The 48-year-old digital imaging technician moved from Indiana to Georgia in 2017 as studios — lured by generous tax credits — turned Atlanta into the “Hollywood of the South,” the backdrop for hundreds of productions like “The Hunger Games,” “Stranger Things” and more than a dozen Marvel blockbusters.

Ratledge said the work was grueling — 70-hour weeks were normal — but the $72-an-hour pay was transformative. “I paid off three years of back taxes in one year, just from the money I made,” says Ratledge, who worked on the Netflix movie “Red Notice,” as well as shows like TBS’ “Miracle Workers” and Starz’s “P-Valley.”

Those times are long gone: Ratledge has worked just four days on set since May 2024.

Instead, he's been working part-time at the front desk of a local tennis center and stringing rackets on the side, trying somehow to support his family of four on $15 an hour without health insurance. His wife, a cancer survivor, has started cleaning houses a few days a week, and they've downsized their rental home. But their $2,000-a-month income hardly even covers their rent, a shortfall that has left Ratledge in debt and deeply depressed.

“All I want for Christmas is for my film career back,” Ratledge wrote on Instagram in December.

Georgia’s boom goes bust

After hitting a peak of $4.4 billion in 2022, spending on film and TV production in Georgia has tumbled, reaching just $2.3 billion in the last fiscal year, as total productions dropped from 412 in 2022 to 245 last year. The decline accelerated after the 2023 writers and actors strikes halted productions for months, dealing a blow to an industry still recovering from COVID-19 shutdowns.

“We saw a lot of productions start looking overseas, knowing that they wouldn’t have another work stoppage,” said Lee Thomas, the deputy commissioner of the Georgia Film Office. “We knew that it would be like a reset to the industry ... but it certainly was a bigger, harder fall than we anticipated — and longer.”

Marvel has left Georgia’s market — its last movie filmed there was 2025's “Thunderbolts” — and shifted its massive productions to the United Kingdom, where labor and production costs are cheaper. Streamers like Netflix are also increasingly filming abroad, while producing fewer shows in general. Other states, including California and Texas, have upped incentives to compete with Georgia’s tax credits, which can cover up to 30% of production costs.

Local industry Facebook groups are filled with complaints about a lack of work, with some people griping about well-established veterans taking up the few jobs available, said Monique Younger, an Atlanta costume supervisor. Younger says her work is less than half what it once was, making her “feel a little bit useless.”

Jen Farris, an Atlanta native and longtime location scout, said she used to reject offers because she had too much work. Now, she’s navigating two- or three-month gaps in between projects, forcing her to “watch her pennies.”

“You just pray that you have nested away enough to float a little bit,” she said.

Training crews for an uncertain future

Despite the bleak landscape, Shadowbox Studios, one of metro Atlanta’s largest soundstage operators, is betting on the area's future and has urged local filmmakers and industry leaders to rethink what’s possible.

Shadowbox has been pitching its mammoth spaces to everyone from indie filmmakers to content creators and esports organizers. But it also wants to make sure the city's crew base remains robust.

Atlanta has for years served as the country’s “antidote” to Hollywood blockbusters moving overseas, said Shadowbox COO Mike Mosallam, pointing to the city’s experienced crews, comparatively lower production costs, extensive soundstage space and diverse landscapes. Keeping that talent pipeline strong is key to keeping more productions from leaving, he said.

In November, Shadowbox hosted about 25 Black college students for Backlot Academy, a program launched in 2022 to diversify the ranks of professions where personal connections often determine who gets hired.

Veteran crew members taught the participants how to decipher call sheets, use walkie-talkie lingo and survive 12-hour days on their feet. Participants could enroll for free in a multiweek digital course on the ins and outs of production and get mentorship as they try to book their first gig.

Trainee Julian Williams grew up in Atlanta and watched his city become a playground for Hollywood. One of the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movies was even filmed on his street. Now a 24-year-old digital media student at Georgia Piedmont Technical College, Williams is determined to break into the industry as a production assistant, with the hope of one day becoming an assistant director.

He's prepared to follow his film dreams wherever they lead, but for now, he’s betting on Atlanta and its collaborative film community.

“People are genuinely helpful and willing to share what they know,” Williams said.

Among those helping Williams and the other trainees was Joseph Jones, a Backlot alumnus who credits Shadowbox with helping him embark on a rewarding career as a production assistant. “It changed my life,” said Jones, 53, who spent years working in hotels but always knew he wanted to work on films.

