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Matt Hamilton's famous locks are no more -- the U.S. curling legend just chopped them off ... but, don't worry, he got the cut for a VERY good cause!!

TMZ Sports has learned ... Hamilton -- who won a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics -- hit up a Great Clips salon in Madison, Wisc. on Friday in order to cut his luscious hair and donate it to kids who have experienced hair loss due to medical issues.

It's a sizeable donation from Hamilton ... considering Matt's had the long hair for FOUR years. And, we're told as of chopping time, it had reached over a foot in length!!

Hamilton also got the cut to help raise awareness and money for brain cancer research.

As for how the good deed turned out aesthetically ... check out the before and after -- Hamilton sure looks good to us!

'Bling Empire' star, Kane Lim, says he's not really here for all the drama, but he might have some convincing to do ... on not one, but two reality shows.

Kane Lim joined TMZ live Friday, and talked about the new season of the hit Netflix show, "Bling Empire" ... as well as joining the cast of "Selling Sunset".

Kane tells us, he's finding himself in the middle of a lot of heat from folks on social media ... stemming from 'Bling Empire's new season. Regardless, he says he's just rolling with the punches and hopes he'll warm up to people on the Internet.

Kane also acknowledged his arch-nemesis, Dorothy Wang, who is on "Bling Empire" now ... and as expected, he didn't give her glowing reviews.

In case you didn't know, Kane recently joined The Oppenheim Group as a real estate developer ... so he'll be making appearances on "Selling Sunset."

Legendary West Coast spitter Xzibit -- aka Mr. X to tha Z -- chopped it up with "TMZ Hip Hop," dropping a plethora of updates ... including a few methods behind Dr. Dre's music-releasing madness.

Dr. Dre has been teasing new music on Instagram these past few months, posting up with several icons -- like Flavor Flav, Grandmaster Flash and Diamond D -- but hasn't announced an album ... which may or may not be called "Detox."

According to Xzibit, Dr. Dre's superpower lies in timing, and he has the intuition to know when to push the release button ... no matter how much fans clamor for new tracks.

As far as his business affairs go, X has been one of Hip Hop's leading cannabis entrepreneurs for years -- getting his feet wet with the Brass Knuckles brand, and booming again with his Napalm strains.

That's come with some controversy ... his Napalm brand got looped into the Stop Asian Hate movement (due to the infamous Vietnam War weapon), but X to the Z says that's all water under the bridge, and explained how he made good with the community.

He could make lots of new friends at the next Comic-Con, based on a few priceless Marvel collectibles he showed us. Trust us, Xzibit is all about "Wakanda forever" ... for real!!!

Make sure to check out "TMZ Hip Hop" on the following stations, or nationally on Fox Soul.

Kyrie Irving might not have to worry about having "trash" shoes anymore ... Nike is reportedly "unlikely" to renew its signature shoe deal with the Brooklyn Nets star after next season.

Irving's relationship with the company could change "dramatically" in the future, according to ESPN ... but his (potentially) final shoe release is slated to go down as expected in the fall.

If the report is true, there is a possibility retro Kyrie shoes could still be released in the future ... but as of right now, it sounds like the Kyrie series is getting shelved.

Remember, the 2016 NBA champ -- who's been a Nike athlete since 2011 -- went off on the Swoosh back in July ... calling leaked pics of his "Kyrie 8" sneaker "trash."

He claimed he was not part of the design or marketing of the kicks ... saying, "I have Absolutely nothing to do with them!"

Irving later admitted he handled things poorly ... and he was working with the shoe giant to fix his issues with the 8s.

Of course, Irving has been at the center of a ton of controversy over the last year ... missing half of the NBA season after he refused to get vaccinated for COVID. It's unclear if the coronavirus drama is playing a part in Nike's impending decision, considering they already had beef to begin with.

Nike elected not to confirm or deny the claims ... telling ESPN, "We don't comment on contracts or rumors or speculation. Kyrie remains a Nike athlete."

Gunna's still locked up, but there's one company reaping the benefits of his clothing choice as he turned himself in ... customers are flooding its site to look like their favorite rapper.

Gunna was booked on RICO charges Wednesday in Fulton County, and while his mug shot appeared to be a little fuzzy, some eagle-eyed fans couldn't help but notice the logo on the hoodie he was wearing -- it's a brand called LaRopa.

