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Dylan Harper Thinks Jaÿ-Z Put Hex on Spurs During NBA Finals Loss
Trent Fitzgerald
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Did Hov put a curse on the Spurs? Continue reading…
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Why Outkast is suing Ovrkast, explained
Vivian Medithi
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The trademark infringement case hinges on whether a verbal agreement with no signed paperwork constitutes a finalized contract between parties.
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Lily Seabird’s Music Is The Sweet Spot Between Ween, the Velvet Underground and (A Bit Of) Twangy Indie Rock
Steven Hyden
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When I first heard Lily Seabird’s music via her second album, 2025’s Trash Mountain, I slotted her into the 2020s alt-country scene that’s exploded in recent years. And there’s good reason for that — her song “Trash Mountain (1 pm)” is the epitome of the sort of twangy indie rock that’s become commonplace in the wake of breakthroughs by Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman. Though, it turns out, that song is not wholly representative of Seabird’s work — and it certainly doesn’t describe the totality of Lightspheres On Their Way, her latest album.

While the influence of Neil Young echoes through the surly guitar workouts of “Portal To The Past,” the bulk of the record is taken up with long songs with loads of empty space and a noticeable drone, both hallmarks of another core influence, the Velvet Underground. She’s also name-dropped the Grateful Dead and Ween as inspirations, though any suggestions that Seabird has drifted into jam-band territory are reductive at best. She’s going for a kind of expansiveness that doesn’t rely on displays of instrumental prowess, but rather a more ruminative form of patient exploration that plugs into the darker vibes of those aforementioned acts.

A native of Pennsylvania — the Ween fandom is homegrown — Seabird relocated post-adolescence to Burlington, Vermont with her friend and collaborator Greg Freeman, a fellow talented singer-songwriter with occasional alt-country overtones. After playing in Freeman’s band for an extended period, she eventually established her own project, adopting a mangled form of her last name, “Seward,” based on an unkind nickname offered by an ex-boyfriend, an anecdote that’s been subsequently repeated in her album reviews and interviews. “I wonder if he reads these,” she laughed.

You recently played Americana Fest in Nashville, and I’m wondering what it was like for you. Just because “Americana” as a label can be a bit unwieldy, in ways that don’t really apply to your music. Even though some of what you do scans as country rock-sounding indie.

I don’t even think I make country rock. I think that’s a really big stretch, but I keep getting put in that spot.

Do you feel mischaracterized when you get put in that Americana zone? Or even alt-country? I’ve written about you in that context.

I’m really grateful for my team and everything that they have tried to get me to do or have gotten me to do. I’m also really grateful for all the places that had me play last week and wanting to have me on the shows. It’s just I didn’t really feel like I fit. I grew up in Pennsylvania; I’m not from the south. I didn’t grow up around country music. I was raised on punk rock and Ween and the Grateful Dead. But I do think that there’s been this wave of alt-country and music with pedal steel on it, and sometimes I wonder if I’m in this realm because I played in a different band that had a pedal steel. Though Greg’s new record doesn’t even really fit, either, though that band definitely was fitting in at the time. And I’ve toured with Florry, and Francie has said that she makes country rock, so maybe it’s by association. I have a lot of friends that I think make a little bit more country rock than I do. It’s like “singer-songwriter rock ‘n’ roll,” which is a term that Tyler from that band Good Looks told me. It’s still broad enough, but I think that folk and country music really seems like it’s probably more about songwriting than all the chorus-y guitar bands of the early 2010s that I was listening to when I was learning how to play guitar. So maybe that’s what it is. We got rid of the chorus pedals and people started playing pedal steels, but I don’t have a pedal steel or a chorus pedal in my band.

“Portal To The Past” feels the most like country rock to me. It has a Neil Young vibe.

But is Neil Young country rock?

I’d say Harvest is quintessential country rock. But much of his catalog is something else entirely.

“Trash Mountain (1pm)” was the lead single from my last record, which now came out quite a while ago, and I recorded it even longer ago. But that definitely has Americana vibes. That song has acoustic guitars and harmonica. Ever since then I’ve been trying to break out of “Trash Mountain (1pm)” jail because that was just one flavor of me. But that was the first time I put a record out on a label and had a publicist and had a team. That was the first thing of mine that traveled beyond Burlington and New York City maybe.

But yeah, I don’t care too much. It’s not worth it. If you want to call me Americana, country rock, some people call it psych rock, which I’ve been like, “Whoa, that’s a crazy thing. I don’t know if it’s psych rock.” I don’t know what it is.

What stands out to me about this record is the space. You let these songs unfold slowly and you don’t pack in a lot of music or noise in the parts between the notes.

Well, I write really long songs, I think, in general. All of my records, if you look at the timestamps across the songs, I think my average song length is six minutes or something.

But I feel like the songs could have been shorter if you didn’t let them sprawl.

