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That Damn Michael Che (HBO Max series) — This show’s title kindly tells us which SNL star will be front and center. However, several other SNL stars from today and yesteryear shall be right beside him, and that includes Colin Quinn, who previously admitted that he wasn’t the best fit for Weekend Update, but he seems to be a good fit for a priest who’s gearing himself up to hear all of Michael Che’s sins. Are those limited to comedic sins (recently, he did tell a controversial joke about Israel’s vaccine rollout), or sins in general? This season also won’t shy away from tackling the all-too-timely issue of policing. Yes, the series promises appearances from Cecily Strong, Heidi Gardner, Ellen Cleghorne, and Colin Jost. Also expect to see Billy Porter, Method Man, Omari Hardwick, and Geoffrey Owens as part of the lineup.

Girls5Eva (Peacock series) — Tina Fey and Robert Carlock haven’t swung and missed yet while executive producing together, and here’s their latest joint project about a one-and-done, Spice Girls-esque 1990s girl group who get one more shot at stardom. Unfortunately, they’re all balancing real-life stressors like family, day jobs, and aches and pains that one doesn’t exactly deal with during early-20s life when abusing one’s body simply comes with the territory. Busy Phillips stars alongside Sarah Bareilles, Paula Pell, and Renée Elise Goldsberry.

From Cradle To Stage (Paramount+ series) — The premiere episode of this Dave Grohl-directed series following Dave and his mom, Virginia, taking a pilgrimage of sorts to Las Vegas, where they meet with Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds and his mom, Christine. It’s the first of six similarly-themed installments that will warm the hardest of hearts.

Walker (CW, 8:00pm) — Walker, Stella, and August wanna put their fingerprints all over Sidestep, and Liam’s looking for career advice while Micki and Trey work things out.

Legacies (CW, 9:00pm) — Hope and Landon attempt to launch a mission after feeling inspired by Cleo, and after an unexpected turn, Josie and Wade must step in to help.

Clarice (CBS, 10:00pm) — Clarice finds herself emotionally drawn to a case after a medical student apparently commits suicide.

Rebel (ABC, 10:00pm) — Rebel and Grady are teaming up against corruption, and Sharon’s cause of death comes to light while Cruz deals with a medical emergency.

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Julianna Margulies, Daniel Dae Kim, Amythyst Kiah

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Jessica Alba, Marc Maron, Sech

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Mariska Hargitay & Christopher Meloni, Ziwe, Foo Fighters, Mario Duplantier

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Alec Benjamin

In case you missed these picks from last Thursday:

Looney Tunes Cartoons, Season 1D (HBO Max series) — This new batch of episodes couldn’t come soon enough. Tune in for Bugs to evade someone besides Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam while Daffy can’t cope with a photocopier, and Elmer Fudd’s looking for some legal advice. All in all, you’ll be able to stream 10 new shorts, and you’ll probably be left wanting more.

Yasuke (Netflix series) — Netflix will up its anime game with this dazzling series from Japanese animation studio MAPPA (Attack on Titan: The Final Season), and the project arrives with quite a pedigree, given that LaKeith Stanfield executive produces on lead voice work. Stanfield voices a character who’s based upon the real-life first African samurai, who struggles to shed his past life of violence while striving to keep a peaceful existence. However, he must reluctantly pick up his sword again when a war-torn, feudal Japanese village becomes ground central for warring daimyo. The score will arrive courtesy of Flying Lotus, who also produces, and creator/director/producer LeSean Thomas will build upon his proven track record (The Boondocks, Cannon Buster, and Black Dynamite) of interweaving anime and Black culture.

There is something admirable about the Indiana Pacers. As a franchise — with players, coaches, and executives coming in and out — they have only missed the playoffs five times since 2000. They’ve done so without landing a high pick in the Draft (Paul George at 10 is their highest pick since 1989), and were successfully able to transition from the Paul George era to the Victor Oladipo era with little drop-off, which few thought possible.