We spoke to a rep for the clothing company who tells us the day Gunna's mug shot was released, the brand saw a 15% increase in sales for the hoodie, compared to a normal day.

Not only did sales jump on Wednesday, the trend continued Thursday as well ... with a 24% increase for the top.

We're told Gunna doesn't have a stake in the company ... he just happened to be wearing it during his arrest. However, he's not the only celeb to have rocked LaRopa in the past ... Playboi Carti, Bella Hadid, Erika Jayne and Young Thug -- who is also locked up on related charges -- have all been spotted in LaRopa before.

Elon Musk is nothing if unpredictable, so he was true to form in a stunning announcement ... he's putting the brakes on the Twitter deal, and the reaction is telling.

Elon just said he's putting a temporary hold on his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, and the stock tanked in pre-market trading -- down 25%. The reaction is interesting ... if the prevailing view was against Elon buying Twitter, you'd think the stock might have gone up, or at least remained stable.

As for why Elon's putting the brakes on the deal ... he says he wants to make sure spam and other bogus accounts represent less than 5% of the 229 million users on the platform.

There are other theories ... this may be his way of pulling out of the deal entirely, but that's typically not the way he rolls. The other play would be to make the folks at Twitter nervous that he's pulling out and then he would swoop back in and offers less than the $44 billion.

Christina Haack, now Hall, may have a lot of drama right now with her ex-husband Ant Anstead, but that's not stopping her from living large ... cause she just scooped up a brand new $12 million mansion.

Real estate sources tell TMZ ... the former "Flip or Flop" star is living it up in her old stomping grounds of Newport Beach once again ... a month after selling her home 30 minutes south in Dana Point.

We're told the house sold Wednesday in an off-market deal.

As you know, Christina recently remarried, tying the knot with real estate agent, Josh Hall ... we're told the two bought the home together.

The purchase comes after she sold her Dana Point home for $11.5 million last month, after less than a year of owning it ... ya gotta assume that helped a lot when it came to pulling the trigger on this one!

The modern home is just shy of 7,000 square feet with a big pool, an interstellar movie theatre and just insanely gorgeous grounds.

We broke the story ... Christina sold her Newport Beach home she shared with Ant in June 2021.

ICYMI, Ant recently accused her of being an absentee mom ... claiming she put their 2-year-old son Hudson at risk and uses him for social media clout. Christina fired back saying she sees Hudson more than "9 full days each month" and she never used him for clout.

Keven Stirdivant of KASE Real Estate represented the seller and Christina.

Travis Scott is among several defendants -- including Live Nation, Scoremore Holdings, ASM Global -- being sued by a woman who claims she suffered injuries so severe at Astroworld, they resulted in a miscarriage.

Shanazia Williamson says she attended Astroworld back in November and was trampled during a crowd surge and sustained injuries to her shoulder, back, chest, leg, stomach and other parts of her body.

In the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Williamson says the defendants', "failure to plan, design, manage, operate, staff, and supervise the event was a direct and proximate cause of Shanazia's injuries and death of her and Jarawd's (her partner) unborn child."

Shanazia first filed a lawsuit for injuries she sustained at the festival on November 21, which included, "trouble breathing, chest pain, and left leg pain, as well as injuries to other parts of her body."

In an amended complaint, submitted a month-and-a-half after the tragedy, Shanazia filed for wrongful death. Interestingly, Texas law states ... a fetus that dies as a result of negligence can be the basis of a wrongful death lawsuit. It doesn't matter how far along the mother was in her pregnancy. It could be a fetus that isn't viable, but the parents could still sue for wrongful death.

It's also interesting ... in her amended complaint, Shanazia added the claim that she suffered injuries to her stomach. BTW, the complaint doesn't say how far along she was in her pregnancy.

Ludacris is locking up this year's award for biggest ballin' college graduate -- he's got himself a new private jet just to celebrate his recent degree from Georgia State.

Luda's showing off his shiny new purchase -- a PJ he's planning to use for family vacays, and other trips, we're sure.

He posted the flying flex with the caption #FamilyUpgrade ... a perfect caption, considering his 4th daughter's birth last year.

As we reported, the rapper/actor just received an honorary degree in Music Management from GSU, and he's not even trying to hide how happy he is about his graduation gift.

Once he stepped on board, Luda was belting out "The Jeffersons" theme song. Ya can't deny he's "movin' on up" ... to about 30,000 feet.

