LeBron James, John Legend & More Invest $7 Million Into Fantasy Life Sports & Gaming Platform
As fans wonder how many more seasons LeBron James will play in the NBA, the future Hall of Famer is already making sure he'll be busy once he hangs up his jersey.
James has expanded his business portfolio by investing in the fantasy sports and gaming platform Fantasy Life, which was founded by OG fantasy football personality Matthew Berry.
The four-time NBA champ is joined by childhood friend and business partner Maverick Carter and others, including businessman Gerry Cardinale, singer John Legend, and Fortnite co-creator Donald Mustard. According to Variety . Hey, all pooled together $7 million in the latest round of funding, which will help create a 'more customizable app and mobile experiences for players.'
Beyond creating their own dream teams in basketball, football, baseball, and beyond, the app features sophisticated scoring via AI tools that enable users to compete against others for cash prizes.
The money also offers Berry a sign of relief, as it helps the company complete the purchase of its rival platform, Guillotine League.
Berry is glad that others in the sports world see potential in Fantasy Life and are on board to see it flourish.
'My entire adult life has been about helping fantasy players and sports gamers win, have more fun, and make this industry better,' said Berry in a statement to Variety . 'Fantasy Life is the culmination of my decades of experience — a destination for every kind of player, from beginner to sharp. With smart, personalized tools, entertaining content, and the best damn fantasy game ever in Guillotine Leagues, we're building a platform as obsessed with fantasy as we are. I'm incredibly honored that so many people I've long admired believe in what we're doing and want to be part of the journey. I can't wait for everyone to check out the new features and win more titles.'
Other investors who signal that Berry has a hit on his hands include YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and billionaire Jacksonville Jaguars owner Tony Khan. Investors who hopped on even earlier include NFL players like Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and Ja'Marr Chase.
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Those two comprised a large chunk of the Rockets' 3-point department, finishing first and third, respectively, in attempted 3s per game, and were among the top six in conversion rate. With Kevin Durant and Dorian Finney-Smith now in Houston, the Rockets can become one of the league's most efficient half-court offenses and deadliest outside shooting units. Read on here to see how, and watch my video on Durant's overall impact here. GO FURTHER How additions of Kevin Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith can fix Rockets' spacing woes Maddie Meyer / Getty Images We knew the Celtics would be taking a step back this year, but yikes. Jrue Holiday, Porziņģis and Luke Kornet are gone, Al Horford seems like he might be next, and the Celtics still are looking at deals to trim salary further. Boston knew this day was coming; the Celtics were openly talking about it even as they were smashing Dallas in the 2024 NBA Finals. 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Tier 3: I can see the vision, if all breaks well — Warriors, Clippers Both of these teams have to be really lucky with extended injuries. Enduring a long season is tough, but being healthy in the postseason would make them a nightmare opponent. Tier 4: You're good but missing something — Lakers, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Spurs The Lakers losing Finney-Smith hurts their defense quite a bit. Dallas is missing Kyrie Irving to start the season, and we don't know how he'll return from the ACL injury this year. I like what Memphis has done, but they have a very young core. The Spurs probably need a year of jelling. Tier 5: Let's hope for the best — Suns, Kings, Pelicans, Blazers, Jazz Portland is kind of here by default, but I like the way they're building. The rest of these teams? They're either falling apart or putting players together haphazardly. Jason Miller / Getty Images By Mike Vorkunov, Jon Krawczynski and James L. Edwards III Lawsuits and liens have trailed free agent guard Malik Beasley since he entered the league in 2016, and he has drawn concerns from at least one team about his off-court life. Now, he faces even more scrutiny. Beasley, 28, is a person of interest in a gambling investigation out of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, his attorney, Steve Haney, confirmed to The Athletic over the weekend. No charges or formal allegations have been filed against him. 'This is simply an investigation,' Haney said. 