Category: Viral

It seems like a lifetime ago when DeMarcus Cousins was one of the most promising young big men in the NBA during his All-Star days in Sacramento. It’s been a steep and steady decline ever since as he’s battled multiple injuries, the most recent of which was an ACL tear that cost him all of last season.

Cousins has been back on the court with the Rockets, but the team announced on Tuesday that they were officially parting ways with him, despite guaranteeing his contract last week for the remainder of the season. Cousins had been acting as backup center behind emerging star Christian Wood and was logging a respectable 9.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game in 20 minutes of action.

But his lack of lateral quickness has rendered him a liability on defense, and what’s more, it makes it difficult to envision a scenario in which he can play a significant role on a contender that might be looking to add a little size and scoring punch as they look ahead to the postseason.

Regardless, someone will likely take a gamble on him and talk themselves into believing that he still has some juice left as a scorer who can provide some spot minutes at center. Here are three possible destinations that might make that happen.

Lakers

The latest rumors claim that the Lakers aren’t actually interested in potentially adding Cousins, but you have to take that with a grain of salt. Cousins spent all of last season on the Lakers bench as he recovered from ACL surgery, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to think he could add some depth to a roster that is currently lacking size due to the Anthony Davis injury.

Marc Gasol certainly isn’t what he used to be as a defender or an offensive threat, but savvy and experience make up for a lot. Given his injury history, Cousins’ defensive issues are a real concern, although he could possibly add some scoring to the second unit. The recently waived Quinn Cook clears a roster spot, and depending on how long Davis is sidelined, it could make sense as a stop-gap solution.

Raptors

The Raptors climbed above .500 this week, thanks to a four-game win streak, earning the No. 5 seed in a conference that has become increasingly top-heavy once you get past the Sixers, Nets, and Bucks. It’s the Wild East, and if they want to fight for good playoff positioning, they could use some extra size in the paint and on the boards.

According to the most recent reports, they’d prefer to make a go at Andre Drummond, who’s currently being held out of the rotation in Cleveland as they work toward a buyout. But Cousins would be a much better bargain, even if he comes with all the bargain-bin baggage. The question is whether he fits what they want to do. He’d arguably be an offensive upgrade over Aron Baynes, and he’d help out on the glass, as Toronto has been one of the worst defensive rebounding teams all season. However, on a team that values defensive versatility, he’s certainly not a snug fit.

Blazers

The Blazers frontcourt issues have been well-documented. With Zach Collins out for the season and Jusuf Nurkic out six weeks with a fractured wrist, the center position is virtually nonexistent. But if Terry Stotts can make it work with Enes Kanter clocking substantial time in the middle, then he can surely find a solution for Cousins.

And if you need any further evidence that the Blazers are in the business of refurbishing careers that were previously on the fritz, then look no further than Carmelo Anthony, who was out of the league entirely before finding new life in Portland last season. The Blazers have been on a hot streak despite their injuries, winning seven of their last 10 and moving them into the No. 5 spot in the West.

Cousins, ostensibly, would act much like Kanter in a reserve role, bringing scoring and rebounding to their second unit and trying to minimize what he’d give back on the defensive end. But Portland could be just the right fit for a player who faces a great deal of uncertainty at this point in his career.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is facing some heavy backlash after he used his time during the Senate hearing on the January 6 Capitol assault to read a conspiratorial blog post that blames “professional provocateurs” disguised as Trump supporters for the Jan. 6th insurrectionist attack on America’s capitol. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, Johnson encouraged his colleagues in the Senate to read the online article that claims the crowd was mostly peaceful until outside agitators began stirring things up and getting violent.

“Many of the marchers were families with small children; many were elderly, overweight, or just plain tired or frail — traits not typically attributed to the riot-prone,” Johnson said during the Senate hearing. However, as CNN notes, the blog post doesn’t match with the reality of the situation or statements from law enforcement officials.

None of Waller’s account jives with what we know about what happened on January 6. The FBI has said there is zero evidence that Antifa or any other group of leftist provocateurs had been part of the January 6 crowd — much less been the ones inciting violence. And the vast majority of people arrested identify with far-right groups like the Oathkeepers, not any groups on the extreme left.

After video of Johnson’s testimony hit social media, the Wisconsin senator was dragged for peddling wild, debunked conspiracy theories, which is exactly how the Capitol assault happened thanks to Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was somehow “stolen.”

