I just felt really lazy to just not do anything, just stay home. And I felt like it was just something that people could relate to. Over the years of having this song, it kept evolving and evolving and the ideas I was imagining became detailed and prompt. I think mostly though it was just me staying home one day and literally I was like “I’m so lazy to do anything” and I really felt like people all feel like this. I felt like we could just all feel lazy one day, and I felt like people could like it, too.

Your first solo track “Face” was an upbeat lustful track that captures this charismatic side of you whereas “Lazy” showcases a soft, mellow version of you. In the type of music you’ve produced thus far, do you think you’ve found your sound? Why or why not?

I think I definitely have my niche and tones and everything and sounds. And if you think about “Face” and “Lazy,” they do have similar tones, in a way.

And in terms of the message, yes, “Face” is very straightforward and lustful, but the meaning of “Face” for me was more like, “Yes, I like your face” but at the same time, everybody has different taste so we shouldn’t be the judge of that. So I try to showcase many faces on the track and the music video. The two songs might be very different. One’s more upbeat. “Lazy” is like the title, very lazy. I love to do music where people could really listen to it and say “Yeah, I like this because I go through this every day.”

My niche for sound though, I have to say, is if you listen to the guitar tones in my solo stuff, it’s very similar – electric guitar tones.

What kind of message do you want to portray with your music?

I like for my music to be like a comfort thing where it’s not a big deal. If you’re lazy, it’s okay. If you like a certain face, it’s okay. I think that’s always my message, like, it’s okay. Listen to this, it’s not like you’re alone. We’re all going through the same thing. I think that was the message for The Rose, as well, all the time.

You’ve started your own venture, created your own team, what’s the most exciting part of making your own empire?

To be honest, the most exciting part for me was when everything was coming through, when everything was becoming this one big piece and everybody’s doing their part and everybody’s so passionate about it. Because in the beginning everything was hectic. I didn’t know where everything was going. I was shooting the music video, I have these visuals, everybody’s doing their part but I’m just in the middle thinking, “Okay, am I getting this right? Am I getting the details right?” But as time passed, I felt very secure. I can’t predict the future, but you know, with these things usually I feel like I could guess. I could guesstimate.

No day is the same, but there are days, especially in the creative process, where you’ve set a routine for yourself. How does an average day in the studio go with Woosung?

Let’s see, hmm. Usually, my everyday… I don’t have a schedule, it’s very different.

I literally go around 1 p.m., stay until 10 p.m., and we have this creative moment where we don’t know where we’re going, we don’t have a theme we’re trying to go for, but whatever our mood.is that day we try to just kind of write it off and see where it goes so it’s very different. With “Face” and everything prior, I feel like I was doing mostly everything on my own – the melody, lyrics, arrangement – it was mostly me. But with the newer stuff that I’ve been writing, it’s coming together as a group. It’s kind of like The Rose, where we all write together, but for this we’re all writing with different producers and different writers so… a great experience.

You have your band, you’ve done hosting gigs, soundtracks, what do you wish to do now with your solo ventures?

Wow. I didn’t think about that. I was just so… I was looking forward to putting out the music and everything that I haven’t thought about, but now that I’m kind of processing it, I would love to do more collaboration stuff. I want to collaborate with DJs. I want to collaborate with rappers, other singers, and musicians.

What have you learned in your career thus far that’s stuck with you? Are there any regrets? Anything you wish you could’ve done better?

No, I’m really happy with how things happened. It was not an easy process. I was from America, and I came to Korea. I didn’t know much rules or manners. It was very different.

But now thinking back at it, everything happens for a reason. If I debuted right after K-POP STAR, I could say that I was not ready. I was not ready to take on tours. I was not ready for anything. I thought I was when I was that age. I was barely 20, and when you’re that age you just feel like you can do it, you can do anything, which is great because you’re so passionate. You’re like a horse. You’re just running but what I didn’t realize is there’s so much that goes into this process, and there’s so much that I have to be prepared for.

So, in that term, yes, I’m glad that everything happened the way it did, and it took me a while to really come out to the public as an artist and I’m happy with that because I came out with The Rose. We really got to grow together before we came out. We were ready. Very ready. And I love… even with the music… even with our debut song “Sorry,” I’m very proud of that.