'At this point, Malik has not been charged with any crime and there has been no formal accusation of wrongdoing. Hopefully, everyone will afford him that same presumption of innocence that everyone else deserves.' The investigation into Beasley came at what should have been a moment of triumph for him. After playing for five teams over his last four seasons, he was set to cash in this month following a strong campaign with the Detroit Pistons, where he averaged 16.3 points per game and made a career-high 41.6 percent of his 3s. The Pistons had been in talks with Beasley and his agent leading up to June 30's official start of free agency, and were prepared to offer him a three-year, $42 million contract that included a team option for the last year, according to two sources briefed on the negotiations. But the NBA reached out to the club several days before free agency began and let it know about the federal investigation involving Beasley. The Pistons quickly pivoted away and are now unlikely to sign him. The league has not said whether it has also investigated Beasley. The NBA has previously said it is cooperating with the federal investigation. The contract would have been a windfall, although Beasley has already made nearly $60 million over his nine seasons in the NBA, including $6 million with Detroit this past season. But he has a line of creditors who have taken to courts to try to recoup the money they believe they were owed. He has been sued at least five times over the last eight years, according to available public records, and has more than a dozen different liens filed against him. Read more here. GO FURTHER Malik Beasley facing complaint from former agency amid gambling investigation Page 3
Buzz Feed
28 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
Celebs Who Tried Living Like Normal People
Plenty of celebrities thrive on the attention they get from being famous, but sometimes, they just want to live as "normally" as possible. While some are able to successfully go unnoticed, others suffer some unexpected consequences of celebrity. Here are 23 times celebs tried to live like "regular" people and immediately regretted it: In 2007, Naomi Watts simply tried to go grocery shopping by herself at Whole Foods in LA. However, because she'd recently given birth, paparazzi were clamoring for pictures of her. Some followed her through the aisles, while others used their long lenses to capture pictures through the windows and doors. Police officers were called to the scene, where they ordered over 30 photographers to leave the premises. After checking out, Naomi reportedly had to hide in the outdoor garden section. Her friend drove directly up to an exit to collect her. Michael Jordan grew up attending church, but when he became an NBA star, he had to stop going because of how distracting his presence was to the rest of the congregation. In 1989, he told GQ, "When I go to church, any church I go to, it doesn't seem like church to me, because everybody stares. I went back to my own church in Wilmington a few times since I've been in the pros, and it really hasn't been the same old church. It's more or less 'Well, Michael is here today, let's have him speak for us.'" Kevin Bacon once tried being a "normal" person for an afternoon — and absolutely hated it! In 2024, he told Vanity Fair that he "went to a special effects makeup artist, had consultations, and asked him to make [him] a prosthetic disguise." Wearing glasses, a fake nose, and fake teeth, he went to The Grove, a mall in Los Angeles, where no one recognized him. He said, "People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice. Nobody said, 'I love you.' I had to wait in line to, I don't know, buy a fucking coffee or whatever. I was like, 'This sucks. I want to go back to being famous.'" When Gwyneth Paltrow wore her Shallow Hal fatsuit in public, she was perceived very differently than she was used to. She told W magazine, "The first day I tried [the fatsuit] on, I was in the Tribeca Grand [hotel in New York City], and I walked through the lobby. It was so sad; it was so disturbing. No one would make eye contact with me because I was obese. I was wearing this black shirt with big snowmen on it. For some reason, the fat clothes they make … The clothes they make for women that are overweight are horrible. I felt humiliated because people were really dismissive." After Matt Damon publicly dumped Minnie Driver on Oprah in 1998, she couldn't go grocery shopping without seeing headlines about the breakup on magazines. She told Entertainment Tonight, "I don't care who you are, that is agony, and it's like a strange, surreal dream. But I know he didn't put that picture there. It's so tricky, because it's not deliberate; he couldn't have helped how famous he became and how his life was being picked over, in the same way that mine was." "It's funny now, when I think about walking down the magazine aisle in my local supermarket at midnight with my best friend, we were like, 'Are you seeing this? This is super weird.' My friend, Alexandra, was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening, like, I feel like we're in a