The atmosphere before the song, really setting the vibe and setting the tone instead of jumping straight away into it, is important. A lot can be communicated without words. These are songs that deal with time and how we perceive time, so it makes sense that to be able to contemplate these themes that there is the time to do it.

It really is a patient record.

I’ve taken that from a lot of my influences. Some of my favorite songwriters have long songs with parts that allow it to sink in more. I hate when a song is over too soon and then I’m like, “Oh, I have to listen to it again.” I think Bruce Springsteen actually is a huge influence on me, and he has some quite longer, ballad-y songs that I’ve definitely drawn influence from. I’m a big Deadhead also, so I think that something comes from that. I think that also there’s something to a droning. A lot of these songs, I have my guitar tuned, so there’s always a droning note that goes throughout, especially all the ones right in the middle. It’s like a meditation. It creates something in the mind that is satisfying to me at least. “The Pulley” is the opening track, and if I could have had my way, it would’ve started with four minutes until I started singing. “Portal To The Past” was almost 11 minutes and I had to get rid of parts of it. Maybe one day I’ll have extended versions of these songs that are my versions.

I guess now that I’m saying this out loud, you said the word “patient,” it is funny to put out something that is so patient and long in a time of instant gratification. I mean, there was something that I think crossed some people’s mind when I was like, “Here’s my record, everyone,” that was like, “What’s the radio song?”

You mentioned the Dead, who have come up in reviews of the record. But when you talked about droning it made me think of the Velvet Underground.

Well, I was going to say the Velvet Underground is one of my favorite bands, too.

You’re into more of a minimalist thing than jamming.

I like the repetition forever. That’s how the end of “Lightspheres On Their Way” goes. When we play it live, we go for so long and then we get quiet and we get louder and then it breaks apart. One of my biggest influences as a kid was the Velvet Underground’s Live At Max’s Kansas City. I had that on vinyl. It was that and I had Operation Ivy. I had those two records.

This might be sort of a trite music critic observation to make, but is there anything to that drone somehow reflecting the lyrics, which often have to do with grief and memory and how those things feel like a drone in your mind? Is there anything to that?

I think so. I wasn’t thinking about that when I was doing it, but what I really appreciate in music is when I feel like the themes of the lyrics are reflected in the music, I think Leonard Cohen does a really good job of that, and I think that’s something I’ve always been trying to emulate. A lot of the times throughout my making of my songs, I’ve emulated that through dynamics, like the loud/quiet thing. I do that a lot. I just remember being in band class as a kid and my band teacher being like, “The most important thing is dynamics,” when I was with my saxophone. It’s like, “this piece is not moving if it’s just one sound the whole time.”

I feel like with singer-songwriters, there’s sometimes so much focus on the words that the music seems to get overlooked. But you seem to think as much about the musical textures as the lyrics.

I think that’s because I spent so much time being in the band. I have played in so many bands. I’ve been in so many bands where I’m not the front person. Honestly, only the last two and a half years have I been just doing Lily Seabird. Before that, every ounce of my energy was being poured into Greg Freeman’s project. I was really thinking about the music because I wasn’t the songwriter. So, I think in that way, being in the band, being just someone who’s in a songwriter’s band has influenced me on how I’m going to have my band sound or how it’s going to work. I think in that way, we don’t really have a classic thing in my band where it’s the songwriter in the band. We are a band, even though it’s called my name.

Before I let you go, I have to ask you about Ween. Because you love Ween and I love Ween. Do you have a favorite album?

I really like the live thing, the live Ween that has the five versions of “The Stallion” on it. What’s that one? It has a black-and-white cover.

All Request Live.

I love ripping that one sometimes. I really love a live album, to be honest.

Oh, me too.

I think that’s something I love so much about Ween, is that none of their albums sound the same and they never did anything because somebody told them to do it. It seemed like they just did what they wanted to do. And then the live show was just a crazy rock band. It’s so awesome.

I saw them a bunch back in the day, but seeing them in 2007, it was the darkest audience I’ve ever been a part of.

It’s dark vibes.

It was very druggy and weird. It felt like Altamont.

The dark jam-band vibes, I know them well, and it’s something that changes you and makes you feel really weird when you see it happening. Honestly, I’m addressing some of those vibes on this record.

I was going to say, your record doesn’t sound like Ween, but it does feel like the air above the Ween show. That dirty, heavy air.

Yeah, it’s the feel of the Ween audience.

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In the second quarter of a July game against the Golden State Valkyries, Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray defended forward Cecilia Zandalasini as she tried to cut across the court.

Attempting to shake off Gray’s contact, Zandalasini struck her in the face, sending Gray to the floor in pain. Rising, Gray made a beeline to confront her.

Gray trusts — and allows — only two teammates to course-correct her when she’s in what she calls a “crazy headspace”: Rhyne Howard and Naz Hillmon. Howard quickly sprinted into action, steering Gray toward the sideline.

The moment offered a small but significant glimpse into Gray and Howard’s friendship — two players who have had each other’s backs since teaming up in Atlanta in 2023.

