“Isn’t that an interesting wrinkle, though?”

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On Friday night, Lil Wayne launched a new form of communication with the world: his Beats 1 radio show, Young Money Radio. According to Billboard, Weezy promised the show would include “heavyweights calling in discussing sports, music, comedy, everything.” Based on the first episode, he delivered on that promise.

The show’s maiden voyage included plenty of celebrity appearances, as well as the announcement that a deluxe edition of Funeral would arrive “soon.” Wayne teased two new songs, one with Tory Lanez and the other Jessie Reyez. While speaking about the Jessie Reyez-featured track, Wayne called the Canadian singer onto the show and gave her a warm welcome before discussing the song.

“I want to speak on some artists that is involved with the deluxe, and they’re also artists that I have a lot of respect for and I think they’re dope,” he said as he introduced Reyez. “Reason I bring it up like that is cause maybe y’all didn’t know too much about me knowing these artists.” The two then discussed their quarantine habits, which included meditation and vocal warm-ups. Following his call with Reyez, Wayne previewed his collaboration with Tory Lanez, entitled “Help.”

As for the rest of the show, Wayne was joined by Deion Sanders and New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell, and he made additional calls to Lil Baby, Travis Scott, and Babyface. Lastly, Wayne shared with Babyface the story of how the legendary R&B singer, Betty Wright, influenced him to play guitar: “She actually told me to come see her, she said she got these four strings she wanna show me, and she said ‘with these four strings, you’re gonna be able to play every song and any song’ so I cannot wait to see her.”

Check out the videos above to hear previews from the deluxe edition of Funeral.

Day 3 of the 2020 NFL Draft started with a bang, and it had nothing to do with any players going off the board. According to Mike Garafolo, Tom Pelissero, and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Washington will trade Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams to San Francisco. In exchange, the Niners will give up a pair of picks: a fifth-round selection this year, and a third-round pick in 2021.

Shortly after, Adam Schefter of ESPN confirmed the deal.

Williams has made it clear that he’s wanted out of Washington for some time. One of the top offensive linemen in the league, Williams has made seven Pro Bowls over his NFL career. It’s also a move that makes a ton of sense for the Niners, as the team has not been sure that starting offensive tackle Joe Staley would return next season. Add in that the team’s head coach, Kyle Shanahan, coached Williams at the start of the big man’s career, and everything falls into place.

As for Washington, it possessed the second pick of the fourth round of the draft even before this trade. With it, the team opted to take a potential replacement: LSU lineman Saahdiq Charles.

Williams is slated to become a free agent following the conclusion of the 2020 season.

A cool addition to ESPN’s blitz of “The Last Dance” across all its platforms came this week in a Phil Jackson-narrated episode of “Detail,” in which Jackson breaks down his cherished Triangle offense. The episode is available along with the entire series, which began with Kobe Bryant as host and continued on with people like Geno Auriemma, Nick Saban and Peyton Manning, on ESPN+.

Jackson breaks down Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals. While it was hardly the most competitive game that Michael Jordan’s Bulls ever played, the offense was clearly churning. Chicago won the game, 96-54, behind Jordan’s 24 points, and Jackson is able to show how so many of the plays Jordan made look so effortless actually materialized.

If you’re a basketball nerd, you’ve already read some description or explanation of the Triangle before, maybe even in Jackson’s book, “11 Rings.” Yet Jackson does it more simply in the “Detail” than an interview or essay could ever do justice.

The tenets Jackson lays out are pretty plain:

• Use the Triangle at the beginning of the game to feel out the opponent’s defensive coverages
• Screen and move to get players into open space, and aggressively rotate the ball from one side of the floor to the other to find good shots
• Fungible pieces are needed to make it all work, which is why Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Toni Kukoc executed the system so well
• Spacing is less of a focus than it is now. Instead, cutting and passing are what creates open shots, not stationing players in one spot to pull defenders away from the floor.

Jackson explains the Triangle in a way that makes it seem far more modern and digestible, rather than just a hallowed code name that unlocked a dynasty. NBA analyst Nate Duncan cut a video of a simple split cut while Kukoc is in the post, for example, that you could find in many Warriors games over the past several years.

On the other hand, some of the principles seem downright ancient in hindsight. Most of the pick-and-roll happens at the elbow for the Bulls, using Pippen and Jordan’s midrange gifts rather than using the added value of the three-point shot like we see Damian Lillard and Steph Curry do these days. Much of the offense also runs out of the post, specifically with the ball in the hands of Kukoc or Jordan. Post-ups are last-ditch bailouts in an entirely spaced-out court, but for the Bulls, it was a playmaking weapon.

This is a play that caused Jackson to say “Toni really has a lot of space right here.” Take a look:

That is the opposite of a lot of space by today’s standards.

The Triangle was the offense used by the best teams in the NBA for basically two decades, from Jordan’s first championship in 1991 to the Lakers’ last title in 2010. Watching Jackson break it down, I realized it effectively was a bridge from the post- and iso-heavy 1970s and 80s to the screen-and-move brilliance of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns and Light Years Warriors.

Of course, the defining characteristic of those Bulls was not the Triangle. With Jordan, a set could fail and still result in a high-percentage shot. And Jackson, to his credit, was always open to giving great players the freedom to make mistakes and play their game. As long as they adhered to the general principles he taught and respected their teammates and the game, they could freelance.

“If guys took a three-point shot out of sequence, they got a ‘silly fine,’” Jackson says in “Detail.” “Offense not run correctly or aborted, we had reprimands. Not a fine, but we wanted guys to honor the game. That basically was the theory behind how we wanted to play.”

Still, Jackson talks through a poorly run post-up by Jordan that ends in a turnover as if it’s just part of the deal. Pippen clanks a midrange jumper when he should have driven to the middle and Jackson still calls it a “good shot.” They earned the benefit of the doubt and Jackson’s trust over time, and were able to subsume the Triangle in many ways.

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It looks like Lil Uzi Vert‘s social media rants against his label, who wouldn’t let him release new music, worked out well: The rapper has been releasing music at will since the start of 2020. After sharing his long-awaited Eternal Atake album in early March, Uzi Vert returned with its deluxe edition — an additional set of 14 songs — just a week later. And he returned last night with a new single, “Sasuke.”

The track arrived on the backend of apparent trolling against Playboi Carti for not releasing his long-awaited album Whole Lotta Red as well as recently released single, “@ Meh.” The track finds Uzi Vert honoring “Sasuke,” the character from the popular Japanese anime series Naruto. The anime influence should come as no surprise to listeners as Uzi Vert has given some of his cars an amine design.

In addition to the new song, Uzi Vert also put an end to the Playboi Carti trolling in a response to a fan who believed he was dissing Carti on “Sasuke.” The fan had said that he “referenced left right on the song, he’s dissing carti,” to which Uzi repled, “I’m not dissing him …. promise.”

You can hear “Sasuke” in the video above.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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