Given his penchant for technical-foul-drawing histrionics and opponent-wrecking defensive detonations, “stability” might not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about Draymond Green. That’s what the All-Star forward opted for this weekend, though, agreeing to terms on a new four-year, maximum-salaried contract extension that answers the Warriors’ biggest extant question 11 months early—and, in the process, heaps even more doubt on how teams facing their own roster-building dilemmas in the summer of 2020 might try to address them.

Golden State now has its four most important pieces—Green, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and new arrival D’Angelo Russell—under contract for at least three seasons, affording the Warriors a bit more continuity than would-be title contenders tend to get these days. Green secures a $99.7 million bag, ensuring a superstar’s salary and status with the franchise he helped build into a dynasty; he also reportedly got a player option for the final season, allowing him to hit the market in 2023 if he’d like. It’s a good bit of business for both sides. But while the re-up seems like a win-win for Draymond and the Dubs, it’s another L for the free-agent class of 2020, and for teams that might hope to find a difference-maker in it.

Back for more! Ariana Grande and her rumored new beau, Mikey Foster, enjoyed another night out in Chicago on Monday, August 5.

The “Boyfriend” collaborators returned to Siena Tavern for the second consecutive night, and they were joined by a group of friends as well as the Grammy winner’s mom, Joan.

“Ariana and Mikey were holding hands at one point while they were there,” a source tells Us Weekly exclusively, noting that the duo “arrived separately.”

Twenty-four hours earlier, Grande, Foster and more than a dozen other people stopped by the Italian restaurant after the 26-year-old pop star’s headlining set at the Lollapalooza music festival. Grande and the Social House member sat “next to each other during dinner” at a surprise party for one of her bodyguards, according to an eyewitness.

It's been a tough month for Netflix fans, with news emerging that much-loved shows including Friends and the American version of The Office are being taken off the platform.

It was revealed on July 9 that Netflix US will be losing Friends when its rights holder WarnerMedia launches its streaming service HBO Max next year.

The huge loss came only a few weeks after the company also announced that NBCUniversal would be gaining the rights to The Office.

But according to Nielsen, these programmes were Netflix's most-watched in 2018, in terms of minutes spent viewing.

So why did Netflix make the decision to pull the plug?

To leave more money for original content

Shows such as Friends and The Office are expensive – Netflix paid $100 million to stream Friends and was willing to splash up to $90 million to keep the the rights for The Office. Therefore, it'll save a whole lot of money on licensing fees once they're gone.

Is Leonardo DiCaprio Hollywood’s last movie star? That was the thrust of a recent Hollywood Reporter feature, suggesting he stands alone as an actor whose name is a hallmark of a movie’s quality in itself, who rarely has a flop, and who doesn’t put himself about too much – Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is his first movie since 2015’s The Revenant. “He is arguably the only global superstar left in a film industry in which an interchangeable group of actors regularly suit up in spandex or brandish a lightsaber for the latest billion-dollar earner,” the magazine argues, comparing DiCaprio’s pre-eminence with would-be peers such as Will Smith, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Downey Jr. 

Is there any rival to DiCaprio still standing in the movie-star stakes? Possibly one: his Once Upon a Time … co-star Brad Pitt. Pitt’s back catalogue might be patchier (recent flops such as Allied and War Machine might have passed you by completely), and his love life gossipier, but like DiCaprio, he broke out as a teen heartthrob in the late 90s, then successfully transitioned into serious-actor status. Between them they have worked with the best in the business: Scorsese, Malick, Fincher, Spielberg, Iñárritu (both) and, of course, Tarantino – Pitt in Inglourious Basterds, DiCaprio in Django Unchained.

The Frenchwoman has been awarded the showcase match between Chelsea and Liverpool after officiating the Women’s World Cup final this summer

Stephanie Frappart has been selected to referee Liverpool vs Chelsea in the Uefa Super Cup to become the first female official of a major Uefa men’s showpiece match. 

The Frenchwoman took charge of the Fifa Women’s World Cup final earlier this summer as the United States defeat the Netherlands in Lyon. 

And now Uefa have decided to hand her another big match at the Vodafone Park in Istanbul on 14 August. 

Frappart will lead a team of mostly female officials: Manuela Nicolosi of France and Michelle O’Neal from the Republic of Ireland will be her assistants for the match. 

