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Although it’s his brand new collaboration with Bruno Mars that has catapulted Anderson Paak back into the news cycle — and to the Grammys stage, no less — the Silk Sonic project hasn’t taken other options for joint work off the table for Paak. He seems to be, ahem, leaving the door open for other collaborations, if they come across his desk.

In a recent interview with Esquire the R&B star talked about his love and respect for K-pop, particularly one of the biggest acts in the genre (and the world) right now, BTS. It’s actually Paak’s son, Soul, who he speaks to about the band — especially considering Soul’s mom and Paak’s wife, Jaylyn, is from South Korea.

“I tell him, ‘Yeah, K-pop is where it’s at, man,” Paak said of conversations with his son. “Make sure you keep up with your Korean’ because you could be rapping in Korean one day, and we’ll fly your ass out there, and you won’t got to worry about sh*t.’”

And as far as any plans Anderson himself might have for working with the crew, he sounds more than interested: “I’m working on trying to get that plug, man,” he told Esquire. “If you know of any way, let me know, bro.” The article notes that Paak is “mostly joking,” yet, the isn’t that far of a stretch. Paak has already worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, and appeared on Jazmine Sullivan’s excellent 2021 record Heaux Tales. K-pop could easily be next.

Well, it seems unlikely that journalist has the connect, but BTS if you’re reading this, please consider! Since both artists are performing at the Grammys tomorrow night, it just might be possible they’ll bump into each other backstage. Fingers crossed.

Check out Esquire‘s full profile on Anderson here and his brand new track with Bruno, “Leave The Door Open” above.

Some folks like March Madness because it’s one heck of an opportunity to make wagers. Of course, making wagers means that bad beats are going to happen, and on Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis, total bettors were put through the wringer at the very end of the Big Ten Tournament semifinal tilt between Illinois and Iowa.

The No. 2 Illini took down the No. 3 Hawkeyes, 82-71, in a fantastic basketball game to set up a Sunday afternoon tilt against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Illinois did manage to take care of business on the point spread — they were 3.5-point favorites to move on to the Big Ten Tournament finals — but until the final moments, the total of 154 was in a precarious position.

With things hanging on by a thread, Trent Frazier missed a layup for the Illini that would have caused a push. Fortunately for under bettors, that did not happen, and Iowa’s Luka Garza pulled down the defensive rebound before … OH DEAR GOD NO.

“Makes somebody happy!” the incomparable Bill Raftery says after Joe Wieskamp banked in a three while double-teamed to cause the over to hit. It was, to be blunt, a horrifying moment for everyone who took the under.

But the officials came to save the day. After a review, it was determined that the ball was still touching the tip of Wieskamp’s finger by the time the buzzer sounded, wiping the three off the board altogether and causing the under to win out. If you bet on this in either direction, maybe go for a walk or something.

Steven Adams has a habit of being one of the best quotes in all of the NBA. Few players mix having a carefree attitude with being legitimately hilarious quite as well as he does, so when Adams is asked the right question, he’s pretty good at turning it on its head and saying something extremely funny.

An example of this came on Friday night after the New Orleans Pelicans mollywhopped the Cleveland Cavaliers, 116-82. Adams was asked about Zion Williamson, specifically an impression he apparently does of head coach Stan Van Gundy. He was mostly complimentary, then he said something that he swore was a joke regarding what the impression could use to go from good to great.

“I mean, everything was on target, he just needs to have bad breath,” Adams said.

Adams started laughing before being insistent that someone tells Van Gundy what he just said. He apparently decided that this was a little too much fun at his coach’s expense and foresees a potential consequence coming.

“Too far, right?” Adams asked the media. “Too soon? I guess Jaxson’s starting now, by the way.”

The Pelicans next play on Sunday night when they host the Los Angeles Clippers. We’ll see if Adams’ prediction about the fallout for this joke comes to fruition based on whether Van Gundy opts to start Jaxson Hayes at center.

(H/T R/NBA)

The SEC Tournament semifinals between top-seeded Alabama and fourth-seeded Tennessee came down to the wire, but ultimately, the Crimson Tide were able to hold off their foes from Rocky Top, 73-68. Alabama, the No. 6 team in all of college basketball, barely avoided getting pushed to overtime, as a three towards the end of regulation by Keon Johnson ended up being an airball.

