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One Suspect Charged for Foolio’s Murder Wants Separate Trial
Trent Fitzgerald
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Update in Foolio’s murder case. Continue reading…
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Harry Styles Goes Full Stuntman In His Daring New ‘American Girls’ Video
Derrick Rossignol
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Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally., the new album from Harry Styles and therefore one of the biggest pop events of 2026 so far, is out today (March 6). Accompanying the release is a new video for the song “American Girls.”

In the James Mackel-directed clip, Styles is on a film set doing a bunch of stunts. That includes everything from driving a car under an exploding truck, although it’s made abundantly clear that green screen was heavily used to achieve these big moments.

Styles recently told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of the song:

“It’s actually quite a lonely song in a lot of ways. I watched my three closest friends get married. And actually seeing them trust in something and risk something to find something truly fulfilling, in a way that isn’t as shiny and on paper as exciting as like, you know, watching them get married. I was like, I’m single, so I’m having all the fun.

And ‘American Girls’ is actually about watching them get married and… there just is a magic when you find the right person that you want to be with. But I think watching them do that.”

Watch the “American Girls” video above.

Harry Styles’ Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. Album Cover Artwork

Harry Styles’ Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. Tracklist

1. “Aperture”
2. “American Girls”
3. “Ready, Steady, Go!”
4. “Are You Listening Yet?”
5. “Taste Back”
6. “The Waiting Game”
7. “Season 2 Weight Loss”
8. “Coming Up Roses”
9. “Pop”
10. “Dance No More”
11. “Paint By Numbers”
12. “Carla’s Song”

Harry Styles’ 2026 Tour Dates: Together, Together

05/16 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
05/17 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
05/20 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
05/22 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
05/23 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
05/26 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
05/29 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
05/30 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
06/04 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
06/05 — Amsterdam, NL @ Johan Cruijff Arena ^
06/12 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/13 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/17 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/19 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/20 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/23 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/26 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/27 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
06/29 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
07/01 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
07/03 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
07/04 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium *
07/17 — São Paulo, BR @ Estadio MorumBIS ~
07/18 — São Paulo, BR @ Estadio MorumBIS ~
07/21 — São Paulo, BR @ Estadio MorumBIS ~
07/24 — São Paulo, BR @ Estadio MorumBIS ~
07/31 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros #
08/01 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros #
08/04 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros #
08/07 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros #
08/08 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros #
08/10 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros #
08/26 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
08/28 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
08/29 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/02 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/04 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/05 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/09 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/11 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/12 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/16 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/18 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/19 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/23 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/25 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/26 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
09/30 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/02 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/03 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/07 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/09 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/10 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/14 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/16 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/17 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/21 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/23 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/24 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/28 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/30 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
10/31 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden +
11/27 — Melbourne, AU @ Marvel Stadium ^^ @
11/28 — Melbourne, AU @ Marvel Stadium ^^ @
12/02 — Melbourne, AU @ Marvel Stadium ^^ @
12/12 — Sydney, AU @ Accor Stadium ! @
12/13 — Sydney, AU @ Accor Stadium ! @

^ with Robyn
* with Shania Twain
~ with Fcukers
# with Jorja Smith
+ with Jamie xx
^^ with Fousheé
! with Skye Newman
@ with Baby J

Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. is out now via Columbia. Find more information here.

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I don’t remember the specifics of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention where I heard the Rev. Jesse Jackson speak. I believe the year was 1996, though I can’t recall the precise subject of the panel or broad strokes of the discussion. But I do remember what he said.

Jackson was on the dais with a group of professional basketball players, including young women from the newly launched WNBA, as they thanked their NBA brethren for the inspiration and for so thoroughly entrenching the game in popular culture. It was the efforts of those men, in the words of the young female players, that had made a brand-new professional women’s basketball league possible.

Then, Jackson spoke.

The NBA had significant cultural sway, and he was a fan, but what made the WNBA possible, Jackson said, was all the people who had advocated for Title IX legislation, which mandated funding for women’s college sports and created the pipeline of female athletes that could even populate a women’s professional basketball league, let alone stand up the support and enthusiasm the league required. His was an immediate, incisive clarification, and he paused to let the words sink in.

As a former college quarterback who had been offered an opportunity to play professional baseball, Jackson brought an athlete’s kinetic intelligence to activism.

“Reverend was always aware of and always wanted people to recognize that policy and legislation gives you some legs to stand on,” said Joseph Bryant, national sports director for Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “It was important for Reverend to always bring to light the context of these experiences.”

“His vision of equity and inclusion included sports,” said former Olympic fencer Nikki Franke, co-founder of the Black Women in Sport Foundation.

Jackson’s advocacy for sports was always an extension of his fight for social, political and economic justice. This was true whether he was talking about labor practices; fair housing; or hiring for C-Suites, coaches, general managers and team doctors in professional sports leagues. It was always undergirded by passion for the collective deliverance of the nation, by way of the redemptive power of equal opportunity. Jesse Jackson had court vision that covered America.