However, Johnson didn’t just catch flack on Twitter. Senator Amy Klobuchar took a moment to blast Johnson by stating, “There is clear agreement that this was a planned insurrection, and I think most members here very firmly agree with that.”

For those not in the know, Vinyl Me, Please is a wonderful service that sends subscribers an exclusive record each month, with the ability to choose a release from three categories: classics, essentials, and hip-hop. (Their releases also regularly pop up in Uproxx’s monthly vinyl round-up.) Now, the platform has announced a new category and quite the inaugural release to kick things off: As of March, Vinyl Me, Please will offer a country category and the first release is a reissue of the classic Johnny Cash live album At Folsom Prison.

The 1968 album was a critical one for Cash when his career was in a bit of a commercial lull. The album’s lone single, “Folsom Prison Blues,” topped the country charts and was a top-40 song overall, the first time one of his singles had achieved either feat since “Understand Your Man” did both in 1964, four years earlier. The album was later certified 3-times Platinum by the RIAA in 2003 and remains one of Cash’s most beloved releases.

Andrew Winistorfer, VMP Classics and Country Director says of the new category, “With the exception of a few marquee artists, the country genre is extremely underrepresented in the vinyl world, with new country albums rarely getting vinyl pressings, and older albums rarely getting the reissues they deserve. VMP’s ethos of exploring music together — coupled with this gap in the vinyl marketplace — inspired us to launch VMP Country. VMP Country will give anyone on the spectrum of country fandom — from die hard to reluctant skeptics — a Record Of The Month that will expand their listening palette, and give their record collection some much-needed twang. Our members can expect that VMP Country will come with the same devotion, attention to detail, and respect that we give to our other three Tracks, and that we’ll deliver the most definitive versions of the albums we feature each month.”

Learn more about Vinyl Me, Please and their new offerings here.

Although the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has changed the way fans consume live music, Travis Scott still plans on seeing through his plans to bring the Astroworld Festival back to his hometown in 2021. The Houston rapper revealed as much to director Robert Rodriguez in an interview published on Vice.

In response to Rodriguez’s question about his post-pandemic plans for the festival, Travis confirmed, “Hopefully, we can bring it back at the end of this year. Around November.” While that may be the most optimistic outlook for the festival’s return, it’s in-line with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s prediction that some venues will be able to re-open in the fall, provided the vaccine rollout goes well enough to lower the levels of infection nationwide.

Unfortunately, despite the 2018 and 2019 festivals selling out and going well for Travis, the 2020 edition of the festival had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Travis also explained the effect that becoming a father has had on his art, saying, “Fatherhood influences my job. It has a huge impact. It’s a major inspiration… Storm, she’s just acting like a kid. She’s always interested, she catches on and learns things and adapts to things so fast. It’s so crazy, Stormi’s generation is way different from mine, and she’s way different from my younger brother and sister. Kids show you a different outlook on life, how they view things, the type of pressures they have and what makes them happy, what makes them move… You’ve got to use that properly.”

Read the full interview here.

Young Rock (NBC, 8:00pm) — Dwayne Johnson’s gotten very real in interviews while discussing his difficult adolescence and young adulthood, but this show will take a comedic stance while focusing on how he hustled his way into wrestling superstardom (before his eventual presidential ambitions). This week’s episode begins in 1987 when Dwayne pretends to be wealthy to impress a popular girl, but he’s betrayed by his wrestling match at the flea market.

Kenan (NBC, 8:30pm) — The longest-tenured cast member on SNL (and he’s not leaving) now breaks into the family comedy business where he plays a character named Kenan, who’s attempting to do what we all do: balance every aspect of life (and usually, to some degree, make a mess while doing it). Don Johnson co-stars, and this week, Kenan, Rick, and Gary work to uncover a deep, dark secret on Cori’s behalf, and Mika wants the morning show to dig into harder news.

Superman and Lois (CW, 8:00pm) — The world’s most famous superhero (Superman/Clark Kent) and the most famous journalist (Lois Lane) are leading a more ordinary existence than expected as working parents. Of course, they must juggle all of that workplace stress, too, which might be more or less difficult to conquer than aliens invaders and supervillains that descend upon Metropolis. Stick around for a behind-the-scenes special about this new series and the Man of Steel’s legacy.

