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To be blunt, it’s been a bit of a mess around the NBA the past few weeks, with numerous games postponed due to health and safety protocols associated with COVID. The Memphis Grizzlies became the latest casualty in recent days, with the next three of their games postponed until a future date.

It’s reignited the question of whether the league should keep pressing forward the way it is amid the ongoing pandemic, but as of now, there are no plans to halt the season and discussion about perhaps revisiting the idea of another Bubble scenario like the one they participated in in Orlando.

Still, there was some good news on that front on Friday, as Sixers guard Seth Curry gave an update on his condition after previously testing positive for COVID, saying that he’s feeling good and will be available to play for Philadelphia when they square off against the Celtics on Friday night.

“I’m feeling good,” Curry said, per Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire. “I’m just a little fatigued at times still, but I’m feeling good. I’m ready to get back out on the court and get my conditioning back, my rhythm back, and that’s pretty much it.”

It was Curry’s positive test that caused the Sixers to be quarantined in New York for several days earlier this month following a game against the Nets. Curry had apparently already cleared the league’s health and safety protocols this week, but the team wanted to give him more time to get back into playing shape. The Sixers will host the Celtics at home at 7:30 ET on ESPN.

Don’t mess with Texas… unless it’s Seth Rogen messing with Ted Cruz. Then go ahead.

Earlier this week, Cruz and Rogen got into a one-sided war of words (guess which side won) after the Texas senator made A Very Bad Tweet about the Paris Climate Agreement and President Biden being “more interested in the views” of people from Paris than Pittsburgh. “F*ck off you fascist,” the comedian replied. He later added, “Haha get f*cked fascist. Go encourage a white supremacist insurrection again you f*cking clown.”

Rogen has continued to come after Cruz, as we all should, who he called the “exact motherfucker for you” if “you’re a white supremacist fascist who doesn’t find it offensive when someone calls your wife ugly.” On Friday, he tagged Cruz on Twitter while sharing a viral video of Allegheny County executive Rich Fitzgerald (Pittsburgh is in Allegheny County) saying that the Trump crony “doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s been a climate denier. He was a COVID denier. We believe in science around here. We’ll run what we need to do here, Senator, and keep your nose out of our business.”

Rogen tweeted, “Hey @tedcruz. Watch this and then go fuuuuuuuck yourself you clown. (This is way more fun now that I know he’s for sure seeing my tweets).”

It’s fun for us, too.

The January 6 deadly insurrection/failed MAGA coup (carried out while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote) led to a massive beefing up of security on Capitol Hill. This, naturally, led to an influx of National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C. and photos of service members sleeping in the halls of the U.S. Capitol itself. It was understood that these members would stay throughout the Biden Inauguration and slightly beyond, but something went amiss with their living arrangements.

Exactly what happened appears to confuse everyone, but Politico reported that U.S. Capitol Police ordered the Guardsmen out of the Capitol building itself, which meant that they had to sleep outdoors, and they headed to parking garages. This alleged treatment transpired after two weeks of nonstop security duty, for which the Guardsmen traded off and were allowed to sleep while not “on the clock,” and one unit (with 5,000 troops) was allowed to rest in the Dirksen Senate Office but shoved out on Thursday. This led the unit to one particular parking garage that only contained one bathroom (with two stalls) while temps fell into the high 30s. Politico posted photos of these troops sleeping in the garage, and one Guardsman is quoted as stating, “Yesterday, dozens of senators and congressmen walked down our lines taking photos, shaking our hands and thanking us for our service. Within 24 hours, they had no further use for us and banished us to the corner of a parking garage. We feel incredibly betrayed.”

As one would expect, everyone who heard about this treatment felt outraged. CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted, “Whoever in DC is in charge of this National-Guard-sleeping-in-a-Senate-parking-lot mess, please get in touch with me; folks with connections to empty hotel rooms are also contacting me.”

CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju posted photos from earlier this week when the guardsmen slept on a cafeteria floor.

The Politico report, which was confirmed by CNN, quickly led to several congresspeople (on both ends of the political spectrum) tweeting about this “unacceptable” arrangement. No one seems to know who requested the order to push the troops outside, but Sen. Chris Murphy tweeted, “[W]hatever happened, they are working to fix the problem now.”

Likewise, Twitter users were outraged, and some suggested that Trump open up his nearby hotel after inciting the insurrection that led to this situation.

Manu Raju later reported that the issue “has been resolved” according to several members of Congress.

CNN further updated the situation, stating word from a guardsman that Guard members were permitted to reenter the Capitol Complex, and “will now be allowed to rest in the US Capitol Visitor Center.”