“If I’m wrong, they’ll tell me I’m wrong, and I take it. And that’s what being a true friend is,” Gray said. “But if I’m right, they’re always that listening ear for me as well, and I just know that they get me.”

The bond between Gray and Howard, Atlanta’s reserved yet dominant All-Stars, has contributed to the formation of one of the most lethal guard tandems in the WNBA. As the Dream’s postseason continues Wednesday in Game 2 of the first round against the Washington Mystics (7 p.m., ESPN), they’ll rely heavily on Howard and Gray, the franchise’s tone-setters and standard-bearers.

“When you look at Atlanta, you’re obviously going to look at us two as the head of the snake. For us to have as close of a bond as we do is really special to not only our relationship personally but for the team’s success,” Howard said. “The team is going to move how we move … how Angel [Reese] moves. Making sure that we’re doing our part to continue to [be successful] is key.”

Gray and Howard’s friendship began with somewhat of an awkward first interaction. They first met, officially, playing the online video game Fortnite shortly after the Dallas Wings traded Gray to Atlanta in 2023. At the time, Howard was playing overseas in Italy. They had played against each other in the WNBA but had never spoken.

As the two played Fortnite, the game’s sound effects filled the otherwise empty silence. 

“We literally didn’t talk to each other,” Gray said. “We just played a game — didn’t know what each other sounded like or anything.”

It wasn’t until after one of their gaming sessions that they spoke for the first time, breaking the ice by talking about basketball and the upcoming season, which would be their first as teammates.

“We just didn’t stop talking from there,” Gray said.

Now lockermates, the two have since become an inseparable duo in Atlanta, whether playing rounds on a golf course or more notably sharing videos of themselves taste-testing new snack hauls — videos that have gained traction on social media.

“We’re both kind of introverted and, you know, they always say you talk a lot to the people who are like you. She’s like my sister,” Howard said. “We get along really well. I think just being able to come here and, you know, watch her grow as a person, as a player, I think it’s been special to see.”

Though introverted by nature, the support Howard and Gray show for each other is vibrant. Their shared excitement and happiness shines through across multiple contexts, whether the cause for celebration is a scoring milestone or meeting their childhood heroes. For Gray, that was rapper T.I., and for Howard, Queen Latifah.

It’s not easy to crack Gray’s close circle and be considered one of her best friends. It’s a small, exclusive group that requires a high level of admiration and most of all, trust. Howard has earned that.

“Once you’re in, it’s like I open up to you and I trust you with everything,” Gray said. “[Howard’s] like that safe space.”

While Gray and Howard have their sights set on leading Atlanta on a deep postseason run, it’s uncharted territory for both players. In Gray’s six seasons with Dallas (2017-22), the Wings made four playoff appearances but never advanced past the first round. Atlanta, where Howard has spent her entire five-year career, hasn’t made it out of the first round since 2018.

There’s optimism, though, that this postseason can serve as the team’s breakthrough. 

“We got to taste a playoff last year. We understand how we felt after that [first-round] exit, and we don’t want to feel that way ever again,” Hillmon said prior to the playoffs. “We’re feeling good about ourselves, not in the way that we’re complacent, but we know that we can continue to get even better. We’re on the right track at the moment.”

Gray and Howard have both turned in All-Star seasons for Atlanta. Gray, 31, ended the regular season averaging a career-best 19 points, along with 1.4 steals and 2.7 assists per game. Howard, 26, averaged a career-best 17.7 points while also leading the WNBA with 2.3 steals per game.

Their games are complementary. Gray’s ability to collapse a defense by driving to the rim balances Howard’s proficient perimeter game. Their chemistry on the floor only amplifies their in-game connection.

In Sunday’s Game 1 win over Washington, Howard finished with a game-high 26 points and five steals, while Gray totaled 22 points. According to ESPN Stats and Information, it was the third time multiple Dream players have scored 20 points in a playoff game over the past 10 seasons. Gray and Howard are responsible for all three.

“I think each year they kind of understand each other’s strengths even more, and they just have a great chemistry,” Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko said. “They know where each other’s going to be and, you know, it’s been to our benefit. They’ve both had All-[WNBA] type seasons.”

Dream forward Angel Reese has appreciated the consistency of the team’s backcourt All-Stars, who have been a resource for her for the entirety of her first season in Atlanta, she said.

“They’ve been in my ear putting confidence into me,” Reese said. “They’re a 1-2 punch, All-WNBA-caliber players, MVP-caliber players for a reason, because they show up every single night [on] both ends of the floor. I love having them. They make my job a lot easier.”

As Howard and Gray navigate the intense WNBA postseason, they will look to each other to stay focused on their shared championship goal.

To do so as best friends would make the breakthrough that much sweeter.

“I love her down. We’re going to be best friends for life,” Howard said. “So it’s about making sure that we each have our best interest in each other, our best interest in the team and just staying true to that.”