That level of consistency — even if it hasn’t yielded a title — is difficult. By comparison, their divisional neighbor in Cleveland has only had a pulse when LeBron James suited up for the team over the last two decades. For a variety of reasons, the Pacers have avoided that fate, but this path — no bottoming out, playing the middle on purpose — eliminates the margin for error when it comes time to turn the roster over.

The two ways to build a championship roster in the NBA are, broadly speaking, having stars come to your team (whether that be in free agency or trades) and lottery luck. The former isn’t happening in Indianapolis. The latter has been off the table by virtue of their playoff consistency. Building in-between is extremely difficult, and the 2021 Pacers are feeling those pains as they go through their latest transformation.

Right now, the Pacers are 10th in the Eastern Conference at 30-35, reaching a new low point on Wednesday when they lost to the Kings by 11. Sacramento was on the second night of a back-to-back and without De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton. They are tied with Washington, which owns the tiebreaker with Indiana, and are likely to finish at the bottom of the play-in. In terms of net rating, they are exactly even and 18th overall, just a tad below even. That’s fine and, in the East, probably good enough to at least make the play-in year after year, but there is a bit of a hard ceiling on what this version of the franchise can accomplish.

How Indiana got to this point is the byproduct of some unfortunate missteps and even more unfortunate injuries. After just one year, it seems like coach Nate Bjorkgren could be on the way out. Hiring him made plenty of sense — he’s a Nick Nurse disciple who promised a more modern offense when compared to what Nate McMillan, now thriving in Atlanta, designed. But it hasn’t worked out for, apparently, a variety of reasons, chief of which being that he has been able to take hold of the locker room. The internal dysfunction was on display in Wednesday’s loss to the Kings, with Pacers assistant Greg Foster having to be held back from second-year big man Goga Bitadze during a timeout.

Those frustrations are the product of losing, and the Pacers are losing in part due to stagnation. A major reason why the Pacers have remained relevant in recent years is getting good return in trades. Turning Paul George into Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, for example, quickly led to a new All-Star core for a dangerous mid-seed in the East. Making savvy moves when able (or, in the case of George, forced) has allowed the Pacers to keep moving forward, and the value that comes from being able to do this cannot be overstated.

In theory, that should have happened with Myles Turner. For whatever reason — maybe the market wasn’t there, maybe Indiana was asking for too much — that hasn’t happened despite years of speculation that he could be on the way out. Trading Turner is perhaps the cleanest way to get another ball-handler and fully embrace the benefits of Sabonis at the five. Holding onto him prevents a possible evolution.

There were benefits to the Sabonis-Turner pairing. That duo was elite defensively in 2018-19, elite again in 2019-20, and have been solid so far this season. Maybe this happened because teams started to figure out the pairing and how to attack it with more success. Maybe it’s scheme changes from McMillan to Bjorkgren, who has tinkered more this year than McMillan ever did. Maybe it’s just a grind of a season eating away at the Pacers, which have been hammered by injuries, and causing a drop-off.

Whatever the reason, Indiana is going to have decide whether or not those two can be elite together again or if there’s a way around it. If the promise of Bjorkgren had been realized — increased offensive flow, more three-pointers, etc. — this might not matter quite as much. But that hasn’t happened and the Pacers need to weigh whether it’s worth it to try and put the pieces back in place under a new coach.

To be fair to the Pacers, they reportedly tried to lean into more of an offense-first mindset by exploring a Turner-for-Gordon Hayward swap over the summer. But the Hornets came in, offered Hayward way more money than anyone else on the market, and a possible sign-and-trade with the Celtics — the only way to bring Hayward in and make the salary cap math work — fell through.

Hayward offered a change in approach that makes sense. Another ball-handler with Sabonis at the five offered something that not only fits the modern NBA, but also probably fits what Bjorkgren wanted to do. Plus, it would allow for Bitadze — who the team used a first-round pick on and has barely played in two seasons — to get more acclimated to the rotation and let them see if he was a piece of their future. While the jury is still out on Bitadze, the Pacers have also not helped themselves by missing on the vast majority of their picks in recent years. The last player they drafted that became a starter was Turner in 2015, and only Aaron Holiday (2018) has been a consistent rotation player. Their most most recent first-round pick (Cassius Stanley) has played in only 21 games and had his best moment of the season in the dunk contest.