What more is there to come from Woosung?

So much more. I feel like I’ve only shown you guys 20-30% of my music style. I venture into things. A little tease to my solo album that will be coming out soon. There’s a little bit of retro to electronica, kind of R&B, and everything else there is. For me, the most anticipated one is the retro genre, which I don’t even know how much I want to say and how much I can say.

So this next single that we’re expecting is pretty much your baby. It’s your child.

Oh my. Let me tell you a little detail about this single. I was going to put it on my Wolf album with “Face” but I didn’t because I felt like the sound didn’t match. This song hits differently. At the same time, it’s really upbeat and exciting. So yes, it’s my baby. Every song is my baby, but this one I do feel strongly towards.

Once this global pandemic is over, what’s on your agenda, whether it’s career-wise or just for personal leisure?

I want to start touring. I know it’s been a minute since people have been doing that, but I’m really looking forward to touring. And it’s so different, right? I mean, I know it too because I love live shows. I love going to live shows, and when you hear live singing, when you hear the music, instruments, it hits differently so I miss it, too.

With the rise of happenings in the Asian-American community, in between there are artists who dream to be where you are right now, what would be your words of encouragement?

I know I’m still young, but what I’ve learned is sticking with it, you know? Even if I couldn’t debut after K-POP STAR, even if certain things didn’t work out, even if I felt like I had to give up on my dream which was music, the one good thing I was good at or that I’m glad that I did is sticking with it. I always kept with it. Music was always there. I was still chasing it after certain years, you know, I was so discouraged, but I just couldn’t let go. I chased after it. I stuck with it, and, you know, life is funny because if you stick with it, the opportunity comes. Just be ready to grab it.

Do you have a message to your fans who’ve been patiently waiting for your return into the scene?

All I want to say is thank you. Literally, I don’t think I could’ve gone through this without the Black Roses. None of our members could have. We talk about this all the time. The little letters and the supportive words that you guys throw our way; it’s been great.

I know it’s the pandemic and everything kind of stopped. Before I was so busy touring all the time, meeting all you guys, really working to, like, nothing. It really hit differently, and we were going through something that was just not easy. We didn’t really know what was going to happen so really, thank you for sticking with us. We’re all, the members, excited for the future. To show you guys what we really have ready and, yeah, I love you.

In the premiere episode of HBO Max’s extremely bingeable The Flight Attendant, alcoholic flight attendant Cassie, played by Kaley Cuoco, swoons hard for a passenger (Michiel Huisman). They get drunk together, have sex, and when she wakes up the next morning, he’s in bed next to her… dead. Without the sex scene, there is no The Flight Attendant. It kickstarts the plot. But Cuoco, who also produced the series, was nervous shooting the hotel room tryst — because it was her first on-screen sex scene. Luckily, she learned from the best (Daario Naharis on the famously naked Game of Thrones).

“I had never done any sort of sex scene ever, and I had one in Flight Attendant with Michiel. He’d been in Game of Thrones, so he’d done all these scenes, and I just had no idea,” she said during a roundtable interview hosted by the Hollywood Reporter with Cristin Milioti, Jean Smart, and Lena Waithe, among others. “When they called ‘cut,’ I’d be hovering over him like I was on a toilet. I’m like, ‘I’m not touching anything, I’m not looking at anything.’ I didn’t know what to do. He was like, ‘You’re acting so weird, you’re making this way weirder than it needs to be.’ But I was totally out of my element.”

Malcolm Gladwell famously (and dubiously) claimed it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. This is proof that he’s full of it: it only takes one Game of Thrones sex scene to master all on-screen sex scenes. The Flight Attendant returns for season 2 in 2022.

You can read the rest of the charming roundtable discussion here:

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

RIP, Slipknot. That’s one of the first things that comes to mind (in addition to Jared Leto’s bad Joker still haunting my noggin) when I think about 2016’s Suicide Squad. David Ayer chose not to give Slipknot even a sliver of a backstory, which made the supervillain’s death feel almost comical (and confusingly pathetic), and it set the tone for one bizarre movie where the actual “bad guys” were blob people. One can expect James Gunn’s relaunch, The Suicide Squad, to feel entirely different since Gunn’s adept at crafting layered characters, even if they might not seem that way at first while dropping banal jokes. Still, one can expect multiple deaths among this film’s ranks.