The issue was that Dick Vitale, due to a pretty awkward view of things and Johnson’s effort missing in a very specific way, thought that the attempt was the most perfect swish you’ll ever see. For a good eight seconds, Vitale got caught off guard thinking that the game was tied at 71, with his reaction getting cut short by broadcast partner Karl Ravech saying that it was an airball.

Vitale did get a bit of heat for his enthusiasm for the game getting the best of him here, but in fairness, you can see how someone gets tripped up here, in part because it sounds like some Vols fans in the arena got fooled and began cheering. At the very least, this is a fun chance to remember an NBA game that once ended in similar fashion: Back in 2013, the Detroit Pistons traveled to Washington to take on the Wizards, and on the home team’s final possession, Trevor Ariza shot an airball that got a whole bunch of folks in the home arena excited.

Last week it was announced that Avatar, James Cameron’s 3-D game-changer from 2009, would be re-released to theaters, albeit only in China. When the news broke, many speculated that it would soon reclaim a certain title: Highest Grossing Movie Ever (Not Adjusted For Inflation), which was nabbed by Avengers: Endgame two years back. Sure enough, it did, and on its first day. But there’s no hard feelings from the brains behind Marvel’s biggest movie.

Joe and Anthony Russo took to Twitter to congratulate James Cameron and team on taking the title back. They didn’t go small either: They teamed with a fan artist, Bosslogic, to create an image fit for the occasion. It depicts the logo for Endgame disappearing into the ether, a nod to that Thanos snap, replaced the one for Avatar. (Worth noting is that Disney now owns Avatar — long the crown jewel in the Fox cannon — too, so the Russos and Cameron happen to be co-workers.)

It wasn’t hard for Avatar to reclaim the throne. Endgame grossed a mere $7.82 million worldwide than Avatar did over ten years ago. Avatar nabbed $8.9 million, in one day, in one country.

Just imagine what it will gross if Disney does the same thing elsewhere, including in America, where movie theaters are starting to make the baby steps back to what they were pre-pandemic. And just imagine what Endgame will gross if the same company does the same with it. Perhaps Avatar and Endgame will be forever engaged in a back-and-forth duel, repeatedly dumped back in theaters to add still more grosses to its swollen belly. Then again, both will have to gross a mountain more to beat the highest grossing movie when adjusted for inflation: Gone with the Wind.

(Via Deadline)

The NFT wave is growing more and more every day. Among the participants are musicians, who, with concerts and tours still on hold due to the pandemic, have turned to cryptocurrency art to make some money. It should come as no surprise that Halsey has decided to join in on the fun. The singer announced on Friday that she will be auctioning off an original painting she made on Nifty Gateway, a marketplace where some of the biggest NFT collectors can be found. Halsey’s art will be listed as the series “People Disappear Here” and it will feature digital animations of the painting’s seven characters, complete with chilling music. A digital animation of the full painting will be available as well.

“The characters are all inspired by figures that occurred in a series of sleep paralysis nightmares I had at home during the quarantine,” Halsey said in a statement. “After seven years of bed surfing hotel rooms around the world, adjusting to my own pitch black cave in California had a little bit of a learning curve. From toddler TV programming evil dentists, a child born with massive claws who scratched her way out of the womb, to a woman who stood at the foot of my bed and demanded I watch her masturbate. They were memorable to say the least. I’m excited to be sharing them in a space that prioritizes artist integrity, and in a market that perpetuates the value of intellectual property.”

The auction is set to begin on March 17. Halsey’s announcement comes after Grimes made $6 million on music that she released through a cryptocurrency art auction. Post Malone is also giving select ticket holders a chance to play beer pong with him, funded by NFTs, while Diplo is preparing to sell a collection of digital animations as well.

You can watch a trailer for the upcoming auction on Halsey’s Instagram Story here.