But Shadowbox officials aren't downplaying reality: The industry is down, especially in Atlanta. On the day of the training, just one of Shadowbox's nine soundstages was booked for a production, said Jeremiah Cullen, director of sales.

Cullen said Shadowbox has been forced to adapt, cutting deals to meet filmmakers' budgets while frequently calling former clients to see how they can fit their needs.

“Hey, we miss you on the lot,” he tells them. “You got anything cooking?”

Searching for a reset

Ratledge grew up loving movies, too, especially when, as a 9-year-old, he saw his rural Indiana town of Milan immortalized in 1986's “Hoosiers.” He has continued to reach out to his network, but he's ready to move on.

Ratledge said he isn’t looking for a miracle — just one steady TV job that would give him breathing room to stabilize his finances and figure out his next move. A five- or six-month series, he said, would allow him to restore his health insurance, file for bankruptcy and “hit the reset button.”

“I don’t think I’m any different than the people who worked in Detroit when the auto industry collapsed in the '70s and everything went overseas,” he said.

It's a concern even President Donald Trump has weighed in on, calling last year for tariffs aimed at keeping film production in the U.S. — a plan that experts have called vague and impractical.

Thomas, of the Georgia Film Office, said that business is up significantly from the last fiscal year. She partially credits the rebound to a new state law that allows Georgia's tax incentives to apply to more types of productions, including short-form vertical videos and free ad-supported streaming channels like Tubi.

Some Atlanta veterans still see a path forward, including Farris, the location scout. She said too many talented, creative people are in Atlanta for it all to simply fade away.

“People moved their families here. They’re raising children here. This wasn’t just about film,” she said. “It changed our landscape — it brought in brilliant new minds. Artists. Creators. And I really believe Georgia will find a way to foster an entirely new wave of artistic possibility.”

The boundary-breaking Colombian performer has spent the last year on her first global tour since 2018, where she has made history: Nearly 20 years after her first concert in Mexico City 's Zócalo, the capital's main square, Shakira returned earlier this month to break the plaza’s attendance record with about 400,000 fans showing up to see her.

It's impressive for any artist and one that certainly backs up her reputation as the Queen of Latin Music. Across her three-decade-plus career, Shakira has set records and challenged genre lines: from 1991, when she signed a deal with Sony Music Colombia at just 13 years old and released her debut album “Magia” — to breakthrough albums like 1998's “Dónde Están los Ladrones?” and 2001's “Laundry Service” — all the way to her most recent, 2024's “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran.”

But this year is different.

“I'm being able to make so many of my dreams, as an artist, come true on this tour,” she told The Associated Press over the phone on Tuesday. “It's everything I ever dreamt about.”

That's not all: In February, it was announced that she is a 2026 nominee for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — a logical selection for an artist lauded for her ability to bridge Latin music with rock and pop.

If she were to be inducted, she would join a small class of Latinos who have done so. She would become the first artist from Colombia, as well as the first Latina born and raised in Latin America, to enter the Rock Hall.

In an interview with the AP, Shakira discusses her history-making Mexico City show, her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination, her next big goal and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Your Zócalo concert was massive. What was going through your mind?

SHAKIRA: That's such a unique moment in time. After playing 13 stadium concerts in Mexico City, I never thought I was gonna have so many people gathering at Zócalo to watch my show one more time. It was just absolutely incredible. And one of those experiences that are unforgettable and that I wish my parents could have seen. That was just really, really, truly magical.

The love and friendship story that I have with Mexico is just uncanny, you know? Nothing compares to it, and it’s given me so much. My Mexican fans have given me so much of love and support since the beginning of my career. It was quite incredible also to be able to perform “Dónde Estás Corazón,” which was (my) first song that ever played on Mexican radio, like outside my country, you know? And so that was like a full circle moment.

AP: You're also headed to the Pyramids of Giza for the first time in nearly 20 years.

SHAKIRA: It was just one of the most unforgettable performances of my life, and I just wanted it to happen again with this show, with this tour, which to me is the tour of my life. … I actually feel like I’m just starting my career. It’s a weird feeling because it’s been 30 years, but I feel at the threshold of a new beginning and that is all because my audience has been so emotive and so loyal as well. I’ve had a blast really performing in every country, every city where we’ve been. And the next thing is going to be Copacabana (Beach in Rio de Janeiro) as well.

