The YSL RICO case — which has been underway since January, with court selection taking up most of the three months since — took yet another dramatic turn this week, as Atlanta local news reports one of the attorneys for the defense was arrested for battery and bringing contraband to court this morning.
Anastasios Manettas was handcuffed and charged with one count of simple battery against a law enforcement officer, one count of obstruction, and two counts of pills not in their original container after being caught allegedly bringing the prescription pills to the Fulton County courthouse and throwing his phone at a deputy. Manettas is the defense attorney for Young Thug co-defendant Miles Fairley.
He wasn’t the first person to be caught allegedly smuggling contraband into the courthouse. In January, co-defendant Yak Gotti’s mother was arrested and charged with a criminal attempt to commit a misdemeanor after trying to pass the rapper a bag reportedly filled with tobacco and rolling papers.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, another defendant, Rodaluis “Lil Rod” Ryan, was led out of the courtroom after being suspected of having marijuana in his possession but made a commotion loud enough to be heard in the courtroom, prompting the courtroom to be cleared.
In three months, not a single juror has been selected, although some potential jurors have been censured for not taking the process seriously. One of the defendants, Jayden Myrick, aka SetTrip, filed a motion in February to have the case declared a mistrial due to discovery material being made public and potentially biasing any jurors against him.
The entire case, of course, hinges on the state’s belief that YSL Records is not just a record label, but a criminal organization.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Granted, I never imagined that I’d possibly hear Vera Farmiga howling as though an exorcist would be welcome while channeling the rage of Corey Taylor through lyrics such as “I push my fingers into my eyes / It’s the only thing that slowly stops the ache / If the pain goes on / I’m not gonna make it.”
Oh, it happened.
These two wonders of the world come together as one in an unexpected way. As revealed this week by the Conjuring and Up In The Air star, Vera duly belted out a performance of “Duality” with, as she wrote on Instagram, “my buds at @rockacademyofficial. Best. Music. School. On. The. Planet.”
Who knew that Vera had this in her? Now, I’m wishing that she would carry this act further, possibly into one of The Walking Dead spinoffs with Slipknot perfectly timed in the background. I also need lead singer Corey Taylor to weigh in on this matter through social media. However, he’s a little busy right now, mourning the loss of his knees.
I MISS MY KNEES.
— PANDEMIC! AT THE DISCO (@CoreyTaylorRock) April 14, 2023
Let’s take a detour here. Previously, Corey did discuss his knees with us. He’s had “scar tissue” cleaned up in those all-important joints, and he declared, “You know, I’m not twenty anymore, and as hard as I try to go, sometimes the machinery doesn’t wanna f*cking do what it’s told.” If he ever needs to take a night off from touring, perhaps Vera Farmiga would be happy to oblige.
The actress has an Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, and two Critics’ Choice Television Awards, one for each season of the HBO series. She will soon add an MTV Movie & TV Award to her collection, but this is no ordinary golden popcorn bucket: Coolidge will be presented with the Comedic Genius Award during the ceremony on May 7th.
She will be the sixth person to receive the prize, following Jack Black, Sacha Baron Cohen, Melissa McCarthy, Kevin Hart, and Will Ferrell.
Coolidge was also recently named one of the 100 most influential people of 2023 by Time. “When she left for Sicily to make the second season of The White Lotus, I missed her,” Mia Farrow wrote in an essay for the publication. “She returned, of course, to a tsunami of prestigious awards recognizing her mesmerizing performance. Adoration for Jennifer, initially led by discerning cinephiles and, of course, the gay community, was now everywhere.”
Farrow credited Coolidge’s “eccentric mannerisms, hilarious improvisations, and, most of all, aching vulnerability” as the reasons why people fell in love with her friend. She added, “She’s a national treasure.”
To find the full list of MTV Movie & TV Award nominees, head here.
Netflix knows that the Duffer Brothers are pretty good at what they do, which is probably why the streamer keeps asking them to work on various big-name projects. The duo has a lot on the agenda in the coming years, including a live-action Death Note reboot, an adaption of Stephen King’s The Talisman, and the final season of that little-known show Stranger Things.But the boys seem to love keeping busy, and they are embarking on their next project with (you guessed it) Netflix!
