🏔️ A Paramount-Skydance Post-Postmortem — 🎁 Puck

Since the deal fell apart a week ago, the Paramount stock is down 17 percent. Shari’s stake in the company is now worth less than $700 million. She and her family could have likely netted around $2 billion had she said yes to Ellison/RedBird.

I get the frustration and resentment, but boy does it seem like the dumb move to walk away at this point, went they went so far down this path. Even if she got sued and lost, she’d still have more cash than her stake is valued now…

🐎 Monty Williams fired by Detroit Pistons after one year with $65m left on deal — Guardian

This seemed inevitable from the second this deal was inked. Monty didn’t want to go there, but who is going to turn down $80mil??? Given the roster, we knew they weren’t going to improve much. And now he gets to sit back and collect that paycheck. Good for him.

🗿 Mysterious monolith pops up in desert near Las Vegas — Ground News

I can’t help but love this kind of stuff.

✨ Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink has torn ACL — Yahoo Sports

What a bummer. Sparks haven’t been killing it this year, but Brink leads the team in blocks with two a game, which is impressive.

🐿️ Nvidia overtakes Microsoft as most valuable stock in the world — Yahoo Finance

Nvidia first crossed a $1 trillion market cap on June 13, 2023. The stock advanced north of $2 trillion on March 1, and then rapidly crossed the $3 trillion mark for the first time on June 5. The company’s advance from a $1 trillion to a $3 trillion market cap was the fastest on record.

Betting on the foundational elements of what we use everyday is always smart. I do think the AI bubble will burst, but I’m not sure how that would effect Nvidia. Their chips and computer prowess will underpin any technological advancement outside AI or not.

🏟️ The case for Willie Mays as baseball’s GOAT — Yahoo Sports

While I’m a die-hard Cubs fan (who also cheers for the Sox), baseball isn’t really my thing so I don’t have very strong/informed opinions, but I do think he has a case. Rest in Power.

🏆 Boston Celtics — 2024 NBA Champions

A quick space on Kinopio I whipped up to collect links images, and thoughts around the 2024 NBA Champs.

💸 Apple Pay Later is dead, long live Affirm loans — Engadget

Whelp… I guess I should’ve held onto my Affirm shares…

📱 FTC refers TikTok complaint to Justice Department — Semafor

The agency said that it had reason to believe the social media app may be “violating or … about to violate the law” with regards to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

This at least feels like a legitimate act against TikTok, which is what should’ve been happening from the beginning, rather than the forced sale bill. Investigate them, sue them, make their life a living hell.

🍷 The King of Sonoma Pinot Noir Has Created Another Outstanding Winery — Robb Report

With his recently launched Convene by Dan Kosta, he has shown that lightning can strike twice in the same place. A native of Sonoma County, Kosta grew up among vineyards and has had a lifelong affinity for Pinot Noir

I’m not a Pinot guy, but I might try to take a drive over to Sonoma and check Convene out soon.

🙅 Sex Workers Are Getting Scammed on Instagram. Meta Needs to Step In — Rolling Stone

The worst part is when I’ve paid these people, it’s often worked. They’ve retrieved my account. I’m thankful for that, but it raises questions about how these people operate and what they know, not just about sex workers’ Instagram accounts, but everyone’s. How do they get the accounts back? Where do they work when they’re not retrieving sex workers’ accounts? How do they communicate with Meta to fix the problem?

There has to be something sketchy going on at Meta for these types of things to happen so quickly and so successfully. It’s frankly gross. Meta needs a way to report these scams, take them spatially, and track down whoever is disabling and re-enabling the accounts to find the root cause and stop it from happening.

🌈 POLY MONO color font - Otherwhere Collective

How wicked and cool is this abstract font design thing.

⚽️ The Original 92 — 12p

Meant to post this earlier, but it’s sold out now. I couldn’t stomach spending $300 on a soccer ball, but boy are they cool. I’ve been following this guy on Instagram for awhile, marveling at all the balls he hand stitches. He sold out of all 1000 of this ball so I expect we’ll get more cool things down the line.

🧑‍⚖️ Convictions of Biden’s Son and Trump Put the Justice System on Trial — The New York Times

But under tremendous political pressure, 12 jurors in both cases appear to have taken their jobs seriously, weighing the evidence and delivering convictions. The system seemed to work more or less as it is supposed to.

