Joel Embiid will miss the 76ers’ game on Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks with right shin soreness, the team announced Wednesday evening.
Embiid, the 2022-23 NBA MVP, reported the soreness while participating in a right knee injury management program during the All-Star break, the team said. Following a consultation with doctors, the team added, Embiid has received daily treatment while progressing through on-court work and strength and conditioning. He will be reevaluated before the Sixers play back-to-back road games Saturday at the New Orleans Pelicans and Sunday at the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Before this shin issue, Embiid had missed the Sixers’ last two games leading up to the break to manage that right knee.
Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Embiid participated in “a little bit” of the Sixers’ Wednesday practice and was scheduled to meet with team doctors later that afternoon.
“He looked pretty good,” Nurse said of Embiid.
Before those unscheduled absences last week, Embiid was in the middle of a dominant stretch. He averaged 33.1 points on 52.9% shooting, along with 8.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists, in his last 10 games, putting him in the conversation to be named an All-Star reserve. Overall this season, he’s averaging 26.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in 31 games.
Embiid’s left knee, not his right, is the one that has undergone multiple surgeries in recent years.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — For the first few drills that infield coach Bobby Dickerson often runs each day in Phillies camp, no gloves are necessary.
The early days of spring training are an opportunity for players to work on fundamentals and reactivate their muscle memory before the 162-game grind. Some of Dickerson’s tactics for his infielders might look unconventional, but there’s a method to the madness.
In one drill, the infielder wears a softball mask, and Dickerson tosses tennis balls at him, which he then “catches” with his face. In another, the infielder uses a paddle to field tennis balls that Dickerson hits toward him with a fungo bat.
Both drills are designed to help with ball security. The idea behind the mask drill is to practice getting a player’s face in the path of the ball. That way, when a glove enters the equation, he will be more likely to watch the ball all the way into it.
“You hear it all the time, ‘Watch the ball in,’ ‘See the ball to catch it.’ ‘Don’t take your eye off the ball,’ all these things,” Dickerson said. “But yet, if you pay attention and you really watch the game like, fortunately, I have for 40 years, and watching every little detail, you’ll see even great players, they’re so good they lose sight of the ball, the last six inches to 10 inches.”
If an infielder forgets to watch a ground ball all the way into his glove, he still could make the play. But once in a while, he also could make a mistake that a bit of concentration may have prevented. Dickerson wants to eliminate those mistakes.
Phillies shortstop Trea Turner knocks a tennis ball away during a drill on Tuesday at spring training in Clearwater, Fla.
“This is a drill to get them to really focus. You’d be surprised how many times when you first do it to a guy, they don’t realize that their face is that far away from the ball, that they’re not really looking it in, looking at the ball,” he said.
The paddle drill is intended to help with glove action. Dickerson said some infielders have a tendency to retreat their glove at the last second as the ball enters it, which can allow the ball to stay alive.
Using the paddle helps reinforce better habits. Using a tennis ball, which bounces more, helps players work on timing.
“It reinforces good glove presentation,” Dickerson said. “The face of that glove should be looking at the ball the whole time, and the last move to catch it is toward the ball.”
For players who have fielded thousands of ground balls in their lifetime, drills that take them out of their comfort zone can help them get back to basics. Dickerson likes incorporating them early in camp as a way to wake players’ gloves up. He also often tells them to do other activities at home with their nondominant glove hand, like using a fork.
When Dickerson, 60, started incorporating these drills earlier in his career, he had to earn trust from players for some of his seemingly unorthodox instruction methods.
But now, the results speak for themselves. Dickerson credits some of Trea Turner’s defensive improvements at shortstop last year to the work he put in with these drills. Turner went from minus-3 outs above average in 2024 per Statcast to plus-17 in 2025.
“He had a little retreat to his glove. And there would be times where his glove was behind his face,” Dickerson said. “And I think both those drills — both the tennis ball with the paddle glove and the face mask — I think both of those helped him with just some cues to get the ball out in front of his face, see it in. … And his glove hand has woke up a lot in the last year.”
Dickerson recently introduced the drills to 21-year-old Aidan Miller. The shortstop prospect, who is also getting work at third base this spring, said he found the mask drill fun.
“At first, it was hard,” Miller said. “I sucked at it, but I really get the point behind it. It’s all about just keeping your eyes behind the ball, getting your head behind it. So it’s really good in that way.”
Dickerson has been impressed with what he’s seen from Miller.
“They’ve done a lot of great stuff in the minor leagues with him,” Dickerson said. “I can see he’s already ahead of a lot of guys I’ve had at some point that have come to big league camps in my past and were highly touted players, but he’s ahead of that right now, for me. They’ve done a great job. His glove hand works great. His glove presentation is really good. His glove action is really good, and all these things. …
“If I didn’t do the drill, he’d probably play great. And by doing the drill, maybe we can get him to play a little greater, just a little bit.”
Extra bases
Zack Wheeler (thoracic outlet decompression surgery) threw out to 120 feet on flat ground on Wednesday. … Orion Kerkering (hamstring strain) threw 10 pitches from the mound and was “fine,” Rob Thomson said. … Aaron Nola, Jesús Luzardo, and Andrew Painter pitched in live batting practice on Wednesday. … Bryse Wilson will start the Phillies’ Grapefruit League opener against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.
Inside a half-empty John E. Glaser Arena on La Salle’s campus Tuesday night, Robert Moore lounged at the end of the Constitution boys’ basketball team’s bench, head back, arms folded, legs crossed, as if he had resigned himself to being powerless to stop the blowout before him. He wasn’t. He could have. He hadn’t.
