Colin Cowherd has a new hot take that Sports Twitter is NOT reacting well to whatsoever -- and it entails Michael Jordan ... not really being all that great without some key pieces.

The FS1 broadcaster jumped on his own podcast network, The Volume, this week to talk about the NBA G.O.A.T. ... arguing that MJ's legacy and success are largely tied to two specific dudes that helped him achieve the status he enjoys -- Phil Jackson and Scottie Pippen.

It doesn't sound like that wild of an opinion, but the way CC puts it is a bit harsher and cold-blooded, in his typical matter-of-fact style. Here's how he worded things ... "So, he tried baseball. He failed. He tried ownership, he was awful. He tried the Wizards, it bombed."

Cowherd adds, "Everybody understand, take out Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson -- this whole Michael Jordan mythology is sort of just that." He goes on to say MJ has always been a bit of a selfish player and guy, and that he'd never been great at building community.

Colin finishes by saying Michael has been really good about building wealth for himself, noting that's fine ... and that it's just a reality of who he is. The larger context of his convo here has to do with reports that MJ will sell his majority ownership stake in the Hornets.

As for how the Internet is taking this POV ... not great. Bird app users are kinda crapping on him with memes and jokes, suggesting that Colin's downplaying Mike's individual greatness.

UFC fighter Jeff Molina is opening up on his sexuality after a video showing him performing a sex act on another man was leaked to social media this week ... saying he was stripped of the opportunity to announce he is bisexual the way he wanted.

The 25-year-old shared an emotional statement to Twitter on Friday ... saying, "Not the way I wanted to do this but the chance to do it when I was ready was taken from me."

"I've tried to keep my dating life private from social media," Molina continued. "I've dated girls my whole life and suppressed feelings I had throughout high school being on the wrestling team, throughout college pursuing MMA, and even after making part of the dream happen and getting into the UFC."

"The thought of my buddies, teammates and ppl I look up to looking at me different let alone treating me different for something I can't control was something I couldn't fathom."

Molina -- 11-2 so far in his career and 3-0 in UFC -- has previously shown support for the LGBTQ+ community ... wearing the Pride Month shorts for his fight in June 2022.

Molina -- who's currently suspended for his alleged role in a betting scheme -- said he was not planning to come out during his career ... adding he wanted to be known for his skills rather than being the "'bi UFC fighter' that I'm sure would just be translated to 'gay UFC fighter.'"

Molina's announcement makes him the first openly LGBTQ+ male member of the UFC.

"At the end of the day I know my character, morals, and who I am as a person. As much as I'm getting hated/s****** on I'm getting an equal amount of support & it means a f*** ton."

Ice Spice recently checked a huge mark on her bucket list -- gaining a Twitter follow by Nicki Minaj, who appears to be digging her career progression!!!

The trailblazing rookie rapper is featured on the new cover of "Dazed" magazine, where she discussed being a Barb, having a birthday on New Year's Day and posed for a photo spread where she hunches over a chair while grabbing her crotch.

Nicki shared the mag cover on Twitter and validated the article's "People's Princess" title while urging people to get the issue from newsstands.

Ice's head was definitely spinning from being recognized by the Queen Barbie. Just a day before, Nicki followed IS on Twitter, fulfilling Ice's November 2020 wish of being noticed online.

Nicki's warming orientation is sharp 180° from her interaction with Latto last year when the "Big Energy" rapper was basking in her freshman buzz — the two engaged in a terse phone call and acidic tweets that spilled onto the internet ... but all signs point to an actual collaboration beween Ice and Nicki that will have all fans munchin'.

WWE star Ridge Holland -- who inadvertently broke Big E's neck during a match last year -- says he's received death threats and been called "racist" ... one year after the tragic incident occurred.

Remember, Holland and Big E were fighting on SmackDown last March ... when E's neck was broken after a belly-to-belly suplex went wrong. The WWE Superstar later said doctors told him the injury could've killed him.

Big E has been out of ring action ever since ... and fans appear to be pissed at Ridge over the injury to the former WWE champ.

