Kevin Garnett is back — a big win for Minnesota — though the Big Ticket wasn’t complimentary.

The Timberwolves and Lynx announced the return of the greatest player in Wolves franchise history on Thursday in the role of “team ambassador.” Reports stated the organization had reached an “agreement” to bring Garnett back into the fold, with financial compensation attached.

Minnesota announced Garnett will “serve in a visible and active role” by attending a few home games, championing community initiatives and “helping shape the teams’ stories through exclusive content.”

Appearance fees are common. Name, Image and Likeness is the new standard operating procedure in the sports realm across all levels. Garnett should be paid for his time and contributions.

His now agreed upon jersey retirement — the date and details of which will be announced later — was also included. It is a little weird to have to negotiate a jersey retirement. Did Boston have to do the same when it raised Garnett’s jersey into the rafters three and a half years ago?

But whatever price Minnesota had to pony up was a worthwhile.

Because as great as it was to have Wally Szczerbiak be welcomed back with a personalized rubber ducky this season, and to celebrate franchise milestone anniversaries with the likes of J.R. Ryder and Latrell Sprewell, the centerpiece of Minnesota’s franchise history has been absent for a decade — since, Garnett alleged, Glen Taylor reneged on a deal to allow him to obtain a share of team ownership.

Every corporation emphasizes the importance of telling its story; the Timberwolves have had to tiptoe around theirs because the man who built much of it refused to show his face in the team’s facilities. Naz Reid is in his seventh season with the Wolves and noted Thursday he has never met Garnett.

FILE – In this Feb. 24, 2015, file photo, Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett speaks during an NBA basketball news conference in Minneapolis. On Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, the Wolves announced that Garnett will rejoin the organization in an ambassador role. (AP Photo / Jim Mone, File)

While Garnett won’t have a role in basketball operations, he’ll certainly be around the building and, thus, the players at least on occasion. Still active in NBA media, the Hall of Famer remains an avid fan and follower of today’s game.

In a joint statement, majority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez said Garnett is “synonymous with the Minnesota Timberwolves.”

“He is the greatest player in Timberwolves history, and his impact on our franchise and community is immeasurable,” the statement read. “This is more than a reunion — it’s a statement about honoring our past while pursuing excellence and building one of the most admired sports organizations in the world. We couldn’t be prouder to welcome him home.”

The runway to a reunion was cleared when the primary target of Garnett’s disdain — now former majority owner Taylor — officially relinquished team control to the tandem of Lore and Rodriguez.

Since entering the fold four years ago, Lore and Rodriguez have repeatedly heard about the fanbase’s yearning to have Garnett’s jersey hoisted into the rafters at Target Center, a ceremony the former NBA MVP had previously refused. To the new ownership’s credit, they made it their mission to check that box that was so important to local supporters.

“I know it’s been a priority for Marc and Alex … to be able to reach out and to bring KG back into the fold,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “It’s an exciting time, for sure.”

Kelly Laferriere, an advisor to the Wolves’ new ownership group, was said to have played a big role in bringing the two parties together. Trust was established over the past four years to the point where Garnett finally agreed to a reunion.

“I’m thrilled to be back home,” Garnett said in a statement. “Minnesota is where it all began, where I was young, hungry and learning how to compete at the highest level. I’m excited to be back in the Twin Cities at a time when Marc and Alex are setting a bold new vision for this franchise. Their leadership has brought fresh energy to the organization, and I’m excited to help build what’s next for the Timberwolves, our fans and this community.”

There is little doubt ownership will see a healthy return on their investment.

Now Garnett can be prominently featured on social media and in-arena videos sure to produce massive engagement and excitement from a fan base that still widely sports No. 21 jerseys. He can do voiceover for videos. He can toss T-shirts into stands. He can connect the dots between the last successful run of Wolves’ basketball two decades ago to the current one.

You can’t put a price on that.

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By JOSH BOAK and MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The “Warrior Dividend” that President Donald Trump announced during his televised address to the nation Wednesday is not a Christmas bonus made possible by tariff revenues, as the president suggested.