The second game of the Public League semifinals was a rout from the start, a 73-41 Imhotep Charter victory that was never close, was never in doubt, and never should have been played. Constitution was there only because its previous opponent, Carver Engineering & Science, had been forced to forfeit their quarterfinal matchup when an altercation marred the game’s final minutes. With his team down by 12 points, with 71 seconds left in regulation, a Constitution player had shoved an E&S player, sparking an on-court confrontation among athletes, coaches, and fans. E&S’s bench had emptied, which, according to Public League rules, disqualified E&S from the tournament, allowing Constitution to move on to face Imhotep.
From that ugly set of circumstances, Moore, his team, and Constitution’s administration received a gift that they never should have accepted. Constitution was on its way to losing in the quarterfinals until one of its players committed the act that ignited the chaos. And even if the Public League was following the letter of the law by confirming that E&S had to forfeit — “Constitution did the right thing,” league president Jimmy Lynch said, “by not entering the floor during the incident” — Moore and Constitution still could have done the honorable thing and declined to play in the semis, too.
It would have sent a powerful message to Constitution’s players, and to the league as a whole, that certain principles are more important than playing a game. It would have turned this fiasco into a teachable moment, a cautionary tale that Constitution’s kids hadn’t earned the right to compete against Imhotep, against the Public League’s dominant program. It would have been a better resolution than the scene Tuesday night at La Salle, where security and city police officers stood poised at the corners of the court and the public-address announcer admonished spectators to stay off the floor and let the referees do their jobs.
“We didn’t feel like it would be a great look for the league,” Moore said, “not having a team here to play in a semifinal game, [having] rented out an arena.”
Sorry, it would have been an admirable stand for the Public League and its leaders to take. And while Moore deserves credit for facing some questions about the incident and Constitution’s and the league’s courses of action, his explanations sounded more like excuses for the failure to make the difficult but correct decision here. The price of renting Glaser, for instance, was already a sunk cost. That money was gone one way or another, so why not use that second semifinal game as a stage to show everyone what class and responsibility look like?
“It’s really an administrative thing,” Moore said. “Honestly, after reviewing everything, we felt like the people who needed to be suspended were suspended.”
Imhotep defeated Constitution, 73-41, in the Public League boys’ basketball semifinal on Tuesday.
Yes, the Public League suspended two Constitution players for their roles in the melee, but that was the minimum discipline for an embarrassing situation that those young athletes had created and escalated. The incident happened last Thursday. By Friday afternoon, someone from Constitution, from the Public League, from District 12, or from the PIAA should have been on the phone, arranging a meeting, getting the right people in the same room or on a Zoom call to settle on a solution that didn’t let Constitution benefit from its own mistakes.
Instead, Moore called coaches around the league, starting with Imhotep’s Andre Noble: “I said, ‘What do you want?’ He said, ‘I want to play a game. … I kind of left it up to the kids as well.” Except this wasn’t Noble’s call to make, and it certainly wasn’t the kids’. Of course an opposing coach wouldn’t want an important postseason game canceled. Of course teenagers would want such an incident to be wiped away with few consequences. And of course, E&S’s parents and players have been lobbying for absolution and justice for themselves, as if anyone comes out of a mess like this with clean hands.
“To be fair, we’ve tried to take the high road, but we felt like we’ve been basically scapegoated as we were in the wrong with everything that happened,” Moore said. “In actuality, with all the facts the district had to deal with, it just wasn’t the case. …
“There were a lot of moving parts, and we evaluated everything when we looked at it. Obviously the district and the PIAA had all of this information, so what you’re getting is — and I completely understand — parents who are unhappy about the situation. I completely understand that.
“I’m a coach and an athletic director. I answer to a principal, who answers to an assistant superintendent. There are so many people above me.”
From Congress to college sports, through virtually every institution in American society, there’s a deep and desperate need for someone in a position of authority to be a genuine leader, to stand up and stand firm and say, This is who we’re expected to be. This is the right thing for those we’re supposed to serve. This is what we’re supposed to do, and this is how and why we’re going to do it. Yet here was another example where no one put the greater good and a larger lesson above appearances and self-interest. Here was another occasion where no one bothered to be an adult.
Moore and Constitution and the Public League had a chance, a real chance, to teach young people the value of accountability and the power of grace. They had an opportunity to be true educators, and they passed up that opportunity. They decided it was more important to play a game whose result was all but certain and would be quickly forgotten, and by the fourth quarter Tuesday night, Robert Moore was stretched out in his seat at the end of the bench, striking that posture that suggested he was content to have taken the easy way out. His team lost by 32 points. Hope it was worth it.
Though Agustín Anello has lived more than half his life outside the United States, the Florida native still feels like an American.
So when the Union called with an offer, he was interested. Even better, he had two friends already on the team in Nathan Harriel and Bruno Damiani. From there, Anello did his homework and decided it was time to come home.
“The guys have really made it feel like home, so that’s quite nice,” Anello told The Inquirer. “You know how things work when a lot of things come together, and, yeah, the feeling of coming back to my country to play was also a big factor. So I feel a lot of things came together for this to to be possible.”
He knew of the Union’s track record, including last year’s Supporters’ Shield, and of the style they play. That intrigued him too.
Agustín Anello on the ball during the Union’s last preseason game against CF Montréal.
“Philly reached out, and, obviously, the great season they had the year before, the way they train, the work ethic — they’re all factors that obviously push [and were] important factors, at least, for me to come,” Anello said. “I think it’s a style of play that fits my game style. There’s a lot of transitions, a lot of importance inside the attacking area, a lot of pressing, a lot of passion.”
Anello sees himself fitting in one of the striker spots, but also in one of the attacking midfield spots. Union manager Bradley Carnell has the same idea.