movie. I would totally watch this movie, even though I know you're super heartbroken, but this is really weird,'" she said. To prepare for their roles in The Bear, Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White spent a few months training in a professional kitchen. However, because Jeremy was more famous, he received preferential treatment. Ayo told Deadline, "People recognized Jeremy, but nobody knew who I was at all, which was good for research. It was kind of annoying when I was like, 'Yeah, I stayed up late to clean until 12, and Jeremy was like, 'I got to go home!'" In 2015, Justin Bieber went on a beach vacation, where he reasonably expected he had enough privacy to be nude. However, he didn't notice that paparazzi were watching him and taking pictures. Later, when he appeared on Ellen, the host blamed him for the non-consensual photos. Tia and Tamera Mowery remained enrolled in a normal high school during their Sister Sister days. Tia told HLN, "High school kids can be mean. Our experience as actors in high school wasn't really the best experience. I think, a lot of the times, kids automatically assume that, maybe, you think you're better than they are because you're on TV." Tamera added, "It got so bad that I felt like I needed to say something. There were times when we would be in the halls getting our books out of the lockers, and I will never forget, a kid screamed down the hall, and he said, 'Your show sucks!' Just like that. Out loud, in front of all the kids. And I said, 'You know what? I'm sick and tired of this. I'm finally gonna say something.' And then I turned around, and I said, 'Well, the checks don't!'" As a child actor who still attended regular school, Taylor Momsen was "relentlessly" teased over her role as Cindy-Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She told Podcrushed, "Every time I would start at a new school or go somewhere else, I don't even think the kids knew my name. I was just 'Grinch Girl.' Not even my character name, just 'Grinch Girl...' I got used to it, but it was alienating... I would go to school for a couple of months and then leave to go work and come back. Making friends was always challenging for me." When Taylor Swift attended her friends Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley's Jersey Shore wedding in 2023, massive crowds of fans gathered outside a restaurant where the newlyweds were holding a dinner. The fans reportedly chanted Taylor's name and tried to film her. Reportedly appearing stunned, Taylor politely waved to the onlookers, but as viral videos of the crowds spread, criticism for the gathered fans poured in. They were called out for disrespecting Taylor's privacy as well as intruding on Jack and Margaret's big day. Many people brought up Taylor's reaction to the crowds gathered outside her home in her Netflix documentary Miss Americana. Similarly, in 2017, Taylor Swift was a bridesmaid in her childhood best friend Abigail Anderson's wedding. Security shielded Taylor from the crowd gathered outside the venue with drapes and an umbrella. Some fans reportedly booed her and chanted, "Very disappointing, not cool." Because Basic Instinct was her 18th movie, Sharon Stone wasn't prepared for the huge spotlight it thrust upon her. When it hit theaters, she continued living her normal life — driving a small car, eating in restaurants, and living in a house on a street with public access. However, the intensity of her new fans made her life difficult and unsafe. They climbed on top of her car and banged on the restaurant glass. She couldn't afford to hire private security, so police had to be outside her home 24/7. She was so famous in the immediate years after the release of Basic Instinct that, during O.J. Simpson's infamous police chase in 1994, officers warned her the situation was "dangerous" and moved her to a hotel, where they kept watch at her door and reception. She told InStyle, "[The police] were like, 'Find a secure house behind a gate.'" So, Sharon purchased the only gated home within her budget — a shell of a house in need of renovations. When Sharon Stone tried to join a dating app, she was reported for being a catfish. In 2019, she tweeted, "I went on the @bumble dating [site] and they closed my account. Some users reported that it couldn't possibly be me! Hey @bumble, is being me exclusionary ? Don't shut me out of the hive." The dating app's official Twitter account replied, "There can only be one [Queen] Stone. Looks like our users thought you were too good to be true. We've made sure that you won't be blocked again. We hope that everyone in our community takes a sec to verify their profiles. (Catherine Tramell from Basic Instinct gets a pass today!)" Zayn Malik lives a quiet life in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The townspeople are respectful of him, but dating has been a struggle — particularly when he tried Tinder. He told Nylon, "It''s not been too successful