Sports
The Washington Wizards use hip-hop to introduce fans to Marvin Bagley III

When Washington Wizards fans show up at Capital One Arena this season, watch the team’s broadcasts on TV, and even follow the series on social media, they may hear the unfamiliar voice of one in every of the team’s players.
Forward Marvin Bagley III, who was traded to the Wizards in January after spending the primary 6 1/2 seasons of his profession with the Sacramento Kings and Detroit Pistons, shall be heard across all media outlets as a participant within the Wizards’ local music initiative, and the community shall be introduced to his hip-hop alter ego MB3FIVE . The Wizards launched the Wizards DMV music portal in August 2023 to highlight music artists from Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. From tons of of entries last season, several were chosen whose music – from hip-hop to Afrobeats to local go-go favorites – was used during team broadcasts, in-arena gameplay, social videos and team events. The press release states that in lieu of monetary payment, artists “compensate for experiences, merchandise, tickets and exposure.”
Over the summer, the Wizards content team approached Bagley about participating on this season’s portal after reading about his musical past on a neighborhood news station. They believed that his music best captured the essence of what he wanted the portal to be.
“It’s just powerful music,” said Bernard Palin, senior director of digital media at Monumental Sports & Entertainment. “I feel it has an incredible sound. I really like this atmosphere, I really like this energy. I really like the story he tells. And I really like that it is so authentic.
“Honestly, using his music was just a no-brainer.”
Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
Bagley, who averaged 13.3 points and eight.1 rebounds in 24 games for the Wizards last season, was a straightforward sell after participating.
“I was just excited to do it, show my passion, showcase my songs and music,” he said.
The Tempe, Arizona native said he has been writing and rapping because the age of 5, spending countless days sitting within the backseat of his father’s automobile listening to The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z and Rakim. He first recorded in a studio when he was in highschool and released his debut album in August 2019, just a little over a 12 months after the Kings were chosen second overall within the 2018 draft.
Bagley said that each one the teams he played for prior to now – the Kings, Pistons and Duke University – supported his concentrate on music during breaks in the sport, and that the Wizards did an incredible job of allowing him to truly be himself, especially through the portal.
“Obviously I’m here to compete, play basketball and play at the highest level and do everything I can for the team,” Bagley said. “But I think they did a great job of understanding that basketball doesn’t last forever and doesn’t define who I am.”
After 4 albums and three EPs, including a six-song EP released in August, Bagley believes he’s finally able to express his true self in his music. In the past, he felt he had to hold back his art because he was nervous about what the audience, the band, or his teammates would consider him. His early work included typical start-from-scratch raps (“Can’t Relate”) and fame-costing raps (“Cut the Check”). He called this era a “failure.”
Two or three years ago he asked himself whether he was giving every part he had to his music. During the pandemic, he witnessed others suffer losses, and years ago, he was still coping with the death of a young cousin in a automobile accident.
he still had the rap flex, but delved deeper into relationships, from misfortune (“Patience II”) to admiration (“Proud”) to love (“Peace”). He used to avoid swearing and using vulgar lyrics, but there are several such cases in his newer work.
“You see a lot of things that go on in this world, and you get a different perspective just from looking,” Bagley said, “and that’s where my perspective comes from.”