The post Close bond between Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard underscores Atlanta Dream’s success and their own appeared first on Andscape.

Blueface Sued for Live-Streaming Chrisean Rock’s PPV Boxing Match
Trent Fitzgerald
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Blueface is in a legal fight. Continue reading…
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That new 300SkullsAndCounting and Jenny Sparks song is good, actually
Vivian Medithi
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These XL Recordings signees are not the new Brokencyde – they’re way better.
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Watch Kashus Culpepper Bring “Til The Sun Goes Down,” To Honda Stage
Daneriveralpc
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In partnership with Honda Stage, country soul crooner Kashus Culpepper brought his smoky, textured voice to UPROXX’s FYI Studios delivering a rendition of “Til The Sun Goes Down,” an uptempo cut from his latest EP Act I: Summer Nights.

On our XR stage, which rendered live visuals in real time off his movements and vocals, captured in-camera, Culpepper’s performance came to life. The visuals echoed his movements against a cinematic environment meant to evoke the warmth of, as the song title suggests, a sunset. As the song hits the chorus, Culpepper stacks into something akin to a choir, beckoning you to get up and dance.

As the song builds in intensity, so do the visuals, the sunset-inspired colors shift between bleeding tones of red, orange, and yellow. It’s an interesting look for Culpepper, whose visuals rarely get this psychedelic. His brand of church soul, blues, and southern rock has stayed pretty naturalistic up to this point in his career. The visuals also give us a glimpse into how vivid his sonic world has been all along: “To see it on the screen… exactly how I saw it in my head, it’s really dope man,” Culpepper tells us.

Check out Culpepper’s live rendition of “Til The Sun Goes Down,” in the video above.

About Honda Stage

Honda Stage is the brand’s flagship platform for music, culture, and emerging talent. Building on Honda’s deep foundation of celebrating breakthrough artists and their journeys of discovery as they pursue their dreams, Honda Stage offers exclusive content and live experiences where fans can delve deeper into what inspires these artists. From breakout moments to unique expressions of fashion, dance and music culture, Honda Stage showcases their creativity, passion, and drive to make it big.

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ESPN’s new 30 for 30 podcast The Fastest Girl in Somalia tells the tragic story of Somali runner Samia Yusuf Omar.

At just 17 years old, Omar finished last in her 200-meter heat at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Determined to improve, she traveled throughout northeast Africa and beyond to pursue her dream of winning big at the 2012 London Olympics, often facing great danger as she sought elite training that wasn’t available in her war-torn country.

Teresa Krug, who narrates the podcast, began chronicling Omar’s journey in 2010 as a freelance journalist. Along the way, Krug shared how Omar was cheered in Beijing after finishing well behind the pack — and how Omar was embarrassed, rejected the attention and vowed to return faster and stronger.

Omar left her family in her hometown of Mogadishu, Somalia, for Ethiopia, but once there, she realized she needed to do something even more drastic to secure the coaching she needed. She put all she had into finding greener pastures in Italy, traversing dangerous territory in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Libya. Her dream ended along the way when she drowned in April 2012 at age 21 after the overcrowded boat she boarded ran out of fuel and sank in the Mediterranean Sea.

Fourteen years later, Krug packs first-hand accounts, archival audio and original reporting into five podcast episodes. Krug, who ran high school track and cross country in Heber Springs, Arkansas, hopes listeners gain a greater appreciation for the opportunities she and many Americans take for granted. She spoke with Andscape about the podcast and why she believes listeners can connect with Omar’s struggles.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You answered an open call for story pitches in February 2024 and persuaded ESPN to tell Omar’s story with a 15-minute, in-person presentation. How?

There were people who were sitting there and wanted to listen to your idea. It wasn’t going to get buried in an inbox or be brushed off because you’re a nobody. That changed the game. I was able to tell the story that I wanted to tell, not in a 30-second soundbite. … I had done a PowerPoint, and then I hated the PowerPoint. I’m not a PowerPoint person. So then I just read the script, and at the end, there were four people sitting at these tables, and they were leaning in. I wasn’t expecting that.

Why do you still tell her story?

I just can’t shake it, I guess. I think her story is still relevant today. People are still leaving their home countries because of war, conflict. People are still going through Libya, which has terrible detention centers, and people are still going into the Mediterranean Sea and risking their lives on small boats. So the story of Samia is significant to me, but also, the things that she went through are still relevant, and I want more people to hear about that.

I wanted to show dignity for Samia’s life. I didn’t want her to be forgotten, and I wanted to help people hear what it was actually like. If we’re going to make opinions and policy about people who are migrating … we should at least get a better understanding of what they go through.

She faced tremendous hardships, such as her father being killed when she was a young teenager, trying to train during the Somali Civil War and trying to succeed at sports when participation by Muslim women was frowned upon. What was she like?

She was tough, which makes sense because she grew up in a tough environment. She didn’t trust easily, which is fair. I had to earn that trust from her. But she was incredibly loyal. She took care of the people that she loved in a very big way. 