On Wednesday, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were, finally, inaugurated as president and vice president. (I had never fully realized just how long the lame-duck period lasts until this year. If you made me guess its length based on the perceived time I would tell you “two years.”) Grabbing some headlines was also the swearing-in of three new senators: Alex Padilla from California, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff from Georgia. It’s kind of a shame about Warnock and Ossoff because both of their historic wins were overshadowed by what followed the next day at the Capitol. In fact, I wanted to write what I’m writing today back then, but, you know, an attempted coup changed a lot of people’s plans that week I guess.

Anyway, I’m kind of fascinated we have a full-on nerd senator now. To the point attack ads were made against Ossoff for his portrayal of Han Solo during a college production protesting Georgetown’s alcohol policy. (I’ve seen some people refer to it as cosplay, but that’s not really what this is.) Since these are “attack ads,” they are going to paint Ossoff’s performance in a negative light. (Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley helped incite a riot in which people were killed, but, yes, Ossoff’s Han Solo is the problem.) But, now that the election is over and he’s now a senator for the next six years, it’s time this performance got a fair shake. So, let’s give Ossoff an honest critique of his performance as Han Solo.

First of all, playing Han Solo is a tough assignment in any context if your name isn’t Harrison Ford. The character is a weird combination of Ford’s desire, as a professional, to do a good job, but also thinking the whole thing is stupid. The problem a lot of people run into trying to do a Han Solo is they try to act too cool. Ford isn’t trying to be cool. Ford just has that impossible to replicate combination of being cool and thinking Star Wars is dumb. Plus, it’s always tough for someone around 20 to play a mid-30s Harrison Ford.

I speak from some experience here. At the University of Missouri, there was a class called Acting 1 For Non-Majors. One of the assignments was to do a “scene from a movie featuring two people” and a classmate and I picked the scene between Han Solo and Greedo in the original Star Wars. Thank goodness no one actually filmed this. I couldn’t find a black vest, so I just wore a black jacket and my outfit looked a lot more like The Fonz than it did Han Solo. Though, I did have a vintage The Empire Strikes Back Stormtrooper blaster that we used. I remember we went to Toys ‘r’ Us looking for anything resembling a Greedo mask and the best we could come up with on our budget was a Blue Power Ranger mask. So, yes, in front of actual people, there we were, dressed as The Fonz and a Blue Power Ranger, acting out a Star Wars scene. We got a B.

(As an epilogue to this story: After our successful B grade, I had thrown all of the props into the back of my car. A couple of months later, during the holiday break, a friend and I wound up driving to Canada for reasons that would probably only make sense if you are 19. Anyway, at the border between North Dakota and Manitoba we were asked why we were going to Canada. I said, “we are bored.” Not buying that anyone would go to Manitoba in December out of “boredom,” we were immediately pulled over and taken into separate interview rooms to see if our stories matched. While we were being interviewed they searched my car and I heard, “stand back, bring the dog!” As you probably guessed, the Canadian border patrol had found my toy Star Wars gun from my Acting 1 For Non Majors class.)

Jon Ossoff avoids the whole Fonz problem by coming up with a unique design of his own. Eschewing the classic white shirt, black vest look, Ossoff goes for a brown shirt with some sort of insignia on the left sleeve. He’s also wearing what looks like a bandolier that is usually worn by Chewbacca. (The Chewbacca in this production looks like it was literally put together with carpet.) Ossoff’s Han Solo hairstyle is a little more freewheeling than the Ford version and more resembles what we saw from Alden Ehrenreich. But, you know, I have to admit that he does have a pretty “cool” vibe going on.

The plot of this whole short film is a little confusing. The main gripe here is our heroes don’t like the Georgetown alcohol policies and the person implementing these polices is Darth Vader. (I find it funny that there was no attempt to do a silly pun or something based on whoever they actually had a problem with. Nope, it’s literally Darth Vader who is telling these kids they can’t have beer.) There is one twist at the end that I will spoil. This prohibition-loving Vader (who, for some reason, doesn’t wear a shirt) kills Ben, then fights Luke (I will just assume the actor playing Luke is not currently a United States senator). Luke, with seemingly no prompting, yells that Vader is not his father and then stabs Vader in the chest, killing Vader. The students at Georgetown will get their beer.