But growing up in Chicago, we understood him most significantly as our own. 

Jackson stood for decades in the post-Civil Rights gap, and this week’s homegoing services and memorials have me thinking hard about the Chicago of it all. About both the city and the man, and his testimony, the combination of which gave generations of young people an eye-level look at what it meant to inhabit your full proportions while Black, with all the creativity and incoming fire that entailed.

I’d heard about Jesse Jackson my entire life.

My parents had moved from South-feeling southern Illinois to Chicago as part of the second leg of the Great Migration. Jackson had been tapped by his mentor Martin Luther King Jr. to spearhead a national charge for economic equality and step up in Chicago, which would eventually serve as the headquarters of his organizations, the People United to Serve Humanity (PUSH) in 1971 and the Rainbow Coalition in 1984, after the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

My father knew Jackson from his undergraduate days at the University of Illinois, where they briefly overlapped, and I remember attending PUSH’s Black Expo as a child. Or perhaps I simply remember my parents attending, and Momma rhapsodizing about how good-looking Jackson was, how he’d kissed her cheek and she didn’t want to wash it. Stature and charisma were part of his gifts.

“Jesse was striking in presence — tall, beige, handsome, athletic. But those surface qualities quickly gave way to something more compelling: an exceptional mind paired with relentless discipline,” Hermene D. Hartman, a Jackson protege, confidant and close friend who met him as a student at Chicago’s Roosevelt University, reflected in her digital publication, N’digo.

“He was not afraid of power; he challenged it as he pursued his own,” she wrote. “He challenged, and he rhymed.” 

My colleague and friend Michael Wilbon, the renowned sports writer, analyst and commentator, recalled waking up one summer morning when he was 10 years old and seeing “a guy with a huge Afro and perfect sideburns wearing a dashiki” at his breakfast table. It was Jackson.

“My father had been the top salesperson on his route at Dean’s Food Co. in Chicago. And yet, he had been fired. He was also the only Black salesperson,” Wilbon said. When Jackson heard about it, he responded: “No, no, no, we’re not having that.”

Jackson organized a boycott, and Wilbon’s father was hired back within 48 hours.

“My father was so proud that he never had to get financial aid to send [me and my brother] anywhere, including Northwestern [University]. That was made possible by Jesse L. Jackson directly, just straight up.”

In his early years as a Washington Post columnist in the 1990s, Wilbon was critical of an instance of sports activism Jackson had undertaken. To illustrate his point, he recalled the story of Jackson saving his father’s job nearly 25 years earlier.

“I wrote about how his voice wasn’t needed there [in sports] as much as it was for families that were voiceless like mine were at that time,” he said. Jackson had sometimes called Wilbon, but didn’t know about their connection from the summer of 1969. The day after the column ran, “the first call I got the next morning was from Jesse, and he’s like, ‘I remember this. I remember your father.’… I didn’t think he’d remember, because I was 35, and there was a 25-year gap.”

“I was just saying to somebody, ‘When did Jesse go from being a guy who belonged to us to belonging to the nation?” Wilbon said. “But if I was a betting person. I would bet it was something sports related.”

As a former athlete, Jackson always had a personal bent toward sports.

“But he also viewed sports as a space and a place where there was an image of fairness that was taking place on the field that wasn’t always translated into other parts of life,” said Bryant, the Rainbow/PUSH sports director. “Oftentimes, the field is not balanced, the rules are not public, there are all types of unfair practices. …

“So Rev. Jackson’s connection to sports was still very much aligned with his drive for justice and equality, but there was a different spin that could be taken simply because the sports world has its own story to tell in how success is achieved, and yet it wasn’t being translated.”

This translation often included the behind-the-scenes, off-camera, whisper work of vouching for people whose lives had skidded into a bad patch, and they needed a push.

Jackson was close friends with legendary Georgetown men’s basketball coach John Thompson Jr. When Allen Iverson, a top high school prospect at the time, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a racially charged bowling alley melee in 1993, his mother went to Thompson asking for help, and Jackson was among those who reached out to Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder to ask him to grant Iverson clemency.

The following year, when Iverson began his first season at Georgetown, Jackson told The Virginian-Pilot, “The politicians say lock up Iverson, I say lift him up.”

Athletes had voices that carried beyond the fields, courts, courses and stadiums. But their fame sometimes distanced them from the real talk of their communities. No matter how far he traveled or successful he became, Jackson could still bring word from the streets into every room he entered.

He could always play the inside-outside game that we learned to recognize from Chicago, from sports, from politics. He spoke all three of those dialects fluently; he spoke the language of the streets and the upper classes that gathered in rooms he’d had to punch his way into. What we would learn later is that both the boardroom and the block revolve around politics, and Jackson was an old-school politician.

