Thanks to a perfect 16-for-16 performance from the field — including banking in multiple jump shots — Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo won his first NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award, as Team LeBron cruised to a 170-150 victory over Team Durant on Sunday night in Atlanta.
“You know, usually it is closed [on Sundays],” Antetokounmpo said with a smile, when asked about the banked-in jumpers, “but for me, it was open extended hours.”
In a game Team LeBron controlled from start to finish, it was Antetokounmpo (who finished with a game-high 35 points), Stephen Curry (28 points and eight 3-pointers) and Damian Lillard (32 points and hit the game-sealing 3-pointer) who led the way. The three fought for the MVP trophy down to the end, with Antetokounmpo ultimately winning it.
At 100% healthy, Antetokounmpo recorded the best field goal percentage in an All-Star game ever with a minimum of 10 attempts. The previous record for most makes without a miss belonged to Hal Greer, who went going 8-for-8 in the 1968 All-Star Game.
“It’s fun,” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s fun. I was happy, my teammates had fun, and just being around great players, they’re just easy to play with.”
This All-Star Game, like everything else about this season, was inescapably altered by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled to be in Indianapolis, it was instead moved to Atlanta. Only a handful of fans were in the stands, and strict quarantines were in place for everyone involved.
That, however, didn’t prevent the virus from infiltrating the event, as contact tracing forced the league to pull Philadelphia 76ers stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons out of the game — and potentially kept away from the Sixers when the second half of the season begins Thursday.
The situation involving Embiid and Simmons was the exact example NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned Saturday when discussing why, he believes, most NBA players will eventually get the vaccine. While Silver said the NBA will not mandate players get the vaccine, if they do get vaccinated, they would no longer have to quarantine — and, thus, be unable to play — if they come in contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19.
But when LeBron James was asked about being vaccinated Sunday afternoon during his pregame media availability, he declined to say whether he would get it.
“That’s a conversation that my family and I will have. Pretty much keep that to a private thing,” James said. “Obviously, I saw Adam had his comments about the vaccination. But things like that, when you decide to do something, that’s a conversation between you and your family and not for everybody. I’ll keep it that way.”
James, who said early last month that the NBA’s choosing to hold an All-Star Game amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was a “slap in the face,” lived up to the other quote he had about the game that day.
“I’ll be there if I’m selected,” James said. “But I’ll be there physically, but not mentally.”
James, who hadn’t scored fewer than 13 points in any of his prior 16 All-Star appearances, had only four points on 2-for-7 shooting — including whiffing on two wide-open layups — in 13 minutes. His teams are now 4-0, however, since the league shifted in 2018 to its current format of having the top two vote-getters choose their teams.
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Giannis Antetokounmpo keeps his perfect streak going as he banks in a 3-pointer to put him at 16-for-16 midway through third quarter of the All-Star Game.
Team LeBron, due to its victory, donated more than $1 million to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, while Team Durant donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund.
Atlanta native Jaylen Brown hit a 3-pointer with 1:33 left in the first quarter to ultimately give Team LeBron a win in the first quarter. The second quarter was far less competitive, as a 27-8 run over the final 3:54 of the quarter allowed Team LeBron to take a 20-point overall lead into the halftime break.
Team LeBron also won the third quarter by a single point and took a 21-point lead into the fourth quarter — meaning that, with the “Elam Ending,” Team LeBron simply had to score 24 points before Team Durant scored 45.
The only drama left at that point would be whether Antetokounmpo, Curry or — after a late charge — Lillard would ultimately win the All-Star MVP trophy for the first time. But although Curry had a chance to end the game with a half-court 3-pointer and missed, on the next trip down, Lillard pulled up from the half-court line himself and buried it instead.
Ultimately, though, it was the Greek Freak, and his perfect night, that won the day.
Spring break starts for hundreds of universities this month. And typical spring break revelry could lead to countless more Americans getting infected as coronavirus variants threaten to outpace vaccinations.
“It’s the perfect storm,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
“You’ve got the B.1.1.7 variant accelerating in Florida. You’ve got all these 20-year-old kids. None of them are going to have masks. They’re all going to be drinking. They’re having pretty close, intimate contact. And then, after that’s all done, they’re going to go back to their home states and spread the B.1.1.7 variant.”
And the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently had a blunt message for all Americans: “Don’t travel,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. “We really, really would advocate for not traveling right now.”
So college students who have a week of freedom can help make or break the next chapter in this pandemic. Here’s what to know before going to a party or traveling to a spring break hot spot:
The B.1.1.7 strain is really, really contagious
Scientists are worried about several new variants circulating in the US. But Hotez is most worried about the B.1.1.7 strain, which was first detected in the UK but has already spread to at least 44 US states.
Research shows that in the US, the variant is 59% to 74% more transmissible than the original novel coronavirus.
“Florida has the highest percentage of the B.1.1.7 UK variant,” Hotez said. “Spring break in Florida could spell disaster for the country.”
Other states with popular beaches could also become launching pads for new outbreaks — especially Texas and Mississippi, where governors lifted a mask mandate or will soon.