We’re gonna have probably two million people on the beach, so that’s gonna be pretty crazy, I’m sure.

AP: When I think of the beginning of your career, I think of your rock records. And this year, it was announced that you're a nominee for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.

SHAKIRA: I feel really humbled and excited at the same time. It's incredible to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a little bit surreal as well. You know, I've experimented with different genres in my career, but I started out as a rock artist and continued to make rock. My last album, “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran,” there are rock tunes like “Tiempo Sin Verte” or “Cómo Dónde y Cuándo” and every album there are rock tunes because that’s an intricate part of my artistic persona. And everything that I listen to is rock music. So, to be nominated, for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, knowing that there are so many incredible icons of rock music that I adore, that inspired me, like The Rolling Stones (are in there) … to me, it is just a privilege and really an amazing moment in my career.

I don’t know what’s going on. But this year, like, all my wishes are coming true and I think this nomination is one of those things that you probably fantasize about sometime in your career but try not to get too fixated on it. Being nominated is a huge deal for me and my fans who followed my rock career.

AP: What does it mean for your community — for Latinos, for Colombians?

SHAKIRA: I feel very proud as a Latina. I feel like, “Oh damn, I don’t know how many Latinos are there, or Latinas, or at least Colombians.” I think it might be the first time for a Latino woman, someone born and raised in Latin America, you now, but who is loved and has been devoted to rock ‘n’ roll since I was, I don’t know, 15. Yeah.

I've been listening to rock music and that’s how I started my career as well. So yeah, it’s just pretty surreal, I gotta say. But I'm very happy for my community as well. I'm happy to feel that I’m representing a part of my community there.

AP: You've said your dreams have come true this year. What's left on the list?

SHAKIRA: I don’t know what’s going on! But this year, all of those dreams I had way, way back, now they’re coming true. So, I’m going to just ask for more. I’ve always thought it would be pretty crazy to sing at the Eiffel Tower or the Champs-Élysées in Paris. That would be like the ultimate concert as well. But you know, I can’t complain. Being in Copacabana this year and the (Giza) Pyramids in Egypt and in Zócalo, that fills my heart. I feel so accomplished as an artist this year, but I’m also so pumped. I really am in love with making music and performing that music, and it’s brought so much joy to my life again, after the difficulties that I’ve been through and bitter moments that I had to endure — like every human being who goes through hardship.

The producers behind the 98th Academy Awards have set out to celebrate not just the song, but the cultural phenomenon of the film itself. That logic is why the only other nominated song that will get a moment on the broadcast is “I Lied to You,” from “Sinners,” a blockbuster hit and the most-nominated film of all time.

“We have two really unique stories that are going to be celebrated on the stage,” said Oscars executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor. “They’re bigger than just the songs. They’re really about filmmaking and craft.”

Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq will be on hand for the “Sinners” moment, which aims to explore the role music plays in the film with the help of Misty Copeland, blues musicians Eric Gales, Buddy Guy and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, actors Jayme Lawson and Li Jun Li as well as Brittany Howard, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith. Kapoor said filmmaker Ryan Coogler has also been involved in putting it together.

Conan O'Brien is ‘bursting with ideas’

Kapoor and executive producer Katy Mullan, who won Emmys for their work on the 96th Oscars, have been toiling for months putting together Sunday’s show, which will see the return of host Conan O’Brien.

“His humor, his tone, his reverence to the art form? He really cares about making this a true celebration,” Mullan said. “We’ve been in tears of laugher … There are so many great moments that he’s going to bring to the show.”

One of the themes of the show this year is the human touch, Kapoor said, from the set design to the packages.

“It’s really the story of how we feel this connection and how this heartbeat of cinema is unmistakably human,” Kapoor said. “Hopefully the entire show and how Conan makes you feel and all of it is like it’s all touched by human hands and human creativity.”

A spotlight on the new casting award

The show is bringing back its “fab five” treatment, first used to spotlight the acting nominees in 2024, then costume and cinematography in 2025. This year, it’ll be for the new casting award.

“Because it’s a new award, we are going to celebrate that with a moment where we not only have incredible stars talking about the nominees, but also giving us context and some insight into what casting directors do,” Mullan said. “We’re going see a lot of stars that people love on that stage talking about the fabulous nominees this year.”