There are plenty of jersey numbers in the world of basketball that are iconic for one reason or another — Michael Jordan’s 23, Kobe Bryant’s 8 and 24, you can probably rattle a few off of the top of your head without having to think all that hard. Now, thanks in part to one of America’s most iconic fast food menu items, a junior on the Utah State men’s basketball team is joining these ranks.

Ok, that’s a bit hyperbolic, but still, Marco Anthony has quite the story behind the number he wears on his uniform. During the Aggies’ 62-51 win over Colorado State in the Mountain West semifinals, the announcers told the story behind Anthony wearing the number 44 as a way to honor the 4 for $4 deal that Wendy’s offers up.

As an added bonus, when asked whether it is true or not before the game, Anthony gave a sensational answer: “How could I make something like that up?”

Anthony reacted to this on his Twitter account with a burger emoji.

Anthony has gone from a reserve for the Aggies to a major member of their rotation this season, averaging 10.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, three assists, and one steal in 31.3 minutes per game. Utah State will hope to take down San Diego State on Saturday night in the conference title game. Should they win, it stands to reason that Anthony will celebrate with some Wendy’s, which is a pretty reliable victory meal for any occasion.

The NBA 2K League, the fast-growing gaming league from the NBA, will set off on its third season on Saturday evening with its fourth draft, in which 265 players from around the globe will wait anxiously for their chance to be one of the 63 rookies selected. The draft, which airs at 7 p.m. ET on Twitch and YouTube, will feature celebrity gaming fans like 2 Chainz and seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry. The pool of eligible players features a pair of records, with 33 international players and ten women eligible for selection.

“Season three was just about growth,” 2K League president Brendan Donohue told Dime. “What we’re trying to do is continue to build upon it, and the good news is we have so much low-hanging fruit in front of us.”

That low-hanging fruit includes continued global expansion, both in terms of non-NBA affiliated pro teams like Gen-G in China as well as broadcasting around the world, and continued diversity efforts that aim to put the absolute best product in front of NBA 2K fans going forward. Last year’s Finals averaged 2 million viewers, up from 650,000 in 2018, a signal that that league is growing and potentially becoming a new way for the NBA to connect with young audiences.

Ahead of Saturday’s draft, Donohue took some time to discuss the evening’s festivities and what fans can expect from season four of the NBA 2K League.

When you think about your fourth season, do you have any particular goals in mind? What do you want to come out of this NBA 2K League season having accomplished as a league?

There are a couple real key initiatives. One is we want to continue our global growth. You saw last year, we added more distribution. We added Loco in India, we added Egg in Southeast Asia, Sportsnet in Canada. We’re going to be adding more distribution across Europe as well as from around the world, but I would say global growth from an expansion perspective (is a priority).

The other thing I would say is adding global teams, through expansion, to our league. Last year with the expansion to add the Gen-G Tigers from Shanghai, that was our first new non-NBA owner in the league. And that really has stirred a lot of interest, so we’re having a lot of active conversation with other owners looking to potentially join the 2K League.

The last thing is continuing to evolve our broadcast. We’ve brought a really professional, well-done broadcast our first three seasons, and we were challenged this past season with the pandemic and having to create a virtual studio. But this year, we’re going to look to do more unique game and fan experiences. Imagine us doing Community Night on one night, Game of the Week another night, and kind of a rapid-fire (schedule) of games a different night, really trying to bring different experiences to our fans and begin to test new products on our broadcast.

When I hear you talk about international growth or even innovation on the broadcast and digital side of things, those could be words out of Adam Silver’s mouth. When you look at those initiatives within the 2K League, do you feel like the NBA sees your work in those spaces as a first step with potentially following suit with the broader league?

I’d say it somewhat differently. Adam Silver and Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of TakeTwo, their voices are very much a part of shaping our league, and they run two of the most innovative companies in the world. I’m on Adam’s senior leadership team and his voice shapes how we go through things. So I definitely think we’re learning a lot about how he thinks about the broader NBA through his input on the 2K League.

Where I think we’re unique and there’s maybe a lesson to be learned is that we have a very young audience, and that audience, their expectation is to consume content in a very different way than somebody else who consumes the NBA in a different way and has for decades. So whether it’s the ability to chat with other viewers in the Twitch chat during a live game or to give input and see their ideas used in a future broadcast, that type of input for a fan to have on our experience, I think that’s the future.