“A lot of (students) are going to go to South Texas as well, and that’s also a concern,” said Hotez, who lives in Houston.
Hotez said the ditching of a mask mandate in his state will have a ripple effect across the country.
“It’s going to accelerate Covid-19 nationally,” he said.
You can’t count on a negative test result to be safe
Testing can lead to false-negative results, especially if you get tested too soon or late and don’t strictly quarantine before and after your test.
And yes, you could be contagious even with no symptoms and a negative test result.
Young people definitely aren’t immune
While young people may be more likely to be asymptomatic when infected, that also means they can easily spread the virus to friends and family without realizing it.
But even young, previously healthy adults have suffered long-lasting Covid-19 complications.
In one survey, 35% of Covid-19 survivors still had symptoms two to three weeks after their tests, according to a CDC study.
In the 18-to-34 age group, 26% said they still had symptoms weeks later.
Some young people have struggled with complications months after infection, such as shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, brain fog, long-term fever, coughing, memory loss and the inability to taste or smell.
You asked, we’re answering: Your top questions about Covid-19 and vaccines
Alcohol plus parties often equal zero protection
Attempts to physically distance and wear masks typically go out the window at parties where alcohol is involved.
It’s not just that drinking makes people take off their masks (if they’re wearing one at all). Alcohol can cause people to get closer to one another than usual, Hotez said.
That’s especially dangerous this spring break, when revelers at popular hot spots may not just be exposed to students from across the country — they could also be exposed to variants or outbreaks from those parts of the country as well.
“So this is not the time to have a superspreader event for that UK variant, which is what spring break in Florida would look like,” Hotez said.
“This is not the time to be sending a bunch of 20-year-olds to Florida, then sending them back, disseminating it across the country.”
Pandemic fatigue is real — but totally defeatable
Not celebrating spring break the way you want to this year may seem devastating. But there will be plenty more chances to party after everyone gets vaccinated.
“The best thing to do right now is to avoid big travel unless you’ve been vaccinated or unless you’ve been recently infected,” Hotez said. “Just try to keep a lid on everything we can until we can fully vaccinate.”
Unfortunately, the vast majority of college students haven’t been vaccinated against Covid-19. But there’s some great news on the horizon:
— If enough people get vaccinated, this will likely be the last year of major Covid-19 disruptions.
— The current vaccines “work really well” against the troubling B.1.1.7 variant, Hotez said.
— President Joe Biden recently said an increase in supply means there could be enough vaccine for all American adults by the end of May.
— The faster we vaccinate and get Covid-19 under control, the faster we can return to normal life.
“I know it’s frustrating,” Hotez said. “But try to maximize social distancing and masks, and this may be the last spring break that you have to give up.”
The word discovery implies there’s something new to find, but I’ve spent the past few weeks steadily making my way through a show that’s been on the air for more than 20 years, thanks to Discovery Plus: House Hunters.
Thanks to House Hunters (and House Hunters International, alongside Tiny House Hunters) my days spent inside, working from home and doing nothing but watching TV, have transitioned almost exclusively to Discovery Plus. It exists as white noise in my apartment: the buzzing of couples arguing over whether to pay the full $560,000 for a house in the nice neighborhood closer to the cute bistro or take a chance on the $480,000 home that needs some work but is way under budget emitting from my TV set. From the time I start working until the second I’m beginning to wind down, House Hunters plays continuously on its dedicated channel housed within Discovery Plus.
“Our bet is when the world makes a full rotation, that the content people have chosen when they could choose anything on TV or cable, the content that they love and run home for — 90 Day, Fixer Upper, Property Brothers — they’re still going to love that,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav told TheNew York Timesin a recent interview.
Discovery Plus, home to shows from networks like HGTV, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and the Food Network, launched at just the right moment, when ambient television was becoming a fixture in people’s homes during the pandemic. Author and journalist Kyle Chayka referred to ambient TV as something “you don’t have to pay attention to in order to enjoy but which is still seductive enough to be compelling if you choose to do so momentarily.” For Chayka, that was Emily in Paris. This reasoning is also what makes House Hunters, as well as 90 percent of the series on Discovery Plus, perfect ambient television.
Streaming also makes ambient TV possible in a way cable television can’t because there’s a total ad-free option. Loud commercials that play every seven minutes cease to exist. Functionally, I have the option to throw on a House Hunters channel that streams episodes of the show 24/7 and forget about it. Streaming services are designed to make viewing as effortless as possible and keep people’s attention once they’ve started watching TV.
So far, it’s working out better than expected for Discovery Plus. The company has signed up more than 11 million subscribers to the platform since it launched in early January. Discovery’s target audience is people between 25 and 54, a wide bracket but one with the most disposable income as of 2019, according to Statista. The disposable income of a household led by a person between the ages of 25 and 54 ranged between $69,700 and $91,400 in 2019, Statista reported. Add in that cord-cutting continues to happen at an accelerated rate and that millennials are one of the biggest groups to sign up for three or more streaming services, and Discovery Plus’ potential is obvious.
