Author: GoneTrending

Nikola Jokic, the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player, will not play for the Serbian National Team in the lead-up to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

In a statement attributed to Jokic, the Nuggets star will not play for the Serbian National Team at upcoming Olympic qualifiers. Per ESPN, Jokic stated, “The simple condition of my body requires a longer absence from the field for recover and an inevitability that I must accept.” He added that him not playing in qualifying games was at the Nuggets’ suggestion.

It is unclear if Jokic will play in the Olympics if Serbia qualifies without him, but the task of qualifying becomes far more daunting without Jokic on the team. There are others NBA players on the roster — most notably Boban Marjanovic, Bogdan Bogdanovic (who, it must be said, is still in the playoffs with the Atlanta Hawks), and Nemanja Bjelica — but none close to the level of Jokic. Serbia won the silver medal back at the 2016 Olympics with Jokic.

Jokic was also third in the NBA minutes played this last season and didn’t miss a game. Denver being concerned about him getting time off after a long season is more than fair. It’s also reflective of a decision many stars will have to make for the Olympics.

Polo G wasn’t even born yet when the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen-led Bulls tore up the NBA and redefined excellent in the game of basketball with six championships throughout the 1990s, but the Chicago native is mindful enough of their legacy to recognize that a nod to the greats would pair nicely with his new album Hall Of Fame. To that end, Polo shared “Hall Of Fame Conversations,” a video in which he interviews the NBA Hall Of Famer Scottie Pippen.

Polo turns out to be a pretty decent interviewer asking Pippen about the championships and accolades that the NBA legend has accumulated over the years. The conversation also allows Polo to speak on his own journey, highlighting how relatively quickly he’s reached the upper echelon of rap stardom over the course of his last three albums. Meanwhile, Scottie draws parallels between the rap game and hoops, complimenting the hard work that Polo has put in to follow his dream.

In addition to “Hall Of Fame Conversations,” Polo G has released videos for “Painting Pictures,” “No Return,” “Gang Gang,” and “Rapstar.”

Watch Polo G’s “Hall Of Fame Conversation” with NBA Hall Of Famer Scottie Pippen above.

Hall Of Fame is out now on Columbia. Get it here.

One year after emerging from the NBA’s coaching carousel with Stan Van Gundy at the helm, the New Orleans Pelicans have decided to make yet another change. According to Andrew Lopez and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Van Gundy is out after one year in New Orleans. The report was confirmed by Will Guillory of The Athletic.

Guillory and Marc Stein of the New York Times brought word that Teresa Weatherspoon, who was an assistant last season, is expected to be a candidate for the position, while Wojnarowski reports that a handful of the candidates who were linked to the job last year will pop up in this search.

The news of this comes after a rough season in New Orleans. While the team was expected to take a leap and compete for a postseason berth, the Pelicans went 31-41 under Van Gundy, making them 11th in the conference and forcing them to miss the play-in tournament by two games. In the aftermath, there were rumblings that Van Gundy and members of the Pelicans’ roster did not see eye-to-eye, and Wojnarowski reported on Wednesday that this felt like something of an inevitability.

The Pelicans are among the most interesting vacancies on the market due to the team’s young core centered around Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. The team joins Boston, Indiana, Orlando, and Portland as teams in need of a new coach.

Dwayne Johnson sits atop People‘s list of the “100 Reasons to Love America,” narrowly edging out the Baconator. “It feels great. I’ve been a lucky guy over the years to have the career that I’ve been blessed enough to have,” the wrestler-turned-actor-turned-liquor kingpin said about the honor. “I never expected in my wildest of wild dreams that I would ever be in a position to be on the cover of People – and certainly not with this kind of title.” This isn’t Johnson’s first time on the cover — he was named the Sexiest Man of the Year in 2016 — and it likely won’t be his last. Especially if he runs for president.