Being unable to fill out depth with late first and second round picks has limited their down-the-bench depth and exacerbated issues they’ve faced with injuries, which have been a major part of their unraveling this season. They also haven’t hit on G League developmental pieces a la the Raptors to fill out the roster and mask Draft misses.

Oladipo getting hurt after he hit his All-NBA apex was entirely out of their hands. He was the closest thing they had to a franchise player and his quad injury changed his career. By the time he wanted out, there was no gigantic return waiting and, to give credit to them, given what Houston got for him at the deadline, landing Caris LeVert for Oladipo seems like a serious value. T.J. Warren hardly playing this year after being one of the stars of the Bubble is another unfortunate break that has taken needed punch out of the offense. Turner’s recent foot injury sealed their fate of limping to the finish line this season.

But unlucky breaks are also part of life in the NBA. Every single team has injuries and bad bounces that impact their seasons in ways they don’t expect. The very best teams in the league are good enough to be insulated from those mistakes, while others can take a season like this and look to the future. The Pacers don’t have the depth to weather their injury woes and don’t have the young players to throw minutes at. They are stuck right in the middle. There’s no padding for the fall.

Maybe, in their heart of hearts, the Pacers really thought Sabonis and Turner could work under a new coach who would modernize the offense. Instead, that hasn’t worked thus far, and they’ve chosen to roll with more established younger players like LeVert and their only real big-money signing in recent years, Malcolm Brogdon.

LeVert is good and offers needed ball-handling and scoring, but he’s a level below a franchise level player. Indiana has benefited from his ability to handle the ball, but LeVert is probably best suited as a No. 2 who can take the reins with bench units instead of a player who boasts one of the highest usage rates among wings, but is not particularly efficient. That’s a really useful player to have, but it’s not enough to change what the team is, especially when Brogdon fits a similar mold. The upside on LeVert isn’t as a high as if Indiana were able to end up with a top-five pick for one year. Not every rebuild needs to be a full-on, Thunder style tank where the losing is blatantly, shamelessly intentional. But it helps considerably to get a chance at a player or two who could be that guy.

Look at how a franchise in a similar market like the Grizzlies pivoted, turning franchise pillars in Mike Conley and Marc Gasol into picks and endured one miserable season to get near the top of the lottery. Their first reward was Jaren Jackson Jr. and then some of that needed lottery luck to jump up and be able to take Ja Morant, but they also nailed their non-lottery picks as well, filling out their roster with young, productive players. Now, they have the potential to make a real run again sometime soon. Had they just held on, the future would certainly not look as bright.

There’s something admirable about being able to pivot from era to era and be something resembling competent and competitive year after year. It would not be a shock if a Sabonis, LeVert, and Brogdon-led team next year settles in as a top-seven seed in the East and is a pain to play in the first round, because this is just what Indiana does. At best, maybe things break right and they end up with home court advantage in the first round one year. That’s better than a lot of franchises ever do.

Having a defined floor of competitiveness is a worthy cause to strive for. The Pacers do seem content to be solid and hope the right string of moves kickstarts a deep playoff run. This has worked before — the George-era Pacers came close. But that can also put a limit on how high your ceiling can be, even if it means never going all the way to the bottom.

Justin Bieber fans can rejoice as the singer has finally revealed the dates to his rescheduled tour. The singer had intended to hit the road in 2020 in support of his comeback album Changes, which he postponed last year in April. One pandemic, one album, and one EP later, Bieber is once again ready to hit the road.

Bieber’s Justice World Tour spans 52 dates. It kicks off in San Diego in February of 2022, almost exactly two years after the release of Changes, and comes to a close at Milwaukee’s Summerfest that June.