Zaslav chalked up the impressive initial signups as proof that “people really don’t change that much,” when talking to the Times. That’s probably true, but having an ad-free option that does for adults and college students what Frozen 2 on Disney Plusor Cocomelon on YouTube and Netflix repeats do for kids has become essential in my home. To quote a popular TikTok meme, House Hunters on Discovery Plus leads to “empty head, no thoughts.”
There’s another term for this: waiting room television. Like daytime TV talk shows or new soap opera episodes, shows like 90 Day Fiancé, House Hunters, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives are just interesting enough to catch someone’s fleeting attention, but they’re monotonous enough to not become total distractions. They simply exist to keep people entertained if they want but can float into the background if someone would rather check in on Instagram or read a book instead — or, in my case, work.
Discovery Plus still has a long way to go. There are basic product features that need to be fixed (finding on-demand videos instead of 24/7 channels is more difficult than it should be), and I haven’t seen any new series or specials that have caught my attention. Discovery also has to ensure that it’s keeping the vast majority of those who do sign up. For now, Discovery filled a need I didn’t know I had while working at home — pure, ongoing, ambient TV that I don’t have to think about for hours the second I hit play.
Puro Pro comes in an attractive bamboo box with brass clasp, reminiscent of a good cigar box.
Jim Salter
Inside the display box, the headphones and cables are packed in a posh travel case, which will keep things organized and undamaged when you cram the whole thing in a backpack like the techno-troglodyte you are.
Jim Salter
The travel case has a netted section sufficient to hold the (included) USB Micro-B charge cable and 3.5mm audio cable and maybe a USB thumb drive or two if necessary.
Jim Salter
These violas are enjoying high-quality streaming audio from YouTube music. Also, they’re holding up the phones so you can see the Puro logo on the top, which is their only visible branding.
Jim Salter
Last December, a representative for Puro Sound Labs offered me a review sample of the company’s flagship Bluetooth hybrid headphones. Her timing couldn’t have been better—I had surgery scheduled for January 8 that would put me on the couch all day, every day, for two weeks straight with nothing to do but watch movies and television (ideally without driving my wife and kids insane).
The Puro Pro is an over-the-ear design, which can be connected to audio sources via Bluetooth 5.0 pairing or a simple headphone cord. It offers just about any feature you might dream up for a pair of headphones: safety volume limiting (configurable for either 85dBA or 95dBA), 30+ hour battery life, content control via buttons on the left can, active noise cancellation, and even an inline mic for phone calls.
At $200, the Puro Pro costs more than I’d normally spend on a pair of headphones for watching late-night TV and flying on the occasional airplane (my two primary use cases). But after spending several hours per day with the Puro Pro for a couple of months, I would drop the cash in a heartbeat.
How I tested
Puro Sound Labs PuroPro Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones
(Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)
The majority of the time I spent with the Puro Pro was on my couch, watching content from YouTube Music, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, along with some locally stored TV and movies. Both my Roku Premiere+ 4K UHD media player (for streaming content) and my custom-built HTPC (for local content) are connected to my Denon AVR-S510BT receiver and from the Denon’s headphone jack to a Boltune low-latency Bluetooth 5.0 transceiver.
This setup was my most important test scenario for the headphones, but I also gave them more demanding tests of musical accuracy by connecting them (wired) to the Scarlett Solo preamp I use in my podcasting studio. The Scarlett Solo is connected to my workstation; its major “work” function is providing an XLR input for my RE230 mic, but it does double duty as my system’s main audio output interface, via its 1/4″ headphone jack—normally connected to a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro studio headphones.
I should be very clear that my testing is subjective—I actually used the headphones and compared them to several sets of reference gear, and I’m sharing my impressions here. With that said, I’m a fairly demanding listener; I grew up with a broadcast engineer for a dad, and I’ve spent the last 30 years trying to buy personal audio equipment that straddles the line between “this is some of the best you can buy” and “this is wallet-draining audiophile nonsense.”
The competition
I’m a night owl, but my wife is an early riser, so quiet late-night movie and TV watching is essential at the Salter household. Wireless earbuds turned out to be a no-go for me. I tried several models that I liked the sound of, but—while I found them comfortable initially—all led to repeated ear infections after long-term, daily use. Battery life was also less than ideal—the LG Tone HBS-510 earbuds I used the most only got about eight to 10 hours of play time, with similar results for a variety of lesser-known brands.
Next, I tried a set of Monodeal on-ear Bluetooth headphones—at $35, they’re an incredible value, and I ended up getting a second pair for my wife (who also loved them). But I still had comfort issues; after several TV episodes in a row, the on-ear design would get a bit ouchy. The battery life also left something to be desired, at around eight hours—not bad for the price, but not long enough to get you through cross-continent plane trips without careful husbanding.
Finally, I used a $200 pair of JBL Live 650BTNC over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones. Their over-the-ear design was far more comfortable for long-term use than the Monodeal pair, and the playtime of 20+ hours was a huge improvement. The audio quality was also a little better than the Monodeal. They still weren’t 100 percent comfortable for long-term use, though, due to weight, balance issues, and the combination of very firm padding and significant clamping pressure on my head.