for me, I'll be honest. Everyone accused me of catfishing. They're like, 'What are you using Zayn Malik's pictures for?' I've been kicked off once or twice." So, he stopped using dating apps, adding, "I'm really content and happy with being single for the first time in my life." Dating apps were an even bigger failure for Zac Efron, who failed to get any matches. He told the Times, "Amazingly, when I signed up for Tinder, nobody swiped me! They thought it was never happened... Dating is something I'll never be able to do. As in the dictionary definition of dating, because one way or another, I've impacted that person's life, and they'll soon realize it. A date has to be very long to dispel whatever people think about me." On an episode of Radio Andy, Andy Cohen said, "I'm on Tinder. I never check it, but I'm on Tinder, and...I've been kicked off Tinder for people saying I was impersonating me." On Watch What Happens Live, Sam Smith said, "I joined this dating site called Hinge in the UK, and they chucked me off of it after one night cause they thought I was a catfish pretending to be me." In response, Hinge's official Twitter account posted, "Sorry @SamSmith! We know you're too good at goodbyes but give us a second chance at finding you (+ @Andy) someone special. We will verify your profile." Shaquille O'Neal also got accused of being a catfish on a dating app. On Jimmy Kimmel Live, he said, "I signed up for Tinder, put in my name, and I tried to make a person meet me. And they didn't believe it was me.' I was like, 'It's me, it's Shaq.' And she said, 'Shaq would never be on this.' So I had to hit delete. I had to delete my account.'" Lewis Capaldi has been "kicked off" of Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge because "people think [he's] fake." On the Diary of a CEO podcast, he said, "I love Tinder, Tinder's great, but Hinge is what I really want to get on, because I feel like, mid-20s, that's what people are on." Alicia Silverstone got in trouble for actually being a catfish. When she first joined a dating app, she made a fake profile because she "wasn't comfortable yet being [herself]." However, the fake profile got [understandably!] banned, so, inspired by Sharon Stone and Drew Barrymore, she made a profile as her real for that one to get banned, too. On The Drew Barrymore Show, she said, "I had a date with someone planned. [But] the day I went in to find out about the date [like] where we were meeting or whatever, I [found out that I] had been banned. Poor guy. I got kicked off as myself, too." After appearing on Love Island in 2022, Paige Thorne returned to her career as a paramedic but was quickly let go. On the Not My Bagg podcast, she said, "I was like, 'I'll go back to being a paramedic,' but my job was like, 'Don't really want you to do that 'cause you post pictures in bikinis.' I was so upset. I worked really hard to be a paramedic. It was so much training, and I worked three years before that, COVID, did it all, and they were like, 'Actually, thanks, but no thanks.'" Paige tried to make it as an influencer but soon realized it wasn't for her. She was able to get another job as a paramedic, but her reality TV fame sometimes makes things complicated. She told Vice, "[Patients' families] stare and ask me, 'Are you so and so?' But like, in this moment in time, on a 999 call, I'm not her. I think the people I meet on the job find it really strange to see me in that perspective." Amy Hart quit her flight attendant job at British Airways to go on Love Island, then returned after the show. However, she had to quit again over fear of safety concerns with fans filming her. On her Instagram story, she said, "I can't work there anymore because I am there to be in charge of the safety of the whole plane, and right now, that just wouldn't be attainable because people would be filming... It's just not sustainable for me to work there right now, but maybe one day, they said I could go back at some point, who knows?" She went on to host multiple podcasts, including Amy Hart's Mum's Club, Hart to Hart with Amy Hart, and Love Island: The Morning After. And finally, Olivia Caridi got the villain edit on The Bachelor Season 20. Wanting to return to work as a TV news anchor, she "would send [her] tape to every station in the country." However, they continuously rejected her, telling her things like, "You'd be a PR nightmare. We couldn't do that; you didn't look great on the show. We'd lose viewers." She told the Every Girl, "That was heartbreaking because my career before the show was my world, and to know that a horrible experience on a reality show hurt that really broke me. When I first moved to New York City, I even tried for babysitting jobs, and parents would Google me and say, 'We don't want you around our kids.' I really couldn't believe how frustrating it was to be shunned in that way because of The Bachelor." She now works as a lifestyle influencer and UGC creator on TikTok.
