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Lil Durk Receives High Praise From LeBron James For Being Rap’s Best Hooper

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Rap and basketball often go hand-in-hand. Many of the NBA’s players have dabbled in rap, with some, like Shaq, Kobe Bryant, and Dame Lillard, carving full-blown careers in music. Rappers, too have begun to show off their hardwood exploits, with Jack Harlow taking a role in a White Men Can’t Jump remake, Drake hosting his own recreational basketball league, and J. Cole even playing professionally for the Basketball Africa League’s inaugural season. Uproxx has even done a bit of an investigation into the better basketball players among rap’s most enthusiastic wannabe ballers.

But over the weekend, no less an authority than LeBron James, the face of the NBA for nearly two whole decades, crowned rap’s best hooper during his most recent episode of The Shop on HBO. “Lil Durk can hoop,” he said of the Chicago star whose No. 1 album 7220 helped secure him a $40 million contract. “He can hoop for real. Man, he [at] Lifetime hooping. He got a f*cking cannon, too. He got a peel, and he look like a muthaf*cka that can [ball].” Durk was happy to repost the clip of the discussion, which also mentions 2 Chainz, J. Cole, Sheck Wes (who also recently played overseas), and Quavo. “I don’t want to hear sh*t nomo from nobody,” Durk crowed in the caption. Check out the clip below.

Drake Bet $100,000 On Duke Getting Revenge On North Carolina In The Final Four

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One of the most highly-anticipated games in Final Four history will take place on Saturday night. The Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels will go head-to-head in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the history of the sport’s greatest rivalry. If that wasn’t enough, legendary Blue Devil coach Mike Krzyzewski is slated to retire at the end of the team’s run, and to add yet another wrinkle, the Tar Heels took down Duke in Durham earlier this year in the Coach K’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

So, yeah, lot going on! It’s a game that has the attention of the entire sports world, and thanks to his Instagram account, we know that Drake is going to be watching intently. He is, of course, a huge basketball fan, but as he showed, Drake is ultra-confident in the Blue Devils getting revenge in New Orleans, as he threw down $100,000 on Paolo Banchero and co. moving on to the national championship game to take on the Kansas Jayhawks.

Duke is favored to win — the fine folks in Las Vegas have them as 4-point favorites, while KenPom also projects a victory by four points. But as we all know, weird things happen in rivalry games, even if we’ve arguably never seen one with stakes quite this high.

Drake Says He Will Donate $1 Million To LeBron James’ I Promise School

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Drake has been in quite the giving mood as of late. Earlier this month, he and Jack Harlow, who were on vacation in Turks & Caicos, surprised a singer who covered Drake’s 2013 song “Hold On, We’re Going Home” with a gracious gift of $20,000. That came after Drake surprised a different fan with $10,000 during that same trip with Harlow. In Drake’s latest move, he’s committing a large amount of money towards a good cause that’s connected to his longtime friend LeBron James.

Over the weekend, LeBron celebrated the launch of Lobos 1707, a tequila and mezcal brand founded by Diego Osorio and one LeBron was an earlier backer of. The celebration was quite the star-studded event as it featured appearances from Drake, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Trevor Ariza, and Carmelo Anthony. It was at this event that Drake congratulated LeBron on the launch with a special donation. “I’ve been trying to figure out what I can do for, obviously, this moment,” he said. “So, I am going to, myself and Eddie from Stake, we’re going to dedicate $1 million to the I Promise School and I’m going to come drop it off myself.”

Ed Craven, the co-founder of Stake which is a bitcoin casino and sports betting platform, is who Drake is referring to in his announcement.

You can check out the video of Drake committing to the donation above.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kevin Durant Executive Produced YSL Records Rapper T-Shyne’s New Album With Young Thug

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The connections between the modern NBA and hip-hop are growing all the time and with the latest announcement out of Young Thug’s YSL Records camp, they’ve become the most pronounced they’ve ever been. YSL Records fixture T-Shyne is set to release his new album, Confetti Nights, which is naturally executive-produced by YSL’s founder Young Thug on April 1… along with some help from none other than the Brooklyn Nets’ recently returned All-Star forward, Kevin Durant.

It’s not the first time that an NBA player applied their talents to musical curation. In 2021, Durant’s fellow NBA champ Kawhi Leonard executive produced the Culture Jam Vol. 1 compilation featuring A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Gunna, Lil Uzi Vert, Polo G, Rod Wave, and YoungBoy Never Broke Again. Meanwhile, Damian Lillard, the All-Star guard for the Portland Trailblazers, has had a flourishing rap career as Dame D.O.L.L.A., dropping four studio albums that featured Lil Wayne, Raphael Saadiq, and Snoop Dogg.

In addition to producing albums, Durant has also been a movie producer, commissioning the Basketball County: Something In The Water documentary in 2020. Durant’s music connections came in handy there, too, as he recruited fellow Prince George’s County native IDK as music supervisor for the film.