Jackson had been friends with Muhammad Ali, and was close to Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson, whom he eulogized. Jim Brown reached out to Jackson before the storied 1967 Cleveland Summit of professional athletes who supported Ali’s refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War.

“I salute Jesse for 60 years in the trenches contributing to the struggle for social justice and freedom,” Harry Edwards, architect of the 1968 Olympic Project for Human Rights and University of California-Berkeley professor emeritus who pioneered the sociology of sport, emailed me to say. He sent a photo of himself, Abdul-Jabbar and Jackson from the day before Ali’s memorial service in 2016, and a game-day photo of himself and Jackson in the San Francisco 49ers locker room in 1994.

Jackson “was the person who I just called the long-distance runner, who was in the fight for social justice really longer than anybody else,” said author and academic Richard Lapchick, who used to speak annually at the Operation PUSH conventions in Chicago.

Lapchick was the American leader of the sports boycott of South Africa campaign when he first got to know Jackson. He also wrote the annual Racial & Gender Report Cards assessing diversity in professional sports, college sports and sports media for decades, and had a column on race for ESPN in which he’d often quote Jackson.

Lapchick and his wife were out to dinner in New Orleans once when he heard a prominent sports writer at a nearby table full of fellow sports writers say, “’Jackson was in the news today. Again. … He’s an ambulance chaser.’ And when she saw I was there at the end of the meeting, I know she was wondering if I heard that, but I did.”

Jackson “was always all-inclusive. If I was just talking about race, he would always broaden the discussion to include the status of women in sports,” Lapchick said. “So many people I worked with were obviously committed to these issues, but weren’t willing to risk anything and [put anything] on the line. Rev. Jackson would say whatever was on his mind, whatever the consequences.”

That NABJ convention wasn’t the first time I’d heard the Rev. Jesse Jackson speak.

That would have been at the 1984 funeral of basketball phenom Benji Wilson at Operation PUSH. Wilson was the nation’s top player before being gunned down blocks from his Chicago high school on the cusp of his senior season.

I hadn’t known Wilson, but we were the same age, and his death was so tragic that I felt compelled to attend his funeral at the Operation PUSH headquarters along with thousands of others.

I heard Jackson issue a warning that day: Gun violence was taking hold in Black communities, he told the crowd of mourners. Parents had to hold tight to their children and communities had to advocate, right now, for gun control, he warned urgently, or our destinies would be diminished and dogged by paroxysms of violence. It sounded to my young ears like prophecy.

By that time, Jackson had been all over the news. 

In 1983, when the winningly charismatic, deeply intellectual lawyer Harold Washington ran to become Chicago’s first Black mayor, Jackson campaigned with him, held rallies and his Operation PUSH coalition helped register 100,000 voters.

“Every day of our lives, we were the hall pushers. We built the city on our shoulders, we made the river run backwards, we stayed in people’s backyards because of restrictive covenants. We paid our taxes and couldn’t get represented. And yet we would not bow. We did not get weary. And in your own time, you raised up a man with the integrity, the intelligence, the environment, the drive,” Jackson exhorted a campaign crowd.

“We want Harold! We want Harold!” Jackson led the chants.

When Washington won, it felt like a personal triumph for some of us, and a shift in the known world to others. Some of my teachers and white classmates were palpably shocked. Others were apoplectic.

I remember a white boy sitting atop of his desk in my suburban high school. I don’t remember his name, or what he said about Washington, but I can still picture him yelling out, “I f‑‑‑ing hate Jesse Jackson!” His face was red and mottled, and his words were wrapped in a fury he could not fully language.

While I didn’t fully understand it either, I came to recognize that there was something about the way Jackson showed up in the world that acted as a proxy for an idea that had been baked into America, and has never been fully purged. The idea that people like Jesse Jackson, and by extension me and mine, didn’t deserve to take up so much space.

But chief among Jackson’s gifts were seeing around corners and recognizing shadow contracts. Showing up to places where people didn’t want to see him, didn’t think he belonged and didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“People who don’t want things to change are going to hate people who are making change,” said Lapchick, who knows the truth of it. In 1978, he was beaten, concussed and the N-word was carved across his stomach by two masked men angry over his anti-apartheid work. “I think that drew Rev. Jackson to me, because he believed that I was willing to take those kinds of risks to fight for social justice.” As was Jackson, Lapchick said.

The notion that we didn’t belong was an idea that had long carried sway in the hyper-segregated Chicago of my childhood, but on the day of Washington’s victory, generations of young South Siders and West Siders and the whole of Chicagoland saw it defeated.

A year later in San Francisco, standing on the national stage at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, in soaring oratory, presidential candidate Jesse Jackson invoked a Rainbow Coalition of Native Americans, Blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics. He shouted out gay and lesbian communities, young Americans and the disabled. From slave ships to championships, he called our journey.