Although the JBL headphones weren’t perfect, they were workable enough that I wasn’t really in the market for a replacement.
Evaluating Puro Pro
For my major use case—watching TV and movies late at night on the couch without disturbing my wife—the Puro Pro headphones are far and away the best thing I’ve tried. I also found them excellent for listening to a wide variety of musical genres, including classical, acoustic, a capella, and hip-hop.
The only flaw I could find with them—aside from the charge port not being USB-C—is an annoying background buzz artifact produced when the headphone volume is at max and a staccato sound (for example, the “click” when moving focus on the Roku interface from one item to another) is produced. That flaw is easily worked around: just turn the headphone volume down a single click and no more buzz.
Comfort
The padding is extremely soft and comfortable, and the headphones provide just enough clamping pressure to stay firm without getting ouchy after a few hours.
Although the weight of the JBL and Puro headphones is similar, the balance is different. This isn’t something I notice instantly when putting either set of headphones on—but after several hour-long episodes of a binged show (or one Lord of the Rings movie), the JBL phones leave my neck feeling a little strained, while the Puro Pro phones do not.
The lighter clamping pressure and softer padding on the Puro Pro headphones also leaves me with significantly less “sweaty ear” feeling after several hours of extended use than I got from the JBL headphones—or, for that matter, from my Sennheiser HD 280 Pro studio phones after recording a podcast.
Michigan-Ohio State is just what college basketball needed.
Arguably the most anticipated game of the regular season eclipsed the hype, offering more compelling play and interest in the schools’ rivalry than football has been able to provide for most of the past decade. A bonus: this was the first top-five college hoops matchup between the programs in their history. Third-ranked Michigan got, from a résumé standpoint, what could be the most accomplished road victory this season with a 92-87 win over No. 4 OSU.
It was as entertaining and provocative a game between two ranked teams that we’ve seen in the past three months.
This has been a rocky season — as predicted — in college basketball. Each week 40-80 games are postponed or canceled. High-end teams like Gonzaga, Baylor, Michigan, Villanova and Florida State have gone on weeks-long pauses. You never want your best teams out of sight (thus out of mind), but that’s how it’s been for much of the past three months. Sure, it’s been a joy to have college basketball at all, even with the problems that come with hosting a season amid a pandemic, but it’s fair to say the sport has lacked some juice as it’s staggered along after losing the 2020 NCAA Tournament.
All of that seemed to vanish in two hours on Sunday when a national audience tuned in order to tune up for March. A top-five tilt gilded by two of the biggest college athletic brands wound up providing a high-octane, can’t-turn-away outcome. Chef’s-kiss delectable.
This was the third time in the past three months college basketball was gifted a game between two top-five teams. On Dec. 2, No. 2 Baylor coasted past No. 5 Illinois 82-69. Seventeen days later, top-ranked Gonzaga let No. 3 Iowa linger, but it was a 99-88 finish in favor of the still-unbeaten Bulldogs.
Michigan-Ohio State brought what those two games didn’t — a home-court element — in addition to the backdrop of both teams being projected No. 1 seeds.
A lack of fans didn’t suck the drama or viewing experience out of this one. It was a title-level competition. Michigan finished the game at a fiery 1.37 points per possession. (OSU finished just behind at 1.30.) For diehards of the sport, Michigan center Hunter Dickinson was no secret. He’s consistently been rated in the top five of CBS Sports’ Frosh Watch. But for a broader audience, today was something of an extended introduction. Though Ohio State had some missed second chances and two bad turnovers down the stretch, in the end, one team having the 7-footer (who looks like the guy from “Empire Records”) and the other team not having him seemed the difference. Dickinson had 22 points, nine rebounds, two blocks and at least four easy buckets against an OSU team that doesn’t have a player taller than 6-8.
“The difficult thing with them is they shoot it well from a variety of spots,” OSU coach Chris Holtmann told CBS Sports. “And Dickinson is a load.”
The teams combined to make 22 3-pointers and shot 49% from beyond the arc, in addition to Michigan making 57% of its 2-point shots and Ohio State 55% of its attempts inside the 3-point line. Offense, offense, offense — and not on account of poor defense.
Along the way, we got a wonderful potential Final Four preview. Both these teams are obviously good enough to make a run to the final weekend. What Michigan has managed to do after a 23-day pause is almost jaw-dropping. A week ago the Wolverines outscored Wisconsin 40-20 in the second half, shook off any flakes of rust in the process and won on the road. Thursday brought a workmanlike, never-in-doubt home W over Rutgers. Sunday was the best yet. U-M opened with an absurd 10-of-13 first-half shooting performance from beyond the arc. It finished 11-of-23, providing flashbacks of some of John Beilein’s best teams in the process.
Might this group be better than his 2013 or 2018 Final Four teams? At this point, that is on the table. Holtmann told me you can see some of Howard’s NBA influence in the way Michigan runs some of its offensive sets, and it’s what makes this team well-rounded.
Michigan legend Juwan Howard has his team playing at the highest level in just his second season.