“He’s got a good technique with dribbling, so he can be off the shoulder of the outside back dribbling in a one-v-one,” Carnell said. “He can pick up in the pocket too, [which is] how we like to play as well with interior 10s [attacking midfielders]. So he shows a lot of flexibility within our game model.”
An unusual journey to get here
Anello was born in the Miami suburb of Hialeah to Argentine parents and grew up in Cape Coral, on the west side of South Florida near Fort Myers. He moved with his family to Barcelona, Spain, at age 10 because of his father’s work and didn’t set foot in the U.S. again until the summer of 2022.
“I got to live what my parents lived, what my dad and uncles lived when they were little, playing in the streets with their friends,” he said. “That was a very big thing in my childhood. … I feel full American and full Argentinian at the same time, so, yeah, I think I have that blood running in me.”
Anello rose through the youth ranks of Belgian club Lommel and turned pro there in 2021. In early 2023, he made the first of four moves around Europe over the next 16 months.
He did well enough along the way to attract U.S. Soccer’s attention, and earn an invitation to an under-23 team camp in November 2023 that surveyed candidates for the 2024 Olympic team. His teammates there included Nathan Harriel and Jack McGlynn, whom the Union traded to the Houston Dynamo last February.
That wasn’t when the seed for a move to MLS was planted, but it’s also a moment that Anello and Harriel remember well.
“It was a long time ago, but at the same time, at the camp, he was a great guy,” Harriel said, noting that Carnell sought out him and Damiani when Anello’s name came on the radar. “He’ll be great for the locker room. He fits in really well, hard worker, creative, he’s a good dribbler.”
In August 2024, Anello crossed the Atlantic to join Uruguayan club Boston River. His new teammates included Union prospect José Riasco, who was on loan there, and Damiani. Anello and Damiani became good friends, and that also ended up coming in handy down the road.
“I talked with Bruno mostly,” Anello said, at times when Damiani came home to Uruguay during MLS’s breaks. “He told me good things about the club, how the boys were, the facilities, the training ethic. And, yeah, those things obviously are adding-up factors to take this step.”
(Damiani was away getting his green card when this piece was reported, so wasn’t available for comment.)
¡Gracias, 𝐀𝐠𝐮𝐬! 🥺
Agustín Anello continuará su carrera en @PhilaUnion 🇺🇲
En su pasaje por nuestro club: ⏱️ 57 partidos ⚽️ 12 goles 🤝 3 asistencias 🎯🏆 Golazo inolvidable en Chillán
Anello also had observed the growth of MLS, and American soccer as a whole, from the quality of play to stadiums and training facilities. It also does not hurt to come home in a year when the biggest World Cup in history will be here.
“It’s exciting, to be honest, just seeing the league grow, the World Cup coming up,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a lot more eyes. So, yeah, me and my agents, my family, thought it was the best time to come.”
He hasn’t had much time to train with his new club, since he only joined the squad this month. When Anello started the preseason finale against CF Montréal, he had only been in one full practice session with his teammates.
But he fit in well enough to play the first half and delivered a sharp assist to Milan Iloski for the Union’s second goal of the game. The buildup was good, too: Ezekiel Alladoh made a strong run up the middle with the ball, Anello ran down the left side to get in position, and Alladoh put the pass on a plate.
“It’s good to take a step at a time,” Anello said. “I just want to get integrated as fast as possible, start getting my qualities out, start to get comfortable with the team, and start making an impact.”
That was sage advice, and he has lived up to it so far.
West Philadelphia High School has been in this situation before.
The Speedboys cruised their way to the Public League championship during the 2022-23 season before suffering an 18-point loss to Imhotep Charter in the final. Now three years later, head coach Adrian Burke and his team are back in the title game, following a 68-47 win over Dobbins Technical High School in Tuesday’s semifinal.
When Burke walked into the locker room at La Salle’s John Glaser Arena following the win, he was bombarded by his team, who dumped water on him to celebrate its championship appearance. Now, the Speedboys will look to knock off Imhotep, the defending champions, on Sunday.
As for Burke, he feels a sense of pride for his team and coaches that West Philly got there.
West Philadelphia poses for a photo after its 68-47 win against Dobbins on Tuesday.
“It feels great,” Burke said. “You put in a lot of work with these kids, and you never know what’s going to happen. From day in to day out, but these kids, they stayed the path. They stayed straight. We just kept fighting. I tell them, ‘Continue working hard, good things will happen for you.’”
Senior guard Khabir Washington led the Speedboys with 18 points and sophomore forward Isaiah Powell-Smith added 17.
The Speedboys have six seniors who were on the 2022-23 team and lost in the Public League championship. Now, they’ll get a second chance.
“They’ve been playing hard,” Powell-Smith said. “They’ve been here since freshman year, but I feel like we should just give them another chance.”
A game of runs
Despite trailing, 32-25, at halftime, Washington and senior guard Xavier Howard helped propel West Philly through its rut. Though they let an early lead slip away, the Speedboys remained calm heading into the locker room.
“Never get too high, never get too low,” Washington said. “Whether we [are] winning or we [are] down. Basketball is a game of runs, and as long as we make the final run, we always believe we’re going to be good.”
Washington was the catalyst. He had four points in the first half, but drilled a three from deep as Howard knocked down another to power a 14-0 run.
Dobbins didn’t score until the three-minute mark of the third quarter and had just 15 second-points as the Speedboys erupted.
West Philadelphia’s Khabir Washington led the team with 18 points against Dobbins on Tuesday.
“I said, ‘Look, we ain’t going to zone no more gimmicks. We going straight man-to-man. We’re going to put our will against their will, and let’s see what happens,’” Burke said. “That’s what happened.”
Dobbins mounted a comeback behind three-pointers from guards Zahmir Green and Kyyir Roberts-Moore to cut the score to 42-39, but it wasn’t enough.