Should a ‘BAFTA moment’ happen

The people who produce the Oscars know firsthand how live broadcasts can lead to unexpected moments, good and bad. Just a few weeks ago, the global discourse turned to the British Academy Film Awards, not because of any big speeches or performances but because of a racial slur shouted by a Tourette syndrome campaigner while “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award.

While the Oscars producers didn’t go into specific details about how they would have handled that situation, after incidents from the slap to the best picture envelope mistake, they stressed that they feel prepared to address any manner of issues on the show.

“We have really strong protocols in place to address issues on our show, any kind of issues,” Mullan said. “We do a lot planning to make sure that those are in place. We work with the network and with the academy to make sure that we are as prepped as we can be to go into the show and have those protocols and that everybody understands them.”

Stars and surprises

As always, the producers want to keep an element of surprise. There have been lots of starry presenters announced, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Javier Bardem, Maya Rudolph, Anne Hathaway, Will Arnett and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, but they hope to keep even more under wraps until the show.

“If you saw the list of people that are going to be on the stage, it is literally jaw-dropping. And there’s people that have not been on the stage in an extremely long time,” Kapoor said. “I think our show is going to constantly, throughout the entire evening, have those moments that absolutely surprise and delight.”

During the second half of Angel City's home match against the Utah Royals last May 9, King sat on the field in the 74th minute, appearing dazed. Then everything went black.

The 20-year-old's heart had stopped.

Trainers rushed to King’s side and she was given CPR. Fans and fellow players were shaken as she was treated on the field for some 11 minutes before she was rushed away. Once at the hospital, King underwent surgery to repair an anomalous left coronary artery, a rare congenital defect that had previously gone undetected.

Ten months later, King is preparing for the National Women's Soccer League season.

"I for sure have gone through ups and downs, but for the most part, I just am grateful that I’m able to play again," she said. “I feel like that comes from my perspective of life just completely changing. I feel like sometimes when you do something over and over again, you get comfortable and not necessarily complacent, but you take things for granted of being able to just go out there and do what you love every day. And for a second I thought that that was taken from me.”

While King was hospitalized, there was a controversy brewing. The NWSL Players Association was among those that said Angel City's match should have been suspended after King’s collapse. Instead, the game was continued with some 12 minutes of stoppage time.

The league said later the match should have been suspended.

Another player, Racing Louisville's Savannah DeMelo, collapsed during a game later in the season against the Reign in Seattle and the remainder of that match was postponed. NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said the league learned from those experiences and new procedures were put in place to determine the best course of action when such incidents arise.

Long recovery, and a new mission

King spent the summer at home watching her teammates on television and relearning to do the things that had once come naturally to her.

She had six weeks of physical therapy to get back on her feet, then went into a cardiac rehabilitation process. Three days a week for three months she exercised while doctors closely monitored her heart. By September she was able to do limited training with her team.

As she worked her way back, she was also hatching a plan.

Through King's leadership, all 16 NWSL teams gave their players, coaches and staff training this year on hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation and use of an automatic external defibrillator (AED). The NWSL is the only professional sports league in the nation to implement CPR training at that scale.

Through her foundation, Savy King of Hearts, King wants to amplify the message that “you can be a hero with just two hands.” Her partner in the initiative, the American Heart Association, says hands-only CPR can double and even triple survival chances.

"All credit goes to Savy. She's remarkable,” Berman said. “She sent me a note shortly after she had gone through the main parts of her recovery and came to us with this idea. And it was clearly a no-brainer for us to support it. What an amazing opportunity for her to turn something that was really scary for her, for her teammates, for the league, and turn it into a positive.”

Her foundation is also bringing AEDs to communities that don’t have them and she’s putting on soccer camps that include CPR training for the kids and their parents.

Comeback kid

A Southern California native, King's mother, Karrie King, was a professional biathlete. King herself ran track in high school before playing at North Carolina under coach Anson Dorrance for a season.

She was the second-overall pick in the 2024 NWSL draft by expansion Bay FC and played 18 games for the club. She was traded to Angel City in February 2025 and had started in all eight games for the team before she collapsed.

She also featured on several U.S. soccer youth national teams, and was invited to senior team coach Emma Hayes' Futures Camp in January 2025.

This Valentine's Day, she was removed from Angel City's season-ending injury list and appeared in two of the Los Angeles-based team's preseason matches. Angel City opens the regular season on Sunday at home against the Chicago Stars.