The Democratic convention was a great distance physically and psychically from Chicago, but Jesse Jackson had invited us. I rewatch the speech today, and I see the here and now in the bygone of his words. I hadn’t remembered the politics and platform, but I know I watched the speech as a teenager in the Chicago suburbs. Because Jackson’s exhortation “our time has come, our time has come,” rang in my ears.

Jackson showed up in places young people in Chicago wouldn’t have known to aspire to, and held space for us until we could arrive. 

I felt frightened by that white boy’s hatred in the suburbs of Chicago. 

But I was proud of Harold Washington and of the rousing, percussive, insistent muscularity of Jesse Jackson. I could not doubt that they belonged, which meant I would belong as well. Wherever I was going. Because I started in Chicago. I saw Jesse run. And I was proud to be Black.

The post In Chicago, Jesse Jackson honed his court vision that would extend across America appeared first on Andscape.

So, how much do you know about Jason Kidd’s NBA career?

After contemplating briefly, 19-year-old Cooper Flagg respectfully admitted he wasn’t well versed on the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer who is also the rookie’s head coach with the Dallas Mavericks.

“I’m not extremely familiar. I know he’s a legend, but no. I didn’t watch J-Kidd a ton,” Flagg told Andscape.

If Flagg ever decided to research Kidd, he would realize that his coach is one of the top point guards in NBA history.

Kidd was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. The 10-time NBA All-Star won a 2011 championship with Dallas and two Olympic gold medals with USA Basketball. The former Cal star ranks second all-time in NBA history in assists (12,091) and steals (2,684). A five-time All-NBA first-team selection, he had 107 career triple-doubles. The four-time All-NBA first-team defensive selection also played in the NBA Finals three times.

Kidd was also the 1995 NBA co-Rookie of the Year with the Detroit Pistons’ Grant Hill. So far, Flagg seems capable of following in his coach’s footsteps his rookie season. The No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft has averaged 20.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in 50 games, and Kidd said it has been “amazing” to see what the teenager has done this season.

Flagg, a Maine native, is expected to play his first professional game in New England against the Boston Celtics on Friday (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET).

From Duke to the No. 1 pick, there has certainly been pressure for Flagg to succeed as a rookie. Kidd had the same pressure and expectations when the Mavericks drafted him from Cal as the No. 2 pick in the 1994 NBA draft.

Kidd joined a rebuilding Mavericks team that won 11 and 13 games, respectively, the prior two seasons. A well-known All-American in high school and college, Kidd was viewed as a potential savior when he arrived in Dallas. As a rookie, he averaged 11.7 points, 7.7 assists, and 5.4 rebound and added a league-leading four triple-doubles.

“What I remember most is just all the games,” Kidd said. “We would play four [games] in five [nights], or seven in 10. I don’t think we have that schedule anymore. Then, every night there was an All-Star at that position at point guard. So, you had to get your rest and be ready to compete.”

Former Mavericks forward Popeye Jones, now an assistant coach on Kidd’s staff, fondly recalled playing with the 6-foot-4 point guard when he was a rookie.

“I just remember he was the connector,” Jones told Andscape. “I was shocked at how big he was as a point guard with the speed and pace he played with. He could control a game with his scoring, passing, rebounding and defense through segments of the game as a young player.

“I would just try to get the rebound and find him with the outlet pass. I couldn’t run with him. It was so beautiful to watch him push the ball on the break from behind. His head was on a swivel and he saw everybody and always knew how to make the right play.”

The Mavericks had a 25% chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the 1994 NBA draft after having the league’s worst record. The Milwaukee Bucks landed the top selection and used it to draft Purdue forward Glenn Robinson. The Mavs took Kidd with the second pick.

The Mavericks had a mere 1.8 percent odds of winning the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery. However, they stunningly won the lottery in the aftermath of trading All-Star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Flagg was selected with the top pick out of Duke, where he was a consensus first-team All-American as a freshman after averaging 18.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game.

A stunned Kidd got the news last year while attending a board meeting in San Diego for luxury rental car brand Go Rental. He serves on the board of directors and as a brand ambassador.

“For us to get the No. 1 pick, we were all excited — the people from the Go Rental board and myself — because it was history. It was exciting,” the 52-year-old Kidd said.

While coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, Kidd played a big role in the early development of 10-time NBA All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Kidd made the unique and daring decision to make Antetokounmpo a primary ball-handler and effectively a point guard during the 2014-15 season. The decision allowed the athletic 6-11 forward to initiate the offense, create matchup problems and improve his playmaking and passing, ultimately carving his path to stardom.

Kidd made the same bold move with Flagg entering his rookie season, and he was criticized in the media after Flagg averaged 13.4 points on 41% shooting with only 2.6 free-throw attempts per game in five contests in October.

But by December, Flagg unlocked his game, averaging 23.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals for the month. He scored 49 points against the Charlotte Hornets in a 123-121 loss on Jan. 29, and he had his most impressive month in February, averaging 27.3 points per game in four contests before suffering a left midfoot sprain.

