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  • Amid college basketball’s gambling scandal, concerns that mid-major players could be vulnerable

    Amid college basketball’s gambling scandal, concerns that mid-major players could be vulnerable

    Rollie Massimino “did not mess around” when it came to drawing up defensive schemes against Patrick Ewing … or warding off gambling temptations that might filter through to his Villanova players.

    “When we were playing, we had an FBI agent who was a former ’Nova basketball player give talks about gambling,” said Chuck Everson, a member of Massimino’s 1985 Wildcats title team that took down heavily favored Georgetown.

    “Rollie did not mess around with that stuff. It wasn’t that far removed from the Boston College [point-shaving] scandal. Rollie brought in the FBI to talk to us. Coach Mass did a great job of teaching us, and it wasn’t all basketball; it was life lessons. And with gambling, it was, ‘Don’t do that.’

    “To this day, I have never called DraftKings, or anything like that. I attribute that to being scared straight with Coach Mass.”

    Everson, 61, played in an era when sports betting wasn’t legal in most of the country. These days, things are quite different. College athletes are compensated by their schools or through lucrative name, image, and likeness deals, and the legal/illegal gambling culture infiltrates every level of sports.

    Last Thursday in Philadelphia, federal authorities announced a sweeping criminal indictment and related filings against 26 people on charges related to manipulating NCAA games and Chinese professional games through bribes, some as high as five figures.

    It is the fourth federal criminal indictment that involves gambling and sports unsealed in the last six months, and the latest alleged gambling scheme involves one of the storied Big 5 programs: La Salle.

    According to the indictment, at least one of the purported rigged games took place in 2024 in Philadelphia between La Salle and St. Bonaventure.

    Dozens of people, including 20 players, were charged in a basketball gambling scandal targeting NCAA and Chinese games

    There are at least 39 players from 17 NCAA Division I schools who are alleged to have been involved in the scheme, but the indictment may underscore other, more troubling concerns.

    Players at mid-major or smaller Division I programs might earn a fraction in NIL money compared to what their counterparts at elite programs take in, and therefore might be more susceptible to the temptations of illicit paydays. As one former federal prosecutor put it, this alleged scheme might be one of many dominoes waiting to fall.

    “Anything that interferes with the integrity of sporting events, you’re going to get action by prosecutors,” said Edward McDonald, who prosecuted those involved in the Boston College point-shaving case in the late ’70s. McDonald, now senior counsel at the Dechert law firm, thinks that mid-major schools, like La Salle and some others in the Big 5, could be particularly vulnerable to gambling and bribery schemes.

    “These smaller schools, the compensation to players is not as great [compared to larger programs], even for the better players on the team,” said McDonald, who learned of the Boston College scam through his investigations of organized crime family members with the Justice Department (and played himself in the Martin Scorsese-directed mob film Goodfellas).

    “Players going to big-time schools are making 10 times more. A player [at a smaller program] might not be having a good season or might think they’re not going to play in the NBA or professionally, and they might say, ‘What the hell, I might as well cash in now.’”

    Prop bets on a La Salle game

    According to the court filings, one of the defendants, Jalen Smith, and former LSU and NBA player Antonio Blakeney (who is “charged elsewhere,” according to the indictment), attempted to recruit players on the La Salle men’s basketball team for the point-shaving scheme.

    The fixers offered the La Salle players payments to underperform and influence the first half of a game against St. Bonaventure on Feb. 21, 2024, according to the filings.

    Prosecutors allege that before the game at Tom Gola Arena, defendants who acted as fixers placed bets totaling approximately $247,000 on the Bonnies to cover the first-half spread. A $30,000 wager was made in Philadelphia at a FanDuel sportsbook, according to the indictment. But those bets failed after La Salle covered the spread.

    “Neither the university, current student-athletes, or staff are subjects of the indictment,” La Salle wrote in a statement. “We will fully cooperate as needed with officials and investigations.”

    La Salle coach Fran Dunphy directing the Explorers in November 2023. Dunphy retired after last season.

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told The Inquirer that several years ago he received complaints from a number of college coaches in his state about online abuse directed at players and threatening calls from gamblers who had lost big.

    “I called up [NCAA president] Charlie Baker, and asked him, ‘What do you think of prop betting?’” DeWine said. “He said, ‘We don’t like it.’ And I said, ‘Give me a letter that says that.’

    “Under Ohio law, if I can get a letter from a league saying, ‘Don’t bet on certain things,’ that gives me the ability to go to my Casino Commission and they can [enact rules] without any legislation. Charlie sent the letter, I took that to the commission, and that stopped collegiate prop betting.”

    The Ohio Casino Control Commission granted the NCAA’s request to prohibit proposition bets on collegiate sports in February 2024, but the decision affected only Ohio.

    “It doesn’t really eliminate the problem,” DeWine said.

    How a Philly ‘betfluencer’ wound up at the center of an NBA gambling scandal

    The ban in Ohio is only a drop in the bucket against a sea of pro-gambling momentum, legislation, and, most significantly, lucrative revenue streams.

    CJ Hines, a guard who was dismissed from Temple’s basketball team on Jan. 16, allegedly participated in a point-shaving scheme during the 2024-25 season while playing for Alabama State, according to the indictment. Hines transferred to Temple in May but didn’t play this season after the university announced that he was under investigation for eligibility concerns before his enrollment.

    Former Alabama State guard CJ Hines (3) averaged 14.1 points in 35 starts last season.

    The Atlantic 10 Conference — which includes La Salle and St. Joseph’s — weighed in on the latest gambling indictment.

    “Any activity that undermines the integrity of competition has no place in college athletics,” commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said in a release. “The Atlantic 10 and its member institutions will continue to work closely with the proper authorities to combat illegal activities.”

    A St. Joe’s spokesperson added: “St. Joseph’s University has not been approached by federal investigators or any other entity about suspicious sports wagering activity involving St. Joe’s student-athletes or team.”

    Fran Dunphy speaks for the first time about how the NCAA point-shaving scandal touched La Salle

    Villanova, which plays in the powerful Big East Conference, has numerous resources and protocols in place to address the sports wagering issue.

    Handbooks, which include NCAA rules on gambling, are distributed annually to athletes, who also must sign a sports wagering document before being declared eligible. The athlete must acknowledge he or she won’t engage in activities that influence the outcome or win-loss margins of any game.

    In 2021, 2023, and 2025, Villanova brought in speakers who have a history with sports gambling to talk with athletes about the risks and dangers associated with it. Villanova’s athletic compliance office meets twice annually with every athlete to review NCAA compliance standards, including its rules on sports wagering.

    Former Villanova basketball star Maddy Siegrist told The Inquirer last year that her college alma mater ingrained in her mind the potential devastating consequences of gambling, values that she continues to adhere to as a WNBA player.

    ‘The integrity of sports is at risk’

    Even after the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that legalized sports wagering state to state, the honesty and integrity component still comes into question when so much is riding on any sports wager.

    NBA sports betting bust: What to know about Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups, and cash handoffs in Philly

    DeWine, the Ohio governor, is taking a proactive role in trying to address malfeasance in the gaming culture.