The brothers will produce a supernatural drama series (it’s what they do best!) called The Boroughs. The series comes from co-creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, who previously worked on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, the Netflix follow-up to Jim Henson’s iconic 1982 adventure film.
In a statement provided to Variety, the Duffers explain that The Boroughs is right up their alley. “We’ve been fans of Jeff and Will’s writing for a long time, and when they pitched us their idea for The Boroughs, we immediately knew they had something very special on their hands,” the Duffers said.
The brothers continued, adding that fans of Stanger Things will surely be on board with the new series. “While the heroes in The Boroughs have a few more years on them than the kids from Stranger Things, they are a similarly lovable bunch of misfits, and we can’t wait for you to join them on an adventure that is at turns scary, funny, and deeply touching.” Even though it’s just a statement, it’s still nice to imagine the brothers reciting it in perfect unison.
As for The Boroughs, the cryptic synopsis is as follows:
In a seemingly picturesque retirement community in the New Mexico desert, a group of unlikely heroes must band together to stop an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don’t have… time.
In other words, after the world mourns the loss of Stranger Things next year, we will all have something to look forward to. Who doesn’t love a good drama set in New Mexico?
Out today, April 20, “Satellite” boasts a trippy video from Venturia Animation. It begins with the real-life Rexha and Snoop Dogg lounging around. Snoop is smoking a blunt, of course, and explains to Rexha that he’s there to help her “do some different things and go to a different place.”
“You know, Snoop, I’ve always wanted to go to outer space, and I heard you’re the right guy to talk to,” she says.
Snoop exhales in Rexha’s direction, and we’re taken into an animated universe. Naturally, an animated Snoop greets us — he has green skin and a goatee in the shape of a marijuana leaf — with, “‘Tis the season for pleasin’! What happens here, stays here. Am I loud and clear? Or is the smoke f*ckin’ with your ear?”
A disco-infused pop beat kicks in, and we find Rexha animated in the style of The Jetsons. “Last night I got higher than a satellite,” she belts. “I took a one way ticket / It’s a one man mission to paradise.”
Snoop adds an infectious flow, “Prepare to take flight / I’m the captain here, my dear / No veers just steer through the atmosphere / D-P-G-C, we be Snoopy Bebe.”
“Fans will be able to immerse themselves even further in the ‘Satellite’ universe with Bebe’s Mothership Hot Box,” a press release explains. “After logging on to the TerraZero Intraverse space, which delivers a higher fidelity experience that’s also mobile-accessible, visitors can explore vintage environments, dive into Rexha’s new music, seek out a very special prize, and of course, smoke a virtual blunt to blast off to the mothership!”
It continues, “The activation was built by TerraZero using their Intraverse technology — the debut of the technology for TerraZero and the first use of the technology for Warner and the music industry.”
Rexha is closing in on the arrival of Bebe, her third studio album due out on April 28.
Watch the “Satellite” video above, and see Rexha’s upcoming Best F*n Night Of My Life Tour dates below.
Bebe is out 4/28 via Warner Records. Find more information here.
Bebe Rexha is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
I think it’s safe to say Jack Harlow is having a great week. The new trailer for White Men Can’t Jump, in which he stars, looks great, and he’s more than a comedic match in the teaser for Dave that came out yesterday. So, even having Beavis & Butt-Head, those icons of the ’90s counter-culture hating on probably can’t bring him down.
In the recently rebooted show, which is now streaming on Paramount +, the two foul-mouthed slackers bestow Harlow with their trademark snark as they watch the video for Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby.” “This video’s, like, really groundbreaking because Jack Harlow’s not in it,” Butt-Head intones, just before Harlow hits the screen for his oft-remarked-upon guest verse. “Euuugh, nevermind.”
In another episode, the duo also regards Audrey Nuna‘s “Comic Sans” video, which Harlow also guests in. “If Jack Harlow was tattooing me,” Butt-Head jokes, “I’d have him tattoo ‘Jack Harlow sucks.’” Well, you know what they say: All publicity is good publicity.
Despite B&B‘s harsh judgment, it looks very much like the world’s going to be getting all the Jack Harlow it can handle. In addition to working on his third album, Jack’s also landed his next movie role alongside Matt Damon and continues to see his music reach new milestones. I wrote this earlier today, but it’s a bad week for Harlow haters.