The contrast in reactions here is truly insane. I wish it were surprising, but it’s obviously not given the state of the GOP. I’m a big fan of Representative Raskin and I think he nails it:

“Compare and contrast the difference in reaction between the Republicans and the Democrats,” Mr. Raskin said. “The Republicans are attacking our entire system of justice and the rule of law because they don’t like the way that one case came out, whereas the son of the president of the United States is prosecuted and I don’t hear a single Democrat crying foul.”

he rests his case…

🔱 Dan Hurley Rejected the Lakers. Will LeBron Be Next? — The Ringer

James has a player option for next season that he must decide on by June 29. So he will get to find out what the Lakers do in the draft, whether it’s making a big trade acquisition or drafting his son Bronny James.

I had a feeling Hurley might stick with UConn; leaving just didn’t make sense. I never considered LeBron would leave LA though and thought the idea was preposterous when I started reading this, but after… boy would it be fun to see him next to Wemby under Pop.

💵 Paramount tycoon Shari Redstone pulls the plug on proposed Skydance merger — The Guardian

National Amusements, the vehicle that owns Shari Redstone’s controlling stake in Paramount, said it had been unable to reach mutually acceptable terms with Skydance Media.

Wild to see this completely fall apart. It finally seemed like the best option was going to put an end to all the unknowns, but it’s back to square one.

🧺 Lakers’ Pursuit Of JJ Redick Gets Even Funnier, In That They Are Now Pursuing Dan Hurley — Defector

Trying something new and linking to the annotated article with my highlights and comments throughout with Readwise. Not sure it’s the best idea in terms of future proofing, but feels like a cool idea, no?

📰 The Real Story Behind Sally Buzbee’s Departure From WaPo — 🎁 Puck

At a place like the Times, the C.E.O. effectively runs only half the business. At the Post, Lewis now appears to have all the power. It’s his way or the highway.

Great piece by Dylan Byers going over the messy situation that occurred with some of the executive turnover at the Post. Comes across as a bit too friendly to Lewis, especially given how he scrutinized over every little decision Licht made at CNN, but only time will tell if Lewis finds a way to turn the ship around.

🍀 The Boston Celtics and What Greatness Looks Like — The New Yorker

I have also found myself thinking about Walton’s unusually open acknowledgment of flaws—his own and others’—and how fixing or adapting to them is essential to a team’s success. Isn’t that a part of greatness, too?

Really great stuff from Thomas. Boston is the better team on paper, but just as she mentions, I don’t trust them. Brown is too shaky with the ball and decision making, Tatum doesn’t have that killer instinct (not to mention from St. Louis, coming across as a whiny little punk). On the other side, Luka Doncic is incredible.

💶 Sneer of Cold Command — Dada Drummer

The first time I read the Ek quote, I had the same reaction. However, and not that a billionaire needs someone to defend them, I think the point he was (poorly) trying to make, was it’s easier than ever to create today. Then again, Spotify is one of those companies trying to turn the future into some perverted dystopia.

🗞️ You Can’t Undo Fake News — Webworm

The original story was driven to the top of every news service and social media site by metrics and algorithms built to feed us what is often the biggest bullshit of the day. The stories about the story won’t get nearly the same amount of attention.

See also: yesterday’s Daily Show with John Stewart where he goes into the responsibility of the news and why people are quick to say things in public that they wouldn’t in court.

⚽️ Real Madrid win Champions League final as Dortmund rue missed chances — Guardian

For Carlo Ancelotti, it was his fifth as a manager—a record; he has two more from his playing days—while it was number six as players for Carvajal, Nacho, Kroos and the substitute Luka Modric, equalling Paco Gento’s all-time mark.

It really has been a remarkable run for Real Madrid, especially considering both of these teams lack the oil money that’s come into European soccer. I was cheering for Dortmund, but it’s hard to deny greatness, which will likely only continue with Bellingham’s rise.

🐎 The Mavericks Have Met The Moment — Defector

This was a series that boiled down to its most basic elements—are my two best guys as good as your two best guys?—and Doncic and Irving were distinctly better bets than Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards.

I’m obviously a bit late at this point, but the Mavs punched their ticket to the Finals quite easily on Thursday night. The NBA Finals kick off next Thursday, 6 June, in Boston.