Meanwhile, YSL Records is coming off a stellar 2021 that saw Young Thug’s Punk on the Billboard charts, followed this year by Gunna’s outstanding DS4EVER. With plenty of the roster yet to release — Lil Keed, Strick, and others are especially anticipated — 2022 figures to be another pivotal year for the Atlanta-based label.

Confetti Nights is due 4/1 via YSL and 300 Entertainment.

Freddie Gibbs Explains Why He Was Nervous To Meet LeBron James: ‘I Thought He Was Gonna Beat My Ass’

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Freddie Gibbs has long been an avid basketball fan and in recent months, he’s taken advantage of his recent bump in rap game prominence to enjoy the game up close and personal, even getting to take home the jersey of his favorite team’s best player, DeMar DeRozan after finally equaling Chi-Town hometown hero Chance The Rapper (who he blamed for taking up all the tickets in the first place) in the comp ticket hierarchy.

However, Gibbs recently revealed he was actually reticent to meet with one player, in particular, the guy who happens to be pretty much the face of the NBA: LeBron James. The reason? Gibbs has been one of the many, many prominent spectators trashing the Los Angeles Lakers’ lackluster season, often posting video clips of himself watching their games and providing his own commentary. The Lakers are currently 28-36 and rank 4.5 games behind the #8 seed Clippers, meaning they could miss the playoffs for the second time in James’ tenure as the Lakers’ top dog.

So, when Gibbs met LeBron during Super Bowl weekend in LA recently, he revealed in a video on Instagram, he says he was slightly worried about a confrontation with the much bigger basketball star. “I talked to LeBron [at] Super Bowl weekend,” he said. ” I was like, ‘Oh sh*t!’ Look, I thought LeBron was gonna beat my ass. I ain’t even gon’ lie, man. I was prepared to get my ass whooped for talking sh*t about the Lakers.”

Fortunately, though, LeBron is pretty chill about the trash talk — maybe he’s used to it after 17 years in the NBA (and the four years of high school preceding that). Hopefully, this can lead to a Gibbs appearance on The Shop, because Freddie is one amusing storyteller and needs somewhere to crack jokes that isn’t the Joe Rogan podcast.

Freddie Gibbs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake Is A Courtside Highlight At Toronto Raptors Basketball Games: ‘It Was Great To See His Fandom’

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Drake has always loved his hometown basketbal team, the Toronto Raptors. That love turned into a business relationship in 2013 when he was announced as the team’s Global Ambassador. Drake has since helped the team from behind the scenes by promoting them and serving as a host for some of their events, as well as providing consulting services to rebrand them. More times than not, you will catch Drake sitting courtside at their games, enthusiastically cheering the team on, even trash-talking opponents at times. So what’s it like to sit next to the Certified Lover Boy rapper at these games?

Toronto’s The Star recently spoke to some people who were fortunate enough to be next to Drake during games. “Sitting beside Drake was awesome. It was the biggest game of the season at that point, and he and K.D. [Kevin Durant] had something going most of the night,” NHL analyst Sam Cosentino said. “It was great to see his fandom and how passionate he is for the game, and especially for his home team.”

Raptors’ play-by-play announcer Matt Devlin also shared his thoughts. “He’s close with Steph (Curry). He’s close with (Kevin Durant),” he says. “There’s some fun back and forth going on during a game, and it’s cool to sit there and observe.”

This also brings us back to the hilarious moment in December when Drake sat next to an older couple who had no idea who he was. Jim and Renee Stanley, who are both in their 70s, shared what it was like to sit next to Drake. “When the game was starting after the half, a young man sat down next to us and really didn’t say anything at first,” Jim said. “My first reaction was — don’t get this wrong — he smelled good. I said to him, ‘I really like what you are wearing.’ He turned to me and said thanks and shook my hand.” The trio would end up taking a selfie together where Drake called them “my new parents.”

You can read the full piece on The Star here.

Caleb Martin Credits J. Cole With Helping Him Make It Onto The Miami Heat

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J. Cole might be sitting pretty with his place on hip-hop Mount Rushmore, but his influence spreads beyond music, too. Cole has always been a very vocal fan of basketball, even going so far as to join a Rwandan team himself in order to play pro basketball in Africa.

Turns out his basketball influence extends to the states, too. Caleb Martin, who recently joined the Miami Heat, told The Charlotte Observer that the rapper was instrumental in getting him in position to be picked up by the team. Cole’s network with NBA contacts and private gym both helped Martin get in position to be signed to Miami.

“Yeah, that’s my man,” Caleb Martin told The Observer. “It shows that even though he’s accomplished a lot of things … and he’s got so many other things to worry about, he worries about his people. And it’s dope he considers me one of his people, that he takes into account and he knew my situation. He saw me working in the gym every day and you could just tell he appreciates guys who grinds like he does and so that’s a blessing for him to lend a hand out there and do what he could.”

