As part of a blockbuster four-team trade involving the Rockets, Cavaliers and Pacers, the Nets landed the reigning three-time scoring champion — and they didn’t even have to part with All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving to do it.

In the huge deal, which has been confirmed by The Post, the Nets surrendered four players and one of the biggest hauls of draft picks in league history, which surely will make this move general manager Sean Marks’ long-term legacy.

The Nets sent three first-round picks (2022, 2024 and 2026) and four more first-round pick swaps ( 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027) to the Rockets, along with Rodions Kurucs. Caris LeVert went to the Pacers, while Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince were shipped to the Cavaliers. The Rockets also ended up with Victor Oladipo from Indiana and Dante Exum from Cleveland.

But the prize is Harden. In the NBA, the team that gets the best player in a trade almost always wins the deal, almost without exception. The Nets are banking on not being that exception — and that their newly formed Big 3 of Harden, Kevin Durant and Irving (assuming he returns this season) can deliver a title.

This deal had long been in the works, with rumblings over the summer after former Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Durant and Harden spoke about a reunion while they were working out in Los Angeles.

“I don’t know where you making this stories up, [that] me and James talked in workouts. James is a friend of mine. … I heard all the noise. … Anybody can make up stories, and write stories and it gets traction,” Durant said at the time, trying to defuse reports of the deal, which finally was consummated on Wednesday.

“We’re all professionals. We just go about our days, do [our work] and go home. Whatever happens, [happens].”

What happened was the Nets landed the superstar Durant wanted to play with. And it wasn’t easy.

Sources told The Post that Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta had shown no interest in the players the Nets were offering. But the specter of the trade hung over both teams, with a disgruntled Harden trying to force his way out of Houston and Nets players such as Allen, LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie (out with a torn ACL) hearing their names mentioned in rumored trade talks for months.

“You see everything what’s going on, I’m aware of it,” Allen acknowledged last month. “I try to put it aside. It’s big decisions, deciding where I’m playing; I put it all aside. Happy about it, not happy about it, it’s all basketball.”

While Fertita wasn’t enamored of the players Brooklyn had to offer, the teams eventually looped Cleveland and Indiana in. And in the wake of Harden’s comments Tuesday night, Houston finally had incentive to get the deal done.

“We’re just not good enough,” Harden said after his Rockets suffered a blowout loss to the Lakers on Tuesday night. “Chemistry, talent-wise, everything. And it was clear the last few games. From the beginning of the game, they’re just a veteran team obviously, championship team, and one of the best teams we have in this league.

“I love this city. I literally have done everything that I can. I mean, this situation is crazy. It’s something that I don’t think can be fixed.”

It remains to be seen if this deal leaves the Nets fixed. There is risk.

While many Nets fans would shiver at the mere mention of former Nets GM Billy King’s ill-advised and ill-fated trade with Boston, this situation is entirely different from the gamble that brought Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Celtics to Brooklyn. Garnett was 37 years old, Pirece 35, both were past their primes and neither was All-Star caliber anymore.

Harden, 31, is coming off three straight scoring titles, giving him and Durant a combined total of seven. The Nets’ Big 3 has a combined two dozen All-Star nods.

And though Harden came into camp overweight and is coming off arguably the worst five-game stretch of his career, there is a belief in NBA circles that, paired with Durant and playing for a contender, he will be motivated and show up.

The Nets have three open roster spots, their $5.7 million taxpayer Mid Level Exception and — in all likelihood — a Disabled Player Exception worth $5.7 million. They also received a 2024 second-round pick from Cleveland, according to ESPN.

via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/13/james-harden-traded-to-nets-by-rockets-in-nba-blockbuster/

Photo Credit: nypost.com

HONG KONG (AP) — YouTube has suspended U.S. President Donald Trump’s channel for at least a week amid concerns over “ongoing potential for violence,” making it the latest platform to limit the president’s online activities.

The Google-owned platform said it removed content that was uploaded on January 12 from the Donald J. Trump channel for inciting violence, although it was not immediately clear which videos in question were in violation.

“After careful review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to the Donald J. Trump channel and issued a strike for violating our policies for inciting violence,” a YouTube spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Under the suspension, Trump’s channel is temporarily prevented from uploading new videos or live streams for at least seven days, although the channel remains live, YouTube said.