In a statement about his rescheduled tour, the singer said he’s attempting to make it as engaging as possible. “We’re working hard to make this tour the best one yet,” said Justin Bieber. “I’m excited to get out there and engage with my fans again.” Per press materials, $1 from each ticket sold will benefit the singer’s Bieber Foundation, which is “committed to supporting causes that embody justice in action.”

Check out Bieber’s Justice World Tour 2022 dates below

02/18/2022 — San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena
02/20/2022 — Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
02/22/2022 — Glendale, AZ @ Gila River Arena
02/23/2022 — Inglewood, CA @ The Forum
02/26/2022 — Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
02/28/2022 — San Jose, CA @ SAP Center at San Jose
03/02/2022 — San Jose, CA @ SAP Center at San Jose
03/04/2022 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
03/07/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ STAPLES Center
03/08/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ STAPLES Center
03/11/2022 — Portland, OR @ MODA Center
03/13/2022 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Home Energy Arena
03/16/2022 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
03/18/2022 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
03/21/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
03/22/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
03/25/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
03/28/2022 — Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre
03/29/2022 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
03/31/2022 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
04/01/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
04/04/2022 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
04/06/2022 — Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum
04/07/2022 — Jacksonville, FL @ Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena
04/09/2022 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
04/11/2022 — Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
04/13/2022 — Miami, FL @ AmericanAirlines Arena
04/19/2022 — Cincinnati, OH @ Heritage Bank Center
04/21/2022 — Indianapolis, IN @ Bankers Life Fieldhouse
04/24/2022 — DesMoines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena
04/25/2022 — St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
04/27/2022 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
04/29/2022 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
05/01/2022 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
05/04/2022 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
05/06/2022 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
05/09/2022 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
05/10/2022 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
05/12/2022 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
05/14/2022 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
05/16/2022 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
05/17/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
06/05/2022 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
06/07/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
06/08/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
06/10/2022 — Washington DC @ Capital One Arena
06/13/2022 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
06/14/2022 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
06/16/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
06/18/2022 — Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
06/20/2022 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
06/24/2022 — Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Insurance Amphitheater

Justice is out now via Def Jam. Get it here.

TDE rapper Isaiah Rashad is set to return soon after a nearly five-year absence from the spotlight that began after his 2017 tour for The Sun’s Tirade and only sporadic appearances since. He’s bringing with him a new album, The House Is Burning, as well as a new outlook courtesy of a stint at a rehab facility and a bout with COVID. As he reveals in a new cover story for The Fader, his alcoholism was at one point so bad that he not only wrecked his own car, but he also wrecked his benefactor, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith’s, as well.

Although story author Jeff Weiss doesn’t go into details, Isaiah explains that his drinking problem, which he openly copped to while promoting The Sun’s Tirade, nearly got him arrested boarding a flight, caused him to wreck his Jeep, and sent him back home to Chattanooga after he spent nearly all of his rap money buying expensive clothes, supporting family and friends, and buying “really expensive sandwiches.” But through it all, the TDE CEO patiently stuck it out with his mercurial second-wave signing, even after Zay wrecked his Honda — but that might be because the rapper paid to have it fixed before his label boss could find out.

Eventually, though, he came clean, which resulted in a stay at Dana Point Rehab facility, where he learned to cope and secretly signed autographs for the staff members’ kids. Now, he’s back on track for another run at rap superstardom, with The House Is Burning set for release any day — although fans are convinced it’s this Friday after Top Dawg tweeted out “the wait is over” with that release date.

You can read the full profile here.

In a matter of hours, Bebe Rexha’s new album, Better Mistakes, will be out. The album has a handful of guests and likely a number of memorable moments, but one thing it won’t have is a metal song, even though Rexha really wanted to include one.