When asked about the recent poll that found 46 percent of Americans would support a presidential run from the former-WWE superstar and current-Jungle Cruise star, Johnson replied, “I love our country to my core and I’m endlessly grateful for the opportunities I’ve had here, as a half-Black, half-Samoan kid being able to work my ass off knowing tenacity opens doors… I’m indebted to our great country for it.”

Johnson continued:

The actor stresses he is “not a politician nor did I ever have political passions, and quite frankly I’m not sure I even have the patience or resignation to deal with the B.S. that comes with politics and politicians… But,” he adds, “when 46 percent of Americans say they’re in favor of me becoming president, that forces me to humbly and respectfully stand up, listen and learn.”

Johnson answered the question by not answering the question. Sounds like a future presidential candidate to me.

(Via People)

Like many festivals, Madrid’s Mad Cool took a couple years off, as its 2020 and 2021 editions were a no-go. Now, though, organizers are preparing for 2022, when they’ll host the next Mad Cool between July 6 and 9. Ahead of then, they’ve shared the stacked lineup.

It’s a big one for rock fans: Headlining the four-day festival are Metallica, Twenty One Pilots, Placebo, Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Muse, Faith No More, Kings Of Leon, and Pixies. Additionally, more headliners are set to be announced. Elsewhere on the poster as it stands now are Carly Rae Jepsen, Wolf Alice, Deftones, St. Vincent, Foals, Sigrid, Tove Lo, Beabadoobee, Cherry Glazerr, Alt-J, The War On Drugs, Mø, Phoebe Bridgers, Black Pumas, Shura, Royal Blood, Zara Larsson, Editors, Leon Bridges, Sylvan Esso, Princess Nokia, Gang Of Youths, Marika Hackman, and Bartees Strange.

Tickets for the 2020 and 2021 festivals are valid for the 2022 festival, for which tickets are currently on sale.

A lot of the 2022 lineup is made up of artists who were set to perform in 2021. Some notable ones who aren’t on the new poster, though, include Cardi B, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Anderson .Paak.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Though Johnny Knoxville has already come out to say that the upcoming Jackass movie will indeed be his last, the behind-the-scenes drama between Jackass co-creator Jeff Tremaine and longtime star Bam Margera is underlining the point that it truly is the end of an era.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Tremaine had obtained a restraining order against Margera following what the director described as “death threats” against both himself and his family. Now it’s being made clear that the courts are clearly taking these threats seriously, as what was originally a temporary restraining order was extended to a permanent one on Tuesday—or, in the case of the courts, a full three years. Margera has been ordered to keep at least 100 yards away from Tremaine at all times.

The trouble started when Margera, who reportedly has a long history of issues related to substance abuse, was officially fired from Jackass 4 back in February. In response, Margera has been regularly airing his grievances against the Jackass cast and crew (well, some of them) via social media. In May, as Complex reported, Margera posted a video to Instagram in which he lamented:

“My family—Jackass—has betrayed me, rejected me, abandoned me. Not all of them. I love all of them and they love me back. But specifically Jeff Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville. So I feel like my family has f***ing done everything horrible to me and made me jump on hoops and walk through eggshells—which is impossible—and strung me along like a f***ing puppet to get the $5 million I usually get when I make a movie with them because Jeff Tremaine and CKY has started it.”

Fellow Jackass Steve-O (who recently celebrated 13 years of sobriety) defended his colleagues in a comment, where he noted:

“Everyone bent over backwards to get you in the movie, and all you had to do was not get loaded. You’ve continued to get loaded, it’s that simple. We all love you every bit as much as we all say we do, but nobody who really loves you can enable you or encourage you to stay sick.”

Offline, Margera has continued his harassment of Tremaine and his family, mainly via text. One of which read:

“Look at your children and grab your pocket book and write a check, if you are greedy, and cheap, look at your children again. If you don‘t sign the paper, look at your children,” one of the text messages allegedly read. “Sign your stupid f*cking contract before your [sic] not safe anywhere.”

Jackass 4 is set to be released on October 22, 2021.