Powell-Smith’s eight fourth-quarter points helped put Dobbins away.
“He had a rocky start,” Burke said. “Halfway through the season, he just bought into everything we were doing. Everything changed.”
‘Make it worthwhile’
As West Philly prepares to face Imhotep in another Pub final, Burke noted that many of the players from that team that lost to the Panthers in 2023 are no longer with the program. The seniors sticking with him throughout all four seasons meant a lot.
“These guys stuck with me when other guys left,” Burke said. “They told me, ‘We’re going to work as hard as we possibly can and get back.’ I said, ‘We’re going to get back. We just gotta keep working hard.’”
The team feels the same way about Burke, and they hope to return the favor on Sunday.
“I was here my freshman year, it took a lot to get back to this place,” Washington said. “Guys left. Guys stayed. I’m just happy for my head coach. We get an opportunity to play [for] a championship, and we’re going to make it worthwhile this year.”
Last year, Zaahir Muhammad-Gray suffered a torn ACL in Imhotep Charter’s third game of the season and could not play during the Panthers’ run to a fifth-consecutive Public League boys’ basketball title.
This season the 6-foot-7 junior forward helped lift the Panthers to their sixth consecutive Public League championship appearance with a 73-41 drubbing to Constitution High School at La Salle’s John Glaser Arena on Tuesday evening.
Latief Lorenzano-White finished with a game-high 22 points for the Panthers, while Muhammad-Gray added 17, 11 of which came in the second half.
Imhotep’s Latief Lorenzano-White finished with a game-high 22 points against Constitution on Tuesday.
Muhammad-Gray has yet to be on a team who misses the Public League title game. But the forward says being sidelined in last year’s postseason makes this one sweeter.
“I’ve been here before,” Muhammad-Gray said. “I’ve been here every year, so I’m kind of getting used to it now. Just sitting out the last year made me miss it even more.”
Muhammad-Gray reclassified from the class of 2026 to the class of 2027 after tearing his ACL. He has scholarship offers from Temple, La Salle, Penn State, and Georgia Tech, among others. He’s considered the second-best junior prospect in the state.
“[Muhammad-Gray is] a Division I basketball player,” said Imhotep coach Andre Noble. “He’s one of our team captains. That’s what we expected.”
Imhotep’s other captain, Lorenzano-White, scored 16 of his 22 in the first half as Imhotep bowled over an outmatched Constitution team. The 6-foot-4 senior guard is committed to play at Drexel next season.
“Today, I just was seeing the rim,” Lorenzano-White said. “We’ve been preaching it for the last couple of practices and games, to get to the rim and not settling for jump shots.”
The Panthers led, 38-14, at halftime. Their lead ballooned to 35 with 3 minutes, 5 seconds to play in the fourth before Noble pulled his starters.
The Panthers will face West Philadelphia in the Public League title game at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Glaser Arena.
Imhotep coach Andre Noble has the chance to make Public League history as the first coach to earn six consecutive Pub titles.
Imhotep, seeking its sixth straight Public League title, will have a chance to make Public League history on Sunday.
“No team’s ever done it,” Muhammad-Gray said of winning six straight Pub titles. “I would love to be the first team.”
‘Unfortunate for all parties’
While Constitution lost to Imhotep in Tuesday’s semifinal, the game was accompanied by controversy that began last week during Constitution’s quarterfinal game against Carver Engineering and Science.
Constitution trailed E&S, 61-49, with 1 minute, 11 seconds to play last Thursday when an altercation started. Spectators flooded the court, leading officials to suspend the game with 71 seconds remaining.
The Public League disqualified E&S from the game because its entire bench came onto the floor during the skirmish, which is a violation of the league’s unsportsmanlike conduct policy and results in a full-team suspension of the following game.
The quarterfinal was ruled a forfeit by E&S, allowing Constitution to advance to the semifinals to face Imhotep. However, an official’s report noted that a Constitution player instigated the altercation, and spectators from the Constitution bleachers came onto the floor.
Rob Moore, Constitution’s head coach and athletic director, called the events at the quarterfinal an “unfortunate situation.”
“It’s just unfortunate for all parties involved,” Moore said. “Trying to get my guys ready to play and missing guys, obviously, against a team that every year is the cream of the league, cream of the state. … I’m proud of my guys for coming out and, through everything, coming out here and playing basketball.”
Moore also disputed the referee report that suggested the spectators who came onto the floor were affiliated with Constitution. Moore said accessing the electronic ticketing system E&S uses for its home games revealed that only one male Constitution student bought a ticket for the quarterfinal.
Constitution’s Jacob Mitchell drives for a lay up against Imhotep’s Latief Lorenzano-White on Tuesday.
“We felt like we’ve been, basically, scapegoated as, we were just in the wrong with everything that happened,” Moore said. “In actuality, with all the facts that the district had to deal with, that just wasn’t the case.”
The Generals played with 10 players available against Imhotep. Three Constitution players were suspended and were not in jerseys for the game.
E&S attempted an emergency injunction from a Common Pleas Court judge on Tuesday in an effort to overturn its disqualification, but the team’s request was dismissed and the semifinal was played as scheduled.
Acaden Lewis did a little bit of everything to lift Villanova to a 92-89 overtime victory over Xavier in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
Lewis had 21 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and four steals, including one that sealed the win in the final seconds of the game. Villanova (21-5, 12-3 Big East) improved to 7-1 on the road in the Big East.
“I think we’re just built for [overtime],” Lewis told reporters. “We’ve been on the road. We’ve had seven road wins after this game. So I think we’ve been through the fire. We’ve been in some far games. We played the first game of the year [against] BYU in Las Vegas. It was with no other games around. So, we’re used to it at this point. We’re growing up in front of everybody’s eyes. And I think we’re getting really good on the road for that reason.”