Check out the whole profile right here.

Michael Jordan Grabbed Mary J Blige’s Backside At NBA All-Star And 50 Cent’s Got Jokes

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The NBA’s All-Star weekend is often a star-studded event, as both the league’s athletes and other entertainers get the chance to come together to enjoy the host city’s festivities as well as a low-stakes run of basketball games that allow for more socializing than the average in-season game. This year’s festivities were no different, as the league’s 75th anniversary brought out even bigger stars than usual, including retired players like Michael Jordan, who was honored as one of the 75 best players in league history.

But basketballs weren’t the only thing Jordan palmed over the weekend, which led to some pretty amusing memes from social media. When MJ encountered one of those celebrities, Mary J Blige — who’s fresh off her own big performance at the Super Bowl which included a surprise appearance from 50 Cent — their friendly hug apparently turned out a little more than that when cameras caught the hooper resting his hand on what looked to be the singer’s backside. Naturally, Twitter achieved liftoff from sheer reaction energy as fans noted the exchange and took great delight in pointing it out.

One of those fans was none other than 50 Cent, who never misses a chance to weigh in on a viral moment with a meme or two of his own, and in this case, he had the perfect gag, courtesy of his Starz drama series Power. Posting a pretty big spoiler for the recent season finale of Book II: Ghost (which stars Mary as Monique, the matriarch of a drug-dealing family that includes an NBA prospect basketball player, Zeke), 50 shared a fan’s screenshot with the comment “See just when we thought it was all f*cked up.” Of course, if you haven’t caught up on the show, you can click away, but if you’re not that pressed about the shocking ending — which, yeah, I hollered a bit when it aired — scroll on down to see 50’s reaction.

Machine Gun Kelly Helped Introduce The NBA All-Star Lineups And Macy Gray And Earth, Wind & Fire Performed

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NBA All-Star Weekend is about the finest talent professional basketball has to offer, but some of the biggest names in music popped up during the festivities, too. DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, Gunna, Ludacris, Migos, and Mary J. Blige performed on Saturday, and yesterday’s actual All-Star Game featured more recognizable music figures taking the stage.

Machine Gun Kelly (who was born in Houston but spent some of his formative years in Cleveland, this year’s All-Star host city) helped introduce the game’s starting lineups by getting the crowd excited, thanking “all the hard workers of this town,” cracking a couple of jokes, and handing things over to DJ D-Nice before the team lineups were properly introduced. Kelly had his fingerprints all over the weekend, as he also played during the celebrity game.

Prior to tip-off, Juno Award nominee Ryland James sang the Canadian national anthem before Ohio native Macy Gray delivered a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Some people online noticed LeBron James seemed amused by Gray’s performance, as he was seen seemingly trying to suppress a smile as she sang.

As for halftime, the mid-game break was mostly focused on a celebration of the 75th anniversary team, although it did feature Earth, Wind & Fire performing their thematically appropriate hit “Shining Star.”

Meanwhile, Adele was spotted courtside (which makes sense given her relationship with sports agent Rich Paul) and caught the attention of the TNT broadcast crew, which prompted Charles Barkley to reckon he and Adele ought to duet. Barkley’s co-hosts quickly and definitively shot that idea down.

Check out the musical highlights from the All-Star Game above.

DJ Khaled Airballs But Ultimately Triumphs On The NBA All-Star Skills Challenge Course

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NBA All-Star Game Weekend is upon us and DJ Khaled is 100 percent in Cleveland to attend the festivities. Earlier today, he took the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge course for a test drive, presumably warming it up for the three teams of the Antetokounmpo brothers, Cavaliers players, and rookies. Watching Khaled, decked out in a leather jacked and countless layers of iced out diamond necklaces, was a thrill.

He starts dribbling around the barriers, showing the ability to handle the rock with both right and left hands. He crosses over past the final obstacle before pulling up for a jump shot.

Clearly bogged down by the pounds of stones around his neck, his first shot was an airball. But never discouraged, he demands the ball back — “It don’t matter!” — he then pulls up again and swishes his second attempt triumphantly.

“Do not give up,” he says to the camera. “Don’t get discouraged. If you fall, get up. You keep going. I could’ve made it on the first shot, but there’s so much ice on me!”

The truly inspirational performance from DJ Khaled. One Twitter commenter was impressed with how quickly he sank the bucket, saying “Only two attempts to make the shot? This man can take Russ spot [crying laughing emojis]” Oh, the shade.

Watch the video of DJ Khaled’s skills on Twitter above. The actual Taco Bell NBA All Star Skills Challenge is the first event on Saturday, 02/19, beginning at 5 p.m. PST. The 2022 NBA All-Star Game itself is on Sunday at 5 p.m. PST.