She was so inclusive. Even as a teenager and a young adult, even as she was still growing up herself, she was bringing people along with her. She was actively encouraging and recruiting other girls and women to play sports, to run, to play basketball, to play soccer. And she was doing this in places where girls were not only not encouraged to play sports, but it was dangerous.

She was the cool teenager, but she also had this maturity about her — it’s a combination that you don’t find very often.

What did she tell you about being on the track in Beijing?

I think she was a little overwhelmed, which I think is very understandable. I know that she loved representing Somalia. She was very passionate about her country. She was very passionate about where she came from. So being able to represent Somalia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, especially during the opening ceremony — that was very precious to her. That was very important to her. She had a lot of pride with that.

Once she left Somalia, you stayed connected. Why?

I was more attached to her than I had realized. And the story changed from being a story of a young athlete living in Somalia to “athletes are having to leave Somalia for sports.” That was quite notable for me, so I wanted to tell that bigger story then as well.

You warned her not to go to Libya because of the detention centers. Some might question whether that was your role. What made you do it?

It was hard. When she made the decision to go to Libya … as a journalist, I was taught all these things about crossing lines and being objective. … I tried. And then other times, you see someone in need, you see how you can help them … to be just a bystander seems kind of cruel.

Why did you travel to the Mediterranean and talk to migrants after she died?

I had always wanted to revisit some of the places — or visit, I guess, for the first time some of the places that she had traveled through. It was something that was feasible and also a way that I thought that we could talk about what was happening today. Meeting with people who, in 2026, were telling very similar stories to what Samia had gone through — the torture that many people in Samia’s position experienced or these life-and-death decisions — that this is still happening today. So that was really important for me. Also, there was some closure that I realized that I kind of wanted, going to the place where she passed through.

What do you hope this podcast achieves?

I hope that it’s a story, it’s a podcast that people return to and that they share with other people. I hope that it’s a conversation starter. These are difficult topics. I hope that it’ll make people go down rabbit holes, you know? I hope that they will listen and something will grab them. And obviously, I hope they fall in love with Samia.

The post Somali athlete Samia Yusuf Omar died in her quest to better herself. A new podcast explores her story. appeared first on Andscape.

MENLO PARK, Calif. — LeBron James’ rejection of the Golden State Warriors would likely be a major storyline if Draymond Green releases a second season of his virtual reality therapy docuseries, “Open Season.”

It sounds like the Warriors star is still disappointed his sales pitch didn’t convince James to make the “right decision” to join him, Stephen Curry and Golden State over the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I told him all the great things,” Green told Andscape. “How cool would it be for him to join Steph, who’s pretty much carried the NBA for the better part of the last 15 years — Bron a little longer, but they are the guys. And how cool would it be to [challenge] these young guys who are kind of taking over? Their time is up now to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and all these [young] guys. How cool would it be for the two guys who’ve battled on the biggest stage for so many years in the NBA — who now see these younger guys taking over — just for one time to say, ‘Hey, fellas, we can still do this. Yeah, move over’? How dope would that be?

“Everybody speaks about the basketball side. Most people don’t understand how important it is to have teammates that you rock with at this age. Teammates that are like-minded. Teammates that have similar lives. Teammates that when you go to dinner, you want to go to dinner and sit with. As you get older in this league, that becomes a weird thing. We’ll have that. This will be the greatest show on Earth, by the way. Stephen and LeBron together?

“How much has [James] gotten into golf? There’s no better place to be for golf than San Francisco. I also thought from a business standpoint, there’s a whole business side of business that he hasn’t tapped into [in Silicon Valley]. From a business standpoint, what can that mean? I know for sure this would be the best organization you’ve ever played in. I know that for certain.”

So, ultimately, why didn’t Green’s sales pitch work on his good friend?

“He just couldn’t get over the past, which is, ‘I battled these guys over and over again. What is that now going to look like for me if I come there? What type of beating am I going to take if I come there?’ And ultimately that’s why it didn’t happen. … I also think that’s why it took so long to make the decision, because I know this, [Golden State] was the right decision. He just couldn’t land on it,” Green said.

Last week at Meta headquarters, Green spoke exclusively to Andscape about his new virtual reality docuseries, “Open Season on Draymond Green.” The project features six unscripted filmed therapy sessions with the Warriors star and debuts starting Tuesday on the Meta Quest TV app.

The show follows the four-time NBA champion as he works with sports psychologist Dr. Carrie Hastings to confront real-life struggles during the 2025-26 season. Aiming to break the cultural stigma around mental health, he reflects on his on-court ejections, technical fouls, midseason trade rumors, family joy and challenges, and the realities of navigating the late stages of his NBA career.

In a conversation with Andscape, Green discussed his new show and experiences in therapy. The 2017 NBA Defensive Player of the Year also spoke about the return of head coach Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry’s future with Golden State, Jimmy Butler’s health, the Warriors’ new status as underdogs, his preparation for his 15th season, and much more.