Lewis is averaging 12.7 points and leads the Wildcats in assists (5.3).
Duke Brennan had 10 points and 13 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season. He is two double-doubles shy of tying Michael Bradley’s single-season program record.
In overtime, Villanova outscored Xavier, 11-8, and outrebounded the Musketeers, 5-4. Lewis and Bryce Lindsay had nine of the 11 points.
Bench lifts Villanova
Xavier (13-12, 5-9) opened the game on an 11-2 run that forced Villanova coach Kevin Willard to call a timeout. Willard took out Matt Hodge, Brennan, and Lindsay. He replaced them with Devin Askew, Malachi Palmer, and Braden Pierce.
Villanova quickly spun off a 17-7 run over the next six minutes to take a lead. It spun into a 28-13 run.
Askew scored back-to-back three-pointers during the run.
“Coming into the game, we didn’t get any stops,” Lewis told reporters. “Starting five was out there, kind of, lackadaisical. They were running the speed of the game kind of got to us. And we didn’t really respond. Chris [Jeffrey] came in, Dev [Askew] came in, a bunch of guys came in and just changed the whole game. Got more stops, got us in the rhythm. And then going back in and help guys that start to get into a rhythm as well. And I think [the starters] just kept that same pressure.”
Duke Brennan, shown during a game on Feb. 10, had his 12th double-double of the season against Xavier on Tuesday.
Lindsay shows improvement
After scoring double digits in 13 of his first 14 games of the season, Lindsay has struggled. He went from averaging 16.9 points over the first 14 games to just 6.4 over the last 10.
Against Xavier, Lindsay finished with 15 points, shooting 5-for-11 from the field and 4-for-8 from beyond the arc. It was his fourth double-digit performance in the last 11 games.
“There’s a reason he started,” Willard told reporters. “I have tremendous confidence in Bryce, and he’s been putting the work in. He’s just been in a little bit of a slump, and it’s good to see him get out of it.”
Lewis echoed Willard’s thoughts on Lindsay’s performance.
“That’s great to see,” Lewis told reporters. “I’m proud of [Lindsay]. It’s not easy to go through big slumps like this when you’re playing on national TV. And everyone expects so much out of you. So for him to just keep his head down, stick to it, and keep working … I mean, that’s what happened.”
Villanova returns home after two road games to face No. 5 UConn at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday (5:30 p.m., TruTV/TNT). UConn won 75-67 in overtime on Jan. 24 in Storrs, Conn.
The last time Villanova hosted UConn, it upset the No. 9 Huskies, 68-66, on Jan. 8, 2025.
The sports memorabilia world can be transactional, but Carl Henderson navigated it with warmth and integrity.
Henderson opened Carl’s Cards in 1995, and it has since become a staple in the Havertown community. He was a lifelong fan of the area’s sports teams, and that passion showed in his work.
Carl’s Cards has something for everyone — and his daughter, Lauren Henderson-Pignetti, is determined to keep it that way.
On the morning of Jan. 31, Carl Henderson died unexpectedly in his sleep. He was 69 when he passed. He was a beloved figure at his shop and beyond.
About 400 people gathered together during a memorial service last week in Bryn Mawr. Former Phillies pitcher Dickie Noles read a passage from the Old Testament. Members of the Broad Street Bullies sat among the crowd.
His shop looks a little different now. There’s sympathy cards pinned along the walls and a sign sits in the front window to commemorate the longtime owner. But the character remains the same.
Henderson-Pignetti sees Carl’s Cards as a way to honor her late father, because, “He spent 31 years building this place. He would have wanted everything to stay the way it was.”
Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm is eligible for free agency after the season.
Rob Thomson hasn’t settled on the order but wants Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper to bat in the first inning.
Alec Bohm was the Phillies’ most frequent cleanup hitter over the last two seasons and is the leading candidate to reprise the role in his last year before free agency. He said that his game was “down last year,” but is confident that his ability to “put the ball in play” will be an asset in the cleanup spot.
And José Alvarado is starting to ramp up after an 80-game suspension and a forearm injury limited him to 28 appearances last season.
What we’re …
🤼 Preparing: Major League Wrestling will return to Philadelphia to host two nights of action at the 2300 Arena this summer.
The NFL world will descend on Indianapolis again next week for the NFL Scouting Combine.
Next week, 319 college football prospects will descend on Indianapolis for the annual NFL scouting combine. The Eagles’ needs are well-known, but how do they match up with the available talent in this draft?
Here is how we’re ranking the combine position groups from strongest to weakest — and how they could help the Eagles address some roster needs.
Red-hot Travis Konecny has made it clear that the Flyers still believe they can push and make the playoffs with 26 games remaining.
After 11 days, the Flyers were back on the ice Tuesday in Voorhees. The common theme: the playoffs are still within reach.
With 26 games left on the schedule, and just five until the trade deadline, time is ticking on the season. Will the Flyers be buyers, sellers, or somewhere in between? A lot will be determined by their first five games.
Carver Engineering and Science head boys’ basketball coach Dustin Hardy-Moore (left) talks with his players outside courtroom 275 on Tuesday.
Carver Engineering & Science’s buzzer-beating attempt to overturn a ban from the Public League boys’ basketball playoffs was swatted away on Tuesday.
A judge denied the team’s plea for an emergency injunction to stop Tuesday night’s semifinal game between Constitution High School and Imhotep Charter. This comes after the Engineers were disqualified from the Public League playoffs following a skirmish in the quarterfinals with Constitution. The student athletes of E&S are “disappointed” in the decision.
Sports snapshot
Members of Archbishop Carroll celebrate after beating Archbishop Wood in the Catholic League girls’ basketball semifinals at Villanova on Monday.