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for JBL
Time on this earth is brief, Bagley told himself, and if music is for self-expression, why hold back. Why inhibit your creative development by fear of opening up to yourself and the opinions of others? It was enlightening – to do away with doubts, do away with fear of the unknown and just speak from the guts. It made him feel fuller.
“I’ve always been true to myself, but when I decided to just say, ‘You know what, I’m going to do what makes me happy, I’m going to tell my story, I’m going to say what I want to say, how I feel and just really, fully be myself ” – I feel that is when the switch flipped and I could just make music that I feel comfortable with, whether people prefer it or not “I don’t like it, I don’t agree with it, or whatever it is,” Bagley said. “It doesn’t bother me anymore.”
And music shouldn’t be a distraction. Athletes are greater than only a career and wish moments to calm down and take a break from work. For some playing the Call of Duty video game, for (many) others recording a podcast. Bagley shouldn’t be the primary basketball player to rap: Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Flau’jae Johnson, Damian Lillard and others.
Bagley’s musical interests will not be an issue. Then-Kings CEO Vlade Divac told Andscape in 2018 that he “loves it when players discover themselves.” Wizards teammate Jordan Poole unprompted told reporters last week that he “loves playing with Marvin” and “listen to his album on Apple Music and Spotify.”
Bagley said he has combined basketball and music for thus long that combining the 2 is second nature to him. He recorded in highschool while being the No. 1 player in his class, ahead of future NBA star Jaren Jackson Jr. and Trae Young. A 12 months later, he averaged 21 points and 11.1 rebounds for the Duke Blue Devils as a real freshman, earning the 2018 ACC Player of the Year award.
“Music helps me spiritually, helps me mentally just get everything I’m thinking, get everything I’m feeling, everything I want to talk about, just get it out, put it to music and make it sound a certain way ” said Bagley.
Bagley is a musical chameleon. On one track (“Who Want It”) he sounds similar to late New York grunge rapper Pop Smoke, and on one other (“Proud”) he takes a detour inspired by Wizkid’s Afrobeats. He records music almost year-round and releases music almost exclusively within the off-season. He will not be within the studio much throughout the season, but during this time he refines his flow and lyrics, in addition to improving his songs. He is currently working on his next full-length album, a follow-up to his 2021 album.
I tell Bagley that music seems to be therapeutic for him, a way to release all his pent-up emotions. Then I asked him a hypothetical query: If you could not make music, how would you do away with all these thoughts and feelings?
He said he would proceed to write, whether it’s poetry or a book. He would find one other way to express himself.
“I feel like I would continue to look for different ways to release what I’m feeling or the thoughts that I’m having and just repress them so I can get them out of my head,” Bagley said.

Reggie Hildred/USA TODAY Sports
Before we parted ways, I had to ask Bagley a vital, if rambling, query. The attacker has been following and learning rap music since he had his baby teeth. He has collaborated with hip-hop stars akin to Lil Durk and Fabolous. And in 2018 he said that his favorite album of the 12 months was Drake and his rap MVP was J. Cole.
So I had to know, purely on a skill level, who won the 2024 heavyweight battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. (I instructed Bagley not to include Lamar’s “Not Like Us” in his evaluation since it gave the impression of an unfair advantage: the song hit a record 21 weeks and was No. 1 on the highest rap chart on October 7.)
Bagley initially said he would give Drake the nod, but after admitting things were getting just a little tense between the 2 emcees, he modified his mind in favor of Lamar, who will perform the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February 2025.
“Euphoria” continues to be one in every of my favorite songs. I listened to this song before the match. I listened to this song often,” he said. I hope he continues to make music and consistently drop. But once he falls, you’ve got no alternative but to face him and listen.
Sports
Falcons say that Ulbrich’s defense coordinator was responsible for calling for a joke to Shedeur Sanders

Atlanta Falcons said on Sunday that Jeff Ulbrich’s defensive coordinator was responsible for a joke with NFL Draft Cick Shedeur Sanders.
Falcons has published a statement that 21-year-old Jax Ulbrich “unintentional came across a contact telephone design for Shedeur Sanders from an open iPad during a visit to his parent’s house and wrote the number to later conduct a joke.”
Although Jax Ulbrich delivered a number, he sat next to an unidentified friend who actually called Sanders.
Falcons said that Jeff Ulbrich was not aware of the exposure to data or jokes up to the actual fact. In their statement, they presented “sincere apology of Shedeur Sanders and his family”, and Jax Ulbrich also published a public apology in social media.
Sanders, an impressive playmaker from Colorado, is the son of coach Buffaloes and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who began his NFL profession in Falcons.
Shedeur Sanders perhaps The biggest history of the draft When he had to wait until the fifth round on Saturday before he was appointed by Cleveland Browns. He received a joke on Friday evening, on the second day of the project, waiting.
In the conversation, Jax’s friend Ulbrich identified himself as the final director of New Orleans Mickey Loomis and told Sanders that he was made by the saints before he finished the conversation.
“It didn’t really affect me, because it was just ok. I don’t feed negativeness or I don’t feed myself,” Sanders said on Saturday after his calling. “… that’s what it is. Of course it is childish, of course I feel that it was a childish act, but everyone does children’s things here and there.”
Jax Ulbrich apologized to Sanders on Sunday for what he called “a huge mistake.”
“Shedeur, what I did was completely unforgivable, embarrassing and shameful,” he wrote in social media. “I’m so sorry that I took your moment, it was selfish and childish. I never imagine preparing to celebrate one of the greatest moments of your life and made a terrible mistake and made this moment. Thank you for taking my phone before, I hope you find in your heart to forgive me.”
Falcons also apologized to Sanders and his family, saying that “they do not accept this behavior.”
“We thoroughly review all protocols and update if necessary to prevent such an incident from re -occurring,” said Falcons.
Falcons said they’d contact with the NFL “and will continue to cooperate with all questions that we can receive from the NFL league office.”
Jeff Ulbrich celebrated Falcons’ Defense pressure In the NFL project. Falcons selected two edges, Jalon Walker from Georgia and James Pearce Jr. from Tennessee in the primary round. Their first 4 sorts of draft are defensive players.
Ulbrich was 3-9 as a temporary New York Jets coach last season, before he was employed to return to Atlanta, where he previously worked as an assistant.
___
Noah Trister in Washington, AP sports author, contributed to this report.