That’s that kind of more direct-to-consumer experience that I think is happening. We’re catering our content to an audience that consumes content and has expectations of their voice being considered more than at any other time.

I wanted to move to the Women in Gaming Initiative because we’ve interviewed people like Aerial Powers of the WNBA here, and I know she’s done some work with your league. Why is it important to you personally that you incorporate female gamers and that part of the industry or the community into what you do as a league?

What we’re most focused on, and this relates to all of our programs regarding diversity, is to just get the best players in the world in our league, hard stop. That’s what we’re trying to do. There are some obstacles for those groups to overcome. What we’ve tried to do the first several years of our player identification process is identify challenges, unique challenges to those groups, and we’re trying to help them overcome them so they have a level playing field.

The good news is you’re going to see some great players emerge out of some under-represented groups. I think they’re going to have a ton of success in the 2K League, and all we did was shine a light on them. We had to change some of our processes to do that, but I think the teams that actually lean into diversity as they shape their roster, I think they’re going to get paid handsomely.

When you think about the 33 international players, the ten women who are in the draft pool, and obviously the hope being close to all of them get drafted and have success, what does success look like for the league with regard to those players, who are having their first go in the league this year?

Success for us would be normalcy. For the expectation to be that there’s a diverse group of players from different countries, different parts of the world, women, men, and that that kind of becomes more of a normal thing and we’re not talking about this as much. That’s the goal.

We fully think that those players from these underrepresented groups, we’re going to find that they’ll have great success when they’re on the sticks and able to play.

A new music-based trend seem to be born every week on TikTok. The social media app has housed favorites like the Renegade, Buss It, and Silhouette challenges, all of which have been supported by the artists whose songs serve as the their foundations. Kid Cudi is the latest act to have his music trend on TikTok, but when he saw the way his song was being used in the videos, the rapper found it hard to show support.

“I dont f*ck w what they did to my song on tik tok takin out the lyrics,” he wrote in a post on Twitter. “We live in a strange time. Im not flattered (shrugging emoji).” The TikToks Cudi is referring to finds users taking the “now look at this” line from Cudi’s 2008 hit “Day ‘N’ Nite,” which is used for a two-part video. In the first part, users recite the “Day ‘N’ Nite” line as the song plays in background. This leads into the second half, in which something bizarre or hilarious happens. A fan responded to Cudi’s tweet and said, “Cudi is goated, but it just ain’t that deep really,” but the rapper pushed back.

“I dont think im makin it ‘deep’ by tweetin how I feel,” he replied. “Now if I was ranting thats another thing. Nothing wrong w me stating I dont approve, plus if u are such a fan, u know my lyrics are most important to me.” Cudi added, “Im passionate about my sh*t so idc who has a problem w that.”

You can see some examples of the TikToks below.

The latest example of someone showing their rear end while athletes opted to show solidarity against racism came from the world of Oklahoma high school basketball. Prior to a game between Norman High School-Midwest City in the quarterfinals of the Oklahoma 6A State Girl’s Basketball Tournament, and while “The Star-Spangled Banner” played, Norman’s entire team took a knee.

A hot mic of the broadcast of the game caught one of the individuals calling the game, whose name is Matt Rowan, ridiculing Norman’s players, saying multiple expletives and using the n-word to describe them. A video of the incident, as tweeted out by Norman’s coach, can be viewed here.

A statement that began circulating in the aftermath by Rowan attempted to apologize for what happened. His excuse for what happened is that he, a Type 1 diabetic, was in the midst of a blood sugar spike.

It is, of course, absurd to blame saying something extremely racist and derogatory on diabetes, and it is certainly not new that a person brings up their religious beliefs as they apologized for getting exposed as a bad person. In a statement after this occurred, David Jackson, the head of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association, announced that the crew from this game won’t call games anymore.

“While we are currently investigating the incident, this crew will not be doing any more games for the remainder of our championships,” Jackson said. “This kind of behavior will never be tolerated by anyone representing the NFHS or OSSAA.”