“I’ve seen it before. A lot of people haven’t seen it,” Kidd said of putting Flagg at point guard. “People who are critical never played or [had] never seen it. I’ve seen it. Saw it in Milwaukee. Giannis is Giannis. People might have been critical there, too. If you’re challenging or trying to change or help someone become successful, there are going to be critics. You need critics because critics are not always right. That’s just the nature of the beast.

“But it’s basketball. There’s no more positions. What’s your skill set? Can you handle it? If you can handle it, you can play. KD [Kevin Durant] got the ball early in his career. Was [then-Seattle SuperSonics head coach] P. J. Carlesimo criticized for it? Yeah? Maybe. You have to go back and look, but it worked out.”

So far, Flagg said he has learned a lot as a pupil under Kidd.

“He’s given me a ton of stuff, but I think it was more just about me being myself. He’s just giving me a lot of confidence about just being myself and just letting the game come to me. He’s given me a ton of advice,” Flagg said.

Kidd said in December that the biggest difference between his rookie season and Flagg’s was that the latter had “future Hall of Famers” to play with in Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson. The 1994-95 Mavericks had a short-lived young standout trio of Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn that went 36-46.

However, the 32-year-old Davis was traded to the Washington Wizards on Feb. 5 in a nine-player, three-team trade. The Mavs announced Feb. 18 that Irving, 33, was out for the season as he continues recovering from torn left ACL surgery underwent in March 2025. Thompson, 36, is now a reserve sharpshooter for Dallas after winning four titles with Golden State.

Time will tell if Flagg compiles a resume that can compete with Kidd’s. By the sound of Kidd’s expectations for Flagg, he expects his prized rookie to be just as special.

“There’s no bar. There is no limit on this young man,” Kidd said. “Time and strength. Once he gets those two, it’s over.”

The post Why Jason Kidd put the ball in Cooper Flagg’s hands appeared first on Andscape.

Azzi Fudd is officially a Jordan Brand athlete.

The UConn senior guard and projected first-round pick in April’s WNBA draft was announced as the latest signing to Michael Jordan’s namesake company on Friday morning.

Entering this weekend’s Big East women’s basketball tournament, Fudd joins the brand’s female-fronted NIL roster led by Huskies teammate Sarah Strong, LSU’s Bella Hines and Mikaylah Williams, and UCLA’s Kiki Rice.

The magnitude of the partnership is not lost on Fudd.

“I grew up watching what the Jumpman meant to basketball and to the culture around the game,” Fudd said in a statement. “So becoming part of the Jordan Brand family represents what I am stepping into and the greatness that I aspire to be.” 

Fudd, who averages 17.9 points and three assists per game for the top-ranked Huskies, began her college basketball career as the first ambassador for Under Armour’s Steph Curry Brand.

The deal, along with Curry’s ties to Under Armour, has since expired, allowing Fudd the space to write a new chapter in her sneaker story as she begins her WNBA career next month.

“To wear the same logo that so many legends have worn is something I don’t take lightly,” Fudd said. “For me, it’s about honoring that legacy while also helping show what the next generation of women’s basketball looks like.”

On the court with UConn, one would expect Fudd to continue wearing team-issued Nikes as part of the school’s exclusive relationship with the Beaverton, Oregon, brand, a deal that’s been in place since 2008.

Strong, Fudd’s teammate who signed with Jordan Brand in November 2025, has played in Nike sneakers throughout this season.

Once drafted to the WNBA, Fudd will wear Jordan sneakers alongside fellow active ambassadors, including Napheesa Collier, Rhyne Howard and Dearica Hamby.

“I’m excited to keep pushing my game forward while representing Jordan Brand with pride,” Fudd said. “And I hope that I continue to inspire young girls who dream of playing at the highest level.”

The post UConn standout Azzi Fudd joins Jordan Brand appeared first on Andscape.

Lil Poppa’s Funeral Will Be Open to the Public and Livestreamed
Trent Fitzgerald
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Lil Poppa’s funeral details have been announced. Continue reading…
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Tainy Takes The Field To Helm A World Baseball Classic Soundtrack Featuring Myke Towers, Young Miko, And More
Derrick Rossignol
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The 2026 World Baseball Classic has begun. It kicked off with Pool C play in Tokyo yesterday (March 4, ET), while Pool A, Pool B, and Pool D begin in Puerto Rico, Houston, and Miami, respectively, on March 6. For the international event, World Baseball Classic Inc. went all in on music this year by releasing the first-ever tournament soundtrack, produced by two-time Grammy winner Tainy.