    “I’m writing letters to all other major [sports] leagues,” DeWine said. “They need to get on this. If they sit back, they’re making a huge mistake. I think the integrity of sports is at risk. I’m continuing to urge these leagues to take care of business, because they’re the ones that are going to get hurt.”

    But McDonald said that with the flurry of recent indictments involving sports and gambling, “you have to wonder how pervasive [the illegal gambling problem] really is.”

    “This could very well be the tip of the iceberg,” McDonald said.

  • Are the Phillies ‘running it back?’ Maybe, but that’s not the most important question for 2026

    Are the Phillies ‘running it back?’ Maybe, but that’s not the most important question for 2026

    Rob Thomson served dinner at a soup kitchen in Kensington and read books to students in Germantown. He spoke at banquets in Cherry Hill and Bethlehem. For four days this week, he met fans and talked baseball across the region.

    And in case he wasn’t previously aware of the discourse about the Phillies’ offseason, let’s just say the phrase “running it back” came up a few times along the trail.

    Thomson’s take:

    “We’re going to have three new relievers,” the manager said at one stop of the Phillies’ annual winter tour. “We’ve got a new right fielder. [Justin] Crawford’s going to get every chance to play. We’ve probably got a rookie starting pitcher in [Andrew] Painter. We’ve got Otto Kemp, who wasn’t here at the start of last year. We’re turning over 20 to 25% of our roster.

    The Phillies were ‘very close’ to getting Bo Bichette and ended up with J.T. Realmuto. Here’s how it happened.

    “So, if you think that’s turning it back, or running it back, whatever the saying is, I can’t help you.”

    OK, Thomson isn’t wrong. But two things can be true. The Phillies can change two-thirds of the outfield and half the bullpen and still bring back the guts of a roster that accounted for nearly three-quarters of the team’s plate appearances and almost 70% of its innings pitched last season.

    Does that constitute running it back? Maybe. Maybe not.

    Regardless, it misses the point. Because whether or not you think president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made an appropriate number of changes after a second consecutive NL East title and another loss in the divisional round of the playoffs, the pertinent question is this: Are the Phillies better or worse today than when last season ended Oct. 9 at Dodger Stadium?

    The Phillies are replacing Nick Castellanos (right) with Adolis Garcia in right field.

    And on that topic, Thomson was less definitive.

    “I think it’s to be determined,” he told Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. “But I feel better about it.”

    It’s a manager’s job to be optimistic — and as importantly, to project optimism to the public, especially in a week when single-game tickets went on sale. Thomson listed reasons to be bullish. He likes the addition of free-agent reliever Brad Keller and suspects new right fielder Adolis García tried too hard to put the injury-wracked Rangers on his broad back last season and is primed to rebound. He also believes Crawford and Painter will bring youthful vigor as rookies with substantial roles.

    But Thomson also acknowledged the twin bummers of losing Ranger Suárez in free agency and Bo Bichette to the Mets after the Phillies thought they had a seven-year, $200 million agreement with him. It wasn’t only the fans who felt dispirited over the Bichette soap opera. Dombrowski said it felt like a “gut punch.” Several members of the front office are still seething.

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    It surely didn’t help that the Mets followed their backdoor deal with Bichette by trading for center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and top-of-the-rotation starter Freddy Peralta, the biggest splashes in a roster overhaul that needed to happen after a three-month collapse caused them to miss the playoffs last year. Add it all together, and Fangraphs upped its projection of the Mets’ total WAR to 46.7, third-highest in baseball and better than the Phillies’ 43.9 forecast.

    Whatever, Thomson said. Step back from the last seven days, and he contends the Phillies’ internal outlook remains as bright as the Florida sun that awaits them in a few weeks.

    “There are a lot of really good things going on,” Thomson said. “Because of the Bichette thing, a lot of that stuff gets overlooked a little bit, and I understand that. But we’ve got a really good club. We’ve just got to play better in the playoffs.”

    So much will happen before that. In the interim, let’s attempt to answer whether the Phillies are any better with a cast of characters that is one year older but almost as familiar as ever. A few factors to consider:

    After a long free agency, J.T. Realmuto finally re-signed with the Phillies on a three-year, $45 million contract.

    Letting go of Bo

    There isn’t much use for the Phillies to cry over the spilled milk of having Bichette slip through their fingers.

    But there’s still milk all over the floor.

    Signing Bichette would’ve set several dominoes in motion, including a likely trade of third baseman Alec Bohm. J.T. Realmuto almost certainly wouldn’t have been re-signed, with the Phillies getting so far down the Bichette road that Dombrowski phoned Realmuto’s agent, Matt Ricatto, to tell him they were headed in that direction.

    “I wouldn’t want him to read about it in the paper,” Dombrowski said.

    Adolis García could be a steal, or just another Nick Castellanos. Here’s why the Phillies like the gamble.

    Within an hour of Bichette-to-the-Mets, Dombrowski called back Ricatto. The Phillies boosted their three-year offer to Realmuto to $45 million, with $5 million per year in incentives, and the iron-man catcher was right back where he has been since 2019.

    But there was an underlying awkwardness when the Phillies announced their deal with Realmuto in a video news conference. Such occasions are typically celebratory in nature. Instead, Realmuto sounded like a human consolation prize.

    “There’s no secret the Phillies had other opportunities,” he said. “Luckily, after they missed out on an opportunity there at the end, they called back, improved their offer, and got to a place we were happy with.”

    Swell. As long as both sides are really happy.

    The Phillies have developed a band-of-brothers culture over the last several years, especially since Thomson took over as manager in June 2022. Kyle Schwarber is the leader in the clubhouse; Realmuto on the field. There’s a bond here that players have been eager to join.

    But given how much management clearly wanted Bichette, how can anyone be sure that Realmuto, Bohm, and others who may have been collateral damage are in the right frame of mind as spring training begins?

    “It’s a good question,” Thomson said. “I think for the most part, our guys, because we’ve got a pretty experienced club, they understand the business side of it. They understand that things happen and things don’t happen, and they have to keep moving forward and stay focused on what they can control. They’ve been through it quite a bit, free agency, trade rumors. That’s all part of the business.

    “I think they understand that. And now that we’re past that, I think they’re ready to go.”

    From left: Prospects Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter, and Aidan Miller should all be in the mix for the Phillies in 2026.

    Generation next

    Other than playing for the Phillies, what do Bryce Harper, Realmuto, Schwarber, Zack Wheeler, and Trea Turner have in common?

    They all came up with another team.

    In making the playoffs four seasons in a row for only the second time in their 143-year history, the Phillies built this core through free agency. Most of those signings worked out well, save Nick Castellanos and Taijuan Walker. Still, the number of long-term, big-money contracts on the books has limited their flexibility.

    If it feels like the Phillies keep running back the same roster, that’s why.

    The Phillies are sticking with a veteran core in 2026. But this time the kids have to play too.

    The only way, then, to really alter the mix is to assimilate young, inexpensive players from the minors. And since 2023, the Phillies have had only 12 players make their major-league debuts — fewer than any team, based on Fangraphs research.

    Crawford and Painter could change that. The Phillies expect Crawford to win the center-field job out of camp at age 22, which would make him their youngest player in an opening-day lineup since Freddy Galvis in 2012. Painter, 23 in April, could claim a spot in the season-opening rotation.