(Via TMZ)

On Friday, the long-awaited big-screen adaptation of In the Heights—Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical drama that preceded Hamilton by nearly a decade—premiered. But even before its debut, the film was being derided by some critics for its lack of Afro-Latino representation—especially after the film’s director, Jon M. Chu, admitted that he should be better educated on the issue of colorism.

By Monday, Miranda had issued a formal apology in which he took responsibility for the failure:

“I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, of feeling still unseen in the feedback.

I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy.

In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short.

I’m truly sorry.

I’m learning from the feedback, I thank you for raising it, and I’m listening.”

But Rita Moreno, a fervent fan of Miranda’s and a colleague (he was a co-producer on her documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It), thinks everyone needs to take a breath. While appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night, Moreno came to Miranda’s defense. Unprompted, no less.

In the middle of Moreno’s interview with Colbert, she asked to talk about the criticisms of Miranda and In the Heights and offered her own thoughts:

“It’s like you can never do right it seems. This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn’t do it. I would love to say I did, but I couldn’t. Lin-Manuel has done that, really singlehandedly and I’m thrilled to pieces and I’m proud that he produced my documentary.”

When asked to clarify her position, and whether she thinks the current criticism against Miranda is misplaced, Moreno responded:

“Well I’m simply saying: Can’t you just wait a while and leave it alone? There’s a lot of people who are puertorriqueño who are also from Guatemala who are dark and who are also fair. We are all colors in Puerto Rico. And this is how it is. And it would be so nice if they hadn’t come up with that and left it alone—just for now. They’re really attacking the wrong person.”

You can watch the full clip below.

(Via Deadline)

SPOILERS for Loki will be found below.

After toying with viewers over the course of the first two episodes, the “Evil Loki” that’s been murdering TVA agents (a.k.a. Minutemen) across the timeline has finally been revealed. From the looks of things the villainous character appears to be Lady Loki, which may confirm a long-simmering fan theory that’s been bouncing around the internet after diligent Marvel fans learned that Sophia Di Martino had been cast in a mystery role.

Because Twitter has no chill, “Lady Loki” immediately started trending just a few hours after Loki Episode 2 premiered on Disney+, which is one of the perils of releasing shows in the dead of night. But while the spoiler-averse probably won’t be thrilled to see the character’s name bouncing all over their feed, the Marvel fans that adjusted their sleep schedules accordingly are loving the Lady Loki reveal:

After The Falcon and the Winter Soldier gave MCU fans a break from formulating wild theories, Loki is already sparking WandaVision-levels of fan theories. Most notably, that Lady Loki appears to have created the multiverse, which many assumed would be Wanda’s job:

More potential SPOILING may be found below:

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On Twitter, another theory is forming that Lady Loki is not actually Loki, but instead, she’s actually Enchantress, a well-known villain from the Thor comics. That theory is bolstered not just by her line about not wanting to be called Loki, but also by what appears to be an unintentional reveal in the Spanish version of the credits. Di Martino is listed as “Sylvie.” Why is that important? The full name of the Young Avengers version of Enchantress is Sylvie Lushton.

Either this is a masterfully placed red herring, or Marvel needs to tighten up their credit game.

(SPOILERS for Disney+’s Loki and the MCU will be found below.)

Whew. Marvel’s known for its secrecy, but when they want to tell fans that something’s coming, they get pretty damn forthright. After all, they’ve been telegraphing the arrival of the multiverse for a while and going into Disney+’s Loki, Marvel fans had to know that the multiverse was coming. The biggest clue there was the admirable audacity of the next Benedict Cumberbatch-starring film being called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. No subtlety there!

Also, WandaVision began to make suggestions in the same direction (Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch will appear in the Strange sequel, too), and there’s also more fun to had with Kevin Feige linking up FOX superheroes with the MCU. With Loki, the whole trickster aura of Tom Hiddleston’s character lent the perfect vibe to crack open the multiverse, and it sure looks like that’s what happened at the end of Episode 2. That happened after Owen Wilson’s Mobius character did his damndest to explain the rules of a multiverse without confusing anyone. It was a heck of an expositional feat, but Mobius didn’t anticipate the character who’s caused all hell to break loose.