Sister duo: Alexis and Kayla Eberz combined for 36 points and guided Archbishop Carroll back to the Palestra for their third straight Catholic League appearance.
Sweet redemption: The Patriots will face Cardinal O’Hara in the PCL final, after the Lions beat Neumann Goretti, behind Megan Rullo’s 22 points.
Ready to battle: Villanova women are riding a six-game winning streak into its showdown against top-ranked UConn. How have the Wildcats been preparing?
🧠 Trivia time answer
Who was the last Sixer to win the MVP award in the NBA All-Star Game?
A) Allen Iverson in 2005.
What you’re saying about Phillies’ outfield
We asked: How will the Phillies’ outfield stack up to last year’s version? Among your responses:
Let’s see now! The Phillies just let the best centerfielder they’ve had since the Flyin’ Hawaiian just walk away. To top that off they also let one of best pitchers in baseball just walk away. Just to prove they’ve totally lost their mind, why not just cut the right fielder and give him a $19,250,000 bonus? The Mets got better. The Braves got better. The Marlins got better. The Nationals got better and our fightins got worse. — Ronald R.
Why the Phillies would risk a World Series run with such a questionable outfield is beyond amazing to me. I like Marsh alot but he has proven that he seriously struggles against lefties. I love giving young players a chance but with this team’s roster and playoff expectations this seems to be a tremendous amount of pressure to put on Crawford. And Garcia … I’m sorry but I just can’t get excited about a .227 batting average. Letting Bader go is baffling considering the expectations for this team. I believe there will be an outfield shakeup early in the season unless Phillies Management is quietly trying to rebuild the team and is willing to miss the playoffs. Letting Ranger Suarez go as well as Bader makes me suspicious this is the case. — Bob A.
Three question marks! Marsh did rebound in 2025 but was platooned. Crawford is a rookie and Garcia is a low risk, high potential project. Otto Kemp (one of the best names in baseball!), if healthy, could provide much needed punch to the offense – but can he field?? — Bob C.
Brandon Marsh warms-up during spring training workouts on Feb. 12.
Lots of questions re the outfield. Can Ott handle the role of right handed hitting left fielder? Can Crawford hit MLB pitching and cover CF as well as Bader who never should have been let go. And although Garcia will be an improvement over Nick, will he be good enough to carry this group. We will certainly not be seeing Delahanty, Thompson, & Hamilton out there, nor Burrell, Victorino, and Werth, but let’s hope for the best. Guarded optimism at best. — Everett S.
Adolis Garcia is a career .237 hitter, averaging 30 HRs and 97 RBIs for his 7-year career.That is not substantially different than who he replaces, Castellanos, except for his superior defense.Crawford has more upside than Bader and Rojas in center field.Combined, they offer more offensive and defensive potential than last year’s outfield.With that upgrade, and an improved bullpen, the Phillies should be a stronger contender in 2026. — John W.
We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Alex Coffey, Scott Lauber, Lochlahn March, Devin Jackson, Matt Breen, Jackie Spiegel, Ariel Simpson, Gabriela Carroll, Ellen Dunkel, Brooke Ackerman, and Katie Lewis.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
As always, thanks for reading. Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. Kerith will catch back up with you in Thursday’s newsletter. — Bella
On the morning of Jan. 31, a few hours after Carl Henderson died unexpectedly in his sleep, his daughter, Lauren Henderson-Pignetti, drove to her late father’s sports cards and collectibles shop.
She opened it up like she would any other Saturday. Sometimes, kids stopped in with their parents on the back end of trips to the grocery store. Or while they were driving home from basketball practice or piano lessons.
Being there — just like her father had for 31 years — seemed like the right thing to do. So, the younger Henderson stayed at Carl’s Cards in Havertown from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., until the last customer left.
Carl Henderson at his Havertown store in 2018.
The shop owner was 69 when he passed. His family announced the news on Sunday, and received an overwhelming response; thousands of messages from children and adults and even a few local pro athletes.
By Monday morning, bouquets of flowers were wedged between the doors. Customers started sending sympathy cards. Some showed up in person to express their support.
A memorial service held last week, in Bryn Mawr, drew about 400 people. Former Phillies pitcher Dickie Noles read a passage from the Old Testament. Members of the Broad Street Bullies sat among the crowd.
His shop looks a little different now. Those sympathy cards are pinned along the walls. A sign commemorating the longtime owner sits in its front window.
Condolences and tributes have poured into Carl’s Cards, including some from area sports figures.
But the character remains the same — and Henderson-Pignetti is determined to keep it that way. Carl’s Cards has something for everyone. Kids can fish through the dollar bin for unexpected treasures. Right above it, collectors can purchase a limited edition Bryce Harper-signed bat more than 1,000 times that price.
There are more run-of-the-mill items, like signed helmets and jerseys, but also packs of Pope Leo XIV trading cards, and a rectangular piece of wood cut from the old Spectrum court.
The sports memorabilia world can be transactional, if not cold, but Henderson navigated it with warmth and integrity. He frequently donated money and autographed items to charity.
He liked to say he knew his clientele — and they weren’t always big spenders.
The shop owner cared just as much about the 10- or 11-year-old student with only a few dollars in their pocket. Or those who had no money to spend at all, but just wanted to vent about Philadelphia sports.
“He didn’t care if you were buying something,” said Henderson-Pignetti. “It was almost like a version of a bar where you stop in and talk to a bartender.
“You can buy something, [but] you don’t have to. You can just stop in and talk. It wasn’t always about the dollar.”
Lauren Henderson-Pignetti has taken on the responsibility of maintaining her father’s life’s work.
The store has been open since Henderson passed. For now, it’ll stay on its previous schedule.