(tagstotranslatter) Shedeur Sanders (T) NFL and racism
Sports
NFL Sanders Sanders Sanders: Media Buzz, conspiracy theories and waiting for his name to be named

Draft NFL is an undoubted science, yearly perspectives slide down due to gossip, rating, interviews and team matching, sometimes a mixture of all the above. The topic of the conversation in 2025 NFL Draft turned across the playmaker in Colorado Sanders as evaluators of the chair and talking sports heads who are attempting to discover why he has slipped thus far.
As according to the incontrovertible fact that Sanders was not taken in the primary round It wasn’t a surprise For 10 coaches and high -ranking NFL managers they survey, which is a mirrored image that, according to their rankings, Colorado’s perspective just isn’t a talent of the primary round.
According to their reporting, the front offices across the league are privately questioned by Sanders to rise into a frontrunner, but these fears are secondary to his mediocre tape, corresponding to the team’s evaluators spoke consistently within the project process that Sanders just isn’t perceived because the elite perspective of the playmaker, even during a yr with the sign of the player.
This, together with the playmaker, that’s, truthfully depressed, in actual fact there are only three teams for the signaling caller, signifies that potential teams aren’t any longer sold, it’s value a media circus that may accompany his alternative, is not going to be chosen in early rounds.
However, this didn’t stop people from saying that the league is trying to “curse” Sanders because he’s confident or argues that NFL is involved in a certain collusion with Sanders; These people include former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III, Stephen A. Smith and former US representative Jamal Bowman for each with an online connection.
However, others say Sanders has hurt his own inventory project together with the approach to the trial before the draft. He refused to participate within the Sanctuary and NFL Combine, and after a yr with the poor class of the playmaker, the sport tape he relied on to present his value, didn’t impress the teams.
Another factor is a major remark about Deion Sanders and his public comments about where his sons can play, in addition to the player Travis Hunter. With all this in mind, some summary teams may be careful about additional control, which may bring the alternative of Shedeur Sanders. Meanwhile, Sanders stays patient when he’s waiting for his name.
On the project at Canton, Texas, Sanders expressed the knowledge that he would be elected on the second day of the project, but this didn’t materialize, and joins the long list of perspectives that they’d to wait to hear their name, including the playmaker playmaker San Francisco 49ers.
“Of course, we didn’t expect it, but it seems to me that everything is possible with God, everything is possible,” said Shedeur in a movie recorded on his team on April 24. “Tomorrow’s day. We will be happy regardless of this. Legendary.”
Nick Saban, legendary former football coach College, who became an ESPN analyst, provided the crucial context in his transmission project Around the sublime expectations for Sanders, which were created by the media, including a few of his own network.
“You know, I hate this … We mustn’t take any player and wait for him. It’s not about where you might be going; it’s about if you will be chosen, will you are taking the chance to offer you the perfect possibilities, what do you’ve gotten? I feel that Shedeur Sanders will do it. Saban.
(Tagstranslat) pick
Sports
Shedeur Sanders must wait a little longer at NFL Draft