The spacious new jet towers over his last plane, which was a Hawker 700, reportedly worth around $20 million.

If you didn't know, Luda took his love for flying to the next level last year by getting his pilot license.

Matt Damon is getting dragged for pushing cryptocurrency ... and the crypto market crash is fueling the hate.

Folks on social media are trolling the actor for his appearance in a recent advertisement for Crypto.com ... the mean Tweets are flying Thursday, as the crypto market loses a whopping $200 BILLION.

Matt's catching heat for his infamous "Fortune Favors the Brave" commercial for the blockchain-centered technology ... which started airing back in October, when the crypto market was humming along.

But, with the market crashing, people are piling on Matt ... with many pointing out anyone who bought crypto due to Matt's ad is now taking a bath.

Here's what some of Matt's haters are saying ... "Matt Damon was in Oceans 11, 12, 13. You crypto guys just fell victim to his latest heist." Others are wondering who will play Matt in a movie about the Bitcoin collapse.

Matt's commercial was for a website where folks could buy different kinds of crypto, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, both of which are crashing.

Larry David and other celebs have been pushing crypto in recent ads ... but it seems Matt is the easy target.

In the last 5 days, the largest cryptocurrency -- Bitcoin -- has lost more than 17% of its value. And, it gets worse ... over the last 6 months, Bitcoin has lost more than 50% of its value. Less known coins are getting annihilated ... some losing more than 90% of their value.

An incredibly rare baseball signed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky just sold at auction ... and a portion of the proceeds are going to a relief fund for the country.

The winning bid for the autographed baseball came in at $50,103 ... according to Boston-based RR Auction, which will be donating their cut of more than $15k to relief efforts in Zelensky's war-torn country.

The sale price is higher than expected ... remember, the ball was projected to go for $15k, and now that's the figure that's being donated.

Zelensky signed his last name on the baseball in two different languages ... Ukrainian cursive and English print ... with his signature underneath an MLB logo.

The ball comes with a letter signed by Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraine's Ambassador to the United Nations in September 2019, when Zelensky left his John Hancock during a visit to New York.

Randy L. Kaplan, a government affairs specialist in the Big Apple, got the ball as a gift from Yelchenko ... and he's been collecting signed Major League baseballs from world leaders and heads of state dating all the way back to 1996 with Bill Clinton.

We're told there were 35 bids entered and the buyer wishes to remain anonymous.

Jorge Masvidal will be allowed to inspect Colby Covington's watch to see if it's a phony Rolex ... the UFC star's attorney tells TMZ Sports a judge just granted their motion to see the timepiece up close.

Covington had alleged Masvidal banged up the watch -- which Colby says is worth around $95K -- during an attack in Miami last month ... but Jorge and his legal team say they have doubts it's a real Rolly.

In fact, Masvidal and his attorney, Bradford Cohen, were so skeptical ... they filed a motion earlier this month asking a judge to allow them to closely view it.

In the docs, Cohen said he believed the watch was a "Folex" composed of aftermarket and fraudulent parts -- and wasn't worth anywhere close to the $95K Colby said it was.

According to Cohen, a judge just granted the motion at a hearing on Thursday morning ... paving the way for Masvidal and the legal team to look at it soon.

As for the other motion, Cohen filed earlier this month -- the one in which they asked a judge to order Colby to submit to a physical exam following claims he suffered a "brain injury" in the alleged attack -- Cohen tells us a hearing regarding that motion has been set for a later date.

As we reported, Masvidal is facing felony charges of aggravated battery and criminal mischief after Covington told cops he injured him and scratched up his Rolex outside of Papi Steak on March 21.

Sylvester Stallone created monuments to the movie that made him a star, so we thought he'd take them with him when he sold his estate to Adele, but turns out that's not the case.

Adele is now the proud owner of a Rocky statue perched at the base of her new swimming pool.

TMZ broke the story ... Sly sold Adele the estate for $58 million. He's moved to Palm Beach, so you'd think Rocky would follow.

Now, we don't know if the Rocky statue inside the main house is still there, or if Sly took it with him. Put in real estate terms, is the statue more like art or an appliance? The former usually goes with the seller, whereas the latter stays behind.

Adele and BF Rich Paul posed in the front of the house as they both held the keys to their new kingdom. Speaking of which ... interesting Rich has a set of keys. The relationship's clearly serious.