Gunn previously suggested that numerous deaths were on the table while revealing that “[n]o character was protected by DC” and “they gave me carte blanche to do what I wanted.” Now, the Guardians of the Galaxy director has elaborated upon how, yes, multiple deaths do go down among his Dirty Dozen-esque cast of characters. That also ties into his methods for keeping everything as secret as possible. Gunn tweeted that those characters who died “only got the script up until the point their character dies.”

I mean, why not? This sounds practical enough and one might as well shut down as many avenues as possible to avoid leaks, whether intentional or because someone happened to leave a script in the wrong place. Also, Gunn revealed that not even the film’s crew was aware that Elba was playing Bloodsport throughout most of the filming.

“[W]e called him Vigilante in the script & on his chair back,” Gunn tweeted. “We kept it so secret that, we were a week away from finishing shooting & the production designer, Beth Mickle, said, ‘wait, he’s not Vigilante?’”

That information comes with another twist: “And to make it weirder, DC’s character Vigilante is one of the leads of my #Peacemaker show.”

Yep, Freddie Stroma will portray Vigilante in Peacemaker, which is expected to arrive on HBO Max in early 2022. Before that happens, The Suicide Squad will arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6.

X&Y was a huge album for Coldplay. The 2005 release was the band’s first No. 1 album in the US and it spawned their first US top-10 single, “Speed Of Sound.” Now, though, the band has some issues with the album, which has sparked some interest in releasing an edited version of it.

Coldplay’s Will Champion and Guy Berryman did a Q&A on Twitter yesterday, and during it, Berryman was asked about his thoughts on an interview in which Chris Martin said he’d like to make and release a new version of the album. He responded, “It’s an interesting idea. I think we felt at times that it could benefit from a slight editing process, to the amount of songs and perhaps to the length of some of the songs.”

The interview referenced in the question is a 2020 conversation Martin had with BBC Radio 2. Martin was asked if the band loves one of their albums more than the rest, and after some pressing, Martin said, “Well, the third one, called X&Y, I would re-edit a bit… and probably will [laughs]. I have a playlist in my laptop — I haven’t told the rest of the band this, actually — but maybe when it’s, like, the 20th anniversary, I will do that, how the album should have been.”

Comparing X&Y to the band’s other albums, Berryman’s points about the album’s length seem to ring true. At over 62 minutes long, X&Y is the band’s only studio album that runs for over an hour; Coldplay’s second- and third-longest albums — A Rush Of Blood To The Head and Everyday Life, respectively — are both about 54 minutes long. Meanwhile, there’s also only one song on X&Y, “Swallowed In The Sea,” that is under 4 minutes long, and even that one is 3:58. Inversely, on Everyday Life, only 5 of the 16 songs are over 4 minutes in length.

The 20th anniversary of X&Y will be on June 6, 2025, so if the band ends up following through on editing the album, fans have a few years of waiting to do before they get to hear it.

Check out the full Q&A here.

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

Yesterday, Britney Spears appeared in court (virtually) and spoke at length about her conservatorship. She gave a long and detailed statement, one of the big takeaways of which was Spears’ claim that her team won’t allow her to get an IUD removed. On that front, Spears said (per Variety), “I want to be able to get married and have a baby. I was told right now in the conservatorship, I’m not able to get married or have a baby. I have a [IUD] inside of myself right now so I don’t get pregnant. I wanted to take the [IUD] out so I could start trying to have another baby. But this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have […] any more children.”

Following that allegation, Spears got some support from Planned Parenthood Federation Of America president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. In a statement, Johnson said (according to Billboard):

“It is incredibly distressing to hear the trauma that Britney Spears has been through — including the appalling news that she has not been able to remove her own IUD. We stand in solidarity with Britney and all women who face reproductive coercion. Your reproductive health is your own — and no one should make decisions about it for you. Every person should have the ability to make their own decisions about their bodies and exercise bodily autonomy.”