Watch the first episode of Beavis & Butt-Head above. The show will stream weekly on Paramount +.
It’s important and necessary to begin with this: The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are both great movies. Actually, “great” is an understatement, so let’s try again: Francis Ford Coppola’s Best Picture winners are two of the greatest films of all-time… but Al Pacino, who would know, thinks one is slightly better than the other.
“No, I don’t,” Pacino said at a recent 92nd Street Y event when asked if The Godfather Part II is superior to The Godfather (The Godfather Part III was not brought up). “I really think it’s more — what would you call it — artistic or something, I don’t know. I don’t mean to play it down and be overly modest because I star in it with Bob de Niro, but at the same time, it’s a different film.” He called The Godfather “more entertaining,” while The Godfather Part II is “this study, this personal thing for Francis.”
He continued:
“Godfather I, I saw it recently, it’s always got two or three things going on in a scene. You’re always in the story, you’re going. You don’t know what’s going to happen next, it’s storytelling, it’s really storytelling at its best. Godfather II sort of linearizes, and [it’s] kind of different, somber, moves slowly. But it’s a great movie, I have to say.”
It’s fun to imagine Pacino cracking open a cold one and putting on The Godfather after a long day of work. It was either that, or an episode of Modern Family on Freeform. “The Godfather?” he says. “Don’t mind if I do!”
Rudy Giuliani is an… interesting fellow. In addition to being the subject of a $1.3 billion defamation suit brought about by Dominion Voting Systems (the same company that just won a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News), Rudy — like his former boss, recent arrestee Donald Trump — is also the subject of a criminal investigation in Georgia for the many, many lies he told about the results of the 2020 presidential election. Yet even with the walls closing in all around him, the former New York City Mayor doesn’t seem to be losing any sleep over the possible punishments or jail time he could be facing. Instead, he’s thinking about the future — and how he’d make a great secretary of state!
As The Daily News reports, Giuliani made this statement while appearing on Steve Bannon’s podcast, which explains why he seems to be living in a dream world. It was Bannon who started the conversation, and asked Rudy if he would be interested in accepting such a high-ranking position. To which Giuliani initially demurred: “I shouldn’t ask for a job now, right? The boss would get angry. I’m willing to do [whatever] I have to do.”
Not getting indicted would be a great first step for Rudy, and not getting any jail time would be a good thing for Trump’s plans for a second term. But barring either of them being behind bars, Rudy said that he’d be “open” to the idea of serving as secretary of state.
“I really believe I could straighten… out the State Department,” the man who once held a press conference outside a dildo shop stated. “I think it’s the agency of the government, even more than the FBI, that needs to be straightened out first, because it’s us to the world,” he sagely noted.
In a new interview with The Telegraph, The National discussed working with the “Anti-Hero” singer. Aaron Dessner called her “an incredibly gifted writer,” comparing her to Joni Mitchell and Beyoncé. His bandmate Matt Berninger also divulged that “Cardigan” and “Willow,” the former a beloved cut from Folklore and the latter from Evermore, were originally intended to be songs for The National.
“I’d taken a swing at [‘Cardigan’] and ‘Willow’ and a couple of others, and I wasn’t having a lot of luck, so Aaron sent them to Taylor,” Berninger shared. “I always have a lot of music to work on, and I am looking for something to connect emotionally. The reverse has happened, too, where Aaron wrote something for Taylor, and I dove right in. It works both ways.”
In 2020, Berninger praised Swift after the release of Evermore. “Singing a song with Taylor Swift is like dancing with Gene Kelly,” he wrote on Twitter. “She made me look good and didn’t drop me once. ‘coney island’ is an incredibly beautiful song she and Aaron Dessner wrote together. It really made me miss Brooklyn. Such a blast being a part of evermore.”
HOUSTON — The sun’s only still rising on the collection of tawny brick and glass medical buildings clustered together on either side of Brays Bayou, the river that flows all the way inland from Galveston Bay to wend through South Central Houston and the group of hospitals that make up the Texas Medical Center. But inside an unassuming low-rise there’s some serious concentration being put toward glitter.
At a table set in a corner of the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) Houston’s common hall, a group of lanky, masked teenagers clad in matching tracksuits are bent over open paper bags, carefully measuring portions of iridescent confetti into each. Once the glitter is measured the bag is passed around the table for more craft supplies to be added and finished off with a small cowboy hat tied to the bag’s handles. The final step is a handwritten note penned out in permanent marker, such as “You are strong.”