"Death threats. Threats to my family. Lobbying for me to lose my job. Being labeled as racist. Great stuff keep ‘em coming," Holland tweeted.

TMZ Sports recently spoke with E -- who's been sidelined as he rehabs his neck injury -- and he told us he doesn't know if he'll ever compete in a ring again, adding I "want to make the best decision" on his future with the company.

"I gotta see what the scans say," E said. "Talk to doctors, and then go from there." "Right now, before I know anything, I'm not going to make any rush to judgments or anything. See how everything looks."

Tems stood out at the Oscars, blocking the view of people sitting behind her ... and while the folks there were polite, Twitter gave her an earful.

The Nigerian singer -- who was on hand Sunday for her musical work on 'Wakanda Forever' -- had one of the more noticeable getups at the award show ... a massive white dress that was jutting out and upward at her shoulders, which made her look like a human flower.

The problem ... when she sat down, her 'fit sorta caused a big distraction -- both onscreen for viewers, and certainly for everyone else sitting in the rows behind her.

During the broadcast, there were several moments where you could see the people right behind Tems peering over her shoulder to get a glimpse of the stage or of Kimmel. It was pretty funny ... they were obviously challenged by her dress and had to do peek-arounds to see the action. It doesn't appear anyone said anything to her.

The same can't be said for the bird app ... 'cause a lot of users there were pretty angry at the fact that she wore something so big, and which would presumably cause some blind spots in the theater. A bunch called it "rude" ... others found it hilarious. Mixed bag.

Rebel Wilson had some less than kind things to say about Meghan Markle -- like she's cold as ice -- and now fans have dug deep and discovered why Meghan may have been frosty toward Rebel.

Rebel recently appeared on Andy Cohen's "Watch What Happens Live" ... recounting a meeting she had in Santa Barbara with Harry and Meghan. She says Harry was cool, but Meghan was "not naturally warm."

There may be a reason why Meghan didn't welcome Rebel with open arms, because last year at the BAFTA Awards, Rebel was presenting an award and said, "Our next package is for Outstanding British Film. From drama to horror to fantasy. Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah had it all."

Fans jumped on Rebel's confusion, saying she should know full well why Meghan was bent out of shape.

Chris Rock and now Rebel ... jokes can be a dangerous thing.

Damian Lillard is denying he liked a tweet about Ja Morant which insinuated the Grizzlies star isn't "hood" amid his recent gun incident.

The controversy started when Dame allegedly liked a tweet fired off by a fan that read ... "Notice Dame is actually from the hood but he don't go around acting like Ja Morant who is from the suburbs trying to act hood"

The alleged screenshot showing Lillard's "like" started going around social media and obviously had fans believing the long-time NBA star was calling out his counterpart. But, Lillard attempted to shut down that conversation.

"Let em lie," the 32-year-old said on social media. "F*** I look like liking that."

Of course, Morant brandished a handgun on Instagram Live while partying at a strip club late Saturday night, leading to him leaving the Grizzlies for at least two games.

Morant issued a statement saying he'd "take some time away to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being."

In addition to flashing the weapon, Ja was already under fire after more was learned about an alleged incident during a pickup basketball game. Morant, in a lawsuit, was accused of beating up a teenage boy, before allegedly intimidating the 17-year-old with a gun in his waistband.

As for the tweet, some fans aren't buying Dame's denial, saying he could've just unliked the tweet once people noticed. But, Lillard isn't mincing words ... he says he didn't like the message.

"I don’t care who is and is not from the “trenches," Damian wrote.

People think Disney's choice to make Tinker Bell Black in the upcoming "Peter Pan & Wendy" flick instead of making a new character for a person of color is a terrible move ... and now Twitter is up in arms over it -- what a shock.

In case you missed it, Disney dropped the trailer for the live-action film Tuesday, with fans getting a first look at Yara Shahidi as everyone's favorite pixie ... but a bunch of people are complaining about the switch-up, saying it feels like the company's more interested in image than inclusivity.