In a new interview with Billboard, Rexha said she hoped to include a metal-influenced song on the album, but her team apparently shut that idea down:

“It’s more exciting to me, it keeps me on my toes, trying different things musically. If I could, I would have a metal song on the album, but everybody was very against that. It’s hard, because a lot of time you’ll work with other people in the industry, and people are very safe. It’s not only about the artist, but about the people that are surrounding the artist and working with the artist. I’ll say, ‘I want to do a metal-esque song and put a pop song over it,’ because I love guitars. When I listen to Nirvana, when I listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers, those songs do something to me, where the darker songs make me feel good. I wanted it to be guitar-based, but a lot of times when I try new things, people get really scared and they go do the safest thing. It’s really annoying.”

She went on to expand on the point that a metal song of hers wouldn’t be strictly metal, but would still have a pop influence:

“I think I just automatically make more pop-leaning stuff. If I say something like, ‘Oh, I want to do a metal-type vibe,’ I’m going to write a pop song to it, you feel me? But to me, the way that I think of it is doing something to shake it up a bit, so it doesn’t feel so obvious. A pop song to me is just a really catchy song, no matter what the genre is — dance, hip-hop, country. If it’s a song that most people like, it’s a popular song. So I’m going to write something that’s more pop-based anyway, but when I collaborate with people I just try different things, and it does get annoying sometimes when I feel like I can’t make them budge.”

Check out the full interview here.

Better Mistakes is out 5/7 via Warner Records. Pre-order it here.

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

It takes a special kind of humility to handle the NBA’s fraught equilibrium of being necessary while also constantly remembering that you are disposable. It’s why some players prefer easier situations or less pressure. Donte DiVincenzo has handled his career completely opposite of that.

After nearly being traded to Sacramento over the offseason and being thrust into a starting role for a Milwaukee Bucks team with championship aspirations, DiVincenzo has put together a career-best season while staying grounded and deriving confidence from his teammates and coaches rather than the business or media circus of the NBA. With the playoffs approaching, the third-year guard is likely to be an important piece for a squad with title aspirations. Despite being a relatively unproven (at the NBA level, at least) and hungry youngster, DiVincenzo’s performance in big moments could determine whether the Bucks can finally win a championship.

Led by reigning back-to-back MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and standouts Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee has a clear pecking order. DiVincenzo isn’t this team’s primary option for much of anything. Instead, he is deployed to take advantage of the attention paid elsewhere on the floor.

“What they love and value that I can bring is no matter what, I’ll go get rebounds, I’ll go get the loose ball, go get the steals,” he tells Dime in the lead-up to back-to-back wins over Brooklyn this week. “(Teammates) know if the shot’s not falling, they can rely on me to do that stuff and continue to win games.”

This mentality has earned him the respect of his veteran teammates, including the Greek Freak himself.

“He’s so competitive, so competitive,” Antetokounmpo recently said. “Goes out there and gives 100 percent every single night. Now he’s going to make mistakes, but always, we know that he’s going to give 100 percent and he’s going to try to make the right play.”

Added Middleton: “He’s a guy that continues to find a way to get better, try to take advantage of his opportunities and get better. You can see that his confidence is growing.”

DiVincenzo is increasingly taking on playmaking responsibilities in his third year. The 2018 Final Four Most Outstanding Player had to wait a while to get more touches and join the starting lineup, but now that he’s there, he knows the best way to stay is to make the stars better.

“I take a lot of joy into getting those guys easy shots,” he says. “Giannis has the ball in his hands a lot, he takes a lot of beating from other teams, so if I can get downhill, get him easy dunks in transition just to get him 8-10 points real quick in a game and get him feeling good, or get Jrue or Khris open threes or slashes, that’s where I think I’ve grown this year is getting those guys shots where they want the ball.”

This mindset has led to a career-high assist rate as well as an uptick in three-point shooting volume and efficiency. Like many NBA players, the clarity over when his minutes will come, where his shots will come from, and his role has helped DiVincenzo become a better overall player — while it may seem unnatural that his three-point shooting has jumped more than three percentage points, he was a 38 percent shooter in three seasons at Villanova. That’s where he learned to impact the game without the ball in his hands and embrace the lesser-heralded plays that contribute to winning basketball.