So, what’s interesting here, considering the “controversy,” is this is a very non-nerdy version of Han Solo. And he doesn’t really do all that much. It’s like Ossoff just kind of wore whatever he had available and didn’t go overboard. So, it’s pretty rich of anyone to go after Ossoff for this for being “too nerdy.” I think, in the end, he just wanted some beer. So here’s someone playing Han Solo who really isn’t trying all that hard to play Han Solo, which is kind of about right. If I were grading his performance, he’d also get a B.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Gordon Hayward has crisscrossed the country as an NBA player for years, and after playing for budding title contenders in Utah and Boston, he now finds himself as the leader of an upstart young Hornets team. The star of the Charlotte show this season has in large part been No. 3 overall pick LaMelo Ball, who continues to dazzle even as the Hornets staff brings him along slowly off the bench.

In an interview with The Athletic’s Sam Amick this week, Hayward was asked if he’s enjoyed Ball’s game and playing with the young rookie so far. Hayward replied that he can already tell Ball has a long, promising career ahead of him thanks to his knack for always being around the ball and their general basketball awareness.

Here’s Hayward’s full answer:

Yeah, I think LaMelo is going to be really good in this league for a lot of years. He’s got great size. More than anything, he has great feel for the game. He’s kind of like — to me, he’s got that same type of feel as like (Dallas’) Luka (Doncic), as (Washington’s) Russ (Westbrook), where they just are around the ball and the ball kind of just comes to them. With rebounds and (being able) to make the right plays and always kind of being at that right position, to me he has that same type of feel and energy for the game. I think he’s gonna be really good.

So far, Ball is averaging just under 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists per night in 25 minutes, shooting 40 percent from the field. The Hornets are hanging around the Eastern Conference playoff picture at 6-8 and are a nightly thrill to watch.

Ball still hasn’t started a game, but it’s telling that a teammate like Hayward is comfortable playing with him and believes in him, a sign that perhaps in the not-too-distant future, Charlotte may flip Ball to the starting lineup and begin to let him spread his wings even more.

Rappers have been comparing themselves to Tupac forever, but teen Memphis star NLE Choppa makes an effort to look the part in his nostalgic video for “Picture Me Grapin.” The song’s title is already, as you probably guessed, an homage to the late West Coast legend, even borrowing the beat for Choppa to rap over, but the “Top Shotta Flow” rapper also apes the Oakland native’s mannerisms and styling from iconic moments such as his fashion photoshoots and Digital Underground’s “I Get Around” video. Karl Kani even makes an appearance alongside Choppa, the designer’s newest brand ambassador.

While some older heads may find the comparison somewhat sacrilegious, NLE Choppa has quickly taken on a similar mythical quality among some of his young followers and his elders have taken notice. 50 Cent recruited the up-and-coming star to feature on “Part Of The Game,” the unofficial theme song to the next chapter of 50’s Power series on Starz. Juicy J also gave his Memphis successor his blessing by putting him on “Load It Up,” and while the age gap between Lil Baby and NLE Choppa isn’t quite as large, their “Narrow Road” lent another important co-sign to the younger rapper, as did Big Sean’s contribution to Choppa’s “Moonlight.” Although the rap game is in a far different state than it was when Tupac passed away, Choppa’s charisma, flow, and nonstop grind may have him in an analogous position soon enough.

Watch NLE Choppa’s “Picture Me Grapin” video above.

While announcing that articles of impeachment against Donald Trump will be sent to the Senate on Monday, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made an unfortunate Freudian slip when it came time to pronounce “insurrection.” During his prepared statement on Friday morning, Schumer attempted to invoke the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol building following a Trump rally, but instead, he ended up making the internet laugh like a bunch of eleven year olds.

“There will be a trial, and when the trial ends, Senators will have to decide if they believe Donald John Trump incited the erection,” Schumer said before catching himself and making a face that clearly indicated he knew what he just said. It was plain as day, as you can see in the video below:

With spirits still flying high after the avalanche of Bernie Sanders memes, Twitter was fully prepared for this bountiful gift:

And the jokes kept on… coming:

Schumer shouldn’t feel too bad though. Anderson Cooper made the same mistake earlier in the week, and we can only assume this is going to be a recurring theme heading into the impeachment trial. Hopefully, America is ready for a whole bunch of boner jokes to keep… popping up.

On a more serious note, Schumer’s announcement stirred up an ongoing confrontation with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who wants to delay the impeachment trial until he has assurances that Democrats won’t get rid of the filibuster. Schumer has rejected that proposal as “unacceptable,” according to CNN. A hard no, if you will.

With Trump officially out of office and the hope of a presidential pardon now firmly lodged in the trash, some of his most loyal supporters are beginning to turn on him. Chief among them is Jacob Chansley, the infamous QAnon Shaman, who became the de facto face of the insurrection on Capitol Hill this month thanks to his signature get-up.