Twitter's in a frenzy over Yara's role -- with one person writing, "Disney loves to race swap these days instead of creating original and new characters that are POC."

Another echoed that, saying Disney's more focused on race-swapping original characters as opposed to putting in the time to make a new product with a more diverse cast.

Others say Tinker Bell has always been known as a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes -- and diverting from the original material isn't right.

As you know, Disney recently made this same move with "The Little Mermaid," casting Halle Bailey as Ariel.

As for who would make a great fit for Tink, Twitter's got that answer too -- a bunch of folks are saying longtime Disney Channel alum Dove Cameron would've filled the role perfectly.

The internet has practically burst into flames after a fake dating rumor was seemingly made as a joke -- one that pinned Pete Davidson and Ice Spice as an item.

The fake rumor is the latest to grab people's attention, and it's becoming a growing trend -- while similar posts like "Curious George found dead on the highway" garners virality while obviously being a joke, this one didn't get the same results.

Twitter clearly ran with it, albeit missing the "this is satire" warning -- with many freaking out online over the dating "news."

The comedian's been compared to Marvel's Thanos, dating beautiful women like the villain takes infinity stones ... and one person even made a hilarious reference to "Breaking Bad," saying Pete "can't keep getting away with this!"

Of course, we know it's all BS -- as we reported, Pete's currently entangled with Chase Sui Wonders. The couple was recently packin' on some PDA at the Daytona 500.

Ricky Gervais has opinions about 86'ing the words "fat" and "ugly" from children's books, and he concedes it's child's play compared to what he says onstage.

Ricky is clearly appalled by the move to cut the 2 words from Roald Dahl's books for kids, mocking the "fragile" and "easily offended."

Ricky says he's been noodling over words he uses onstage ... words like f**k, fat, ugly, greedy, pathetic little stupid f**king c*** -- "Stuff like that."

Ricky followed up with a tweet where he displayed a pic of himself making a wonky face and exposing his belly, saying, "I've changed my mind. I think we should ban the words 'fat' and 'ugly. No reason."

Someone on Twitter took him seriously and said the comedian's standup is different, because it's not aimed at kids.

Ricky's reply -- “Yeah I know ... It was a joke.”

As you probably know, Dahl's books, notably "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," have been re-issued where "fat" will no longer be used.

Shannon Sharpe is opening up on his relationship with Skip Bayless ... admitting the two TV personalities recently had "two bad months" together, but ultimately, they were able to work things out and move on.

Shannon and Skip have cohosted 'Undisputed' on FS1 for over six years now, but tensions appeared to reach a boiling point after Bayless' controversial tweet about Damar Hamlin in January ... which prompted the NFL Hall of Famer to leave Skip to do the show alone.

The drama surrounding Skip's tweet seemingly confirmed speculation that there was a growing disconnect between the two sides ... but now, Shannon says whatever issues they had are a thing of the past.

"I wasn’t gonna allow two bad months to ruin six years of a great working relationship," Sharpe said on The Adam Schein Podcast. "We have a great working relationship."

Shannon says he sat down with Skip to clear the air ... and they both realized they "were better together than apart."

Sharpe said he and Skip aren't good friends like Bayless is with his former debate partner, Stephen A. Smith, but he thinks their distance actually contributes to a better dynamic for their show.

"I think it helps our relationship on-air that we are not that close," Sharpe said. "He doesn’t know what I’m thinking and he doesn’t know what I’m going to say."

One of the descendants of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is blasting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for suggesting red and blue states separate ... telling us her idea is "nothing short of treason."

Reverend Robert W. Lee IV, a collateral descendant of General Lee, tells TMZ ... by calling for a "national divorce," MTG is acting no better than the Confederates who fought against the Union during the Civil War.

MTG tweeted out the idea Monday, calling for Democratic and Republican voting states to split. While she didn't use the word secession, that's exactly what she's calling for ... and she claims everyone she talks to agrees.

While advocating for the creation of 2 separate governments, she also calls for the federal government to shrink.