DiVincenzo had to be quick on the uptake with the Wildcats and upon joining the Bucks. He joined winning situations where he was expected to contribute in specific ways or hit the bench. It was a humbling process, but one that’s familiar to any player who was part of Villanova’s program last decade.

“At Nova, Coach Wright just taught me how to be mentally tough, how to carry myself as a professional,” DiVincenzo explains. “We have way different games but we always go back to the same core values that we learned at Villanova, doing the little things for our team to win games.”

That learning curve hardened the bonds between DiVincenzo and his college teammates, many of whom can be found on winning teams — Dallas’ Jalen Brunson, Phoenix’s Mikal Bridges, Golden State’s Eric Paschall, New Orleans’ Josh Hart. The stubborn positivity with which DiVincenzo handles himself was in large part forged from the culture created by his teams. Villanova was a heck of a start, and the Bucks have embraced him in a similar way. Not only did Milwaukee’s culture help make DiVincenzo comfortable personally, it trickled into his development as a player, too.

“They give you simple tasks to focus on, to do every day, so that when you get onto the court, you’re not thinking about 7-8 different things, you’re thinking about one or two that I have to do to be impactful,” he explains. “Throughout the last couple years, it’s just grown and grown and grown for me.”

Still, this offseason threatened to light ablaze the entire relationship that had been built between DiVincenzo and leadership. As Antetokounmpo neared eligibility for a supermax extension, one he would ultimately sign, the Bucks readied deals for both Holiday and then-Kings wing Bogdan Bogdanovic in order to bolster their rotation. Holiday became a Buck, but a Bogdanovic-for-DiVincenzo trade fell through in spectacular fashion, resulting in an investigation from the NBA and both parties moving on.

It was the talk of the league for days. Bogdanovic would later sum up his response with an apt “What the f*ck?” With a few months’ distance, DiVincenzo believes the Bucks’ culture helped him and the front office move past it. Confidence from his teammates and coaches made him feel as if he could still be successful in Milwaukee.

“I truly never did think about it this year,” DiVincenzo says. “You see a lot of stuff about a Revenge Game and all that, I literally do not think about it. That’s all for the media. For me, it’s focusing on my coaching staff and my team and trying to give them everything I got every single night.

“While I’m here,” he continues, “I give my absolute all to the team I have, the organization that still has trust in me to be the starting 2-guard right now, and honestly the players on the team.”

It’s helped that he gained one heck of a teammate in Holiday, who has looked like an All-Star running the offense and hounding the opposing team’s best perimeter player on defense every night. For a player like DiVincenzo, Holiday has proved to be invaluable both on and off the court, a rising tide that has lifted all boats.

“I don’t think anybody’s ever talked about him in a negative way,” DiVincenzo says. “So I just strive to be that good of a teammate to other people and have that impact on other people, because it goes a long way. He may not realize it, but the confidence he puts in everybody on the team and me personally, is through the roof.”

Take for example the Bucks’ win over New Orleans on Feb. 25, a game in which DiVincenzo had the hot hand. While some teammates were chirping at DiVincenzo about what not to do — don’t stop shooting, don’t hesitate — Holiday stayed upbeat. The veteran reminded his young backcourt mate to stay aggressive and keep making the right play. The never-ending positive reinforcement led to DiVincenzo scoring a career-best 24 points.

A few weeks later in a frustrating loss to Houston that saw Kevin Porter Jr. light the Bucks up for 50, head coach Mike Budenholzer went to backup Bryn Forbes in DiVincenzo’s usual fourth quarter spot in the rotation. As disappointment bubbled up in him, DiVincenzo reminded himself of how supportive Holiday had been during his own big night and pushed Forbes to stay confident. Forbes would go on to score 30 in the game, including seven in the fourth quarter.

When DiVincenzo missed the next game against the Bulls, DiVincenzo stayed on Forbes to focus on rebounding, an area where DiVincenzo strives to make an impact (he’s up to a career-high 5.7 boards per game). In a 10-point win, Milwaukee narrowly out-rebounded Chicago in large part due to Forbes’ career-high 13 rebounds.