    “If you want to have a really healthy organization,” Thomson said, “I think you have to be able to infuse some youth along the way.”

    Thomson witnessed it firsthand a decade ago.

    In 2016, he was the bench coach for the Yankees, who had the second-highest payroll in baseball and seven players in their 30s who made 240 or more plate appearances. They contended for the playoffs, but fell short with 84 wins. The roster had become stale.

    A year later, the Yankees got younger without rebuilding. Gary Sánchez replaced Brian McCann behind the plate; Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery emerged as the team’s best starters at age 23 and 24, respectively; a rookie named Aaron Judge took over in right field.

    The Yankees changed the mix on the fly, won 91 games, and went to Game 7 of the AL Championship Series against the trash-can-banging Astros.

    “There were some warts there, no doubt, some growing pains,” Thomson recalled. “But when we turned it over into ‘17, they just took off and ran with it, and it was really good. I think there’s some similarities there.”

    The biggest difference, according to Thomson: Whereas the 2017 Yankees were carried by the kids, the Phillies won’t have to ask theirs to do as much because the stars are still closer to their primes.

    How can Don Mattingly help Bryce Harper? It starts with his star power.

    “Our core guys are really good, so if Crawford can come in and just kind of do his thing, don’t put too much pressure on him, he’s going to be fine,” Thomson said. “Same thing with Painter. If Painter’s in our [No.] 5 spot to start the season and he just relaxes and just grows with it, he’s going to be fine.

    “I’m really excited about it. I love young guys. I just love the enthusiasm, the energy that they bring to the team that filters throughout the clubhouse and into those veteran players. And sometimes they need that.”

    The Phillies need it like they need oxygen. You might even say it’s their best chance to be better than last year.

  • Former Eagles defensive lineman Kevin Johnson found dead at homeless encampment; homicide investigation underway, per reports

    Former Eagles defensive lineman Kevin Johnson found dead at homeless encampment; homicide investigation underway, per reports

    Former Eagles defensive end Kevin Johnson was found dead Wednesday at a homeless encampment in the Willowbrook area of Los Angeles, and a homicide investigation is underway, according to reports.

    Los Angeles’ KABC reported that Johnson, 55, was pronounced dead at the scene after police responded to the 1300 block of East 120th Street for a report of an unconscious man. Johnson’s cause of death, according to KABC, citing L.A. County Medical Examiner records, includes “blunt head trauma” and “stab wounds.”

    A fourth-round pick of the New England Patriots in 1994, Johnson was claimed by the Eagles after being waived by the Oakland Raiders in August 1995. Johnson, a Los Angeles native, played 23 games (six starts) across two seasons with the Eagles.

    He recorded six sacks and appeared in both of the team’s postseason games in 1995. Johnson was released by the team in December of 1996 and later played in 15 games with the Raiders in 1997 before a stint in the Arena Football League.

  • ‘Vintage’ Joel Embiid takes big step in the right direction with triple-double

    ‘Vintage’ Joel Embiid takes big step in the right direction with triple-double

    Joel Embiid overpowered Alperen Şengün with a spin inside, sending the Houston Rockets’ big man to the floor before easily laying the ball into the rim.

    The play on Thursday night drew the ire of Rockets coach Ime Udoka, who got whistled for a technical foul. It was also another sign of how much Embiid’s health — and production — continues to progress.

    Two years ago to the day, Embiid scored a career-high 70 points in a victory over the San Antonio Spurs. It was the masterpiece of a historic stretch, when the then-reigning NBA Most Valuable Player was scoring more than a point a minute.

    A few days later, however, the Golden State Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga inadvertently fell on Embiid’s knee, and years of struggles to stay healthy and available ensued.

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    Embiid has not returned to his peak level. Perhaps he never will. Yet it was poetic that his best performance since those surgeries — 32 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists in the 76ers’ thrilling 128-122 overtime victory at Xfinity Mobile Arena — arrived on the same date.

    “Maybe I should have a baby on Jan. 22,” Embiid quipped from his locker after the game. “Seems to be a good day. Me and my wife, when I get home, we’re probably going to talk about [it]. Start making those calculations, and make sure that we’re trying to have a baby on Jan. 22.”

    That answer, complete with the playful bravado, is further evidence that Embiid is getting back to himself, after acknowledging feeling depressed and separated from teammates while navigating his health struggles.

    He also has allowed himself to sincerely reflect at points this season, saying in Orlando earlier this month that “this is a moment where I’m like, ‘Wow.’ A lot of people, I think, never thought this would happen again.”

    Joel Embiid (with Kevin Durant) helped turn back the clock in an encouraging home victory Thursday night.

    Sixers teammates and staff members have closely watched this recovery unfold. For Paul George, Embiid’s first dunk on Jan. 3 at Madison Square Garden was a key benchmark. For coach Nick Nurse, it has been the gradual improvements in rim protection, rebounding, drives to the basket, and post-up opportunities.

    Nurse added he is still “a ways away” from schematically moving Embiid to different spots around the court “as much as we want to,” which could unlock even more of his offensive prowess.

    And though Embiid has appeared in 11 out of the past 13 games — during which he has averaged 27.8 points on 51.7% shooting, along with 8.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists — he said he still is “not allowed to play back-to-backs — yet.”

    Thursday, though, was another significant step, in a down-to-the-wire victory against a quality opponent. His 15 rebounds were his highest total since — Surprise! — that 70-point outburst. His 10 assists were a season-high, and a product of Embiid getting rid of the ball earlier when the extra defender arrives, Nurse said.

    Defensively, Embiid helped limit Şengün, an All-Star reserve contender in the Western Conference, to 5-of-14 from the floor and three points after halftime.

    As a scorer, Embiid drew fouls on a rip-through move and while assertively turning toward the basket. He hit a jumper over two defenders at the end of the second quarter. He hunted switches so he could be guarded by a smaller defender, even as the Rockets “were moving pieces like crazy,” Nurse said, while unleashing a variety of different schemes.

    Joel Embiid was effective on a night when the Rockets were aggressively making changes to help limit him.

    And when the Sixers needed buckets in the fourth, Embiid kept his team afloat before its final surge.

    An inside conversion to cut Houston’s lead to four points. A three-pointer to get them within 105-99. A driving finish out of a timeout to make the score 107-101. And six assists over the fourth quarter and overtime, including dishes to Tyrese Maxey (36 points) for a game-tying pull-up late in regulation and then for the game-sealing dunk in the final seconds of the extra frame.

    By the time Embiid’s night was over, he had played nearly 47 minutes.

    “He walked into the locker room after the game,” said Maxey, who leads the NBA in minutes played, “and said, ‘There’s no reason I should ever play more minutes than Tyrese.’ I said, ‘That’s great. You should do that more often.’ …

    “He’s just getting back to himself, slowly but surely. And he’s doing it in a different way, kind of. But he’s just really locked in and really bought into this team.”

    As Embiid held court in front of his locker, teammate Trendon Watford walked by and yelled, “All-Star Joel! All-Star Process!” Maxey had just done his own politicking during his news conference, saying “Process!” and tapping the microphone when asked to choose a teammate to join him at the festivities in Los Angeles next month.