Robert admits his ancestor, General Lee, would be totally on board with MTG's suggestion, but adds that's nothing to celebrate. Instead, he says the Congresswoman from Georgia is outing herself as a traitor, and he'd like to see more politicians condemn her statement.

Remember, Rev. Lee famously denounced racism and white supremacy at the 2017 MTV VMAs ... and he's been outspoken about taking down statues of Gen. Lee.

Former UFC star Nate Marquardt is in the crosshairs of the LGBTQ community ... after he tweeted an anti-gay response to a commercial that showed two men kissing.

The 43-year-old, who famously knocked out Tyron Woodley in a 2012 fight, fired off the offensive comments after he said he saw the ad while watching ESPN+.

In his tweet, he said the commercial was "disgusting" and that he had to tell his kids "look away so they don't see two men kissing."

The former fighter, a devout Christian, added a throwing up emoji.

Immediately, the ex-Strikeforce Welterweight Champion was panned by fans for the remarks ... but he doubled down on his stance in further tweets.

As of Monday afternoon, the posts were still up on his social media page.

Mark Zuckerberg is going the way of Elon Musk -- and by that, we mean he's rolling out a similar subscription plan that'll allow people to be official and legit on his platforms.

The Meta honcho announced a new verification program that the social media company will be rolling out soon. He writes, "Good morning and new product announcement: this week we're starting to roll out Meta Verified -- a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support."

MZ adds, "This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services. Meta Verified starts at $11.99 / month on web or $14.99 / month on iOS. We'll be rolling out in Australia and New Zealand this week and more countries soon."

For those worried that Facebook/Instagram would fall into the same problem Twitter has suffered since the launch of Twitter Blue -- i.e., fake accounts and impersonators -- Meta says it's already considered that ... and will take active steps to combat imposters and jokesters.

For starters, they're saying they're going to make people submit government IDs to help match them up to their own profile before handing out any blue checkmarks to the normies. Meta also says they'll be actively monitoring for BS accounts that might spring up.

As for all the public figures who were verified before ... Mark and co. say they're going to leave them be with their already-established verified status -- unlike Elon, who says he'll phase out legacy blue checks (regardless of who they are) and make people pay $8.

Roald Dahl's classic books are apparently too dated for the 21st century -- because his former publisher and his own posthumous company have edited the crap out of them.

Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company -- which oversees his collection -- teamed up with Inclusive Minds last year ... tasking them to pour over RD's published works (specifically, ones for kids) and to alter passages as they see fit, to remove offensive language.

According to reports, hundreds of changes have been made in everything from "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" to "James and The Giant Peach" ... and other Dahl books in between.

One of the more noticeable tweaks that many are pointing out is the fact that Augustus Gloop -- the gluttonous kid who falls in the river of chocolate and gets sucked up a tube -- is no longer described as "fat," which is what Dahl had previously referred to him as.

Here's an old passage describing Augustus ... "A nine-year-old boy who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump. Great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body, and his face like a monstrous ball of dough.'

The 2022 re-write goes like this ... "A nine-year-old boy who was so enormous he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump. Great folds bulged out from every part of his body, and his face was like a ball of dough." In this instance, they got rid of "fat."

While some words were removed, others were completely added in anew -- so, not Dahl's original text -- including one new passage from "The Witches." In that book, there's an idea about witches hiding in plain sight ... who are actually bald under their wigs.

The main character is describing his plan to ID witches in public to his grandmother -- going around and pulling women's hair to see if they're a witch. In the original text, the grandma replies ... "'Don't be foolish,' my grandmother said. 'You can't go round pulling the hair of every lady you meet, even if she is wearing gloves. Just you try it and see what happens.'"

The rewrite is wild ... "'Don't be foolish,' my grandmother said. 'Besides, there are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.'"

There are countless other examples circulating on Twitter right now -- including ones where Inclusive removed gendered terms, like "female" -- and a lot of people are saying these changes are ridiculous -- and just another example of woke culture going too far.