Getty Images
“I think what’s so impressive about them is you can just tell they have really taken on his personality,” Holtmann said. “Competitive, smart, tough-minded. I put this team on the same level, just about, as the really good Beilein teams and it’s impressive to see him do this [in his second season].”
In two seasons’ time, Howard has done what Beilein only pulled off once in 11 years: win at Ohio State. This was the Wolverines’ first win in Columbus in seven years and just their second since 2005. Michigan’s now 11-1 in the Big Ten, its best start in league play since 1976-77. Juwan Howard was 4 years old then.
The Big Ten is obviously going to have at least one of its teams earn a No. 1 seed. That will mark the first time since 2015 (Wisconsin) that the league’s been able to find the top line on Selection Sunday. Michigan is not yet a lock to be a No. 1 (games against No. 11 Iowa, No. 5 Illinois and the Big Ten Tournament all await), but it’s as close as it could possibly be to lock status on Feb. 21.
“They’re a complete team,” Holtmann said. “That’s why everyone’s so high on them and rightfully so.”
It’s one of the best stories in college hoops. There was a time recently when a job came open at Michigan. There was a man who, behind the scenes, pushed to be hired. He was a well-known man, an alumnus and someone who found success as a pro in both his playing and coaching career. Could a return to college work? That didn’t matter to fans at first because they were overjoyed at the prospect of having a beloved face back on campus, to have someone that’s tasted serious success at the highest levels opt to coach Michigan again. Even better: to beat Ohio State.
No, not Jim Harbaugh. Another JH: Juwan Howard. The University of Michigan’s men’s basketball team is dominant, relevant and rolling in ways that its football program can only imagine at this point.
Oscar Valdez relished in the afterglow of proving a lot of doubters wrong on Saturday night, as his KO victory over Miguel Berchelt was as thorough and as impressive a performance as the new WBC junior lightweight world titlist could have put together.
After 10 rounds, most of which were spent dictating the fight in the direction he wanted to take it, Valdez further stunned the boxing world by landing a devastating punch flush to Berchelt’s face, which knocked Berchelt out cold and ended the fight with just one second left in the round.
Brett Okamoto and Michael Rothstein break down the biggest moments of the night in Las Vegas and project what comes next for both fighters, as well as Top Rank Boxing’s calendar going forward. Ben Baby reacts to Adrien Broner’s return to the ring for the first time in nearly two years as well.
After the biggest win of his career, what’s next for Oscar Valdez?
Rothstein: Valdez fought the perfect fight. An absolutely perfect fight. From the first round on, everything Valdez did was one step ahead of Miguel Berchelt, ending it with a vicious one-punch knockout in the 10th round, a left hook right to the middle of Berchelt’s face.
How the fight ended encapsulated how Valdez fought throughout the night. He ducked away from a Berchelt punch, rose up and connected to send Berchelt to the canvas.
It was a consistent combination of speed and landing effective hooks from Valdez throughout the night. The strategy stunned Berchelt in the first two rounds, earned Valdez a knockdown in the fourth round, a second knockdown in the ninth and then ultimately the knockout in the 10th.
By then, the only thing that would have stopped Valdez from winning the title was a miracle from Berchelt (37-2-0, 33 KO), who didn’t seem to have much left a round or two prior to that moment.
This win strengthens the career resume of Valdez (29-0, 23 KO), who now becomes a titleholder in his second division after six defenses of the WBO featherweight world title. Now that he’s a titleholder again, the new WBC junior lightweight world titlist has options.
His next potential opponent might have been sitting ringside. The money fight for Valdez could very well be against Shakur Stevenson, the undefeated rising star that also happens to be a part of Top Rank’s stable of fighters. He’s also the No. 2-rated fighter in the division by the WBC, so it could make sense from that standpoint as well.
Congrats champ @oscarvaldez56 I respect what you did tonight surprised me.. It’s only 1 FIGHT to make now!
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) February 21, 2021
Stevenson-Valdez would be an interesting contrast of styles and a fight that could put fans in the seats toward the middle of the year. Valdez was open to it after the fight as well, even suggesting it in his post-fight interview.
It is the fight to make and seems to make the most sense in the immediate future. The other option, if Valdez decides he wants to try and start unifying the division, will be to watch the Jamel Herring-Carl Frampton fight later this spring and wait on the winner of that.
But even with that fight out there, Stevenson seems like the smarter way to go.
How did Berchelt lose, and what’s next for him?
Okamoto: Berchelt didn’t lose his title as much as Valdez took it from him. Let’s make that clear right away. Valdez looked masterful from the start and Berchelt was stunned and fading by the fourth round, when Valdez put him on skates with a left and got his first knockdown. Valdez may have finished him off right there had the bell not come. Berchelt showcased a lot of heart in the ensuing rounds, and tried to turn the tide with nothing more than sheer pressure and power.
It was clear, however, he didn’t have an answer, at least not on Saturday, for Valdez’s speed and stance changes. Berchelt looked lost early on. He never looked comfortable in his counter striking, and more or less abandoned it after the fourth round when he committed to a high pressure approach. At 29, he’s still one of the top junior lightweights in the world, but he will unfortunately have to prove that is still the case over the next year or so following a result like this. He’ll have to prove the devastating nature of this loss doesn’t change his ability to take a punch, or his willingness to take a punch.