Check out some reactions to Spears’ court appearance from her peers in music here.

Carl Lewis is known by a lot of people for a lot of things. He’s one of the most decorated American athletes in Olympic history with nine gold medals to his name, including four straight medals in the long jump. Lewis coaches track at the University of Houston, where he once ran on his way to being named Olympian of the Century by Sports Illustrated. He’s also something of a meme online, especially when things go sideways at sporting events.

To talk to Lewis, though, is to get a glimpse of a worldview much different than that meme. He’s all about progress, a positive and enthusiastic man now teaching athletes rather than competing with them. Lewis is active on social media, critiquing inequality everywhere, especially in sports. Which perhaps is why he’s advocating for Silk’s Team Protein initiative to help five Historically Black Colleges and Universities with $10,000 donations to their track and field programs. Whichever programs win will be rivals to his school at meets and events, but for Lewis the larger picture matters much more.

“I just hope that whenever I pass through something,” Lewis said. “That I’ve left it better — and helped to do that — than when it was when I got there.”

Lewis spoke with Uproxx by phone ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Games to talk about preparing for the Olympics, his role in track and field today and what kind of legacy he’d like to leave behind in sports. He also gave me some very good running advice.

First of all we should talk about the Olympics. This is definitely one of the weirdest leadups to the Olympics in modern history. Are you still looking forward to the Games? I wanted to get your perspective on the games and how you prepare for something that’s been delayed and there’s a lot of uncertainty about what it’s going to look like.

Well basically, for me, it’s unique because I started coaching at the University of Houston in 2015 and now I have athletes in the Olympics. Of course I competed for many years and then went from a business standpoint, and now I’ll be catching. So it’s a whole new world for me in regard to that.

I think it’s interesting when athletes start coaching and move into that sphere, a lot of times there’s a disconnect. You’ve done incredible things in your career, but sometimes athletes understand their bodies differently. How long did it take you to find your groove as a coach and sort of understand how other people train and learn and grow?

The way I looked at it, instead of coaching I just thought of it as teaching. I’m basically at the same university I went to using the same system that the coach that coached me did. So I just take it as a teacher. My parents were both teachers, so I saw that happen.

And the biggest thing is that you’re dealing with kids, young people, who are between 17 and 23. So my thought is I’m not just here to coach them and win off of them, because I’ve had my own success, but to teach them to grow and live and be a better person in this world. So my focus is on the total person, especially coaching a lot of young African-American young men because they’re sprinters. So that’s the way I’ve looked at it, and fortunately we’ve had success. But it’s really about development. Develop athletically, we take kids, not the best, No. 1 kids in the country in most cases, and we develop them to be the best. And that comes not just as an athlete, but as a person.

That’s really refreshing to hear because there’s so much specialization in athletics now. So many people for so long say you have to choose early what you want to do. And to think about it as just a human being who’s learning and growing and figuring themselves out while they’re trying to excel athletically, I think that’s a really important perspective.

Yeah, you know what’s interesting that I see now is my parents were coaches, teachers and all of that. And strangely enough you grow up saying ‘Oh, my god, I can’t wait to get out of the house.’ And then you get out of the house and I become one of them. [laughs]

But it’s something I’m proud of, I had wonderful parents and wonderful opportunity. And I see the value in support in a young person, because I had support from every direction and I know it had impact in my life.

I wanted to ask about what you’re doing with Silk. It’s a really cool idea and obviously HBCUs are historically underfunded. And you’re very passionate about systemic issues in society and helping young people, so this seems like a perfect fit. Why was it so important for you to do?

Well, to be honest a number of reasons. Number one, my relationship with Silk. Because I started with Silk and soy milk products since the 1980s. And I’ve had a plant-based diet since then. So there’s definitely a connection to that point.

And then the HBCU initiative because I, basically, as a track coach I see HBCU programs and I see some of the challenges. Whether it’s Texas Southern down here or Prairie View, which I know very well, or my parents who actually met when they were attending Tuskegee Institute. So there’s a number of reasons why I think this initiative is so important.