Henderson-Pignetti sees this as a way of honoring her late father, who would’ve wanted Carl’s Cards to stay alive, no matter what.
“We made the decision to keep everything rolling the way he would have,” she said. “He spent 31 years building this place. He would have wanted everything to stay the way it was.”
A family atmosphere
When Henderson opened Carl’s Cards in 1995, his family thought he was out of his mind. He’d left a stable, corporate job working for Ryerson Steel, and had a wife and young daughter to support.
But Henderson loved collecting, and was ready for a change. So, he signed a three-year lease for a small property on Darby Road.
By 1998, he’d outgrown it, moving to a bigger location across the street from The Haverford Skatium. In 2010, he outgrew his budding collection yet again, moving Carl’s Cards to its current home on West Eagle Road.
These shops were where Henderson-Pignetti spent her childhood. She watched as her father welcomed world-class athletes for autograph signings, and put them at ease in a way bigger card shops couldn’t.
Julius Erving was among the local sports dignitaries who were made to felt comfortable by Carl Henderson (right).
There were no strangers at Carl’s Cards. He was always running the show, with his wife, Sue, selling tickets. As Lauren got older, she began to help out too, mainly with social media and website management.
“It’s not like one of those big card shows where you’re sort of forced in and forced back out again,” Henderson-Pignetti said. “It’s very much a family atmosphere. So, I think a lot of players really enjoyed that.”
Henderson’s theory was that when athletes were more relaxed, they were able to show their authentic selves. This proved true time and time again. Carl’s Cards hosted everyone from Allen Iverson to Jimmy Rollins to A.J. Brown.
Many of these athletes returned for more signings. Some, like Eagles offensive tackle Fred Johnson, even reached out after Henderson’s passing. Others, like Julius Erving, treated the store owner like an age-old friend.
An appearance by Erving had long been on Carl’s bucket list. Like many kids growing up in Philadelphia in the 1970s, Henderson idolized Dr. J. He owned Converse sneakers — just like the Sixers forward — and played varsity basketball at John Bartram High School.
Not much enthralled Henderson, but the idea of sharing a room with one of the best athletes of his generation did. They booked the signing for Dec. 21. After it was done, Erving hung around and talked to the store owner.
At one point, he heard some employees poking fun. He joined in.
“Dr. J was like, ‘Man, they even talk to the boss like that!’” Henderson-Pignetti recalled. “And my dad was like, ‘Do you hear that, guys? I’m the boss here.’
“It was just a really fun, sort of banter conversation. It was just nice.”
While autograph signings were part of the job, they were not the whole job. Henderson wanted his shop to be just as accessible for young kids.
Carl Henderson was a lifelong fan of the area’s sports teams, and that passion showed in his work.
In addition to the dollar bin, he made sure to stock the shelves with affordable card packs. He brought in a gumball machine and added $25 mystery memorabilia boxes.
But above all, he was an uplifting presence in their lives, in a way that Henderson-Pignetti wasn’t even aware. After her father died, she heard from all sorts of kids.
One of them, 12-year-old Owen Papson, crafted a handmade letter.
“I just heard the news,” he wrote. “I am so sorry. We will miss Carl so much. Your store will always be my favorite.”
Inside, he taped a signed Harold Carmichael Topps card with an inscription above: “Hopefully this will help.”
More stories came pouring in on Facebook. One, in particular, stuck with her. It was from a longtime customer who used to frequent Carl’s Cards in the early 2000s.
Lauren Henderson-Pignetti (right, with John O’ Brien) has been touched by the outpouring over her father’s death.
He explained that at the time, his parents were going through a divorce. Henderson was a stable presence when he needed one. He’d ride his bike to the store and was greeted with a smile every time.
“I had no idea,” said Henderson-Pignetti. “To think that something so simple as my dad just being in his place of business … for this kid [it] meant more to him than I think he probably even realized.”
‘A gift from God’
Last September, Henderson-Pignetti quit her role as director of development at the Humane Society in Reading. She loved working there, but was ready for something different, similar to her father when he left Ryerson Steel.
In the moment, her decision was based on a gut feeling, but now she can see the bigger picture. Last fall, Henderson-Pignetti started working full-time at Carl’s Cards.
On Thursdays, her father would give her run of the shop; how to properly open and close, how to track sales, how website orders are mailed out, and other intricacies of the job.
“It was a gift from God, basically, because it allowed me to just absorb even more information from him,” she said. “I kind of look back on that as a weird sort of intuition type of thing. If I hadn’t left my job, that wouldn’t have happened.”
Lauren Henderson Pignetti says her goal is to keep Carl’s Cards & Collectibles up and running after her father’s passing.
The goal, for now, is to keep the shop open. Some days are easier than others. Sue is sick and unable to work. Coworkers, and even customers, have helped pick up shifts when Henderson-Pignetti needs some space.
It can be emotionally exhausting at times. But she’s going to see it through.
“The plan is to not have anything change,” she said. “He would want me to step right into this role. I have no doubt about that. So that’s what I’m going to do, for as long as I possibly can.”
The best way to understand Bryce Harper is to think about all the things he can’t say.
He can’t say that Alec Bohm is a seven-hole hitter at best. He can’t say that Adolis García is much closer to Nick Castellanos than he is a legitimate four- or five-hole hitter. He can’t say that J.T. Realmuto isn’t the guy he was three years ago. He can’t say that he’d swing at fewer pitches out of the zone if he had more confidence that the guys behind him would get the job done.
Given all of those things, Harper also can’t say that Dave Dombrowski has not been an elite personnel boss for at least a couple of years. He can’t say that Dombrowski’s lack of eliteness is chiefly to blame for the Phillies’ run-scoring struggles. Harper can’t say that he was much closer to the hitter the Phillies needed in 2025 than Dombrowski was to being the roster-constructor they needed.