If and when he faces another quick, technical boxer like Valdez — or Vasiliy Lomachenko, who he might have called out had Saturday gone differently — he’ll need to prove he learned from this disaster. He’ll likely need a comeback fight of some sort, an opponent not ranked in the top five of the division. If all goes well, a title fight won’t be far away.
Perhaps he’ll give some thought to a move up in weight as well, which also would have been a post-fight topic had he won, but there’s no reason to think 130 pounds still can’t be a great home for Berchelt. But there will be inevitable questions he’ll need to answer when he comes back.
Boxing needs fans again
Okamoto: I was ringside for tonight’s fight in Las Vegas. I figured this would be a night in which fans would be missed — I just thought it would be due to a back-and-forth war, and not a one-sided masterclass by Valdez. But regardless, the reality is the same. Boxing sorely missed its fans tonight.
There was a moment before the walkouts, when the ballroom at the MGM went dark and the house music went off. It was one of those moments that lets everyone in the building know, the main event fighters are about to walk. I’ve experienced that feeling in a packed arena hundreds of times, and I can’t even really put into words how odd it felt on Saturday. It was so silent, you could hear individual conversations taking place in the room.
When the fighters did walk and they were announced — honestly, I think Top Rank does about a good a job of manufacturing energy as you can — but it’s just barely relatable to an actual crowd. And of course, the fight itself, when Valdez dropped Berchelt in the fourth, and Berchelt was trying to will his way into a victory in the ensuing rounds when he was still hurt, a crowd would have added so much to that. Hopefully, we’re close to that.
Top Rank believes Saturday was its final night in the bubble. The promotion intends to move to Florida and/or Oklahoma for its next events in April, and then be back in Vegas in May — at a time when, hopefully, fans will be allowed back in attendance.
Gabriel Flores Jr. finds big KO as rising prospects get rounds on Berchelt-Valdez undercard
Rothstein: Gabriel Flores Jr. looked less than sharp. Jayson Velez was landing some punches and putting together some combinations. But then, in the sixth round, the 20-year-old Flores showed why he’s considered a rising prospect in the junior lightweight division.
A right to Velez’s head sent him down once. A flurry of punches ended the fight moments later, locking in an important win for the Stockton, Calif. native. It was a big showcase in the co-main event, catching fans who tuned in a little early for that title fight.
That Flores was able to put together a knockout — his first since a third-round KO of Eduardo Pereira Dos Reis on May 4, 2019 — was an added bonus, since it was only his second knockout in his past 14 fights. It off showed some of Flores’ combination speed and power. After the fight, Flores said he “sent a statement that I’m ready for a world title.”
That feels a little bit soon for him, considering the strength of the division. Beyond Berchelt and Valdez, there’s also Shakur Stevenson, Leo Santa Cruz, Joseph Diaz Jr., Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov, Jamel Herring and more in the division, too.
But it was an impressive showing that should give him a real chance at a high-level opponent next. If Flores wins that fight, then maybe there is a title shot in his near future, especially since the IBF belt is currently vacant.
The other two prospects on the undercard — junior welterweight Elvis Rodriguez (11-0-1, 10 KO) and welterweight Xander Zayas (7-0, 5 KO) — got rounds in, which was key for both of their developments with Rodriguez at 12 pro fights and Zayas at seven pro fights and a lot of short nights thus far in their careers.
For Rodriguez especially, it’s the first time he went the distance in a fight and this fight should give him a good amount of tape to work with as he works on improving some key elements in the ring. Rodriguez admitted as much after the fight against a fairly game Luis Alberto Veron (18-3-2, 9 KO), saying he needs to return to the gym and work on letting his hands go more.
These kinds of learning experiences can be beneficial a year or two down the road, when the stakes get higher.
What did Saturday’s fight against Jovanie Santiago tell us about the current state of Adrien Broner?
Baby: Saturday night was Adrien Broner in a nutshell. He showed flashes in the ring against Jovanie Santiago in a unanimous, yet controversial decision. Broner landed 100 fewer punches than Santiago and once again looked sluggish in the ring. And perhaps his most entertaining moments of the night came in the post-fight interview, when Broner’s boisterous persona was clearly not rusty despite the lack of action.
In other words, it was peak Broner. And at this point, that’s not enough to challenge anyone elite at 140 pounds, where he wants to fight, and 147 pounds, where he actually fights.
Broner’s best moments came in the middle rounds, including one in the eighth round when a Broner hook caused Santiago to do the splits and he came inches away from touching the canvas.
But Santiago rallied in Round 12, and made the fight close, at the very least. Even though there should have been a large gulf between the two men, that wasn’t apparent on Saturday. And yes, Broner is coming off a long layoff, but when he missed weight by six pounds and the bout was changed to the welterweight limit toward the end of fight week, his dedication to being in fighting shape is hard to believe.