Matters grew both more and less confusing at the end of Episode 2, when the shrouded character who killed a bunch of Timekeepers in Oklahoma revealed their identity: Lady Loki (portrayed by Sophia Di Martino).

She’s the mystery Variant that the Time Variance Authority has been chasing, and she presented herself straight to Loki’s face. He did not appear to be impressed.

However, we must get real here. What Lady Loki does is something that the actual Loki (and it’s confusing, obviously, since we’re dealing with Loki Variants, including the version that Tom Hiddleston is portraying in this series) would have never dared to or thought to do. Sure, the Loki that we’ve come to know is the same guy who invited the Chitauri down to Earth for a bunch of murderous mayhem in Avengers, but Lady Loki’s shaking things up to a degree that’s possibly beyond repair. What’s going on?

Lady Loki’s murders throughout the Sacred Timeline have been a ruse to snatch up the TVA’s timeline-resetting devices. They’re all rigged up now, and Lady Loki appears to be creating the multiverse with them.

Mobius is heard wondering where the heck these devices are going, and let’s just say that it’s not good. Bye bye, Sacred Timeline, and hello, MCU multiverse.

From here, we should (clearly) expect chaos to unfold. What form that takes remains a mystery, but Kevin Feige is truly using Loki to set up Phase Four and beyond, whether we asked for the multiverse or not. Anything is conceivable now, and I sort of wonder if that Infinity Stones gut punch last week would be redeemed by this show suggesting that Natasha Romanoff is alive and well somewhere. That could get messy, considering that the Black Widow movie is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, but I could see this multiverse stuff factoring into how the Taskmaster learned how to fight all those Avengers, including Black Panther, without us seeing any of it onscreen. Say what you want about Kevin Feige, but he masterfully guided the layered stories of the Infinity Saga, so he might be upping his game even more.

How, exactly, the revelation of Lady Loki plays into that layering — particularly the show’s blink-and-you’d-miss-it revelation that Loki is gender fluid — it’s hard to guess. Loki’s gender fluidity is something that’s well-sourced both in the comics and in Loki’s Norse mythology roots. Lady Loki might have nothing at all to do with the gender-fluid revelation, although it could be notable that Feige decided to reveal her right after confirming the gender-fluid identity of Loki. Perhaps we’ll hear more on that note next week, or not. I suspect that the ball might be dropped there with the gender-fluid confirmation being as far as Disney+ wants to go on that issue.

What matters at the moment is this: Lady Loki is even more mischievous (and crafty) than the actual Loki or any Variant that we’ve seen so far.

Also, Kermit is not MCU canon, but with reactions like this one, I wish he was.

Disney+’s ‘Loki’ will stream new episodes on Wednesdays.

On the pandemic front, things are looking up. People are getting vaccinated and consequently, the country and world are starting to open back up. In celebration of that, Ariana Grande joined James Corden on The Late Late Show for a pandemic-themed Hairspray parody. The number, a rework of “Good Morning Baltimore,” was filmed on a high-production, musical-style set and features new lyrics about getting vaccinated, reconnecting with loved ones, and enjoying life in ways we hadn’t been able to recently.

Ahead of the show, Grande shared some photos from the making of the sketch and wrote, “fun with my friend @j_corden ! tune in tonight @latelateshow 12:37 am on CBS for our skit. #LateLateShow p.s. there may even be a very special, heart attack provoking cameo made by a Tony Award winning, friend of mine !

That cameo, by the way, was Marissa Jaret Winokur, who won a Tony for her role of Tracy Turnblad in the original Broadway production of Hairspray. Winokur shared a photo of herself with Grande and Corden and wrote, “It’s not about the shoes but it’s also not NOT about the shoes Tune in tonight @latelateshow 12:37am on CBS for the skit TY @j_corden and my sweet @arianagrande for including me in such a special event .”

Watch the “No Lockdowns Anymore” skit above.