King said there are no restrictions on her and she does not need special monitoring or tests. She has no fear about continuing her playing career.

"You don’t always have to let what happens to you define you and how you decide to go about your life in the future. Because I can very easily just stop playing and be like, 'Yeah, this is scary. I’m going to stop.' But I have so much that I want to accomplish in my life, and I didn’t want that to be the reason that I just stopped altogether, especially if there’s a chance that I could keep going and continue to inspire young girls that go through the same thing.”

The 30-something Evy Babic (Nina Kiri) lives with her dying, comatose mother (Michèle Duquet). The movie never leaves their small, two-story home. Upstairs, Evy’s mother lies wordlessly in a bed. Downstairs, Evy, at 3 a.m. puts on headphones, sits in front of a microphone and calls up her paranormal podcast co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco’s voice) to talk “all things creepy.”

It’s a testament to Tuason’s evident filmmaking talent that, with these bare bones, “Undertone” swells into a gripping and unsettling experience. This is a movie that summons many of its scares with a sudden boost in audio levels, the thunderous tick of a clock or the scream of … a tea kettle. It's even rated “R” not for bloodcurdling violence or satanic ghouls but, simply, “language.”

It’s these subtle qualities that make “Undertone” a spare but deftly dense film and Tuason a filmmaker to watch. It’s the movie’s disappointing second half, though, that breaks its quiet spell. After conjuring a tapestry of tension through narrative drips, as well as literal ones, Tuason throws in the whole kitchen sink, drowning out “Undertone” with a cacophony of genre cliches. Ancient Christian lore is invoked, as are children’s lullabies, and the riveting nuance of “Undertone” slips away in all the feedback.

“I want it to be over,” Evy tells Justin. “Is that a bad thing to say?”

Evy’s mother hasn’t eaten in two days, and her emotional exhaustion is clear when she first connects with her London-based co-host. You might here be wondering if the movie digs into this guilt, but “Undertone” is better at leaving carefully placed clues than following through on them.

For the episode they begin taping, Justin tells Evy that an anonymous e-mailer has sent a mysterious message with 10 audio files. They begin listening to them one by one, while recording. In them, a married and pregnant couple, Jessa and Mike, are trying an experiment. Mike, who’s doing the recording, says that Jessa talks in her sleep. In fact, it turns out she sings (“London Bridge Is Falling Down”), and it doesn't get better from there.

Our experience of this, and the eerie subsequent recordings, is entirely aural. While “Undertone” is far from the first horror film to grasp the power of sound design, it's cunning in its deployment of a found-footage tale that unspools through the ears.

This has to do with the recordings, themselves, but it's also due to the vulnerable place they put Evy. Some of the best moments in Tauson’s film play on our anxiety for her, as she listens in the darkened night. As the unfolding story grows closer to her, we feel like someone, at any moment, is going to emerge from a shadow while Evy, unaware sits isolated by headphones. Call it noise-canceling horror.

One idea that “Undertone” plays is something Justin mentions: audio pareidolia, the term for when the brain imposes words or patterns out of random, disorganized sounds. As they investigate the recordings, Evy and Justin are often playing them backward. Their interpretations become ours. The movie, itself, is a jumble of auditory clues that may or may mean something.

I’d rather “Undertone” stayed on this track, but, as if fretful of being too minimalistic, Tauson piles on more layers. Evy finds out she’s pregnant and isn’t sure she wants to keep it. We can tell from all the Catholic accouterment around the house, Evy’s mother, if conscious, might have a strong opinion on this choice. The dark origins of the children’s songs, too, relate to mothers and children.

But for a highly contemporary movie centered around podcasting, “Undertone” morphs into a quite old-fashioned thrill ride, full of Catholic idols and creaky doors and light bulbs that go in and out. Kiri is exceptional in carrying a film in which she’s the only talking, present actor. But that a movie so threadbare manages to feel like too much is both the film’s accomplishment and its failure.

“Undertone,” an A24 release, opens in theaters Thursday. It's rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language. Running time: 94 minutes. Two and half stars out of four.

De'Aaron Fox had 25 points and Stephon Castle added 18 points in San Antonio's fifth straight victory.

Derrick White had 34 points to lead Boston, which had won two straight. Jayson Tatum had 24 points in his third game since returning from a ruptured right Achilles tendon suffered May 12.

Tatum’s fourth and final 3-pointer cut the Celtics' deficit to 118-113 with 1:43 remaining, but Spurs Castle followed 18 seconds later with his own 3 to secure the victory.