That contagious camaraderie has helped DiVincenzo and the Bucks excel all season, even as their winning percentage has taken a step back from the past two campaigns. Two big wins over Brooklyn has everyone looking at them again, but Milwaukee is facing far less pressure and expectation than they did in last year’s NBA Bubble.

“When the target’s not on our back, I think we play the best,” DiVincenzo says. “We like to just focus on ourselves, stay in house and focus on how to get better in terms of our team.”

Despite nearly being traded and then leaping into the starting lineup, DiVincenzo has excelled. A humble mentality and consistent approach have helped him put together a career-best season, one that could lead to more responsibility and dazzling plays in the postseason.

In order to win four consecutive series and avoid the mistakes that have cost them in the past, the Bucks will need a release valve and committed warrior like DiVincenzo. The team already knows it.

“He is the heart of this team,” Antetokoumpo said in March, “Hopefully he can keep it up.”

After bringing home an Emmy for The Morning Show, Billy Crudup and Apple TV are joining forces again for a new series, Hello Tomorrow, from executive producer and NBA star Blake Griffin. Labeled as a “dramedy,” the new series will go into production after Crudup wraps season two of The Morning Show, which is scheduled to arrive later this year. Instead of playing a morning anchor, Hello Tomorrow will feature Crudup in a more sci-fi role as a door-to-door salesman trying to convince people to live on the moon. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

From writers and creators Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen (Bloodline), the half-hour dramedy is set in a retro-future world and centers on a group of traveling salesmen hawking lunar timeshares. Crudup will lead the cast as Jack, a talented and ambitious salesman whose unshakeable faith in a brighter tomorrow inspires his co-workers, revitalizes his desperate customers, but threatens to leave him dangerously lost in the very dream that sustains him.

This latest move follows an Emmy win for Crudup in The Morning Show, and on that same subject, one of that show’s producers previously floated a theory as to why the show was so harshly dinged.

“I thought there were a lot of Apple haters who just wanted Apple to fail,” The Morning Show producer Mimi Leder told The Verge. “The reviews felt like an attack on Apple.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Over the years, plenty of pieces of Kurt Cobain memorabilia have found themselves on the auction block, including but not limited to his MTV Unplugged cardigan, his Unplugged guitar, and his non-Unplugged (but perhaps stolen) credit card. Now there’s a new piece of Cobain up for sale, and I phrased it that way because it’s a literal piece of the late singer: Later today, a strand of his hair will go up for auction.

Bidding on the six strands of hair will start at 8 p.m. ET through Iconic Auctions, who describes the item:

“Unique presentation on a 8.5″ x 11″ sheet includes six strands of Cobain’s blonde hair, the largest measuring approximately 2.5,” and housed in a small card with plastic overlay 1.75″ x 2.” This one-of-a-kind artifact is entirely fresh-to-market, and accompanied by an impeccable lineage of provenance including images of Kurt posing with the woman who cut this hair, scissors in hand, and a fantastic shot of the hair actually being cut! The lucky friend who trimmed the Nirvana frontman’s iconic blonde locks, was an early confidant, Tessa Osbourne, who cut his hair in 1989 — well prior to his Nevermind breakthrough — whilst on the Bleach Tour.”

The page also includes a note from the hair’s owner, Seattle artist Nicole DePolo, who writes:

Tessa had known Kurt back in England, and they had hung out during the Bleach Tour. Nirvana had broken in England first, and she must have had a sense that Kurt would become a musical force. When it came to Kurt, Tessa was kind of what like Astrid Kirchherr had been to the Beatles — the woman who had given him his iconic haircut. She even had a series of pictures to prove it: a snapshot of her and Kurt with long straggly hair while she held a pair of scissors high, then a shot of the scissors going through about 7″ of hair. The rest was history. Kurt was known for his bleached blond pageboy, and she’d given him his first one back in October of 1989, just before his image began to circulate throughout the world.”