It’s a production line of the utmost care and it’s clear the deft hands doing it are used to the patient work of practice. This is the first stop in what will be a whirlwind weekend for 48 of the best U.S. high school basketball players who were named McDonald’s All Americans.
All throughout their Saturday morning, the girls and boys will spend time with the kids and families staying at RMH — swapping through indoor tables with t-shirt and cupcake decorations, outdoor activities like a spontaneous game of HORSE on the House’s small outdoor court, and blowing bubbles with kids too little to hoop. What’s evident in watching the athletes interact with the kids, many in wheelchairs or visibly sick, is how easy they are with them. There’s a comfort to every interaction, from carefully lifting kids up to dunk or bending close to talk through a painting strategy. Part of it comes from the involvement athletes have within their own communities (a central consideration to being named an All American), but more of it is, as much as every move from here in their budding careers hurls them toward the accelerated maturation that goes with becoming a professional athlete, they’re still, all of them, kids.
What’s special is that in a weekend meant to celebrate their athletic achievements — and in many ways mark the transition from this stage to the next (college, alternate training programs like Ignite that funnel right into the NBA) — that central fact is never lost sight of. It’s an even more miraculous feat considering that with the rise of NIL, the college transfer portal, and ongoing discussion on lowering the minimum age for NBA draft eligibility to 18 (the WNBA currently has a minimum age of 22 for draft eligibility), the pressure on young athletes to have complete athletic and brand identities by the time they’re college freshman is more intense than ever.
“They’re going to get hit with a lot of stuff that I probably didn’t get hit with,” WNBA champion A’ja Wilson, tells Dime. “You got NIL coming up, you have a way of branding yourself that is really under a microscope. Their worlds are in a spotlight, instantly. When for me, it wasn’t like that. I had the opportunity to be that kid, say whatever, do whatever, and still get through.”
Wilson, a former All American herself, was invited to address the 2023 class in Houston as the group’s fireside chat speaker on the night of their ring ceremony. When the floor was opened up for questions, the age of the athletes, for all their poise and coolness taking the stage to collect their rings (not so for the proud, whooping parents in attendance), was evident. They shifted nervously in their seats, shot surreptitious looks around at their friends. Nobody wanted to be first. When some awkward hands did get raised, many of the questions were about going pro and Wilson’s experience there and felt prompted by an awareness of their families watching in the rows behind them. It wasn’t until a final call for questions that the first real one was asked.
“Did you party?” A girl in the front row quietly asks Wilson.
Wilson smiles back at her, “In college?” The girl nods. Wilson breaks out into deep belly laugh and nods her head, emphatically, “Of course I partied in college.”
The girl who asks gets slapped appreciatively on the back by her friends and instantly, 48 pairs of stiff shoulders relax.
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The history of the McDonald’s All American Game (McDAAG) goes back to 1977, when McDonald’s picked the best boys high school players in the U.S. for their sponsored team entry into the Capital Classic game in Washington, D.C. That tournament, started by Bob Geoghan in 1974, was smaller and focused on putting the best high school athletes in the D.C. area up against a handful of national players. Geoghan sensed it had legs and, wanting to start a tournament with more national scope, approached Bob Beavers, a regional VP with McDonald’s and the company’s first Black executive, with the idea. Morgan Wootten (for whom the game’s National Player of the Year award is named) and John Wooden (the UCLA coaching legend and for whom the tournament’s MVP award is named) were also approached to get the new tournament off the ground.
A year later, McDonald’s launched its own all-star style tournament, with the East vs. West style matchup adopted the next year — the girls’ honors and tournament were added in 2002. The Jam Fest, the McDAAG version of All-Star Saturday Night with a Dunk and 3-Point Contest, were added in 1985 and 1987, respectively. A Skills Contest was added in 2002. Former Dunk Contest winners include Vince Carter, LeBron James, and Candace Parker.