The battle between the No. 2 teams in each conference was physical and chippy.

Boston All-Star Jaylen Brown was ejected after becoming incensed when no foul was called after he lost the ball out of bounds with 3:42 remaining in the first half.

Brown had to be restrained by teammates after official Tyler Ford assessed the first technical. Official Suyash Mehta assessed a second technical seconds later, resulting in an automatic ejection.

Wembanyama also exited to the locker room following a no-call in the first half, but his was due to injury.

Wembanyama's nose was struck by Sam Hauser’s palm and then he was hit in the eye and forehead by the back of Hauser's forearm. Wembanyama remained on the court for about a minute holding his face in pain.

Wembanyama went to the locker room and he did not return to the Spurs bench until the close of the first quarter to prepare for the start of the second.

Wembanyama returned to shoot 8 for 15 on 3-pointers and 11 for 20 from the field in scoring 30-plus points for the 34th time in his three-year career.

Boston was 19 for 51 on 3-pointers after opening 9 for 17.

Up next

Celtics: At Oklahoma City on Thursday night.

Spurs: Host Milwaukee on Tuesday night.

Elijah Allman’s arrest on March 1 was his second in New Hampshire in a matter of days. Allman, the 49-year-old son of the iconic singer and actress, was also detained Feb. 27, accused of acting belligerently at a prestigious prep school in Concord.

It is unclear if Allman, of Malibu, California, has any connection to the home in Windham, New Hampshire. He is being held in the Rockingham County Department of Corrections, Superintendent Jonathan Banville said.

The hearing Wednesday was continued until an undetermined date after Allman got an attorney Wednesday morning. The attorney, Sarah Landres, did not respond to a request for comment.

Allman, whose father was the late singer Gregg Allman, is charged with two counts of criminal mischief, one count of burglary and a count of breach of bail for breaking into the home on March 1. Police said in a report that Allman did not have permission to be at the home and forcibly entered it.

Officials at St. Paul's School said Allman last month identified himself as the parent of a prospective student and slipped into the dining hall as some students were leaving the building. Police responded to reports that he was disturbing people in the building.

He was charged with four misdemeanors in the school incident: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime. He was released on bail.

Allman did not respond to an email requesting comment, and a phone number for him was not working.

In December 2023, Cher filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying Allman's struggles with his mental health and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.

The petition says the superstar performer's son is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui denied the request, saying she was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed. Allman was in the courtroom with his attorneys, who acknowledged his previous struggles but argued that he was in a good place, was attending meetings, getting treatment and reconciling with his estranged wife.

Bam Adebayo had a night for all time on Tuesday, with a point total second to only Wilt Chamberlain in the NBA record books. Adebayo scored 83 points, setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game for the Miami Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards.

“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Obviously, we’ve been blessed to have been part of a lot of big moments in this arena. This one, it just happened. Moments happen and I’m grateful that we’re all able to be a part of it and witness it.”

Chamberlain's record of 100 points has stood since 1962. Kobe Bryant — one of Adebayo's basketball heroes — was No. 2 on the list with 81. Adebayo never thought he'd be in that club.

And then came a night he'll never forget.

“Wilt, me, then Kobe,” Adebayo said. “It sounds crazy.”

Adebayo’s final numbers: 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line, 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

He was in tears as he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game. Emotions were kept in check, until then.

“For me, it was just remaining calm, remaining locked in and understanding that I can go for something special,” Adebayo said. “I didn’t think it was going to be 83. But to have this moment is surreal, because like I said, man, to be able to do it at home, in front of my mom, in front of my people, in front of the home fans, this is a mark in history that will forever be remembered.”

Adebayo's career high, before Monday, was 41.

That was passed by halftime.

“I looked at the stat sheet. It was pretty crazy: 40 shots, 40 free throws, 20 3s, that takes a lot of stamina, man," Houston star and Adebayo's USA Basketball teammate Kevin Durant said. “It takes a lot of energy to go out there and put those shots up and also make them, set a record, surpass Kobe as the second highest-scoring player in the history of the game. I mean, damn. Congrats to him. Huge, huge accomplishment, something we're going to be talking about forever.”

Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter and never stopped rolling. He was up to 43 at halftime, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.