There are three original songs and the highlight, described as the “anthem track for the tournament,” is “Make It Count,” a collaboration between Becky G, Yeonjun of Tomorrow X Together, and Myke Towers. The other two songs are Young Miko’s “MVP” and Fujii Kaze’s “My Place.” The diversity of genres is intentional, with a press release noting the included artists “showcase how baseball’s rhythm resonates across different languages and borders.” The songs feature lyrics in English, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

Tainy dropped by MLB Network’s Hot Stove to talk about the soundtrack, discussing how his native Puerto Rico’s love of baseball inspired him to get involved. Uzma Rawn Dowler — MLB Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Partnerships — also says in a statement:

“The World Baseball Classic is a special celebration of national pride and elite competition that resonates far beyond the diamond. By collaborating with a visionary like Tainy to produce our first-ever original soundtrack, we are leaning into the intersection of sports and music to connect with fans on a deeper cultural level. Bringing together the influence of these talented musical artists from around the world allows us to amplify the energy of the tournament and showcase the vibrant spirit that defines modern baseball.”

The soundtrack is available now via Republic Records; Listen to “Make It Count” above. As for what’s happening on the field, find the full schedule of games and broadcast information here.

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Quavo Owes IRS $2.9 million in Unpaid Taxes – Report
Trent Fitzgerald
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Uncle Sam wants his bread. Continue reading…
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Here’s The Verdict On One Of America’s Most Expensive New Whiskeys
Frank Dobbins III
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Any time you get to taste a premium whiskey from Michter’s, it’s a cause for celebration. It just so happens that this particular expression is so painstakingly created that its name is an homage to the occasion.

Michter’s Celebration Sour Mash debuted in 2013 and, at the time, represented a major innovation in the American whiskey world, not only as one of the few expressions that blended bourbon and rye, but also as one of the first super-premium American whiskeys on the market. With an original MSRP of $4,000, Michter’s anticipated the current crop of high-end American whiskeys we’re seeing more frequently today. An aspect of that trend that Michter’s may not have anticipated is that, over a decade later, they’d still be among the scant few brands insistent on using barrels over 30 years old in the blend.

The final product is a mingling of seven barrels, with the youngest in the bunch at 12 years old and the most seasoned cask containing whiskey that’s been maturing since before the original Toy Story movie landed in theaters. Made from four rye barrels and three bourbon barrels, the results yielded only 315 bottles of Michter’s Celebration Sour Mash for the entire world.

Here at Uproxx, we were privileged to get a first taste of one of those bottles.

Known as “The World’s Most Admired Whiskey”, so named for the last three years, the Celebration Sour Mash is “a labor of love” according to Michter’s Master of Maturation Andrea Wilson, who crafted this expression alongside Master Distiller Dan McKee and a select group from the brand’s tasting panel. She continued, “To be part of creating Celebration is a tremendous honor. It is about respecting the art of maturing whiskey to its perfect moment, not a specific age; blending whiskeys to a profile that surpasses the beauty of any one barrel alone; and seeking something so unique it conveys a poetic elegance.”

All of Michter’s whiskeys undergo a proprietary filtration process, which is fine-tuned and custom-made for each individual expression. For this one, the team comprises several “micro batches” to hone in on a flavor profile befitting of the distillery’s most illustrious release. Once the most exemplary batch is approved and brought to proof, it’s then subjected to a carefully selected filtration process and bottled up for the world to enjoy.

If you’re salivating at the thought of how it might taste, wonder no more. Let’s dive in for a full review.

Michter’s Celebration Sour Mash American Whiskey Review

ABV: 57.6%
Average Price: $6,000

The Whiskey:

This year’s Michter’s Sour Mash Celebration is blended from four barrels of rye whiskey and three barrels of bourbon, with an age range from 12 to 30+ years. The liquid is then brought to its optimal proof and subjected to a custom filtration before bottling. The 2026 release yielded a total of 315 bottles.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The initial impression is one of remarkable refinement. The aroma of smoked raspberries and vanilla is effusive, accented by notes of candied pecans, fine dark chocolate, and hints of sandalwood, ensconced in leather. This is reminiscent of that basket of gourmet sweets you might get during the holidays. To round things out, there are plumes of orange blossom, subtle rye spice, and clove cigarettes, with floral notes to boot.

Palate: It enters the mouth with the flavor of luscious milk chocolate and bright, contrasting raspberry notes. Texturally, it’s almost a poltergeist on the palate in that you feel its presence, but it seems to gently waft over your tongue, parsing out each layer of flavor with restrained focus. At midpalate, this whiskey really opens up, getting jammier and more honey-forward, with notes of toasted hazelnuts, vanilla pods, and modestly steeped black tea slowly creeping in.

Finish: For its final act, this whiskey leans into its predominantly rye-forward DNA. Ending with a medium-length finish, it welcomes an uptick in pink peppercorn and honeyed black tea alongside a revival of that piquant raspberry flavor and a milder vanilla extract accompaniment.

Bottom Line:

It’s nigh impossible not to appreciate the decadence of this whiskey. From its evocative nose to its indulgent flavor profile and regally demure texture, this is an expression unlike any other American whiskey on the market. To simply label it a “bourye” seems insulting, as the Celebration Sour Mash artfully marries bourbon and rye to create something that exceeds the reach of either component, creating something wholly unique in its stead.