Nicolosi and O’Neal also officiated at the Women’s World Cup final, while the fourth official will be Turkey’s Cuneyt Cakir. 

While preparing for his May 2012 fight against Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr., then 42-0, was asked to name his toughest opponent. His answer was the same as it had always been: Emanuel Augustus. He didn’t have the best record in the sport of boxing; he has never won a world title, but,” said Mayweather, “he came to fight.”

If there is a go-to anecdote that veritable legion of Augustus enthusiasts calls on in their apologies for a fighter who retired with a 38-34-6 (20) record, this is it. It is a compliment that warrants some unpacking. Mayweather would have no problem so lavishly complimenting a fighter he was, by then, in no way competing with. Indeed, by isolating Augustus, Mayweather was effectively diminishing the challenges posed by opponents such as Jose Luis Castillo, who many argue beat Mayweather in their first fight, or Oscar De La Hoya, who fared better against the best fighter in the world than his aged form should’ve allowed. And you can trust that Mayweather expected his answer to find some traction, hence the “sport of boxing” he couldn’t resist using when pressed to speak of his trade on the record. Mayweather hedged immediately after that praise, too, inserting the often-ignored qualifier that he “took a long layoff” before the Augustus fight.

But the compliment stands—and so it should.

Augustus made Mayweather earn his twenty-fourth professional victory; there was hardly a free moment for “Pretty Boy,” who was forced to fight, and dazzlingly so, to put away Augustus in the ninth. Craft pushed Mayweather that night: you need more than talent, or physicality, or toughness to trouble so complete a fighter as the lightweight version of Mayweather.

We should take Mayweather at his word, then, just as we did James Toney—a man less calculated in his compliments, loathe as he is to offer them—when the fiercely proud fighter praised Mike McCallum as the best fighter with whom he had shared the ring. And so a .500 fighter, a career .500 fighter, not one who ran up a gaudy record before being derailed, is the best fighter this generation’s best fighter ever faced. It is for reasons like this that people like to say Augustus’s record fails to tell the story.

Are they right to do so? And if Augustus’s record fails to tell the defining story, does it still tell us something?

A USA Basketball Coach Academy – presented by Nike – will take place on Aug. 8-9 at Durango High School in Las Vegas. Registration and more information are available online.

Launched in 2015, USA Basketball Coach Academies provide valuable insight and education to basketball coaches and administrators. Academy sessions impart the USA Basketball curriculum for a proper skill development path to teach the game to children of all ages and ability levels. Guest speakers focus on areas of expertise to present on basketball and leadership topics applied both on and off the court.

Expected to present at the event are: 

• Jennie Baranczyk, Drake University women’s basketball head coach
• Jeff Culver, University of Colorado Colorado Springs Men’s Basketball coach and USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team court coach
• Mike Dunlap, Loyola Marymount University men’s basketball head coach
• Kevin Eastman, motivational speaker and former NBA coach
• Mike Jones, DeMatha Catholic High School boys basketball head coach and gold medal winning USA Basketball coach
• TJ Otzelberger, University of Nevada, Las Vegas men’s basketball head coach
• Jennifer Rizzotti, George Washington University women’s basketball head coach and gold medal winning USA Basketball coach
• Don Showalter, USA Basketball Youth & Sport Development coach director and 10-time gold medalist USA Basketball head coach
• Brendan Suhr, former NBA coach
• Sharman White, Pace Academy boys basketball head coach and gold medal winning USA Basketball assistant coach

USA Basketball Coach Academies feature a multi–day format with presentations catered to coaches of all experience levels working with players of any skill set.

On Aug. 8, the USA Basketball Coach Academy in Las Vegas will run from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. PDT with an evening social reception at Top Golf from 7-9 p.m. And on Aug. 9, the academy will be from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Registration for the event is $225. USA Basketball gold licensed coaches are eligible for a 25% discount.

Attendees will have networking opportunities to meet and socialize with one another, as well as with speakers. In addition, USA Basketball and Nike gift items will be provided to all registered attendees. 

Sessions at a USA Basketball Coach Academy feature a variety of styles of teaching, including: player demonstrations, lectures, panel discussions, on court basketball instruction and off court coaching techniques and life skills training.

Attendees must be at least 18 years old to register.

©USAB