Mixed-Ish (ABC, 9:30pm) — Paul receives a lesson on the cultural and racial significance of the Spades game when he crashes Denise and Alicia’s neighborhood showdown.

Black-Ish (ABC, 9:00pm) — Olivia and Maxine go with Bow and Junior to celebrate the latter’s birthday. While on the scene, Bow must deal with an oddly close relationship.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Senator Bernie Sanders, Soleil Moon Frye, Lord Huron

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Billie Eilish, Punchbowl News Co-Founders Anna Palmer & Jake Sherman

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Tom Holland, Andra Day, Mary McCartney, Andra Day

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Drew Barrymore, Storm Reid

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Colin Jost, Harvey Guillen, Raghav Mehrotra

Despite the successful reception to the surprise sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and its headline-making climax that showed how easy it was to catch Rudy Giuliani in an extremely embarrassing situation, Sacha Baron Cohen is signaling that he’s ready to retire from his undercover satire days. While sitting down for a lengthy interview on his Golden Globe nominations for the Borat sequel and The Trial of the Chicago 7, Cohen expressed his fear at continuing to do disguise work. “At some point, your luck runs out. And so I never wanted to do this stuff again,” he told NPR. “I can’t.”

As Cohen explains, he’s still understandably shaken from his experience at a Three Percenter Rally where he disguised himself as a country singer for a scene in the Borat sequel and led the crowd in a racist song. However, things went south when someone eventually recognized him and began chasing Cohen and his film crew, all of whom managed to escape, barely, after jumping into a waiting ambulance/getaway car. Prior to filming at the rally, Cohen had an exchange with his makeup artist that still weighs on his mind.

Via NPR:

I remember putting on the bulletproof vest before the scene, looking in the mirror of a nearby hotel, and … I remember asking the makeup guy, “Do you think I’m going to get shot today?” And he’s like, “No, no, no, no.” I said, “Well, why am I putting on the bulletproof vest then?” And he didn’t really have an answer.

Despite nearly getting shot and/or beaten by an angry mob, Cohen still feels that making the film and getting it out before the election was worth the risk. “We did it because there was a deeply unethical government in power,” he said. “We had to do what we could to inspire people to vote and remind people of the immorality of the government prior to the election.”

(Via NPR)

I do not remember my first kiss (it probably looked like this), but I can guarantee it wasn’t as eventful as Tessa Thompson’s first kiss. The actress appears in W magazine’s “2021 Best Performance Issue,” where she was asked about the first time she locked lips with someone. “I wasn’t a child actor, but my dad had a friend who was a casting director, and they were casting a music video for an artist named Brenda Russell,” Thompson recalled. “I kissed a young boy who was also in the music video. His name was Floyd.” I couldn’t find the video she’s referring to, so let’s re-watch the “Pynk” video instead.

Anyway, let’s hear more about Floyd, shall we?

“So my first kiss was technically on set, and then I wasn’t on set again for over a decade after that. But that was my first kiss. It’s on camera. It’s immortalized for life. In the video, I think it’s this idea that we play the younger version of this married couple whose relationship is falling apart, and they’re trying to get back to their child selves. I play this woman, and I’m in a wedding dress. We get married. I was 6, but I remember that day feeling very adult, so it didn’t scare me. I felt like I was born for this. Actually, I think about Floyd every so often.”

Poor Floyd. LaKeith Stanfield also has a memorable first kiss story.

“On the playground, in kindergarten or first grade. But it really wasn’t a first kiss. I just liked this girl and I thought, If you like a girl, you go kiss her. And so I ran up and kissed her on the cheek. And then, since we were on the playground, she was kind of sweaty so I had a bad taste in my mouth, and I threw up all over the playground. She was there and just kind of kept walking. So I got my karma for running up kissing people.”

Stanfield never spoke to her again. Maybe she ended up with Floyd? Sounds like an idea for a romantic-comedy (starring Thompson and Stanfield, of course).

(Via W magazine)

Drakeo The Ruler’s fortunes have changed a whole lot in a very short amount of time. After spending much of 2018, 2019, and 2020 in prison awaiting trial on gang charges, Drakeo was released in November, then released his mixtape We Know The Truth to general acclaim. Now, he’s secured the biggest look of his career to date, collaborating with Drake on “Talk To Me” from his upcoming album The Truth Hurts, due later tonight/first thing tomorrow morning.