Instead, the $1,776 payments to troops are coming from a congressionally-approved housing supplement — money they were already set to receive — that was a part of tax cut extensions and expansions bill signed into law in July. Trump’s administration identified the source of the “dividend” payments Thursday.

In his remarks, Trump alluded to his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” playing a role, but suggested that tariffs were largely responsible for the payments already on the way to 1.45 million members of the military.

“We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs and the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military,” he said in announcing what he described as a “dividend.”

Trump has teased the idea of using his sweeping tariffs on imports to give Americans dividends ever since he imposed them in April. But these new payments are being disbursed by the Pentagon from a $2.9 billion military housing supplement that was part of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to augment existing housing allowances, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to describe the payments.

The amount of the payments is a nod to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In total, the measure is expected to cost $2.6 billion.

Trump’s announcement comes as he’s faced pressure to show he’s working to address rising costs for Americans, with prices remaining stubbornly high as the president has imposed double-digit tariffs on imports from almost every country. Trump has promised to lower prices, but he has struggled to do so. Inflation hit a four-decade high in June 2022 during Joe Biden’s presidency and then began to fall. But inflation has stayed elevated under Trump in part because of his tariffs.

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It’s not the first time Trump has brandished ‘dividends’

Sending money to voters is a timeworn tool for politicians and one that Trump has repeatedly tried to use, including this year.

Trump has for months suggested every American could receive a $2,000 dividend from the import taxes — an effort that seemed designed to try to shore up support for tariffs, which the president has said protect American industries and will lure manufacturing back from overseas.

But that particular pledge appeared to exceed the revenues being generated by his tariffs, according to a November analysis by the right-leaning Tax Foundation. The analysis estimated that the $2,000 payments being promised to taxpayers could add up to between $279.8 billion and $606.8 billion, depending on how they were structured.

The analysis estimated that Trump’s import taxes would produce $158.4 billion in total revenue during 2025 and another $207.5 billion in 2026. That’s not enough money to provide the payments as well as reduce the budget deficit, which Trump has also claimed his tariffs are doing.

Earlier this year, as his Department of Government Efficiency was slashing the U.S. government and its workforce, Trump had briefly proposed sending a DOGE “dividend” back to U.S. citizens.

Neither the tariff dividend or DOGE dividend has come to fruition, and members of Trump’s own party as well as officials in his administration have expressed some skepticism about the idea. There is also the risk that the payments being promised by Trump could push up inflation, as they would likely spur greater consumer spending. Republican lawmakers argued in 2021 that the pandemic relief package from then-President Biden — which included direct payments — helped trigger the run-up in inflation.

Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

By MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — In a video message recorded weeks before he was killed, Hollywood icon Rob Reiner urged Holocaust survivors participating in a Hanukkah ceremony on Thursday to “be resilient” during difficult times.

Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found stabbed to death Sunday at their home in Los Angeles, law enforcement officials said. Their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bail.

Reiner, who was Jewish, recorded the message for the Hanukkah event in the beginning of October. He noted that his wife’s extended family was killed at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, giving the ceremony special meaning for him.

“We’re living in a time where what’s happening in our country is scary and reminiscent of what we’ve seen happen in the past, and we just hope that we can all survive this and that we can hold on to our democracy,” Reiner, who was an outspoken advocate for liberal causes, said in his message.

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The video was broadcast as part of a virtual candle lighting ceremony honoring Holocaust survivors internationally on the fifth night of Hanukkah. The event is an initiative of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, an organization that advocates for Holocaust survivors.

Around 100 Holocaust survivors gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon for a candle-lighting ceremony.

In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C., after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces.

Jews celebrate the eight-day holiday, which this year began on Sunday, by lighting a nightly candle in honor of the tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the Temple that lasted for eight nights, instead of just one.

Many Jewish communities are reeling from the attack on a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia, where 15 people were killed.