To throw shade at Dombrowski would be to implicitly throw shade at teammates whose “underperformance” is mostly a function of Dombrowski needing them to be something they aren’t.
Harper could have gone deeper. He could have said that the Phillies lost to the Dodgers last season because Dombrowski cobbled together a playoff roster that didn’t allow Rob Thomson to pinch-run for Castellanos. He could have said that the Phillies have finished the last three seasons one reliever short. That they lost to the Diamondbacks in 2023 because Gregory Soto, Craig Kimbrel, and Orion Kerkering were pitching in roles where the Phillies should have had a prime high-leverage arm.
Harper could have pointed to Austin Hays, to Whit Merrifield, to Max Kepler, to David Robertson. He could have asked why he, or we, should have any faith in the decisions to sign García or trade away Matt Strahm when those decisions were made by the same man who made all the previous ones.
But Harper didn’t say those things. He couldn’t say those things. Instead, he said things that could lead one to conclude that he is a little too sensitive, a little too close to the prima donna archetype, a man in possession of emotions triggered by even the faintest whiff of criticism.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski at BayCare Ballpark last week.
When Dombrowski raised the question of whether Harper would ever be the elite player he’d once been, Harper could have raised a question of his own:
Who are you to talk, suit?
Instead, he said things like this:
“It was kind of wild, the whole situation,” Harper said Sunday when he arrived at spring training. “I think the big thing for me was, when we first met with this organization, it was, ‘Hey, we’re always going to keep things in-house, and we expect you to do the same thing.’ When that didn’t happen, it kind of took me for a run a little bit. I don’t know. It’s part of it, I guess. It’s kind of a wild situation, you know, that even happening.”
It only makes sense in conjunction with the other things we heard from Harper and his camp. In October, in an interview with MLB.com, agent Scott Boras pointed to the number of pitches Harper saw in the zone (43%, fewest out of 532 qualifying players). On Sunday, Harper riffed on that theme, pointing out the paltry production the Phillies got out of the lineup spot directly behind his usual place in the three-hole.
Look at last season’s Mount Rushmore of hitters and you’ll see the source of Harper’s frustration.
One of the common bonds for Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Cal Raleigh was the talent that followed them in the batting order.
Hitting behind Judge were Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm, and Giancarlo Stanton. Each of those players finished the season with at least 24 home runs and an .813 OPS.
Ohtani’s supporting cast needs no introduction. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are both former MVPs. Will Smith has been an All-Star in three straight seasons.
Raleigh was most often followed directly by Julio Rodriguez, Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suárez, and Jorge Polanco. Three of those players finished 2025 with at least 26 home runs.
Each of those three superstars — the three leading vote-getters on AL and NL MVP ballots — were followed in the batting order by at least three players who finished the season with at least 20 home runs. Compare that to Harper, who usually had two players behind him with more than 12 home runs, neither of whom is on the roster this season (Kepler 18, Castellanos 17).
If anything, Harper was underselling the situation when he met with the media Sunday in Clearwater. The two-time MVP limited his focus to the Phillies’ struggles in the cleanup spot, where they ranked 20th in the majors in OPS last season.
“I think the four spot has a huge impact,” Harper said. “I think the numbers in the four spot weren’t very good last year for our whole team. I think whoever’s in that four spot is going to have a big job to do, depending on who’s hitting three or who’s hitting two.”
Bryce Harper fist-bumps Phillies teammates Sunday ahead of the team’s workout in Clearwater, Fla.
But the issues behind Harper — and/or Kyle Schwarber, depending on the configuration — are deeper than the next-man-up. As we saw last season, pitchers are more than willing to pitch around two hitters when those hitters are Harper and Schwarber, especially when the guys behind them allow for an extended period of exhalation. Lineup protection is a cumulative thing.
We saw that in 2022, didn’t we? A big reason the Phillies thrived with Schwarber leading off and Harper batting third was the presence of Rhys Hoskins (30 homers, .794 OPS) and Realmuto (22 homers, .820 OPS) behind them. Even in 2023, they had some combination of Castellanos (29 homers, .788 OPS), Realmuto (20 homers, .762 OPS), and Bohm (10 homers, .765 OPS).
Boras and Harper have zeroed in on the number of pitches he sees out of the zone. It’s part of the story, no doubt. Over the last three seasons, he has seen a lower percentage of pitches in the zone than any previous three-year stretch of his career. When he was NL MVP in 2021, he saw a career-high 46.7% of pitches in the zone.
At the same time, Harper was pretty darn good in 2023, when he saw 41.2% of pitches in the zone, the second-lowest of his career, according to FanGraphs. Just as important is what Harper chooses to do with the pitches he sees.
Last year, his chase rate was 36%. In 2021, it was 25.5%. But he wasn’t necessarily chasing more pitches. His swing percentage on pitches in the zone was 78.3%, up from 72.1% in 2021.
Protection is a mindset as much as it is an externality. The more protected a hitter feels, the more comfortable he is waiting for his pitch rather than trying to do too much. Pitchers won’t necessarily approach Harper differently if they feel more danger from the hitters behind him. But Harper will absolutely feel more comfortable taking whatever pitchers give him.
The Phillies acknowledged as much with their openness about their failed pursuit of Bo Bichette. Dombrowski knows what the Phillies need. They need what they had in 2021 and 2022 in prime Hoskins and prime Realmuto (and company).
They will need to get lucky to have it this season. Their decision-making will need to be filtered through this context. Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford, the trade deadline. Bohm and García will get the first chances. Dombrowski’s future as the bossman will be determined by how they perform, and then by what happens if they don’t.
