I'll be a guest on WHYY's Studio 2 around 12:30 p.m. today along with Solomon Jones and Lauren Vidas to talk about some of the weirdest stories in the Philly region in 2025.

I will die on this hill... What OKC did with SGA is *by far* the most egregious and potentially troubling form of tanking we've seen in the NBA. OKC disassembled a QUALITY team and had a great, young player "get injured" for two seasons. And yet....crickets...

This Sixers season is about development...not results. And I appreciate them reminding us of that by contracting a team-wide plague as soon as we started dreaming too big.

This shit is so annoying. It's very obvious by now there's only three ways the NBA can actually handle this issue: 1. Make the regular season more important 2. Cut all relationship between the regular season and the draft 3. Just deal with it They clearly won't do 1 or 2 so fucking do 3 already!!

This was considered controversial about a month ago but it’s the week of Christmas and the numbers still hold. Maxey has been the best guard in the East this season, and one of the 3 best guards in the league.

I can’t remember a time where a kick returner was so bad he swung an entire half of football

The VJ Edgecombe above-the-break three with somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30 left in the game is the most automatic shot in basketball

I know they’ll never do this when Brunson is on the Knicks but I’m just praying that what he’s doing now forces them someday to create penalties for foul grifting. It’s unwatchable

Knickerbockers/NBA officially on notice

i'm at the point with my phillies fandom where i just like certain guys (for no real reason) and want them to stick around. strahm was a stick-around guy for me. oh well.

i don't get to take a lot of victory laps with draft stuff...so i'm gonna take this one nice and early

Of course @byalexcoffey.bsky.social found the story behind the facebook marketplace listing of old basketball tapes. And of course it's awesome www.inquirer.com/college-spor...

Injuries aside...the biggest conundrum with Joel Embiid continues to be his three-point shooting. He's an elite finisher with elite FT shooting numbers...and yet he's still at just 33% from three for his career. And the last two seasons have been especially brutal. He has to master that shot

Golden Era of Eagles football

You can understand the ref missing that one. He was only staring directly at the play from 5 feet away.

The problem with flagrant fouls is that they've lost any sense of their purpose. It's just an arbitrary set of rules. So you end with a flagrant for an inadvertent elbow to the head as part of a normal move...but someone full on grabbing a guy as he jumps into the air is a common foul

Tired: Get Joel Embiid to the playoffs healthy Wired: Get Paul George to the playoffs healthy

Per the Avias Sports Bureau, Paul George is the first player to be disbarred and drop 23-6-5 within a single 24-hour period

👀 www.inquirer.com/news/temple-...

Former top-10 pick Josh Rosen apparently attends Wharton and I do love how his LinkedIn very casually mentions his stint as an NFL Quarterback

If you are near Philadelphia, have 123 dollars, and roughly 28 cubic feet of space to store 1,600 VHS tapes in reasonably climate controlled conditions until I can get up there, I will retrieve this collection of almost guaranteed vital archival value and digitize its entirety.

Here's a BIG THOUGHT I'm pondering... I wonder if the Atlantic -- like many publications -- is a forum where different people will propose different ideas and you can read all of them and decide which ideas you find most persuasive! But I could be wrong!

If that’s not intentional grounding just get rid of the rule

EDIT: The other guy tending to Dominick Barlow is hip hop star Skrilla (wearing a mask) lol

Franklin tending to an injured Dominick Barlow after Tyrese Maxey's game-winning block is ART

Johnny Airport posted up and got confirmation 🙏

Is Skrilla sitting on the baseline at this Sixers game?

Totally random thought on the middle of a Wednesday...but there was a play in the third quarter last night from VJ Edgecombe that captures why I'm so excited about him on defense...

They must be talking about the cartoon squirrel

Pennsylvania’s greatest holiday tradition

The Sixers were a +10 in Kyle Lowry's 11 minutes #supersub

Will Smith showing up during a Roots halftime show?

Hall and Oates bring out the Bloodhound Gang

Trying to think of the Philadelphia equivalent of Eminem making a surprise appearance at a Jack White Detroit Lions halftime show on Thanksgiving

I am in episode 3 of the Ken Burns series, and for the record I would not have known but for this that Rahway NJ used to be known as "Spanktown."

I’m only on episode 2 of Ken Burns’ American Revolution but I gotta be honest…I think the British might’ve misread this situation in the colonies

I've generally preached caution when it comes to injuries...so I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth here, but... At some point you have to consider how caution with some players (Jo/PG) exposes other players (Maxey) to further risk. There's a trickle-down effect here

The strain of modern basketball isn’t just snapping guys’ Achilles. It’s also forcing teams team to be super cautious with any calf tightness…which is causing more missed games. Just a waterfall of misery caused by the inability to address the obvious problem.

Amazing Maxey game. And I’m certain I will regret typing this but…PG looks great. His defense was huge in those small lineups. Really unlocked things for them at times tonight.

Inside Grimes are two wolves: One is a smart player who just wants to win. The other is always making an imaginary And1 mixtape.

Basketball's so funny. Sixers have missed a week's full of open threes so of course their run here is fueled by back-to-back-to-back contested jumpers

Results aren't there but the Sixers are doing exactly what you should do against a zone. Keep shooting. Don't panic. Don't drive recklessly into the lane. These are practice-gym jumpers. Gotta take them until they fall.

A little illustration on how much foul-drawing helps a player like Tyrese Maxey: On that last drive Anthony sensed him veering right for the contact (as he's been doing much more this season). Anthony instinctively backs off. Maxey zags back left for an easy layup. All set up by the foul threat

Now up to 360 possessions...and the Sixers' three-guard lineups continue to cook. 97th percentile in differential. 95th percentile in offense. And the offense is not driven by great shooting. Its mostly because of low turnovers, lots of offensive boards, and lots of free throws

I'm guilty of being a PG optimist...but I liked how he looked last night. They badly need a shooting threat on the wing who can occasionally break down a defense. And his size helps on the boards. Wish he would lean into his physicality as a driver. The one where he got into Zubac's body was great

from a basketball perspective the sixers badly needed this. but from a content perspective i was kinda enjoying the whole infinite-ramp-up bit

Three years ago today I saw Joel Embiid drop 59/11/8 on the Jazz with SEVEN blocks. The greatest individual basketball performance I've ever seen in person -- and probably will be for the rest of my life.

Want to run a street festival in Philly? You'll probably have to pay the police department for security. That is...unless you know someone. Great reporting from @ryanbriggs.bsky.social and @maxmmarin.bsky.social.

PERSONAL NEWS: I am now the *only* Philadelphian not running for Dwight Evans' congressional seat billypenn.com/2025/11/11/3...

Feel like this tweet could've been sent any time in the last 2 months