“Even in these difficult days, when antisemitism is rising and Jewish communities around the world are under attack — this very week on the first night of Hanukkah in Sydney, Australia — we draw strength and inspiration from you, the survivors, from your personal and collective resilience,” Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, told the group of survivors in Jerusalem.

In addition to Reiner, Barbra Streisand, Billy Crystal, Jason Alexander, Julianna Margulies, Debra Messing, Adam Arkin and Jamie Lee Curtis were among those who made prerecorded videos for the event. Journalists Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash also recorded messages.

“If ever we needed to be resilient, it’s now,” Reiner said in his message. “Let’s be resilient.”

Reiner was a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, calling him in a 2017 interview with Variety “mentally unfit” to be president and “the single-most unqualified human being to ever assume the presidency of the United States.” In a shocking post after Reiner’s death, Trump suggested that Rob Reiner’s outspoken opposition was partially responsible for his murder.

Director Paul Feig has proved himself to be the preeminent purveyor of the finest high-camp trash one can find at the movie theater these days — and that’s a compliment. If Feig is serving up the trash, then call me a raccoon, because I’m ready to dive in.

Feig’s special sauce when it comes to these soapy, female-driven thrillers like “A Simple Favor,” and now “The Housemaid,” adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from a “BookTok” sensation by Freida McFadden, is clearly his comedy background. Feig understands exactly the tone and tropes to deploy here, and you can feel his knowing winks and nudges to the audience with every loaded glance, stray graze or wandering camera movement. It’s as if he’s saying, to us, and all the tipsy ladies in the audience, “check this out — LOL right?” LOL indeed, Mr. Feig, LOL.

“The Housemaid” is an erotic crime thriller that plays off silly sexual stereotypes and fantasies like the naughty maid and then flips them on their head. In the opening scene, the drably dressed, bespectacled Millie (Sydney Sweeney) interviews for a live-in maid position with the warm and friendly wife and mother Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) in her gorgeously appointed Long Island mansion designed by her wealthy husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar).

But all is not what it seems on the surface, for either applicant or employer. Both are hiding dark secrets, but Nina hires Millie nevertheless, and Millie, without any other options, gratefully accepts.

When Millie moves into the maid’s quarters in the attic, she discovers that the Winchester home isn’t as picture-perfect as it seemed. Little things are off: she can’t open her window, the groundskeeper Enzo (Michele Morrone) glowers at her constantly, items go missing, and CeCe (Indiana Elle), Nina’s daughter, is exceedingly cold.

Then there are the big things that are off, like Nina’s wild mood swings, requests that Nina then claims she never made, and the vicious gossip about her mental health among the other Stepford wives. Millie realizes she’s in over her head with Mrs. Winchester, but her saving grace is the warm and handsome Mr. Winchester. Is that where this is going? Of course it is, we all happily groan together.

“The Housemaid” is like “Gaslight” meets “Jane Eyre,” with a dash of “Rebecca,” with all the various roles lightly scrambled, and a much sexier, nastier streak than any of those mannered mindbenders. Feig stylishly waltzes us through this steamy, twisty mystery with ease, but not necessarily sophistication — this is the kind of frothy entertainment that you can still enjoyably comprehend after a glass or two, which in fact might enhance the experience.

But it doesn’t work without an actor of Seyfried’s caliber, who can summon unpredictable mayhem from her fingertips, or without Sweeney, who works best in a register somewhere between ditzy blonde and tough little scrapper. Both actors exude an element of the unhinged that simmers right below the doe-eyed blond surface, and we know we need to be a little (or a lot) afraid of these women. The film also doesn’t work without a heartthrob like Sklenar, as we need to fall in lust with his gorgeous exterior and intoxicatingly cuddly aura for this all to make sense.

There’s not much more to divulge without giving it all away, but prepare to titter, gasp, scream and cheer for this juicy slice of indulgent women’s entertainment. Go on, you deserve a little treat this holiday season.

‘The Housemaid’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong/bloody violent content, sexual assault, sexual content, nudity and language)

Running time: 2:11

How to watch: In theaters on Friday, Dec. 19

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