The schedule of the weekend expanded over time. Because the community aspect of McDAAG was a centerpiece of the tournament’s founding, a visit to a Ronald McDonald House in the host city often starts things off. From there, daily practices, media day, the ring ceremony, Jam Fest, a game-day shootaround (this year, the kids were surprised by Don Toliver), and then back-to-back girls and boys games. Kids at this level are accustomed to tournaments, from AAU to competing in FIBA events, but the McDAAG scheduling adds a buffer of levity, or just a basic breather, at every step.
“We’ve felt for a long time that this weekend was much more than just about tonight,” McDonald’s Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Tariq Hassan tells Dime while sitting in the Toyota Center, looking down at the court being prepped for the night’s games. “There’s a reason we invite the families. There’s a reason that we bring the events together where the families are so involved. Because at the end of the day, they’re still high school athletes who are carrying an inordinate amount of responsibility, and frankly today, in a socially connected world, some of that responsibility they may or may not even ask for.”
Talking to Wilson about her experience as an All American is the same as talking to the kids there for their own weekend. The level of pride and prestige in being named and being there with the rest of your class, in going everywhere that weekend and beyond clad head to toe in McDAAG branded tracksuits and uniforms (announcing this year’s class, Vince Carter showed his own shoes from his game, encased in plexiglass like a museum artifact and falling apart), and the specific anointment of skill being named means for your future career (60 percent of McDAAG athletes go on to the pros) is one and the same. It’s the seamless melding of ethos and brand, plus history and recency, that corporations covet, and McDonald’s has done it mostly by getting out of the way.
“If you’re gonna move into culture and you called it out, these kids have a very high BS radar. Authenticity is the best way through that,” Hassan says, emphasizing that as massive as McDonald’s is, as a brand it can’t actually control consumer perception given its own origins and still contemporary product in the service industry. “We don’t over-fixate on this as being a brand property. We focus on this being, kids are first and it’s about the recognition of the best. How do we create the weekend for them?”
Given the compulsion some brands have to overcorrect when they, or the issues affecting them, are called out, many of McDonald’s offerings over the course of the weekend resist by not engaging. Streetwear designer Eric Emanuel gave the uniforms an overhaul, and Toliver performed during halftime of the boys’ game, otherwise the most ostentatious part of the event was a malfunctioning smoke machine on the court. Where the NCAA scrambled to catch up in its equal treatment for the women’s March Madness tournament, simple inclusions at McDAAG that have been there all along are still the most meaningful.
“The difference of the women’s game now, it’s just the recognition of it all. The visibility. It’s really starting to beam. And I really have to give credit to McDonald’s, because they were the only ones that didn’t separate the swag bags,” Wilson recalls. “Coming in, [we] got the same amount of swag as the number one guys got. And that’s what we needed, and the drop off was in college. But now it’s on it’s way up, so I think it’s always a good start here when they have that equality.
“That was a big, big deal to me,” Wilson stresses. “Especially to a young girl, that confidence wasn’t there, and you’re constantly running into stuff.”
Being ahead of the curve doesn’t mean the McDAAG weekend and its components aren’t figuring out ways to keep up. Classes focused on branding and financial literacy were introduced this year, given the prevalence of NIL and how soon these players will be (or already are, in some cases) exploring it. The onus is still on letting the kids and their families step back and have moments of recognition for the work it took them to get here, and Hassan says they’re continually asking for feedback on whether or not courses like this are worthwhile.
Wilson thinks the benefits will fall somewhere in the middle.
“Cause high school kids are always going to be high school kids. Why am I learning about money when I got enough? I’m good. They’re always going to be that,” she chuckles. “I feel like my head would be spinning if you came to me my freshman year and said I need an agent, cause I’m like, why? I just want to go to class, what do I need an agent for? And so for them — and their minds are like play-doh, they see it, it’s on TikTok, it’s on Snap. To grasp that, to get a handle on that, I think Mcdonald’s is on the right track that they execute that here in the couple days they have them, cause they’re all about to go their separate ways and life is about to hit them so fast. If they can just remember a piece from something they learned to help them out in the long run, I think that just speaks for itself.”
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The label of McDonald’s All American denotes an echelon of talent and refined skill. It’s singular. A stamp 48 young women and men get that will always set them apart while grouping them together. They become part of an interpreted history. But their own stories and experiences on the way to one weekend couldn’t be more different.
Where college athletics and the drive to go pro can force accelerated growth, it can also blur out the vivid and most formative aspects of an athlete’s life leading up to or outside of, in this case, basketball.