“I’m nervous as hell. Super nervous,” Green said about the docuseries. “Well, No. 1, it’s something that I have struggled with for a long time, the thought of therapy itself. From what I thought it was, then being misinformed on what it was. Two, all of the stereotypes that I’ve learned from childhood: ‘You don’t need it. It’s for the weak.’ And once I started, it was like, ‘Man, this is actually great.’

“How many other kids have been told this isn’t for them and you shouldn’t do this? As I got more comfortable in my own journey, it’s when I then came around to the thought of like, ‘I’m actually OK with someone seeing.’ But I had to get comfortable in the journey first. Initially, I don’t even want you to know I’m doing it. I’m going on my own time. I don’t even really tell my wife what I’m doing it. This is my thing.

“I’ll be totally honest with you. You kind of go through these waves of like, ‘I’m happy as hell for people to see [this]. I’m nervous as f‑‑‑ and I don’t want anybody to see.’ Once I committed to putting it on camera in doing what we’ve done with ‘Open Season,’ I thought to myself, ‘Why not help someone else?’

“This is my journey. Why not help the kid that’s like me that’s been told you shouldn’t do that? I saw how beneficial it was for me. To fall on that mindset, it made it easier to come around, because I could look at it through a different lens. It ain’t necessarily about me. Whatever you see in my journey, it’s going to help someone else. So, if it’s through me then it ultimately helps someone else. I got to be vulnerable. I got to put myself out there. That’s how I came around to it.”

As an African American man, are you speaking to African American males in particular about using a psychiatrist? (Note: In 2024, African American adults were 36% less likely than U.S. adults overall to have received mental health treatment in the past year, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).

One thousand percent, because that’s who I can relate to. I know that kid growing up in Saginaw [Michigan] being told he has nowhere to turn to, right? Everyone’s opinionated about whatever it is that that you’re going through, and you don’t really have the space to work through. There’s no safe space, and so you just plow through it, right? You just keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing.

It’s so unnecessary. There are actually tools out there for you that deal with this, put you in a better space and better equip you to deal with things. In particular for me, but I know this helps everyone as well. The man I can relate to most is that man, because that kid became that man. And he became that man despite everybody saying, “You don’t need this, you don’t need that.”

All of the trauma and everything that … little boy that turned into this man has dealt with is still there. It’s never been dealt with. It resurfaces in more ways than that man knows. In a sense, yes, I know I can help that person. But then, as you go through this journey and you’re talking to more and more people, you realize it’s not just the African American kid. Everybody has their struggles.

It’s the white kid that grows up in the African American neighborhood. What does he deal with, right? It’s the Black kid that grows up in the white neighborhood. What does he deal with? The Mexican [kid] who feels like he don’t fit at all. What does he deal with? The Asian [kid] … What does he deal with? Along that journey you realize that. For me personally, I can speak directly to that kid because I know that kid.

There was an in-game argument with Coach Kerr that you had last season during a timeout where you ultimately left the bench and went to the locker room. Was your response to leave rather than continue the argument a result from your therapy sessions? I feel like a season ago, or two or three years earlier, you wouldn’t have handled it that way.

(Note: Words were exchanged between Green and Kerr on the bench during a Dec. 22, 2025, game against the Orlando Magic. Green then walked back to the locker room and spent more than eight minutes there before returning to the bench in warm-ups for the rest of the game the Warriors came back to win. Kerr would later admit to reporters that the argument was “not my finest hour,” stating he needed to remain calm in the huddle.)

That’s why I was able to get up and leave because, for the first time in a situation like that, I didn’t feel the need to get back. I didn’t feel the need for you to hear my side. I didn’t feel the need to stand there and plow through whatever the situation was. It’s like, nope, it’s actually OK for me to just remove myself and whatever comes of that will come from it.

What I do know is this situation is not going to get better for me. Me staying right here in this moment, it’s not going to allow the moment to calm down, [so] let me just remove myself. I could have never done that before.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I learned that in particular, that I learned to get up and leave in therapy. But throughout my journey, what I’ve learned is how to mellow myself when I need to be mellowed, how to better perform in these situations. It’s a little different than going to play in the game. You’re trying to figure out what is best for you in that situation.

I’m happy. I can see that clearly now, because that was 1,000% what was best in that situation. I just never would have cared before of what’s best. I would have just did what I thought in the moment, which is, “Oh, you’re going at me? All right, I’m going back. Now what?” I think I’m just better suited in general to deal with those situations differently than I would have before.

What do you hope people learn in watching your journey?

A lot of people see me in one light, and that’s the light they’ve seen me on a basketball court, which is great. That’s what you know. That’s fine. What people don’t see on the basketball court is the father. What people don’t see on the basketball court is the guy who will give the shirt off his back to anybody.