    That all echoed Embiid’s own personal campaigning, saying in Orlando that he believes he is worthy of a spot and “you guys [the media] should start putting the word out that Joel Embiid is back.”

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    A few minutes later, George said he could feel Embiid’s “competitive juices” while matching up against Sengun.

    “He won’t say it,” George said. “But me in that position, when I was in his spot and there was guys under me that was coming up, I took it personal to kind of still be a force out there.”

    Oh, but Embiid did say it.

    After former Sixers teammate Furkan Korkmaz in September called Şengün the best center he has shared the floor with, as part of the Turkish national team, Embiid added a new photo to his Instagram grid late Thursday.

    Şengün hunched over, slowly regaining his feet after that wicked spin sent him to the floor. Embiid standing over him, side-eyed and staring.

    And a one-word caption: “Furk ……”

    “He dominated,” George added. “Big fella took it on him to really take over. I thought he was the vintage Joel tonight.”

  • A former St. Joe’s walk-on won $1 million picking NFL games while ‘changing diapers’

    A former St. Joe’s walk-on won $1 million picking NFL games while ‘changing diapers’

    Chris Coyne had a chance to win $1 million earlier this month, but that wasn’t enough to get him out of reading his son a bedtime story.

    His friends were coming over the next afternoon to watch the final slate of NFL games as Coyne neared the prize. So his wife said it was his night to make sure one of their two children was sleeping.

    And there was Coyne — a cell phone on his lap so he could follow the Buccaneers-Panthers game on Jan. 3 — reading The Pout-Pout Fish to 2-year-old Charlie.

    “I know it by heart now, so I’m just reading it from memory and watching the phone on mute while I’m telling the story,” said Coyne, who also has an infant son named Harrison. “But I have a million dollars on the line. The Bucs missed a field goal, and I’m like, ‘Ahh.’ I had to grit it.”

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    It was the start of an emotional roller coaster of a weekend that ended with Coyne, a 34-year-old former walk-on for Phil Martelli at St. Joseph’s, winning the $1 million grand prize in a season-long NFL pick ’em contest run by a Las Vegas casino with 6,000 participants.

    He lost a game in September when the Eagles returned a blocked field goal against the Rams, picked up a win in December when the Raiders kicked a meaningless field goal to lose by 7 points instead of 10, and then pouted through that bedtime story as the Buccaneers faded.

    It was a season-long marathon. But it ended with Coyne, who lives in Brooklyn, flying to Las Vegas during the NFL’s wild-card weekend to claim his oversized check and custom blue jacket at the Circa Resort & Casino as the winner of the Circa Million VII.

    “I wasn’t as dedicated to it as many others are,” said Coyne, who was at the playground with his kids when he checked his phone to see how Jordan Davis’ sprint spoiled that game against the Rams on Sept. 21.

    “I joke that there were no models, no Excel spreadsheets. It’s just me changing diapers and making picks.”

    A team photo of the 2012-13 St. Joe’s team with Chris Coyne (first row, third from the left).

    Walk-on Hawk

    Coyne was cut from the St. Joe’s basketball team as a freshman and sophomore but was certain that his junior year in 2011-12 would be different.

    He could have played Division II hoops but came to Philly because his Manhattan high school followed the Jesuit educational model just like St. Joe’s. Coyne played JV ball as a freshman and sophomore for the Hawks and practiced with Martelli’s crew in the offseason.

    He rode his bike home from the gym the night before tryouts and thought it was finally his chance to make the team. Then Coyne hit a curb and flew over his handlebars. His palms were gushing blood and his wrists were banged up.

    “I had no skin on my hands,” Coyne said. “There it goes. There goes the dream.”

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    Coyne arrived early to the tryout, hoping that the Hawks athletic trainer could do something. The trainer wrapped Coyne’s hands and sent him on the court.

    “I pretty much looked like a boxer,” he said.

    It worked as Coyne — shooting like coaches always stressed with his fingers and not his palms — seemed to knock down everything. Maybe he should always play like a prizefighter, he thought.

    Martelli called to tell him that his third try was a success: Coyne was a walk-on.

    Chris Coyne played for coach Phil Martelli alongside star Langston Galloway (10) during his time with St. Joe’s.

    “It was my dad’s birthday and I called him to tell him,” Coyne said. “He was the one who pushed me to see this through and not just play at the D-III level. He said, ‘This is your dream. Whether you get one minute in a game or 30 minutes, go see this through.’ I couldn’t thank him enough.”

    He played two years for Martelli, who told the bench players on the “Pinnie Squad” to give it their all in practice against the starters. The reserves were a bunch of guys like Coyne, who could have played elsewhere but stayed on Hawk Hill with Martelli.

    So the future $1 million NFL picker battled every day against Langston Galloway, the future NBA player. Martelli assigned his players to read articles about leadership and teamwork and preached the value of family. It was always more than basketball.

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    “I never felt like I was just sitting on the sidelines getting guys water,” Coyne said. “You were in the mix every day, which was really cool.”

    Coyne played just 12 minutes over eight games during those two seasons. But he did knock down a three-pointer at the Palestra, entering the game late against Penn on ESPN for his first NCAA basket.

    “It’s funny looking back and thinking, ‘Why would you ever be nervous?’” Coyne said. “But you’re just sitting there, you’re cold, there’s 15,000 people in the stands, and he’s going to call your name but you don’t know when it’s coming or if it’s coming. You’re just thrown out there.

    “My parents were there and it was a dream come true. It was years of seeing your dream not play out the way you wanted to and then have that opportunity.”

    Chris Coyne making the first and only three-pointer of his St. Joe’s career in 2013 against Penn at the Palestra.

    Winning it all

    Coyne entered his first football contest in 2019 after his friend Brian Hopkins signed him up during a trip to Vegas. He split that entry with Hopkins, and they met each week at a Manhattan bar after work, scribbling down the five games they liked on napkins.

    The pool has a $1,000 buy-in and requires each entrant to pick five games every week against the point spread. A proxy then places the bets for them in Vegas, as more than half the players live outside Nevada.

    Coyne and Hopkins decided to each enter the next season, and they developed their own strategies. Coyne stays away from Thursday night games as he would have to pick all five games by then instead of waiting until Saturday afternoon. The lines for every game lock on Thursday morning, which sometimes means a line could move before Coyne sends in his picks.

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    He didn’t watch a full NFL game until the middle of October because he was usually busy on Sundays with his kids. He read articles during the week and listened to podcasts. Picking games, Coyne learned, is less about breaking down game tape and more similar to the sales job he has on Wall Street.

    “You’re aware of trends,” Coyne said. “When the public A.K.A. retail is buying a lot of stock, that’s never a good sign. Maybe in the short term it works out, but over the long term, you try to find those overreactions in the market where the public really likes a team. Especially if the public loves a team and the line is going against the public.

    “That’s the biggest telltale sign right there. You have to have a process and you have to know what you’re doing, but so much of it is you have to get the breaks sometimes. The breaks went my ways sometimes.”

    That bedtime story would have been a bit less stressful had the Bills converted their two-point try a week earlier against the Eagles, as Coyne would have entered the final weekend with a three-game lead.

    Josh Allen and the Bills’ inability to execute a two-point conversion against the Eagles on Dec. 28 made Coyne’s road to the $1 million a little more stressful.