With his win (featuring some very questionable scorecards, including an inexplicable 117-110 from Peter Hary), Broner likely secured at least another sizable payday. At this point in his career, that’s probably the best he can ask for.
Kendall Jenner is a model and reality star. DANNY MOLOSHOK/Reuters
Photos from Kendall Jenner’s lingerie-clad SKIMS campaign recently circulated on the internet.
The supermodel told fans that compared themselves to the photos that she has “bad days too.”
“You are beautiful just the way you are,” she wrote. “It’s not always as perfect as it may seem.”
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Kendall Jenner said that her life isn’t “as perfect as it may seem” on Friday after fans compared themselves to her photos from a SKIMS campaign.
Earlier that day, the 25-year-old supermodel shared behind-the-scenes photos and videos from her SKIMS “Fits Everybody” Valentine’s Day campaign with sisters Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner.
In the pictures she posted on Instagram, Kendall wore bright red lingerie and clear high heels.
The photos, particularly one of Kendall standing up in a mirror selfie, circulated on Twitter, and the model’s name began trending. While many people complimented the model’s looks, others said the photos made them feel insecure.
One fan tweeted, “i got 99 problems and looking like kendall jenner would solve all of them.”
The “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star quote-tweeted the message and responded, “i am an extremely lucky girl. appreciative of all that i have. but i want you to know i have bad days too and that i hear you!”
She continued, “You are beautiful just the way you are!!! it’s not always as perfect as it may seem.”
Another fan replied to Kendall’s tweet with a selfie and wrote, “My confidence after Kenny J says she has bad days too,” with upward graph emojis.
The model replied by writing, “YESSSS MA’AM” with fire emojis.
Kendall, who has been modeling since she was 15, talked about feeling insecure about her body shape when she was growing up during a 2019 interview with the Telegraph. She said being built differently than her sisters made her feel like an outcast.
“My sisters are a lot curvier than me,” she explained.
She continued, “They have boobs and I don’t have boobs. Growing up being this little twiggy girl, I saw my sisters and always thought, ‘Oh no, am I supposed to be more sexy like them?’ I almost felt like I didn’t fit in for a part of my life.”
Now that she’s older, Kendall said she’s come to appreciate that she has “a different vibe to everyone.”
“I like to do different things. And that’s okay,” she said.
Later that year, she spoke about her favorite and least favorite parts of her body in an advertisement for SKIMS.
“My favorite part of my body is my height,” she said, continuing, “Sometimes I’m self-conscious about my broad shoulders.”
Kelly Clarkson plans her perfect first Valentine’s Day date with herself since separation: ‘We don’t need someone by our sides to live our best lives’
By Dan Heching For Dailymail.com
Published: | Updated:
She’s currently embroiled in a divorce from her estranged husband and father of her two children.
But Kelly Clarkson chose to concentrate on the positive on Friday, when she hosted a Valentine’s Day themed episode of her talk show geared towards celebrating single women.
The Miss Independent songstress, 38, welcomed comedian Kym Whitley in the studio, along with Roseanne star Sarah Chalke via video.
Celebrating singledom: Kelly Clarkson chose to concentrate on the positive on Friday, when she hosted a Valentine’s Day themed episode of her talk show geared towards celebrating single women
During the episode, the topic of the perfect date with oneself for Valentine’s Day came up, and each star shared their ideas along with some audience members.
‘We all know that we don’t need someone by our sides to live our best lives,’ Clarkson said.
‘To date myself, I’m a mom of little tiny tots, so I love, literally, having a glass of wine, put the fireplace on in my bedroom,’ she also shared.
‘We all know that we don’t need someone by our sides to live our best lives,’ Clarkson said on the episode
Then she added, ‘…and I read a book or I watch some Netflix. Or I literally just hang out with my girls. I love that.’
Chalke, meanwhile, reflected on how much she loves hanging out with her girlfriends, something she misses during the pandemic.
And Whitley hammed it up, describing how her ideal date night with herself involved sending her young son away so she could get out her ‘toys’ and cuddle up under a throw in front of the TV.
Later in the show, Kelly was asked by an audience member, ‘What’s something that you pretended to be cool with that you weren’t cool with while in a relationship?’
‘Oh…,’ the American Idol champion said, before hesitating and looking to her guests to go first.
But she later shared: ‘I dated this guy, and I think because I’m a singer-songwriter, if you date people, they feel like, “Oh, I’m gonna write her a song.”
‘And… don’t,’ Clarkson concluded, tellingly.
Amongst the gals: The Miss Independent songstress welcomed comedian Kym Whitley (left) in the studio, along with Roseanne star Sarah Chalke via video
Kelly is in the midst of divorce proceedings with her estranged husband Brandon Blackstock, with whom she shares daughter River Rose, six, and son Remington Alexander, four.
She filed for divorce from the talent manager on June 4th of last year.
On a previous episode of the Kelly Clarkson Show, the Grammy winner allowed that co-parenting with Blackstock has been ‘tough.’
‘It’s tough…I know with me and Brandon, it’s just a difficult thing because we’re in different places, and it’s like, we both agree on the main things, but it’s a hard thing when you’re not together all the time, for me personally,’ she recently told guest Khloe Kardashian.