Check out the auction here.

Childish Gambino‘s “This Is America” was one of the most talked about videos of 2018. It has over 772 million views to date and as most famous musicians would agree, a song is bound to get hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit once it becomes popular enough. “This Is America” is apparently no different. After previously facing plagiarism claims about his video, Childish Gambino is reportedly being sued over the song.

According to TMZ, Emelike Nwosuocha, who raps under the moniker Kidd West, is the source of the “This Is America” copyright lawsuit. Per the report, Nwosuocha uploaded his song “Made In America” to SoundCloud in 2016 before registering it with the US Copyright Office in May of 2017.

Nwosuocha is now claiming Childish Gambino ripped him off, saying the hook of “This Is America” is “unmistakably substantially similar, if not practically identical” to his own track. Gambino’s track features the lines, “This is America/ Guns in my area/ I got the strap/ I gotta carry ’em.” But Nwosuocha says Gambino’s lyrics are strikingly similar to his own, “Made in America/ Flex on the radio/ Made me a terrorist/ Pessimistic n***as/ You should just cherish this.”

As a result, Nwosuocha is reportedly suing Gambino, the co-writers of “This is America,” the record label, Roc Nation, and even Young Thug who is credited for singing the backup vocals on the track.

Listen to West’s “Made In America” and Gambino’s “This Is America” above.

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

Naomi Osaka was only 20 years old when she won the U.S. Open tournament, and she is the first Asian player to hold the highest singles ranking. The tennis star moved to the U.S. from Japan at age three and she has held both Japanese and American citizenship.

Her U.S. citizenship has been a topic of discussion as the Japanese exemption that allows her to hold both passports expired at age 22—which Osaka turned in 2019. At that time, she announced she would choose to give up her U.S. citizenship to keep her Japanese citizenship and compete for Japan in the 2020 Olympics. However, Osaka has said that she feels “more like a global citizen” than one particular nationality—a sentiment supported by her latest endeavor.

In partnership with Nike and Laureus Sport for Good, Osaka launched a program to support girls in sports in Japan last year. Her Play Academy is committed to leveling the playing field for girls through physical play and sports, giving girls opportunities and encouragement to get moving.

Now, she is expanding Play Academy to Los Angeles, where she currently lives and trains, as well as to Haiti, where her father is from.

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“The beauty of Play Academy is that it reflects all of the communities where Naomi has a personal connection,” says Caitlin Morris, Nike VP, Social & Community Impact. “We share her belief that play is for everyone. Young girls in places like Los Angeles and Haiti may have different social and cultural reasons for why play and sport have been difficult to access, but in the end, they all need an opportunity to play – as well as authentic role models like Naomi, who fully embrace who they are and what they believe in.”

Osaka is working toward the goal to make play and sports more accessible by partnering with local organizations dedicated to youth engagement who can bring Play Academy to communities that could benefit most from it. According to a news release from Nike:

In Los Angeles, Play Academy will partner with organizations that support young girls’ participation in play and sport, especially those from Black, Asian and Latino communities. The Expression of Interest from organizations is now open (Click here to learn more). The first group of partners will be announced later this summer. In Haiti, Play Academy is partnering with GOALS Haiti, a grassroots organization working to advance youth leadership through soccer and education to create stronger, healthier communities in rural Haiti. The funding will specifically be applied to sport accessibility for girls, the hiring of more female coaches and the introduction of nuanced curriculum on how to encourage girls to create positive, healthy habits.

“We believe that all kids — especially girls — deserve a chance to play, no matter where they come from or what they look like,” Osaka told PEOPLE. “The more we provide girls with opportunities to get active, the more opportunities we are giving them to become leaders in their communities.”

How great to see a truly global endeavor to uplift and empower girls in various countries. Also great to see someone so young and talented taking up a leadership role for upcoming generations and using her fame and resources to create greater opportunities for young people. Keep up the inspiring work, Ms. Osaka.