    Coyne was in Berwyn for that game visiting the family of his wife, Maddy, which was rooting for the Birds despite knowing Coyne was in the hunt for big money.

    “I’m devastated and I’m like, ‘Can’t you for one week just be on my side?” he said “But Eagles trump all in that household.”

    He instead had to sweat it out. He won Saturday night with the 49ers after the Buccaneers lost and then won Sunday with the Giants but lost with the Titans and Dolphins. Coyne said he tends to pick bad teams since he’s often going against the popular choices.

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    The Steelers won on Sunday night, pushing the second-place entry even with Coyne. He thought they would then split the first and second prizes ($750,000 each) and went to bed disappointed.

    “It was a long couple of weeks and I was football fatigued,” Coyne said. “I’m all [ticked] off. But I couldn’t complain. It was still $750,000 and it was a great season, but I didn’t know if I was getting the blue jacket. That’s what I really wanted. It’s like the Masters green.”

    Coyne woke up at 5 a.m., checked his phone, and saw he finished in first place on a tiebreaker, because he had more winning weeks than the other entry. The $1 million prize was his. The blue jacket was, too.

    Chris Coyne (second from the left) with his friends in Vegas on Jan. 9 after he won the $1 million prize.

    Coyne flew to Vegas that weekend with his friends, received his prize, spent 30 hours at the resort, and didn’t take his blue jacket off until he got home.

    It was perfect, like a walk-on hitting a three-pointer at the Palestra with his parents in the crowd.

    “I spent all of November and December saying, ‘How am I going to screw this up?’” said Coyne, who finished 60-29-1 over 18 weeks. “But somehow I came out on top. It was the weekend of a lifetime.”

  • The Eagles didn’t reach the championship round. You can watch several ex-Birds and local favorites in the AFC and NFC championships, however.

    The Eagles didn’t reach the championship round. You can watch several ex-Birds and local favorites in the AFC and NFC championships, however.

    While the Eagles’ playoff run has long concluded, Philadelphians may notice a number of familiar faces on each team competing in the conference championships on Sunday.

    From former Eagles players, coaches, and front office members to Philadelphia-area natives, all four remaining teams in the playoffs — the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, and New England Patriots — feature local connections.

    Here are the names and faces that may ring a bell when they pop up on your television screen. In the cases of the former Eagles players on the list, we’ve also examined why they’re no longer on the team.

    Seattle Seahawks

    CB Josh Jobe spent two seasons with the Eagles from 2022 to 2023 and appeared in 28 games, primarily on special teams. The 2022 undrafted free agent out of Alabama served as a depth cornerback behind Darius Slay and James Bradberry, but he got buried on the depth chart and was released at the end of training camp in 2024. Jobe, now 27, signed with the Seahawks two days later and earned a starting job this season in Mike Macdonald’s defense.

    Josh Jobe evolved from his special teams role with the Eagles to a starting job in Seattle.

    The Seahawks often use dime packages to get Jobe, Riq Woolen, and Devon Witherspoon on the field at the same time. According to Next Gen Stats, each member of the trio has allowed less than a yard per coverage snap in dime coverage, ranking among the top five cornerbacks in the league in that metric.

    Long snapper Chris Stoll spent six years at Penn State from 2017 to 2022 and played in 48 games. In 2022, he won the Patrick Mannelly Award, given to the nation’s top long snapper. Stoll signed with the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2023.

    Leslie Frazier has been the Seahawks’ assistant head coach since 2024, serving as a mentor to Macdonald, a first-time head coach. Frazier, 66, was the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings from 2010 to 2013 and has had multiple defensive coordinator jobs, but he got his NFL coaching start with the Eagles as the defensive backs coach from 1999 to 2002 under defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. Among the players Frazier coached with the Eagles were Brian Dawkins and Troy Vincent.

    Justin Outten, 42, is a 10-year NFL coaching veteran who is in his first year as the Seahawks’ running game specialist and assistant offensive line coach. He hails from Doylestown and graduated from Central Bucks West in 2002. Outten was a center on the football team and won the state championship as a sophomore in 1999.

    Los Angeles Rams

    OL Dylan McMahon was the Eagles’ 2024 sixth-round pick out of N.C. State. Somewhat surprisingly, he was the only member of the 2024 draft class who did not make the team out of training camp, instead signing to the practice squad. The Rams signed McMahon to their active roster off the Eagles’ practice squad in Week 2 that year to add depth to their banged-up offensive line. He started in the 2024 season finale at center and has spent the entire 2025 season on the Rams’ practice squad.

    Omar Speights emerged as a football star as a Philadelphia high schooler.

    ILB Omar Speights hails from Philadelphia and played his first three years of high school football at Imhotep Charter and briefly at Northeast High School. He moved to Oregon for his senior year. Speights, 24, signed with the Rams in 2024 as an undrafted free agent out of LSU and started 16 games this season.

    ILB Troy Reeder, 31, is from Hockessin, Del., approximately 10 miles west of Wilmington. He spent his college career at Penn State (2014 and 2015) and Delaware (2016 to 2018). Reeder signed with the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and won a Super Bowl with the team in 2021.

    OLB Jared Verse, the 2024 defensive rookie of the year, grew up in Berwick, Columbia County. Despite playing three years of football at Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg in northeastern Pennsylvania, Verse was not an Eagles fan (and has declared his distaste for their supporters). The Rams selected Verse 19th overall out of Florida State in 2024. He ranked second on the team in sacks this season with 7½.

    Ray Farmer is in his sixth season with the Rams, his first as the senior adviser to general manager Les Snead. He was drafted by the Eagles in 1996 in the fourth round out of Duke and served in a depth role at linebacker for three seasons before suffering a career-ending knee injury. Farmer was the Cleveland Browns general manager from 2014 to 2015.

    Drew Wilkins is in his first season as the Rams pass-rush coordinator. He is a Doylestown native and graduated from La Salle College High School in 2006.

    Mike McGlinchey (74), pictured with Penn Charter teammates and fellow Matt Ryan cousins Jake McCain, Pat McCain, and Frank McGlinchey, is now considered one of the NFL’s best tackles.

    Denver Broncos

    RT Mike McGlinchey, 31, is in his third season as a starter with the Broncos and spent the first five years of his career with the San Francisco 49ers. He was born in Warrington and played football and basketball at Penn Charter. He is a cousin of Matt Ryan, the 15-year NFL quarterback who hails from Exton and also attended Penn Charter. McGlinchey was drafted by the 49ers out of Notre Dame with the No. 9 overall pick in 2018.

    ILB Alex Singleton signed with the Eagles in 2019 and started 19 games (42 total appearances) in three seasons. He led the Eagles in tackles in back-to-back seasons in 2020 and 2021 (120 and 137, respectively). Singleton, now 32, signed a one-year deal with the Broncos in free agency in 2022 and has been with the team ever since. He started 16 games this season and led the team with 135 tackles, one year after suffering a season-ending ACL injury.

    Sean Payton is in his third season as Broncos coach. He got his NFL coaching start with the Eagles as the quarterbacks coach from 1997 to 1998 under head coach Ray Rhodes, working with quarterbacks Ty Detmer, Bobby Hoying, Rodney Peete, and Koy Detmer. Perhaps more notably, Payton spent 15 seasons as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints from 2006 to 2021 and won the Super Bowl in the 2009 season.