“BAM BAM BAM,” former Heat forward LeBron James posted on social media. James had the Heat single-game record of 61 points, set on March 3, 2014. He's now No. 2 on the team list — by a wide margin.

The NBA's previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters was Bryant, who had exactly that many going into the fourth for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005.

Adebayo got to the line 16 times in the fourth, and the game had some comical moments. The Heat made clear they kept wanting Adebayo to get the ball and get to the line, even in a blowout. The Wizards tried to foul others — but couldn't stop the scoring onslaught.

“You’ve got to give him credit," Wizards coach Brian Keefe said. "In the first half he shot the ball terrific, he scored the ball really well. Obviously, he came out and had a little bit in the third, too. They obviously kept him in the game, and there was a lot of fouls called — 16 free throws in the fourth quarter. I was trying to take the ball out of his hands, he still got some free throws 40 feet from the rim. I can’t explain some of those calls. That’s all I got to say on that.”

And Adebayo only needed the first half to set a career high, too.

Adebayo's 31 points in the opening quarter broke the Heat record for points in any quarter — and tied the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.

He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.

Adebayo’s season high entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.

He was just getting started.

“I would say once he got to 50, then we’re thinking, all right, maybe he can get to 60,” Spoelstra said.

He got to 60, late in the third.

“And when he got to 60, it just kept on going,” Spoelstra said. “We might as well go for 70.”

He got to 70,

“And then, I didn’t dare even think about taking him out at that point,” Spoelstra said. “We just kept on going.”

When Spoelstra finally declared Adebayo's night over, he was waiting to greet the center with a big hug. Teammates did the same, as did some of the Wizards after the final buzzer. Adebayo made his way over to Heat managing general partner Micky Arison for congratulations, before eventually getting to the locker room.

Everyone wanted his jersey, which he kept. The game ball was secured. The nets were cut down as souvenirs. A'ja Wilson, Adebayo's longtime girlfriend and the four-time WNBA MVP, could barely keep from crying.

“I know he says that I’m his inspiration,” Wilson said. “But I don’t think he has a clue how much he inspires me to continue to be the person that I am.”

Finally, Adebayo made his way to the parking garage, exhausted. He never had an opportunity to meet Bryant, who died in 2020, and often wonders what it would be like to have him as a confidant. He had those same thoughts Tuesday, after topping Bryant's 81.

“Just a surreal moment,” Adebayo said, “being in the company with somebody I idolized growing up.”

“Sadly sometimes it’s a little bit of ignorance but, look, that is why we have to open more spaces for people to connect with classical music,” Dudamel said Tuesday night at an event to announce the programming of his first season as the New York Philharmonic's music director.

Dudamel spoke from the stage of Lincoln Center's David Geffen to an audience that included donors, musicians, the orchestra board, community leaders and composers in addition to journalists. Dudamel's remarks sparked loud applause.

During a conversation with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey at a CNN and Variety town hall at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication in February, the 30-year-old Chalamet was asked by McConaughey about whether shortened audience attention spans have impacted studio decisions about the content of theatrical films, forcing more early action.

“I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, to go on a talk show and go: Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theaters alive. We got to keep this genre alive,’” Chalamet said. “And another part of me feels like if people want to see it, like 'Barbie,' like 'Oppenheimer,' they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it. And I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera or things where it's like where it’s like, ‘Hey! Keep this thing alive,’ even though no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership.”

Chalamet received his third Academy Award nomination, for “Marty Supreme.” His comments sparked an online backlash from arts organizations.

“Everybody has the right to say, but you have to do things with knowledge, with facts. I think we have to say to the young generation, the opposite,” Dudamel said. “It’s very funny. Cinema is a result of opera, of music, of all of these kind of things.”

Matías Tarnopolsky, the New York Philharmonic CEO, was seated next to Dudamel and issued a public offer to Chalamet.

“He can sit with me anytime,” Tarnopolsky said. “I’ll give him a free ticket and he’s invited to come and hear the New York Philharmonic.”

Dudamel, 45, is among the world's most famous conductors. He is leaving the Los Angeles Philharmonic this summer after 17 seasons as music director to become the music director of the New York orchestra.

At one point, Dudamel feigned not knowing Chalamet, saying: “Which is the name of that?” before cutting off as the audience laughed.

“That way of thinking has to end,” he said. “Music is reborn all the time and it brings us the values of empathy through the beauty of what it is. So this is the reality of music. This is the real dimension of music and we need that more for our young people.”