For whatever reason, you don’t see that. … I don’t really open myself up in that way, no problem. But if you do know the guy that’s on the basketball court, the two don’t mix. Who better to show you than me? What I hope to get out of this is very simple actually: for everyone [to see] that it’s OK that we all have s‑‑‑. And what you see and what you thought, that’s not the case. We struggle just like you struggle. We go through s‑‑‑ just like you go through s‑‑‑, and my s‑‑‑ is not bigger than your s‑‑‑ because it’s my s‑‑‑. Oh, it’s just mine. And yours, it’s yours.

But I want people to know that, and it’s very simple, that it’s OK. It’s OK to talk to someone. It’s OK if I always do this to get help. It’s actually best that you go on your own journey, because this world is becoming more and more of an unsafe place by the day, and where do you find that solace? That’s what I hope to get out of this — that people can find their space, their journey. Your journey won’t be the same as mine, right? By the way, people are going to watch this and still be reluctant to start that journey. But if you start a year from now, no problem.

I fought myself for years, and would talk in front of my teammates for years like, “Yo, I really need to go to therapy, and I know it. I’m gonna do it one day. I ain’t ready.” You got to find it at your own speed, at your own pace. However, I just want you to know, here’s my journey. And I’m cool with putting it in front of you and, by the way, it’s OK for me to walk up to you and be like, “Yo, I was in therapy yesterday.” Let’s destigmatize what this is. It’s actually OK to go share with your friend, because that may be the push that your friend needs.

What do you think about LeBron’s decision to go to Philadelphia?

If you look at, even going to Philly, they weren’t on the radar a month before. But then that’s where you go. Well, that says a lot to me. So, I think that’s why it [Golden State] didn’t work. [James] just couldn’t ultimately get over, “Damn, what’s that gonna look like?” I get it.

What does Steve Kerr coming back to the bench for the Warriors mean to you? And how big a role did you play in him re-signing?

Zero. That was for [Kerr and Warriors management] to work through. However, what it means to me, it’s great. Going into Year 15 in the same place and adjusting to a new coach now, I feel like that’d be a bit weird. Things are done a certain way. You go to bat with each other for so long. I think that would have been weird. So, for him to come back, I’m excited about it. It’s great.

I think he got a renewed sense of how he’s looking at things, which you need sometimes when you’ve been doing something for so long. You can kind of stay in the status quo and keep just doing what you are doing. But ultimately, sometimes you need to get a little uncomfortable to move forward. I think he got a little uncomfortable. I think we all did, which is good. I don’t think that’s a bad thing for anyone.

How proud are you of reaching your 15th NBA season? You went from a guy on the bench in summer league to a four-time All-Star.

It’s crazy, huh? Fifteen years. I’m very proud of that, 15 years in one place. I look around at the guys that aren’t doing it anymore. For myself to still be doing it in Year 15, man, I’m very proud. I always was like, “Look man, if I can get to 15, that would be crazy.” And here we are staring down the barrel at it.

It’s pretty cool. I’m very proud of myself, and also that I can still play at a very good level, a very high level. The one thing I’ve always said, I don’t want to be crawling through Year 15. I feel like I’m about to go through Year 15 strong.

What should we expect from the Warriors?

Well, we’re going to go out and compete. I don’t know when the last time we’ve just been counted out like this. Maybe 2014? We weren’t counted out. We just weren’t counted in. Now, for the first time in 12 years, everybody like, “Oh yeah, they’re absolutely done.” That’s pretty cool for some guys who came from being underdogs. You make us start again. Thanks, appreciate it. Needed it. Looking forward to it. Love you.

Any optimism on Jimmy Butler’s return from knee injury from what you saw at the Warriors’ recent voluntary players camp in San Diego?

Listen, Jimmy works his a– off. Jimmy works as hard as anyone. And if there’s any chance, he’s the guy that can do it. I know he’s working to get back this [season]. I know he’s not looking at this like, “Oh, well, just go ahead and rehab all [season].” He’s working to get back. I do know that. You’re just seeing him starting to get on the court in different ways just in general. It’s good to see.

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CLEVELAND — For the second week in a row, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson played the conquering hero.

Last week in Tampa, Watson led the Browns past the Buccaneers on the road. But Sunday’s come-from-behind 21-18 win over the Carolina Panthers in Cleveland’s home opener was as transformative as a victory could be in just the third week of a 17-game schedule.

For Watson, whose very presence in Cleveland has come to represent Browns futility, Sunday’s performance — 16-of-30 for 144 passing yards, two touchdown passes including the game-winner, and several clutch runs — went a long way in securing a détente with fans and perhaps winning many of them over.

For anyone who has been following the Watson saga in Cleveland — especially his critics — the only numbers that have mattered were the five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract the Browns paid him five years ago, the 27 civil lawsuits that were filed against him for sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during his time with the Houston Texans, and the two surgeries that limited him to just a handful of games in Browns uniform.

For a desperate and hungry Browns fanbase looking for the barest glimmer of hope, Watson’s performances in the last two weeks have been enough to convince the severest of critics to consider letting bygone be bygone — pending results for the rest of the season.