    Joe Vitt was hired by Payton in 2023 as a senior defensive assistant. Vitt first crossed paths with Payton on the Eagles, as the assistant was the linebackers coach in Philadelphia for four seasons from 1995 to 1998. Vitt, 71, grew up in Blackwood, N.J.

    Jordon Dizon is in his first season as the Broncos director of pro personnel and his eighth with the team. Between two stints in the Broncos front office, he was a national scout for the Eagles from 2022 to 2024.

    Milton Williams (93) parlayed a career season that included a Super Bowl ring into a free-agent deal with the Patriots.

    New England Patriots

    DT Milton Williams spent the first four years of his career with the Eagles, the team that drafted him in the third round out of Louisiana Tech in 2021. He had a breakout year in 2024, amassing a career-best five sacks in 17 games (seven starts). After winning a Super Bowl with the Eagles, he signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the Patriots in free agency, making him the second-highest-paid interior defensive lineman on an average annual basis ($26 million per year).

    Williams, 26, missed five games late this season with an ankle injury, but he returned in time for the playoffs. He notched two sacks in the wild-card win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

    Mack Hollins has had a nice year for a rejuvenated Patriots team but appears unlikely to play this week because of injury.

    WR Mack Hollins also began his career with the Eagles, selected in the fourth round of the 2017 draft out of North Carolina. He was a member of the Eagles team that beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl that season. Since that year, the 32-year-old Hollins has been a member of four teams and joined the Patriots on a two-year deal this season. He is on injured reserve with an abdominal injury, but the Patriots opened up his practice window this week — he was listed as questionable for this weekend’s game on Friday’s injury report. Hollins had 550 yards and two touchdowns on 46 receptions in 2025, the second-best receiving total of his career.

    ILB Christian Elliss spent nearly three seasons with the Eagles from 2021 to 2023. He served in a depth role, even in 2023 on a struggling defense under former defensive coordinator Sean Desai, and he appeared in 19 total games, primarily on special teams. The Eagles waived Elliss in December 2023 after signing Shaquille Leonard, and the Patriots claimed him. Elliss, 27, started 13 games this season (and played 15 games total) and ranked second on the Patriots with 94 tackles.

    Christian Barmore is another former Philly high schooler who has reached the NFL pinnacle.

    DT Christian Barmore grew up in Philly, starting in high school at Lincoln before transferring to Neumann Goretti. He orally committed to Temple, but he reopened his recruitment in 2017 and attended Alabama instead. Barmore was the Patriots’ second-round pick in 2021. The 26-year-old became a full-time starter this season, and had two sacks in 17 games (16 starts).

    OT Caedan Wallace hails from Robbinsville, N.J., spending his high school football career at Robbinsville High School and then the Hun School. He helped the latter to three straight prep state championships (2016, 2017, 2018). Wallace, 25, played for Penn State from 2019 to 2023. He was drafted by the Patriots in the third round in 2024 and has served in a depth role over the last two seasons.

  • The Flyers will be irrelevant as long as they lack a No. 1 center. A trade for Robert Thomas could change that.

    The Flyers will be irrelevant as long as they lack a No. 1 center. A trade for Robert Thomas could change that.

    The Flyers are leaking oil.

    Losers of seven of their last eight games, Rick Tocchet’s men, who have resided in a playoff spot for most of the season, are in free fall and now sit three points out of both the final spot in the Metropolitan Division and the wild card.

    With injuries piling up, the latest suffered by indispensable goaltender Dan Vladař, and a condensed schedule, the Flyers are in real danger of falling out of the postseason race before the March 6 trade deadline.

    The recent slide has also made painfully obvious what many already knew: The Flyers aren’t nearly as close to contending as they think they are.

    Why?

    For all their improvement and the savvy acquisitions of Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak, and Vladař, the Flyers have yet to acquire maybe the most important ingredient to any contending hockey team: a No. 1 center.

    To make matters worse, they don’t look to have a prospective solution to that problem in their farm system, as Jett Luchanko, Jack Nesbitt, and Jack Berglund all project to top out as middle-sixers.

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    Florida had Aleksander Barkov. Vegas had Jack Eichel. Colorado had Nathan MacKinnon. Tampa Bay had Brayden Point. The Flyers have … Christian Dvorak? That’s not to say the Flyers are simply a 1C away from doing laps around the ice with a 35-pound silver bowl over their heads, but until they find one, everything else they do is more or less a futile exercise.

    That brings us to Robert Thomas, a bona fide top-20 center who some around the league believe could be pried away from St. Louis — he is listed on both the Athletic and Daily Faceoff’s most recent trade boards — for the right price. Thomas, who turns 27 in July, is one of the league’s top playmakers and has tallied 80-plus points in each of the last two seasons.

    There’s a lot of speculation that the St. Louis Blues will listen to offers for talented center Robert Thomas.

    In addition to his tremendous vision, he’s a sturdy 207 pounds, possesses above-average speed, wins faceoffs (53.4% since 2022-23), and plays a responsible 200-foot game — a trait the Flyers clearly prioritize in their centermen.

    In other words, he’s exactly what the Flyers need.

    Did I mention he’s already won a Stanley Cup and is signed for five more seasons after this one at a below-market average annual value of $8.125 million?

    So is Thomas actually available? That depends on whom you ask, but with the Blues tied for the league’s second-fewest points, it would be surprising if general manager Doug Armstrong wasn’t at least listening on pretty much everybody.

    Armstrong all but confirmed that in December when he said, “There’s really no untouchables — not [just] on the St. Louis Blues, [but] there’s really few untouchables in the league. There’s a lot of other guys that, when things aren’t going well, I would say that [trade] list grows.”

    Danny Brière and Armstrong are no strangers, as the two did a deal in 2023 involving Kevin Hayes, and infamously had another deal centered on Travis Sanheim nixed at the 11th hour. So with a gaping hole down the middle and armed with a deep prospect pool and three first-round picks over the next two drafts, why wouldn’t Brière blow Armstrong away with a deal he can’t refuse?

    Flyers general manager Danny Briere has acknowledged the team’s need to upgrade down the middle. Could Robert Thomas be the answer?

    Assuming that Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, and potentially Tyson Foerster are off the table, any deal will start with at least one first-round pick in 2026 or 2027, a center prospect, and a combination of one or two more picks, prospects, or young roster players.

    The Blues would have their pick of Luchanko and Nesbitt and would likely covet another first-rounder in a 2026 draft — the Flyers would likely prefer to trade a 2027 first since they have two of them — that features three blue-chip prospects in Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg, and Keaton Verhoeff.

    It’s worth mentioning that Stenberg’s brother Otto plays for the Blues, and with a closely-contested East and the Flyers’ precarious position at present, St. Louis might gamble that the Flyers’ draft pick would land them a second selection inside the top 10.

    Should the Flyers have gone harder after Quinn Hughes? And what now for a team lacking a No. 1 center and defenseman?

    St. Louis also is likely to ask for a youngish defenseman to go the other way, which would mean Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, Oliver Bonk, or Emil Andrae.