It’s not all roses and sunshine, as that delicate texture that intrigued for its restraint left me wanting a bit more heft. But it’s the smallest nit to pick with an otherwise flawless expression that opts out of marrying two worlds, and instead deconstructs them to present a pour unlike anything else.

While a cause célèbre typically carries a negative connotation, with this unique offering, Michter’s flipped the script and updated its resume for World’s Most Admired Whiskey consideration.

Go to Source

For as long as Black athletes have been recruited to play college sports, they’ve had to consider more than simply finding the best athletic and academic fit. Athletes and their families also must take into account how many other Black students are on campus, whether a school or surrounding community has experienced racial violence, and whether college programs have Black coaches, faculty or staff the athletes can turn to if things start to go south.

These are all potential considerations for the roughly 44% of NCAA men’s basketball players who are Black. But for the 28% of Black women players, you can add a few more layers to decisions around recruitment.

Given that women must be 22 years old before they can turn professional — which is less often the endgame, anyway — young women often put a greater emphasis on team culture and interpersonal relationships when picking a college. Other considerations include concerns over distance — whether parents can just hop in the car to reach them — and pointed questions about the measures schools take to keep their female athletes mentally and physically safe.

There’s a question of whether coaches even recognize that if you’re leading a tour of your large, predominantly white, possibly Southern campus, and the first living quarters you show a family is a co-ed dorm on a co-ed floor, that young Black recruit and her parents might (historically) need to see other options.

Coach Ronald James witnessed that last example firsthand. James is the head coach of the Bishop McNamara High School girls’ basketball team just outside Washington, D.C. It is the No. 1-ranked team in the country.

For 13 years, he’s also been the head coach of the powerhouse Nike Elite Youth Basketball League’s “Team Takeover” for girls 17 and under. Over the course of his career, he’s coached more than 90 NCAA Division I women’s basketball players. Eleven of them were McDonald’s All-Americans, including Angel Reese, who in 2023 led LSU to the women’s national title and now plays for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky.

When James turns on a women’s college basketball game, one of his former players is usually on the screen. Sometimes, there’s a former player on each team. He also has two daughters who played Division I basketball, so he understands the nuances of recruitment.

When it comes to Black women basketball players, he recognizes how deeply social, political and institutional changes nationwide can shape recruitment decisions. Even when nobody wants to talk about any of that.

“Denial or just not knowing how to respond or address these issues” is not an excuse, James said. “But the worst thing coaches can do is make it seem as if none of this will affect the athlete, right? That’s the worst thing they can do.”

For the latest installment of our Recruiting While Black series, James talks about the high stakes and hidden complexities of recruiting young Black women to play college ball.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Let’s start with this: There’s a difference in male and female recruiting, right? Tell me what some of the differences are, if you would. 

I haven’t been heavily involved in male recruiting. I just hear things and I see a little bit of what some of them go through. There are a lot of commonalities. The boys seem to be a bit more patient in their process. I think they are able to be more patient than the girls. When the boys make decisions, especially the higher, so-called ranked or top players, they seem to have more time to figure out some things. They watch what moves are made by other players that might be like them, and what the schools are doing. And then there’s always that big aspiration on the men’s side — on the boys’ side — to become an NBA player and the monetary value that’s connected to that.

Whereas the young ladies, the women, have a different rule process. They have to be in school for a certain number of years, so they will often graduate, as well as there are age requirements before they can turn professional.

That’s right. There’s no one-and-done.

Correct. I think the main [difference] for girls recruiting is, for one, college [scholarship] offers regularly come a little bit earlier than it does for the boys. So that adds some pressure, I think, because as a young lady, you’re trying to figure out what’s the best fit for you between the basketball balance and the academic balance. And not that the boys don’t think that way, but there’s a little heavier emphasis for the girls, maybe because there’s not the high-end, million-dollar contracts that the NBA provides like there is on the men’s side. Again, there’s money to be made now, unlike in the past, but it’s still not to that particular level.

So as the young ladies are going through it, they are looking at the limitations that might be there as well — [like] the number of scholarships available on a roster. The transfer portal is impacting both men’s and women’s basketball. But you also see that on another level on the men’s side, and all of that just minimizes opportunities [for high school players].

Then you have the class action lawsuit against the NCAA and what these young athletes can receive monetarily with these NIL [name, image, and likeness] deals. There’s the revenue sharing and the pushing back on Title IX. So again, you are making choices. Are you going to schools that are heavily football? Or are they across-the-board and willing to give women’s basketball their fair share?

Then you have this other component, right, this political component that’s on top of all that as well. So this is getting extremely challenging in making the right choice that best fits your daughter, because that’s what we’re talking about here — female athletes, and I’m a father of three. I didn’t have to have those kind of considerations when my two oldest daughters went to college and played. But I looked at where they went, as far as the type of state, the area, and what it’s been known for historically. I looked at all of that kind of data at that time, but now there’s even more that you have to be concerned about, I think.