Calling Sunday one of the most significant games of his nine-year NFL career, Watson said after the game that he became emotional when some fans began chanting his name as the clock ticked down. “There was one moment I got a little teary-eyed, just feeling that energy,” the 31-year-old said.

There are 14 more games to go and the inevitable ups and downs of a season, but Sunday’s home opener felt like an important turning point.  

For Watson, the consistent undertone of his tenure in Cleveland has been his relationship with Browns fans. He took a conciliatory tone earlier this week when he was asked about the strained relationship.

“I mean, yeah, the biggest thing is, I don’t never try to go at war with the fans,” he said. “So, the biggest thing is just, ready for support, ready to feel their energy, ready to get this big dub for the city of Cleveland and continue this great feeling that we have this week. So that’s my motto, is just keep pushing forward, finding ways to win on Sunday to take advantage of the opposing team and get a W.”

While the theme of Sunday’s game was how Browns fans would respond to Watson, it was a critical matchup between two quarterbacks waging a week-by-week fight for their respective careers.

Watson’s uphill climb has been well-documented, but Bryce Young, the Carolina quarterback, has had mountains to climb since entering the league.

While generally well-liked and lauded for character and leadership skills, Young’s liability — his size — is something he can’t do anything about. At 5-foot-10, Young has had to prove at every level that he possessed the skill, determination and instincts to play quarterback.

At the high school and collegiate level, Young successfully acquitted himself. As a senior at Mater Dei (Calif.) High School, Young was named the Los Angeles Times Player of the Year, California’s Gatorade Football Player of the Year, and the USA Today High School Offensive Player of the Year. As a junior at Alabama, Young won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first Crimson Tide quarterback to do so.

Young was selected by Carolina with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, but proving himself at the NFL level has been a challenge that he is not always met. In his second season in 2024, Young was benched in favor of veteran Andy Dalton after Carolina began the season with two consecutive losses. He only regained his starting job in Week 8 of that season, after Dalton was injured.

Last year, Young helped Carolina win the weak NFC South. This season, he has gotten off to the strongest start of his professional career. After two games, he was tied for the NFL lead in touchdown passes, and was second in passing yards and completions of 25 yards or more.

On Sunday, Young was good but was eventually outdueled by Watson.

Young completed 26 of 48 passes for 268 yards, a touchdown and an interception, but he was also sacked three times. He led Carolina to a go-ahead score in the fourth quarter but that only set up Watson’s heroics.

Young, 25, knows better than anyone else that his overarching challenge is proving he is a legitimate starting NFL quarterback.

Unlike Young, Watson was an NFL star early in his career. His problem is that age, injury and off-field legal issues derailed the trajectory of a brilliant career. And unlike Young, Watson is not universally embraced by his fan base.

The Browns were criticized for signing him to an unprecedented contract, and women’s groups protested the signing because of the sexual harassment suits that were filed against him when he played for the Houston Texans.

As recently as Cleveland’s last home preseason game, Watson was booed for poor performance, and while he bought himself some grace after leading Cleveland to a comeback victory over Tampa Bay in Week 2, the general sentiment of hope is that Watson will not be in Cleveland after this season. The Browns’ dilemma, however, is that if Watson does play well and they trade him, will either the other two quarterbacks on the roster, Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel, be an adequate replacement? Or will the Browns simply draft another quarterback and start all over?

Meanwhile, fans generally like Young and want him to succeed. But in a results-oriented business, the question hovering over him is whether he is a legitimate NFL quarterback who can take his team to a Super Bowl championship. Every Super Bowl-winning quarterback in history has been taller than him.

What Watson and Young have in common is that every game is a referendum.

Each week, Browns first-year head coach Todd Monken has been asked whether Watson will continue to be the Browns starter. All Watson can do to stop the questions is play well. Regaining the public may be a mission impossible.

Asked about overcoming negative fan energy earlier in the week, Watson said he wanted to focus on moving forward: “Like I mentioned before, we passed that, that’s back in the day. I don’t want to backtrack on anything, we’re moving forward. It’s great energy now, there’s great energy this week within the locker room, within the city. So, let’s continue to build on that. That’s in the past, so let’s push forward. We’re present in the moment now, we’re focusing on Carolina, coming home against a good opponent, in front of our great fans, and we wanted that energy so we can go in there and get a W.”

Neither quarterback has any margin for error, especially not Watson. Last week’s victory over Tampa Bay is already forgotten. What mattered to fans Sunday was the win against Carolina. The question Watson has to answer for himself: Can a once-gifted quarterback reclaim a career that has been shattered by suspension, injuries, and underperformance?

Young and Watson face two different challenges. Young is trying to prove that the future is still his. Watson is trying to prove that his past is not all that remains of a once promising future.

The post Deshaun Watson’s big day for Cleveland Browns could be a turning point appeared first on Andscape.