And me being able to join the Silk Pro Team initiative, you just nominate your friend or someone you want and they get selected, that $10,000 goes a long way, a lot longer than what people think.

It’s amazing how much even a little bit of funding helps, and even just more visibility for it. I saw a story last year that really gave me perspective about how there had never been a five-star athlete officially committing to an HBCU in basketball. It’s such a staggering thing to think about and how far we still have to go to make things a little more equitable.

What’s happening is, well I coach at the University of Houston, we’re technically a Group of Five school, in the American Conference. I hear people all the time talk about ‘You have to go to a Power Five conference, look at all the facilities.’

When I try to talk to people, a couple things I say is it’s not about the conference, it’s about the schools and the coach and the system. So often we’re just caught up in stuff — look at all these great uniforms and equipment and facilities — and what I tell my young people, I say I’m not concerned about the facilities they have, I’m trying to get you to the facilities you can buy. You know? I’m teaching you how to buy your own instead of you being impressed with theirs.

But it’s because we’re told you can’t be successful at that level. The reality is that you can be successful at any level if you have the right system, people that care and if you are given access. No question.

Beyond initiatives like this, what’s something that someone who wants to help fix these inequalities can do or find ways to help make these things better? Where’s the best place to start?

The biggest thing is just clearing your mind and looking at the records and opportunity. Right now we’re starting to get players and athletes thinking about trying an HBCU. I’ve definitely seen interest in track and field and we’re starting to see it in ball players, I know people are looking at these schools.

I think the biggest thing is to open your mind and not think automatically that there’s one way to the NBA or to the NFL or post-collegiate track and field. So just open your mind. And check out these schools, because academically they have a lot of great programs, they’re going to have diversity. Because we automatically think an HBCU is for Black students, no, they have all kinds of diversity in a lot of cases — they just gave access to African-Americans. And your’e going to see that many of the important teachers and other people in this school came from there. So just open your mind to what the possibility is.

You’re known for a lot of things in a lot of different spheres. I just talked to my mom before this and she said ‘Oh, my god. He’s a legend.’ So pressure’s on me here. But I wanted to know with you doing so much and being involved in a lot of areas in your career, what is it you want to be known for at the end of the day? I know a legacy isn’t something you can really control, but what’s something you want people to know about you first and foremost?

I’ll put it in this perspective: When I talk to the athletes that come in, I say, ‘Leave something better than when you came in.’ I was raised in an area where all I saw was my parents in service. They were public school teachers, they ran the track club. So I just saw service. And I hope I can educate people and leave track better.

In track and field, we came in and fought against drugs and wanted to make sure there was professionalism. So we hoped we left it better. Now with college and students and athletes, I want them to leave the program better and be a leader, to get their education and be the best they can be. Enough so that they want to come back, just like I was raised to be.

And so you look at what in some cases is such a small little thing that some of these people need. What if a program needs to go to a track meet but they can’t afford to. And they win this initiative and get the donation. Well all of a sudden they can go to that. And what if someone is there watching, or someone runs that race and gets into the Olympic trials like we had some kids do last weekend? That’s the way I look at it.

That’s great, and I’m going to give you one last opportunity to do that on a very small scale. I desperately want to be someone who likes running, and I have just never figured out a way to get into it and stick with it. What’s a tip you have for someone who wants to start training and just can’t get out of their own way?

Well, I’m not a big runner-runner either. I ride bikes a lot. But what I’d say is to start with a friend and walking. So pick a distance that’s comfortable, start walking and then as you walk together maybe go a week or two, then time it. Keep it the same distance but time it. And then next thing you know, if you have any competitive bone in your body, and it seems like you do, you’re going to want to beat that time. [laughs]

So then that slow walk becomes a fast walk, becomes a jog and then you’ll say ‘well that was easy. That’s not long enough.’ And then next thing you know you’re joining a running club. But do it at a pace that, it may take a year until you join a running club but you start by maybe walking a mile. Then you say ‘this isn’t long enough’ and then you go to two miles or three miles. So that’s what I’d say. Get a partner that’s going to inspire you and start walking.