Comments would be indefinitely disabled on the channel, YouTube said. Under YouTube’s policies, a second strike would result in a two-week suspension, while a third strike would get the account banned permanently.

The move to curtail Trump’s social media activity comes after a mob of his supporters, urged on by his rhetoric, stormed the Capitol last week to try to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

Tech companies have moved to suspend Trump’s online postings, with Facebook and Instagram suspending Trump at least until the end of his term and Twitter permanently banning his account. Other sites, including Reddit and Snapchat have also banned Trump. Online shopping platform Shopify has pulled Trump stores off its platform.

Companies like Apple and Google have also moved to ban Parler, a social networking site popular among Trump supporters, from their app stores. Parler’s site also went offline this week after Amazon ceased to provide hosting services to the company.

“A minimum of seven days is an important and necessary first step by YouTube, and we hope they will make it permanent,” said Jim Styer, CEO of media rating firm Common Sense Media.

“While it is disappointing that it took a Trump-incited attack on our Capitol to get here, it appears that all the major platforms are finally beginning to step up and take this important issue seriously and that policymakers and the public are committed to holding them accountable,” he said.

via: https://www.kmov.com/news/youtube-suspends-trump-s-channel-for-at-least-a-week/article_36969d70-a4f7-54c4-87d4-680c40518436.html

Photo Credit: kmov.com

A photograph of a presumably indigenous man wearing a red-and-gold T-shirt that reads “Caucasians,” a parody of the NFL team formerly known as the Washington Redskins, has sparked a viral debate on Twitter.

The photograph shared by @infamouschar appears to have been lifted from the original user, who was not credited, and the man in the image remains anonymous.

Nevertheless, the tweet has raked in more than 525,000 likes in 36 hours, with many in the replies vowing to buy a version of the novelty shirt for themselves.

However, others argued that the relatively tame irony didn’t go far enough to actually offend white people, pointing out that “redskin” is a racial slur against indigenous Americans, while team mascots such as the Vikings and the Celtics are not regarded as insults to white cultures.

Moreover, many white people are not aware that “Caucasian” means “of the Caucasus.” The term was incorrectly coined, by German philosopher Christoph Meiners in the 18th century, to describe all white Europeans. Meiners created the term with the intent to rank humans in order of skin color — Caucasians being at the top of his list.

Indeed, white folks may be actually be flattered by the gesture.

One Twitter user predicted that white people would “actually think it’s pretty badass.” This was proven later in the replies, with a follower who asked, “Is this supposed to be offensive?? Cause it’s not! Atleast to me! I think it’s great,” adding a few smirking face emojis.

@FF_Wheeler, a fantasy-sports blogger, submitted three reimagined versions of the tee with a new team name: the Rednecks. “Maybe better?” the writer suggested

This isn’t the first time the same satirical shirt has caused a stir on social media. In 2018, writer Frederick Joseph wore the same shirt for a day out in the city, and described the people who challenged his fashion choice as “trash.”

In a thread, Joseph went on to describe several awkward interactions with white people, who demonstrated a shocking lack of self-awareness. An “older white lady” who called the shirt “disrespectful” believed that “redskins” was used legitimately as a logo thanks to the NFL’s corporate sanction. Johnson shared the anecdote alongside a GIF of a seemingly frustrated Kermit the Frog.

He added that many others “looked at me and rolled their eyes, pointed, [and] made snide comments.”

“Basically, I was being shamed as a black person for wearing a non-disrespectful shirt with a white person logo on it,” Joseph tweeted.

“I was fairly surprised by the reactions of people because again, there are so many disrespectful and racist representations of minorities used for brands and they don’t even think twice,” he said. “But, it goes to show how fickle and hypocritical people can be.”

via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/12/caucasians-t-shirt-goes-viral-for-mocking-nfls-redskins/

Photo Credit: twitter

POLK COUNTY, FL (WFOR) — Two Florida men are now in jail for allegedly desecrating graves and stealing human remains, three of which belong to military veterans.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, a positive DNA hit from a smoked cigar left behind during the crimes, positively identified the first suspect as Brian Montalvo Tolentino, 43 of Davenport, Florida. He identified his accomplice, Juan Burgos-Lopez, 39, of Lake Wales, Florida, according to police.