LeBron James' Lakers took plenty of Ls in the last 12 months ... but The King's bank account certainly didn't -- because the L.A. superstar raked in a reported $121 MILLION this past year!!

Forbes just released its annual "top-10 highest-paid athletes in the world" list ... and LBJ came in second place, just behind Lionel Messi, who the outlet reports garnered around $130 million.

Forbes says LBJ's cash flow was obviously inflated by his huge Lakers contract -- but his ventures with the new 'Space Jam' flick, his "The Shop: Uninterrupted" talk show, and other endorsement deals pushed him over the $100 million mark, which is quite the feat.

According to the outlet, James is only the 10th athlete ever to earn more than $100 mil in a 12-month span ... and his $121,000,000 figure marks the most ever earned by an NBA player in a year (he previously held the record with $96.5 mil).

Outside of Messi and Bron -- a whole bunch of soccer players and basketball players rounded out the top 10, with Cristiano Ronaldo (#3, $115 million), Neymar (#4, $95 million), Stephen Curry (#5, $92.8 million), Kevin Durant (#6, $92.1 million) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (#10, $80.9 million) making the cut.

The others in the top 10 ... Roger Federer (#7, $90.7 million), Canelo Alvarez (#8, $90 million), and Tom Brady (#9, $83.9 million).

What's interesting ... Conor McGregor for the first time in a long time didn't crack the top 10 -- but don't fret, Forbes says he was close, landing somewhere in the top 50.

As for the 10 dudes at the top of the heap ... Forbes says in total, they all earned a combined $992 million in the last year.

StockX is firing back at Nike after being accused of selling fake kicks in a recent lawsuit ... saying the mega brand's claims are straight-up "baseless."

Nike and StockX have been going at it for months over a separate issue about an NFT release ... and on Tuesday, things heated up when the resale site was accused of having a bogus authentication process.

The Swoosh claims the company bought four pairs of "authenticated" pairs of Nike kicks that were actually phony.

"Those four pairs of counterfeit shoes were all purchased within a short two-month period on StockX's platform, all had affixed to them StockX's 'Verified Authentic' hangtag, and all came with a paper receipt from StockX in the shoe box stating that the condition of the shoes is '100% Authentic,'" Nike said in the docs.

Nike also says in the new filing that StockX is "knowingly deceiving consumers" with the fake Nike products and is hurting their brand's reputation.

StockX didn't take the accusation kindly and struck back on Wednesday ... saying Nike's claims are false and odd ... as they allege Swoosh executives buy and/or sell kicks off their site.

"We take customer protection extremely seriously, and we've invested millions to fight the proliferation of counterfeit products that virtually every global marketplace faces today," StockX said.

"Nike's latest filing is not only baseless but also is curious given that their own brand protection team has communicated confidence in our authentication program, and that hundreds of Nike employees -- including current senior executives -- use StockX to buy and sell products."

Getting the New York Giants' #5 jersey number from Graham Gano cost Kayvon Thibodeaux a whopping $50K ... but don't worry, the kicker said the cash is on its way to a VERY good cause!!!

Here's the deal ... Gano has worn the NY #5 since 2020, but after Thibodeaux was picked in the first round of the NFL Draft -- the star rookie wanted it badly.

After all, the 6-foot-4 pass rusher wore it when he starred for the Oregon Ducks from 2019 to 2021 -- AND he was also the #5 overall pick in last month's draft.

So, Gano cut an agreement with the former All-American ... send $50K to Puppies Behind Bars -- an org. that "trains incarcerated individuals to raise service dogs for wounded war veterans and first responders" -- and the jersey is yours.

Thibodeaux apparently gladly cut the check -- 'cause Gano is wearing #9 now.

"The whole idea behind the number five being special to myself and being special to Kayvon was being able to help five people get the five dogs and be able to make an impact in five people's lives for the better," Gano said.

"While it is special to me as well, there's a whole lot of meaning in that No. 5 to him."

Gano added, "I just wanted to be a good teammate and also be able to support others throughout the whole process."

So, the 35-year-old kicker -- who set a franchise record with three 50-yard plus field goals against the Cowboys in the 2020 season -- will wear #9 ... for the time being.

"I can be No. 9 and maybe in 10-15 years when he retires and I'm still kicking, I can get No. 5 back," Gano joked.