How can parents and players keep up with all of this? There’s revenue sharing, there’s the NCAA settlement that you’re talking about that ushered in all this NIL money. The transfer portal continues to impact high school recruiting and changes that whole game. And then, of course, the country has only gotten more polarized and the environment more divisive. What is your advice to parents when you sit down and start having these conversations?

Just to stay informed. I mean, there’s a lot of resources that are out there. I think we’re all kind of going through a learning process, because it’s forever evolving. So you’ve just got to stay in the know and stay connected to the people that know and get that consistent message. And those are the type of questions to ask these universities. They’re still figuring out some things as well.

I just keep going back to [continuing] to educate ourselves as coaches. Like me, for instance, I have the various resources from our Team Takeover program, and our connections, whether it be to lawyers, whether it be agents that are involved in the field, whether it be college coaches themselves, or just picking up the phone calling, asking, reading up on information, utilizing resources that the NCAA provides on their websites and the various entities that are out there. So it’s almost like just doing your research, quite honestly. That’s how I do it and kind of how I inform parents about information.

But I’m not the only one speaking to them directly about things. It’s more so, ‘Hey, here’s a friend of mine or a contact of mine who is well versed in this particular area. We’re just trying to do a better job as a program of finding those resources to bring in so the whole organization can get the message earlier — sooner versus later — so you’re not scrambling.

I know I’ve gotten some feedback from some of my parents about DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] and universities getting rid of those particular programs where it gave them a Hmmm moment. Like, “Wow, what’s the overall impact of that?”

What about reproductive rights? Are these issues being raised, and is this something you all are thinking about as coaches? If families are thinking about it, what have you heard?

It’s kind of hit and miss, right? [The issue] is not consistently in your face. My first immediate response is that these kinds of conversations are at the very beginning stages. But choice and reproductive rights and things like that really have to be at least brought up and discussed. 

You do have to sit down and you have to ask those questions of the coaches of the programs. How do they support their student-athletes? How do they support their Black student-athletes in a particular region? And you’ve got to be OK asking that question. And if someone is offended by that question, to me, that’s a red flag. I think coaches should be able to address that, and when they can, that tells me, personally, they truly care about their players beyond playing. And that’s when they can get the most out of them.

If I had to make an assumption, it’s almost that mindset of, well, this doesn’t happen for the collegiate athlete, or they don’t have these experiences, where we know, if you really dig deep and pull back the layers, it does happen at different places and with different things — whether it be reproductive concerns or even mental health. That is huge. A huge, silent concern, I would say. It only comes up when something bad happens, and it’s not coming up enough in a preventative way.

I think there are just some things that are not really talked about or brought up as a concern when we talk about recruiting at this point in time.

What would your advice be to programs that, on the one hand, roll out the red carpet for athletes they want, but are located in states that are increasingly seen as hostile to Black people’s well-being, whether they want to talk about that or not.

I think the advice to programs is to be very transparent and upfront and understanding that this is a possible concern. So how do you alleviate the concern? By talking about it. So if there are some things that have happened, I think you talk about, how did you resolve [them]? How did you handle it? How did you minimize the impact if there was one?

I’ll tell you one quick experience that I had: I was on campus with two high-profile athletes. They were top five in the country. They were visiting together, and they’re walking through the campus, and they’re visiting the dorms, and they’re not comfortable. I can tell they’re not comfortable. I hear ’em talking. So I walk up to the head coach, and I say, “Hey, look, Coach, is this the best you have to offer as far as living arrangements for girls?” I said, “You’re going to lose both of these recruits just because of the dorms that you’re choosing to showcase.” She stopped the tour, and she talked about the other options and the things that they do well above anyone else probably in the country. I’m like, “Why didn’t you start with that?” If these two kids are that important to you, start with that. I just felt like they were trying to treat them like all freshmen.

What was the concern with the dorms? Why was there this visceral negative reaction? What was wrong with them?

They looked like jail cells. The security measures didn’t seem very tight. They were co-ed and even on the same floor. And you’re talking about kids that have never had those kinds of experiences. 

So then these intangibles that you’ve talked about, they come into play, right? It’s like, I’m already in a Southern state and I already am not seeing people that look like me. And now I’m in a co-ed dorm on a co-ed floor, and there’s no security.

Yeah, especially for a first-timer being away from home. That’s huge!

I have no doubt, I’ll be giving you a call again if something bubbles up. That’s when you see athletes find their place, because that’s been the Black female athlete tradition, yes?

Correct. When there’s a movement, especially one that they feel impacts them directly, we jump in, we jump all in. And that’s not a bad thing. But again, how do you keep the movement alive until you get the response or the change that you’re seeking?

The post The coach of the top girls’ high school basketball team gets real about recruiting appeared first on Andscape.