    The Flyers would likely balk at moving York, a key part of their blue line who just signed a five-year extension, while the 23-year-old Drysdale’s value has decreased, not to mention that he’s a restricted free agent at season’s end and would require a new deal. That leaves Bonk and Andrae as the most realistic targets, with the former, a first-rounder in 2023, having the higher upside.

    Rounding out the deal would be another draft pick — let’s say a second — or a prospect or young roster player. Would the Blues have interest in Bobby Brink or Nikita Grebenkin as cheap wingers who can play up and down the lineup and have some untapped potential? St. Louis native Shane Vansaghi, a bruising second-rounder from this past June’s draft with a unique skill set, is another player who might intrigue Armstrong.

    Flyers defensive prospect Oliver Bonk could be an intriguing player to the rebuilding St. Louis Blues.

    The Flyers are in a tough spot, as they need a No. 1 center and are unlikely to have a pick high enough to draft one — 19 of the 27 players I’d characterize as No. 1 centers were top-10 picks, with 15 of them selected in the top three — and there are none available this summer in free agency.

    That leaves a trade as the likeliest path, and even those options are largely limited to guys either on the wrong side of 30 or younger, distressed assets looking to rediscover their 1C potential à la Seattle’s Shane Wright.

    Thomas represents something different entirely. He’s a proven commodity who not only fits the right age profile but has 5½ years of control. His high-danger passing would also be a tantalizing proposition alongside exciting wingers like Zegras, Michkov, Martone, Foerster, and Travis Konecny. If you have to overpay for someone like that, so be it.

    Would a 2026 or 2027 first-rounder, Luchanko, Bonk, and Brink get a deal done? And is that too much for Thomas, who is having a down year with 11 goals and 33 points in 42 games?

    The Flyers need to get uncomfortable and take some risks if they are going to address the organization’s biggest need. Until they do, they will be stuck in NHL purgatory, the worst place an organization can be.

  • Japhet Sery Larsen got an assist from Mikael Uhre as he decided to join the Union

    Japhet Sery Larsen got an assist from Mikael Uhre as he decided to join the Union

    There have been enough Danish players in MLS recently that when the Union reached out to Japhet Sery Larsen, he didn’t have to look far for advice.

    “I have a good friend who plays in San Diego, [Anders] Dreyer, who has spoken really warmly about the league,” Larsen said in a news conference this week from the Union’s preseason camp in Marbella, Spain. “I have a former teammate as well in Cincinnati, Evander, who really enjoys his time here.”

    Those are very good connections to have. Dreyer was the league’s Newcomer of the Year last year, delivering 23 goals and 18 assists in 41 games; Evander is a two-time All-Star and Best XI honoree.

    But Larsen had an even better expert to call, too.

    “I talked to Mikael Uhre a bit because he knows the Union very well, which was really helpful for me,” he said.

    Mikael Uhre’s last goal for the Union was the one that clinched the Supporters’ Shield.

    If Larsen saw all the little boxes with the journalists’ heads on Zoom, he’d have watched a mass springing to attention.

    It wasn’t surprising that Larsen and Uhre know each other, because players cross paths in all kinds of ways in soccer. But it would sure be something to learn Uhre’s opinion of a club that didn’t always treat him well in his last two years in Chester.

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    “He was really happy about his time here,” Larsen said. “He had some great moments here, I think.”

    Yes, he did, and he was barely given a chance to say goodbye — or to receive thanks from the portion of fans who liked him. That makes it even nicer of Uhre to say good things about the Union and living in Philadelphia.

    The Union moved on from Mikael Uhre (left), Jakob Glesnes (right), and other veterans after last year.

    “I had some good talks with the sporting directors and the coaches about what it’s like being in the club, but the hard part is finding out what life is around the training ground and stuff like that,” Larsen said. “So Mikael was really helpful there. Obviously, we talked about [life] in the club as well, but he had only good things to good things to say about the club — he really enjoyed the playing style and the philosophy of the Union.”

    It will be up to other players, especially Ezekiel Alladoh, to replace Uhre’s goals and defense-stretching runs. Larsen’s job is to replace another Union stalwart, Jakob Glesnes.

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    On paper, he has the resumé. Larsen spent the last three years at Norwegian club Brann, won a Norwegian Cup, and played in Champions League qualifiers and the Europa League.

    Before that, he spent a year at Bodø/Glimt, a team with a big reputation as a continental Cinderella.

    Japhet Sery Larsen (right) wearing the captain’s armband for Brann in a Europa League game in November.

    His age matters, too. The Union like to sign younger players whom they can develop and sell later. Larsen is 25, heading toward a player’s peak age period. And the club’s scouts noticed that he wore the captain’s armband at times for Brann, a sign of good intangibles.

    “It had a big impact on my decision before joining here,” Larsen said. “I know some more experienced players have left the club now during this winter, so there’s an open spot for taking responsibility and leadership. And I think we have that within the group, but obviously I want to contribute to that as well and help as better as best as possible.”

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    He arrived in Chester well-briefed on the Union’s high-speed playing style and was excited to play in it.

    “I think the coaching staff have a really clear idea of how they want to do things, which I believe suits me quite well,” he said. “[That] had a big impact for me in my decision, which made it easier, but they really talked about their way of thinking in football and their principles.”

    Japhet Sery Larsen in action during the Union’s preseason opener Tuesday.

    Larsen got his first run in a game on Tuesday, and played the first half of the Union’s 1-1 tie with Czech club Sigma Olomouc. Paired with Olwethu Makhanya on the back line — to form what is expected to be this year’s starting centerback duo — he seemed to fit in well enough.

    “I thought it was quite obvious the way the coaches want us to play,” Larsen said. “I think we could see the principles coming to life in the game. A lot of the guys are thinking forward the whole time, trying to really express ourselves.”

    On Friday, he played the first period of a 2-1 loss to Danish club Nordsjælland that had three 45-minute frames, this time next to young prospect Finn Sundstrom.

    Larsen hadn’t been with the Union for long before heading to Spain, and he spent part of the opening week in Chester working off to the side. So he had to jump quickly into the deep end, “a new way of speaking football” as he put it.

    “It has been fun and challenging at the same time,” he said. “I’m learning new things every day, but I’m trying to embrace it all, and the coaching staff and the teammates are really helpful in that process.”

    New Union striker Ezekiel Alladoh speaks softly but hopes to carry many goals
  • Mets take aim at Phillies with Freddy Peralta and Bo Bichette, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves

    Mets take aim at Phillies with Freddy Peralta and Bo Bichette, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves

    Well, it finally happened.

    The Mets made a move that makes sense.

    Freddy Peralta is the kind of acquisition who can change expectations in a hurry. The Phillies know it as well as anybody. They’ve scored three runs in four starts against Peralta since 2022. Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and Trea Turner are a combined 2-for-26 with 10 strikeouts against the veteran right-hander in that four-year stretch. They’ll go from facing him once or twice a year to potentially three or four times now that the Mets have shipped a couple of top-100 prospects to the Brewers in exchange for the 29-year-old Peralta, who had a 17-6 record last season, with a 2.70 ERA and 204 strikeouts in 176⅔ innings.