Isaiah Collier, the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2023, is quiet, if a little shy. His ease came through at the morning visit to Ronald McDonald House, where he painted a t-shirt with a really small, really happy kid. It also comes through on the floor, where he’s a psychic menace.
Often three steps ahead making passes to teammates not even there yet, he has a knack for slowing his role in a game down even as it roars around him,
“It’s playing at your own pace,” Collier nods. “Not letting anybody speed you up. It’s all about you, basically, before you think about them. It’s your pace.” The USC signee studies film of passing intently, noting, “At first it was starting to get stolen a lot, so I just started working on it more and more. Not many people just work on passing.”
Collier’s cousin, who he calls his brother, drowned in August while the family was on a kayak trip in the Chattahoochee River. He’s said family is what keeps him going.
“It’s been a real hard season,” Collier says quietly. “So, for me it’s like, I’m just living like him every day. Pushing for him. My family has come real tight. That’s just what I live by, really.”
Matas Buzelis shares in Collier’s knack for passing but will be taking a different route on his hopeful journey to the NBA. The son of two former Lithuanian pro basketball players, Buzelis was a dual competitive swimmer and basketball player, giving the former up to his mom’s chagrin (he cringes with guilt, recalling how upset she was at the decision). Before he hit the growth spurt that currently has him standing at 6’9, Buzelis played point. His height is an asset as he towers over defenders he’s able to weave passes around the floor like an air traffic controller.
Buzelis decided to sign with the G League Ignite, citing the alternate pathway to the NBA as a way to fast-track his body and its physical development as much as his own chances.
“When they say, Matas didn’t want to go to school. It’s not anything like that,” he jokes. He has a keen understanding of European and American basketball, with a foot in both worlds having forged close friendships with the boys also in Houston and also from parents who played the international game. But he had his eyes opened further in the All-Star Weekend Basketball Without Borders camp.
“Those players from Europe know how to play basketball. It’s very fundamental. It was good to just a part of something special like that. I had to adjust a little bit,” he laughs, adding that he liked the aspect of Ignite that offers opportunities to young international athletes who don’t have the option of an American college. “It helps a lot of kids.”
Mikaylah Williams has also gone against international competition. She spent a chunk of her last two summers representing the US in the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Hungary, but during the weekend in Houston her thoughts are, intensely, of home. Williams is committed to LSU, and at the time we spoke, the Tigers were clawing through the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament en route to an eventual title. She notes that there’s “no choice” but to make it equal to the men’s game now that so many eyes are on it.
Watching Williams, who’s ranked number one in the country, there’s a joy that comes through like an audible hum in how she plays. Asked about it, she breaks into a broad smile. She admits that the best part of weekend was “just being able to touch the basketball again,” politely cutting me off to finish my question that, yes, she feels off if she doesn’t play for a few days. As someone who started playing softball, Williams remembers feeling “timid” when she switched to basketball. She chalks it up to an initial lack of preparation and second-guessing herself, none of which are evident watching her command the floor with her absolute guard’s vision and intensity.
Asked how she feels about using the weekend as a springboard, Williams instead stays thoughtfully grounded in the present. “The best of the best are here,” she says, “and we’ll never play with all these people again.”
Coming into the weekend, I watched many of the athletes’ college commitment announcement videos. Most were pro-level production slick, bite-sized for social media with plenty of in-game highlights and just the right balance of personal flair. At first, it felt strange seeing kids emulate the pros, but then I realized each video was its own small flag of identity, staked as a marker of memory for them in the slipstream of time. Watching them, getting to talk with them, having enthusiastic run-ins with their families in elevators, there was a palpable weight to the importance of the weekend in its own historic prestige, but also for the space it created around them. Breathing space, space to compete, to show out, to goof off, to be humbled and realize how good they had it, to be awkward, frustrated, upset they’d botched a shot or lost the game, to roll their eyes at their families and, when no one was looking, allow themselves to be wrapped in a hug. It was a gift and a simultaneous celebration of time. It was a whole lot more than just a game.
Dime was invited on a hosted trip to the Final Four through McDonald’s All-American Games for reporting on this piece. However, McDonald’s All-American Games did not review or approve this story in any way. You can find out more about our policy on press trips/hostings here.
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