Chansley, like hundreds of other members of the violent MAGA mob that stormed Congress, trashed the offices of officials like Nancy Pelosi, and caused the deaths of five people including one police officer, now seems to be realizing the severity of his actions. Currently, Trump is comfortably resting at Mar-a-Lago as Congress debates impeachment articles, but he’s facing no legal recourse for inciting the January 6th insurrection. His followers, however, people like Chansley and Jenna Ryan — the Texas real estate broker who chartered a private plane to attend the riot — are facing serious consequences, including significant jail time, if they’re found guilty of federal charges which include disorderly conduct, threatening Congressional officials, and obstructing a Congressional proceeding.

The threat of prison — and a future devoid of his medically-necessary organic diet — seems to have served as a kind of wake-up call for Chansley, according to his attorney, Al Watkins, who previously pushed for a pardon for his client.

“He regrets very very much having not just been duped by the President, but by being in a position where he allowed that duping to put him in a position to make decisions he should not have made,” Watkins told NBC News affiliate KSDK. “As to my client, the guy with the horns and the fur, the meditation, and organic food…I’m telling you that we cannot simply wave a magic wand and label all these people on January 6th the same.”

Watkins also seemed to suggest more rioters facing charges stemming from the Jan. 6th insurrection had requested his services, though he declined to release names. Instead, he focused on his defense strategy which looks to be focused on placing the blame for the violence his client helped carry out squarely on Trump’s shoulders.

“Let’s roll the tape. Let’s roll the months of lies, and misrepresentations, and horrific innuendo and hyperbolic speech by our president designed to inflame, enrage, motivate,” Watkins said. ” What’s really curious is the reality that our president, as a matter of public record, invited these individuals, as President, to walk down to the capitol with him.”

In regards to Trump pardoning his client, Watkins recently said this: “The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something. Given the peaceful and compliant fashion in which Mr. Chansley comported himself, it would be appropriate and honorable for the president to pardon Mr. Chansley and other like-minded, peaceful individuals who accepted the president’s invitation with honorable intentions.”

Guess Joe Exotic isn’t the only flamboyant figure upset with Trump over his lack of pardon now.

(Via KSDK)

When Kendrick Lamar released To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, the album garnered critical praise for its fusion of heady jazz and throwback funk as a backdrop to K. Dot’s dense, thoughtful lyricism. Much of the credit for its sonic pioneering goes to jazz revivalists like Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin, who played multiple instruments on many of the song’s tracks. With the two musicians’ supergroup, R+R=Now, releasing its live album R+R=Now Live next month, they get the chance to revisit their musical triumph with a cover of the album’s song “How Much A Dollar Cost.”

R+R=Now consists of Robert Glasper on keys, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah on trumpet, Terrace Martin on synthesizer, vocoder, and alto saxophone, Derrick Hodge on bass, Taylor McFerrin on synthesizer, and Justin Tyson on drums. They released an album, Collagically Speaking, through the legendary Blue Note Records in 2018, working with names like Amanda Seales, Omari Hardwick, and Stalley. Since then, Glasper formed a new supergroup with Martin called Dinner Party, this time featuring two more Kendrick Lamar collaborators, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder, and has been nominated for a Grammy. In 2020, Glasper and Uproxx threw the inaugural Grammy Jam, with plans to revive the freewheeling jam session this year.

Listen to R+R=Now’s live cover of “How Much A Dollar Cost” above.

R+R=Now Live is due 2/12 via Blue Note Records. Order it here.

UK music fans were hopeful that Glastonbury would be able to go on this year, but over the past few months, organizers didn’t sugar-coat the fact that the 2021 festival may not be able to happen. Sure enough, it was announced yesterday that this year’s festival has been canceled. That said, this doesn’t mean the folks behind Glastonbury won’t do anything this year.

In an LBC interview, festival founder Michael Eavis said that he hopes to organize some sort of smaller Glastonbury event this year. He said, “I would like to do something in September. I would like to do something smaller somewhere around the anniversary date of when we started, which was the 18th of September 1970. I would like to consider possibly doing something around that time.”

He was then asked if such an event would involve getting some big artists who were slated for this year’s canceled fest to participate, and he responded, “Yes, but I do need to get reassurance from the ethics people.”

Festival organizer Emily Eavis previously said that if this year’s festival didn’t go on as planned, some sort of Glastonbury event could still take place this year, saying in 2020, “We’re actually looking into the possibility of streaming some things from here if we can’t run the full show next year. We really want to get busy with planning some gigs — even if they’re to be streamed!”