Ex files: Kelly is in the midst of divorce proceedings with her estranged husband Brandon Blackstock, with whom she shares two children; seen here in 2018
The viral teen star who has millions of followers — almost 32 million on Tik Tok alone — appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” Wednesday where she talked about going public as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Siwa said she realized that doing a Tik Tok with members of the Pride House might out her and added that her friends and family were aware of her sexuality.
“It’s not something I’m ashamed of,” the 17-year-old said. “I just haven’t shown the internet yet.'”
Siwa said she talked to her girlfriend, who she didn’t identify, about all the love that flowed in from her followers after the Pride House video and one she did to the Lady Gaga LGBTQ+ anthem “Born This Way.”
The star said she noted that technically she hadn’t confirmed anything and was considering doing it by posting a photo wearing a “Best Gay Cousin Ever” shirt her relative had given to her.
She said her girlfriend was “super encouraging” and so Siwa did it.
Siwa said she knows that coming out can be “a very scary thing,” but she had words of wisdom for those considering it.
“Of course not everybody in the world is going to accept it right now, but there are so many people that are going to accept it right now,” she said. “And like I say, even if there’s a million people that don’t accept it, there’s a hundred million that do.”
Artist’s impression of the TOI-178 system.Image: ESO
A unique planetary system located 200 light-years from Earth hosts five exoplanets with orbits locked together in a repeating pattern, despite their very different sizes and densities. The discovery is challenging astronomers’ notions of the kinds of planetary systems that can exist and how they form.
Five of six exoplanets in orbit around the star TOI-178 are in an 18:9:6:4:3 orbital resonance with each other, according to new research published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics. So for every 18 orbits made by the innermost of these five exoplanets, the next planet along the chain will complete nine orbits during the exact same period. The third will complete six orbits, and so on. The video below offers a demonstration of the process in action.
The innermost of the six exoplanets (shown with a blue orbital path) is not in resonance with the others, though it might have been in the past. In the animation above, rhythmic patterns are represented by red pulses and a chime sound (in the pentatonic scale), which get triggered when each exoplanet completes either a full orbit or a half orbit. As the video shows, two or more exoplanets trigger the chime quite often, the result of them being in orbital resonance. The new study was led by Adrien Leleu, CHEOPS fellow at the University of Geneva.
When Leleu, a dynamicist (an expert in celestial mechanics) and his colleagues first observed the TOI-178 system, they thought they saw two planets orbiting around the host star in the same orbit, but this result was inconclusive. The scientists decided to make follow-up observations using the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS satellite and the ground-based ESPRESSO instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, in addition to the Next Generation Transit Survey and SPECULOOS projects, both in Chile. All these instruments allowed the team to detect the six exoplanets and characterize their orbits, which they did using the transit method (looking at the dimming of the host star when a planet passes in front) and by measuring the wobble of the host star.
All six exoplanets are in close proximity to the central star, with the nearest planet taking around two days to make a complete orbit and the most distant orbiting in around 20 days. None are inside the habitable zone, the Goldilocks region around a star where liquid water (and thus life) would be possible. Five of the six exoplanets are locked in perfect resonance, such that some planets come into alignment every few orbits. The 18:9:6:4:3 chain is among the longest ever discovered.
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Orbital resonance happens when orbiting bodies exert a periodic gravitational influence on each other. In our solar system, Jupiter’s moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede are in a 4:2:1 resonance.
The TOI-178 is interesting for a number of reasons, with the orbital resonance a sign of prolonged stability.
“From our understanding of planet formations, chain of resonances often occurs in the earliest phases of planetary system formation, when the star is still surrounded by a gaseous disc,” Leleu explained in an email. “However during the billions of years that follow the formation, many things can happen and most systems get out of the resonances. It can happen slowly, due to [gravitational] tidal effects for example, or violently, due to instability and planet collision/ejection.”
Only five other star systems have resonant chains involving four or more planets, “which is not a lot,” he added. Astronomers consider these planetary systems to be rare and quite young.
“What is unique to TOI-178 is not only this orbital configuration, but also the planets’ composition,” said Leleu. This consequently presents a challenge to our understanding of how planets form and evolve.
Indeed, the planets are between one and three times the size of Earth but have masses ranging from 1.5 to 30 times the mass of Earth. So while their orbital configurations are neat and tidy, their compositions are not. For example, one planet is a super-Earth, but its immediate neighbor is a low-density ice giant similar to Neptune. We don’t see that sort of thing around here.
According to Leleu, theory suggests that the planets should have lower density the farther they are from their star. But that’s not the case here. “In TOI-178, it’s only true for the two inner planets that are rocky, but then the third planet from the star has a very low density, then planet 4 and 5 are more dense, and then planet 6 is once again more fluffy,” he said.
Astronomers will now have to figure out how the system formed, including whether some of the planets formed farther out and slowly drifted inward.
Interestingly, TOI-178 could host other, more distant planets, but they just haven’t been detected. Looking ahead, ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, which should become operational later this decade, might be able to to learn more about this odd star system.