On “Talk To Me,” Drake provides the hooks while Drakeo — yes, this as confusing to type as it is to read — raps, with both addressing the song’s theme of infatuation with a woman. There’s also some light tough talk, as Drake warns the potential love interest that he and his crew might have to get gully in the club. “We might slide on a n**** inside this club, girl, close your eyes,” he croons, somewhat paradoxically. Meanwhile, Drakeo plays aloof, reminding his sex buddy that “You can’t control me, why you acting like the police?”

Premiering the song on Apple Radio, Drakeo told Zane Lowe, “When I was in jail, I was supposed to do something [with Drake] already,” explaining how he actually forgot the song was in the works before he was arrested. “It was kind of crazy to me,” he observed. “I never thought none of this stuff would happen.”

Listen to Drakeo The Ruler’s Drake collaboration “Talk To Me” above.

The Truth Hurts is due at midnight ET.

There comes a moment in everyone’s social media life when they get stressed because they’ve been followed by an authority figure. When your boss, mother, or priest starts following you, social media immediately becomes a lot less fun.

When that happens, it’s time to stop posting photos of yourself partying it up with an adult beverage. You gotta hold back on some of your saltier takes, and you have to start minding your language. Also, you have to be very careful about the posts you’re tagged in.

Model, TV personality, and author Chrissy Teigen has been suffering through a mega-dose of this form of social media stress since January 20 when President Joe Biden followed her on Twitter. His follow came after Teigen made the request.

Teigen is one of the most popular voices on Twitter with over 13.7 million followers.

On January 19, after the inauguration, the @POTUS Twitter feed was turned over from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Teigen is a vocal supporter of the new president and thought being followed by him would be nice after spending nearly four years blocked by former President Trump.

Teigen, a staunch Trump critic, was blocked by him after tweeting “lol no one likes you” in response to a tweet lashing out at his own party for not being supportive enough.

It’s unclear why he was angry about the lack of support, but he was dealing with the Russia investigation and Obamacare repeal at that time.

“It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President,” he tweeted (although you can’t read it now because he’s been banned from the platform).

Well, the day after he was inaugurated, Joe Biden followed Teigen making her one of only 11 accounts he follows. The rest are cabinet members and family. At the time, Teigen appeared to be pleased with the new follower, writing, “my heart oh my god lmao I can finally see the president’s tweets and they probably won’t be unhinged.”

However, in the coming days, the follow caused Teigen an incredible amount of Twitter stress. How would you feel knowing that just about everything you tweeted would be seen by the president?

As they say, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

This caused Teigen to be more thoughtful about what she shared on Twitter and reduced the number of tweets she made each day.

Earlier today, she asked Biden to unfollow her so that she could flourish. “I love you!!! it’s not you it’s me” she wrote.

After that, the president set her free with an unfollow.

She tweeted a sigh of relief. Now, she can use all of the colorful language she wants without having to endure the potential scrutiny of the president.

Although it must be freeing for Teigen to be able to say what she wants, her move may have been a little short-sighted. Who wouldn’t want to be able to have a direct line to the president of the United States whenever they want?

Tiger Woods was involved in a single-car rollover accident on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, when his car apparently lost control going down a steep hill and rolled over causing “moderate to critical” leg injuries. Woods was taken to the hospital and his agent relayed that he was in surgery, with L.A. authorities indicating that they were not considered life-threatening injuries.

Woods isn’t just an icon to the golf world but the sports world as a whole, as he became one of golf’s first crossover athletes and helped explode the popularity of the sport by making it look cool and bringing attention from well beyond the traditional golf realm. As such, his impact extends beyond just this current crop of PGA Tour stars that looked up to him but athletes from all over the sports world, and as footage of the aftermath of his accident began circulating and word emerged about the severity of his accident, support began pouring in from athletes all over.

Among them was Justin Thomas, a close friend of Woods’ and the current top-ranked golfer in the world, who happened to be taking the podium for his WGC press conference when word of the accident broke. Thomas was emotional discussing it, noting he’s just hoping for the best and thinking of Tiger’s kids and family.

Others from the golf world began offering their thoughts, prayers, and support for the greatest of all-time.

Many from the NBA, NFL, and MLB also offered their hopes that Tiger will be alright and make a full recovery.