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    Wednesday’s trade is the second straight salvo the Mets have fired in the Phillies’ direction. The first was a gut-punch in the form of a three-year, $126 million contract signed by Bo Bichette. The Phillies thought they were about to land the former Blue Jays star on a seven-year, $200 million deal. Instead, the Mets unveiled their unique and devastating spin on the notion of addition by subtraction. Needless to say, it has been a rough week for the Phillies’ NL East odds.

    But let’s not go overboard here. While Major League Baseball doesn’t hand out trophies for sensibility, it also doesn’t hang banners for offseason champs. Offseasons are pretty much the only thing the Mets have won in the 40 years since the ’86 Amazin’s did their thing. They are going to need a lot of things to break right for that to change this year.

    It should be almost impossible for a team to enter spring training with a projected $360-plus million payroll and Jorge Polanco batting cleanup. Yet that’s exactly where the Mets find themselves with three weeks to go before pitchers and catchers report. The Mets can argue all they want that Polanco is a much better value on a two-year, $40 million deal than Pete Alonso would have been on the five-year, $155 million deal that he signed with the Orioles. But Alonso has hit 72 home runs over the last two years, while Polanco has hit 72 over the last four.

    Kyle Schwarber is one of several Phillies who have not fared well against Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta.

    And what about the five-hole? Right now, you’d probably pencil in Marcus Semien there. Which would be great, if “right now” was 2023. But Semien has looked nothing like the guy who finished third in MVP voting for the Rangers during their World Series campaign. In 2024 and 2025, the 35-year-old infielder slashed .234/.307/.379 for a .686 OPS that was almost exactly league average. Semien, whom the Mets acquired from Texas in a trade, is making $26 million this year.

    Luis Robert Jr. could work his way up in the lineup if he hits like he did over his last 35 games last season (.819 OPS, six home runs, 140 plate appearances). Or, he could be a $20 million eight-hole hitter if he hits like he did over the last two seasons overall (.660 OPS, 28 home runs, 856 plate appearances).

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    There’s no question the Mets have succeeded in building themselves a different lineup. Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto are the only name-brand holdovers from a year ago. Brett Baty figures to start at designated hitter after the former top prospect rescued his career with a .311./.372/.500 batting line and seven home runs in his last 42 games. Mark Vientos can only hope to factor into the equation after a season in which he failed miserably to follow up on his 2024 breakout. Again, there are things that can break right. But a team’s win total usually has a negative correlation with the number of “ifs” it brings to spring training. And that likely would have been the case with the Mets, until Wednesday.

    In Peralta and second-year sensation Nolan McLean, the Mets will have the kind of 1-2 punch atop their rotation that can carry a questionable lineup a long way. In two starts last year, McLean held the Phillies to one run and 14 base runners in 13⅓ innings with 11 strikeouts. Combine his numbers with Peralta’s against Schwarber-Harper-Turner and you get 3-for-40 with 14 strikeouts. If Sean Manaea can get back to his 2024 form (3.47 ERA in 181⅔ innings) and Kodai Senga can stay healthy, the Mets could be a big problem for opposing lineups. And that’s assuming they don’t make another late splash (Framber Valdez, for instance).

    But, then, there’s that pesky little word again. The Mets may yet salvage their offseason and move the needle in a more decisive manner. For now, Phillies fans shouldn’t be too hard on Dave Dombrowski’s roster. It’s still better than the Mets, for about 80% of the price.

  • Sixers’ Kelly Oubre Jr. is showing why he should be a keeper at the NBA trade deadline

    Sixers’ Kelly Oubre Jr. is showing why he should be a keeper at the NBA trade deadline

    Kelly Oubre Jr. looks like someone the 76ers might want to hang onto.

    Oubre always said it was just a matter of getting back into basketball shape. And based on his recent performances, the 6-foot-8 small forward is now well-conditioned.

    He had 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting — including 4 of 5 from three-point range — to go with four rebounds, three assists, one steal, and a block in Thursday’s 128-122 overtime victory over the Houston Rockets at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

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    Draining three-pointers and providing his trademark high energy, the 30-year-old looked like he deserved to remain in the starting lineup. More than that, Oubre looked like a key piece the Sixers need to retain beyond the trade deadline.

    He’s an asset to the Sixers because he can play shooting guard, small forward, and small-ball power forward. However, his name keeps coming up as someone the Sixers could possibly move before the Feb. 5 trade deadline because his expiring $8.3 million contract would help them gain salary cap relief and avoid the luxury tax. The squad is currently more than $7 million over the luxury-tax threshold.

    The Sixers could also get salary cap relief by moving the expiring contracts of Andre Drummond ($5.0 million) and Eric Gordon ($3.6 million with a dead cap hit of $2.2 million). Letting Drummond and Gordon go would be viewed as a softer blow than trading Oubre.

    Sixers guard Kelly Oubre Jr., blocks Houston Rockets forward Tari Eason’s first quarter three-point shot attempt on Thursday night.

    Oubre’s value stretches all over the floor. He had a sequence in the second half where he knocked the ball out of bounds twice while providing solid defense on Houston’s 6-foot-11 center Alperen Şengün. Those plays not only motivated his teammates but also electrified the sellout crowd of 19,746.

    “Obviously, that’s a huge center posting you up, you have to do something to disrupt the rhythm of that and not make it easy,” Oubre said. “And I think that over there they thought it was going to be an easy post up, post me up, whatever. I just tried to be disruptive.

    “Obviously, it sucks [for the Rockets] because they were all looking depleted every time they tried to throw it in, and it wasn’t complete. But it was just about me trying my best to stop him from getting the momentum to go score, because once he gets me under the basket. I’m done, right?”

    Kelly Oubre Jr. has had a quality season when healthy but continues to be the subject of trade rumors ahead of the Feb. 5 deadline.

    Oubre recently scored 21 points on Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns and 18 points on Monday against the Indiana Pacers, rounding out his three best games since missing 22 games with a sprained left knee ligament. After making 4 of 5 three-pointers on Thursday, he’s shooting 11-for-18 from deep in his last three games.

    “You just put the work in, man, and you have to trust it,” Oubre said of his shot. “That’s all it is. It’s just being confident in those positions and having faith that your shot will go in and you follow the right discipline.”

    Oubre started his third consecutive game, and was in the opening group for the fourth time in the nine games since his return. The first three starts came as Paul George was sidelined due to left knee injury management. But on this night, Oubre started alongside George, Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe, and Tyrese Maxey.

    Nick Nurse said starting Oubre over Dominick Barlow was based on performance.

    “I think Barlow has played outstanding and played outstanding again tonight,” Nurse said. “But Kelly obviously has been a pretty big spark plug, getting to the rim and just guarding. Just guarding really good, tough matchup every night as well. So I went that way. He’s pretty experienced as well.”

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    Maxey led the Sixers with 36 points, 10 assists, and four steals. Meanwhile, Embiid added 32 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, and two blocks for his ninth career triple-double. Oubre has mastered playing off the two standouts by slashing to the basket and hitting opportunistic shots.

    For Oubre, it’s more than just getting the ball — it’s about moving bodies around.

    “I’ve always been a slasher,” he said. “Having a guy who creates as much energy around him as Joel, if my man goes to double or somebody is not looking or they’re not worried about the weak side, then that’s just a free lane to just cut into the paint and potentially give him an easy assist, or free somebody else up for a jumper.”