The thefts took place on December 6, 2020, from four graves at the Edgewood Cemetery in Mount Dora.

When Polk County detectives served a search warrant at Burgos-Lopez’s home, they found a shed with a religious shrine, and seven skulls, four of which both suspects admitted to taking from graves in Mount Dora. Two other skulls were determined to be fake, and the investigation is ongoing as to the identity of the last skull.

Police County Sheriff Grady Judd says Burgos-Lopez and Tolentino, were using the body parts to create religious shrines, adding, “This is a black magic art that needs body parts in order to worship.”

The suspects told detectives they use the human remains in their religious practice – Palo Mayombe, which is considered Santeria’s “evil twin” – and they chose veterans’ graves due to the fact that their religion demands that the remains are from those who have “done something heroic.”

They told detectives that they drove to the cemetery on December 6, 2020, and used a crowbar to remove the lids of the tombs. They removed the heads and other remains, and placed them in plastic bags, took them to Lake Wales, and placed them in the shrine.

The shed/shrine contained cauldrons filled with dirt and other items such as bones, sticks, feathers, rocks, turtle shells, and small animal skulls, along with the human skulls. During a search of Burgos-Lopez’s home, detectives also found other religious symbols and shrines.

Sheriff Judd says the two men admitted to targeting graves of military veterans and then used those human remains for religious practice.

“If that just doesn’t make your blood boil, I don’t know what does.” He says knowing skulls were stolen from Edgewood Cemetery in December of 2020, is disturbing. “A hero, a marine who was laid to rest in his military blues. A police officer, someone who has served and protected, they took his skull. And when asked about ‘why a hero’s grave?’, they said, ‘because the spirit is much stronger in a hero’,” said Sheriff Judd.

The deceased victims were identified as:

Henry Brittain, 1929 – 1983, a Private in the U.S. Army and Korean war veteran

Elbert Carr, 1896 – 1988, a Sergeant in the U.S. Army and World War I veteran

Calvin McNair, 1935 – 1992, a military police in the U.S. Marine Corps, buried in his dress blues; he was also a police officer for 11 years in Ansonia, CT.

Annie Faniel, 1935 – 1988, a good Samaritan and caretaker, according to her family.

According to investigators, Burgos-Lopez is part owner of two companies which sells herbs and essential oils, along with items used in Palo rituals.

Burgos-Lopez considers himself a Tata, or religious leader and produces YouTube videos discussing different rituals of the religion.

Sheriff Judd said in a press conference Friday that Burgos-Lopez openly talked about this religion online, such as one recorded a day before he took the skulls where he talks about how he helps those with worldly problems.

Another video posted by Burgos-Lopez two weeks prior to taking the skulls, he talks about how difficult it is to get body parts, that it is common in Cuba but that you can go to prison for doing it in the U.S., and that a ritual must be done prior to going into the cemetery. He also says something must be left behind. Candles and a sacrificed bird were found at the Mount Dora cemetery, and orange peels were left behind, in the graves.

Sheriff Judd remarked, “Juan said, on a YouTube video, that cemeteries were holy sites and a shopping center. Well, let’s call the county jail the check-out line.” He says breaking the law will not be tolerated in Polk County, no matter if it’s for religious purposes or not. “This is despicable. You can’t condemn this in tough enough words,” said Judd.

Sheriff Judd says Polk County is assisting Lake County Sheriff’s Office in the ongoing investigation to identify the last human remains, adding that the remains which have been identified will be placed back in the graves. Surviving family members of the disturbed graves have been notified.

Tolentino has a criminal history that includes previous arrests for cocaine possession, drug possession with intent to distribute, grand theft, and armed robbery of a bank in 2000, which he was released from probation in 2011. Both men were booked into the Polk County Jail on their Lake County warrants (4 counts each disturbing contents of a grave and abuse of a dead body) and have each been charged by PCSO with one count disturbing contents of a grave and Burgos-Lopez was additionally charged with buy/sell/traffic in dead bodies.

via: https://www.kmov.com/news/2-florida-men-arrested-for-stealing-human-remains-from-graves-using-them-in-black-magic/article_2bc7689e-ea56-540f-bd99-56293be7ef15.html

Photo Credit: WFOR via Polk County Sheriff’s Office

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — Unemployment insurance has been a lifeline for so many people during the pandemic, helping struggling people just to make ends meet. News 4 Investigates has uncovered disturbing data that shows the state of Missouri is asking thousands of people to pay the money back or face consequences. That’s because officials say they incorrectly paid thousands of people, to the tune of tens of millions of your tax dollars.