Green Bay, Wis. – Colorado Buffalo Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter entered on Thursday evening with expectations as the primary pair of teammates in Colorado developed in the primary round of the NFL Draft since 2011 since 2011.
Hunter, the prevailing winner of Heisman, was elected number 2 within the draft by Jacksonville Jaguars. But Sanders, hoping to proceed the family heritage of his Hall of Fame, Deion Sanders’s father as a number of a draft in the primary round, ended on Thursday evening, not hearing his name, and now he faces uncertainty on the day of the second day of NFL.
Sanders spent the last two seasons of his collegiate profession in Colorado after moving from the state of Jackson. Last season he threw at 4134 yards and 37 sticks, making 74% of his passes, leading the nation.
Sanders’ omitting this 12 months ends with a two -year series of at least two black playmakers in the primary round of NFL Draft. No. 1 General Cam Ward was the one black playmaker chosen in the primary round of this 12 months’s draft. New York Giants, a threatened team with reported connections with Sanders, went in a different direction and returned to the primary round to decide on Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart at the twenty fifth place in the final classification.
On the second day, Cleveland Browns are on the clock. After satisfying the defensive needs in the primary round, return to No. 5 to decide on the defensive equipment of Michigan Mason Graham, the playmaker is one other need for Browns. The playmakers began last season Deshaun Watson stuck the Achilles tendon Week 7 And he’ll probably miss a significant time within the 2025 season, because the organization announced failure in its regeneration After re -interrogating Achilles in January.
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images for Onit
Current coach Jackson State TC Taylorwho worked on coaching staff in the primary two seasons of Sanders, believes that Sanders’s trust is the creator of differences.
“Every time you have a playmaker who has such confidence, which makes the rest of the band know that we will be fine and we have the right guy,” said Taylor. “That’s what Shedeur did. His time here (in Jackson State) and Colorado said that he is a very confident child, but he goes there and he plays well. Many people do not realize how hard he is (I), how competent is as a quarterback. This is one of his strengths.”
News concerning the Sanders accident from the primary round were a shock to Hunter. The two-way player stopped at a press conference-the relevance that he would hear the name of Sanders-when the primary round of New Orleans Saints was to be announced. When the saints went in ninth place, Hunter said he could be excited concerning the phone, which Sanders gave later at night, when his name was called, but they might each need to wait longer.
Despite the incontrovertible fact that he could be chosen as a part of the most effective 5 elections, Hunter was unsure where he would land. IN Trade hitJaguars received number 2, number of the fourth round (No. 104) and number of the sixth round (No. 200), but gave up the proper to pick No. 5, number of the second round (No. 36), number of the fourth round (No. 126) and 2026 Pick-Wysoka Hunter price.
Hunter admitted that Jaguars didn’t check with him an excessive amount of through the initial process, but he couldn’t wait to return to Florida after birth and upbringing in West Palm Beach, 300 miles south of Jacksonville.
“I think that I just match the culture in Florida. I am from Florida, so I think my place is that I match culture. I was very excited,” said Hunter. “I always believed that I would be in Jacksonville, but I didn’t know so far, so I was definitely excited and surprised.”

Michael Reaves/Getty Images
According to Hunter, there isn’t a guarantee whether he plays only in attack, defense or each. In his last student season, Hunter reached 96 admissions out of 1258 yards and 15 adhesions, adding 35 total attacks, 11 defense and 4 defects in defense.
Hunter’s versatility immediately fills two glaring needs for Jacksonville. A season ago, the defense of Jaguars allowed 389.9 yards per match, Second the very best within the league. In the attack, Jaguars took twenty fourth place by way of transitional yards for the match (204.5), and Brian Thomas Jr. He took third place within the NFL in receiving the yards.
Will Hunter have the chance to play each within the attack and defense, some think he should?
“You can say that he will be one of the wonderful,” said Taylor. “An excellent young man (i) a tremendous athlete. Everyone talked about all of the snaps who plays as a footballer, but he’s at all times ready. He is one of the in the form of players’ competences.
“It’s crazy not to give him such an opportunity. He did both at the highest level. You talk about a young man who is probably No. 1 and recipient No. 1 in the project. He did not have these grades for no reason.”
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