“I feel like at this point, as a single mom, I have been given the short end of the stick,” Jenna Rieker said.

Rieker, of Bridgeton, is one of the many Missourians to receive the notice. In March of 2020, she was furloughed from her customer service job, exactly one year to the day after she had received an award for her hard work.

“To be told I wasn’t working, it was a lot,” she said.

Rieker applied for unemployment in March, was accepted and started getting payments – money she and her son couldn’t live without. 

“My car, taking my baby to doctor’s appointments, my house, electric, water, sewer gas, everything,” she said.

In August, the payments suddenly stopped. She assumed the benefits had just run out. Then, just before Christmas, she received letters from the state of Missouri, entitled Overpayment Determinations. The letters informed her she had to pay back the unemployment funds. The letters stated there was an unintentional error or omission on her part, though she had no idea what.

“I filled out the paperwork and I sent it in. I don’t know where I erred, but if I did err, why didn’t you contact me or call me?” she said.

Unable to get answers from the state and thinking she was entitled to the funds she’d been receiving for months, she was simply stunned. 

“Are you going to come and take the clothes off my child’s back? Because that’s what I used to buy with some of the money, are you going to come take the dirty diapers out of the trash can, because I had to buy diapers and wipes, I used the money for that,” she said.

“If the state overpaid someone, that’s on the state, not on the individual,” said State Senator Brian Williams, who represents Jenna’s district.  “I was raised by a single mom, so I know how difficult it is to survive, let alone, have the state make an error and have the individual be held accountable is unfair.”

To figure out if this was a bigger problem, News 4 Investigates requested and then analyzed raw data. According to the state, over 11,300 people were incorrectly paid from the federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation fund since the start of the pandemic. The total loss, according to the data, is more than $44 million dollars.  About half of states reported to the federal government. Missouri lost more money to overpayments than Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and New York.  The Show Me state saw the second highest losses in overpayments, only to the state of Washington.

Senator Williams said he wants more answers from the Missouri Department of Labor and over a period of weeks, News 4 requested an on-camera interviews with state officials. Instead, a spokesperson for the Department of Labor sent a statement saying: “If the individual disagrees with DES’s decision regarding an overpayment or believes it is incorrect, they may file an appeal with the Division’s Appeals Tribunal.”

They told us they could not comment on Jenna’s case specifically. After our inquiries, officials called her to tell her she wouldn’t have to pay back the money.

“I can’t even believe you guys were able to help me, I am grateful and I am really happy,” said Rieker.

But she still doesn’t understand exactly what happened.

“They obviously need to get some more employees so they can answer the phone and make some phone calls and explain people what’s going on,” she said.

That $44 million is just for one recent federal program. The state says there is no report that shows all the money lost, but from our research it’s many millions more than that, just for the past year. We aren’t talking about people committing fraud or scamming the system, these are mistakes or errors.

The state declined to do an on-camera interview but after we pressed for more answers, the state said in a statement: “The Division is obligated, per federal guidance, to ensure that those receiving benefit payments are entitled to those payments and to collect overpayments when we discover fraud, errors, or omissions that were made by claimants resulting in them receiving funds to which they were not entitled.”

How To Get Help

Following News 4’s story, hundreds of Missourians reached out to us for help. Here’s what you can do.

If an appeal has not already been filed in this case, you can find more information about how to do that by clicking here.

Contact your state and federal elected representatives. Some have already committed to providing assistance and they are considering measures that would waive what is owed. You can look up your representative here.

If you are being told to pay back money, we want to hear from you. Email the Lauren Trager at [email protected]

via: https://www.kmov.com/news/missouri-asks-some-unemployment-recipients-to-give-money-back—or-face-consequences-news/article_f7349106-5450-11eb-8e5f-275401911f86.html?block_id=990844

Photo Credit: kmov.com