At a charity concert Saturday night in Red Bank, N.J., rock legend Bruce Springsteen said ICE needs to get out of Minneapolis — only he didn’t say it quite that nicely.
Well into his set, Springsteen introduced the song “The Promised Land,” from his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town, which he said he wrote “as an ode to American possibility.” Springsteen said American values and ideals of the past 250 years are being tested like never before.
“Those values, those ideals, have never been as endangered as they are right now,” Springsteen, 76, told the crowd at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in a video posted by NJ.com.
“If you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it,” Springsteen continued, “if you stand against heavily armed, masked federal troops invading an American city, using gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president, and as the mayor of that city has said, ‘ICE should get the f— out of Minneapolis.”
To a cheering crowed, Springsteen dedicated the song to the memory of Renee Good, calling her “a mother of three, and American citizen.” Good, 37, was killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis — a moment, widely seen on video, that has inflamed tensions over the Trump administration’s use of the federal agency.
High school students protest federal agents and the fatal shooting of Renee Good in St. Paul.
Springsteen was not on the official performers’ list for the “Bob’s Birthday Bash” concert, which raises money for research to help people living with Parkinson’s, ALS, and other diseases. But he’s been a frequent “surprise” guest at the annual event, as New Jersey music reporter Bobby Olivier noted.
Springsteen has long found himself involved in political discourse, including in 1984 when he called out Republican President Ronald Reagan for misunderstanding the point of his hit song, “Born in the U.S.A.” while on the campaign trail.
Kicking off his 2025 European tour in Manchester, England, he called the Trump administration “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous.”
That time around, President Donald Trump responded in kind.
“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
An escalating management dispute and chaotic board meeting preceded Jeffrey Rosen’s departure as head of the National Constitution Center, according to a report from the New York Times.
The center publicly announced on Jan. 9 that Rosen had stepped down as president and chief executive after more than 12 years leading the private, nonprofit institution at the north end of Independence Mall. Rosen will remain as CEO emeritus; Vince Stango, a 26-year veteran of the center who has served as its executive vice president and chief operating officer, has assumed the role of interim president.
The Times reported Friday, based on interviews with people who spoke on the condition of anonymity, that friction arose over how Rosen’s and Stango’s roles intersected: Rosen was the center’s public-facing leader, while Stango handled day-to-day operations, according to the Times.
A spokesperson for the center declined to comment on the Times’ article and referred The Inquirer to a previous news release, which says Rosen’s new position enables him “to devote his full time and energy to his scholarship and public dialogue.” Rosen — a constitutional scholar, law professor, and author — did not respond to a request for comment via email.
The leadership system was breaking down, the Times reported, when board members Doug DeVos (former president of Amway) and Mike George (former president of QVC) “quietly intervened” in November, hiring an employment lawyer and pushing Rosen to cede the title of president to Stango.
According to the Times, Rosen reluctantly agreed in mid-December, but by late December, talks of compromise had collapsed. Rosen submitted his resignation, conditional on the full board accepting it, “while making clear he hoped the board would instead reject it,” the Times article says.
Then-National Constitution Center president Jeffrey Rosen (left) stands by as Ron Chernow (author of the biography on which ‘Hamilton’ the musical is based) shows off the 2025 Liberty Medal he was awarded at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025.
Rosen had the backing of board member J. Michael Luttig, a retired federal appeals court judge, who portrayed DeVos and George in emails to the board as trying to unfairly oust the center’s top executive, according to the Times. Luttig threatened to step down if the board accepted Rosen’s resignation, the Times article says.
The tension boiled over at a board meeting in early January. The Times reported:
Rosen wanted to address the board, but George prevented him.
Luttig sent an email to the board threatening to file a lawsuit for what he called a violation of Rosen’s due process rights.
The meeting then devolved into a debate over Luttig’s involvement and possible conflicts of interest.
Luttig continued to participate and withdrew his offer to resign.
As of Sunday, the center’s website no longer listed Luttig as a member of its board.
The alleged quarrel comes as the center prepares for the nation’s 250th birthday. The nonpartisan museum is known for awarding the annual Liberty Medal to notable figures such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; legendary boxer Muhammad Ali; and then-Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy.
The center was also the stage for the only 2024 presidential debate between former Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
LAS VEGAS — As the Flyers try to work their way out of a six-game losing streak, they’ll have to do it without Rodrigo Ābols.
The fourth-line center and penalty killer was injured Saturday, 6 minutes, 10 seconds into a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Ābols appeared to get his right toe stuck in the ice along the boards in the offensive zone, and his ankle buckled.
One of the first players named to Latvia’s team for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, Ābols was unable to skate off the ice without help. Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said postgame, “It’s not good. I’m not going to get into it, but it’s not good.”
On Sunday, the 30-year-old was placed on injured reserve. He had three goals and 10 points in 42 games while averaging 10 minutes, 43 seconds of ice time leading up to Saturday. Ābols doubled his point total from last year in 22 games, one of which was his NHL debut.
In a corresponding move, Lane Pederson was called up from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. Although Pederson was not at practice on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena, as he made his way from Allentown after playing for the Phantoms on Saturday night, coach Rick Tocchet said he could get some time in the NHL with the center position now thin.
“We need a centerman, a quick centerman, some speed through the middle,” the coach said. “Can he supply that for us? Yeah, maybe he can. He’s looking for consistency, and so hopefully we can help him.”
Signed by the Flyers to a one-year, two-way deal worth $775,000 in the NHL on July 1, Pederson was centering the top line for the farm team — at one point between Denver Barkey and Alex Bump. Pederson has 13 goals and 28 points in 37 games, with three of his goals on the power play, one shorthanded, and two game-winners.
A career minor leaguer, the 28-year-old has played 71 NHL games across four teams: the Arizona Coyotes, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, and Columbus Blue Jackets.
His tenure in Arizona crossed paths with Tocchet, the team with whom he made his NHL debut on April 2, 2021, during the COVID-19-shortened season. An undrafted forward, Pederson scored his first NHL goal in his debut.
And they worked together briefly in Vancouver. Tocchet was hired on Jan. 22, 2023, and Pederson was picked up on waivers by Columbus six days later.
“He’s a good skater,” Tocchet said. “The thing he’s been chasing is consistency. We had him for a couple of games, and then it’s a drop-off, right? So, he’s been around the block. Here’s a chance for him. We need him.”
McDonald is no longer on the farm
Hunter McDonald got a front-row seat to the Flyers’ recent woes on Saturday. The hulking 6-foot-4, 235-pound defenseman was pulled aside by assistant general manager Alyn McCauley after the Phantoms game on Friday and told to pack his bags. He watched the loss to New York from the press box before joining the Orange and Black on the flight to Nevada.
“Obviously, excitement. Called my parents right away and stuff like that. So just sharing the good news and more work to be had,” said McDonald, the Flyers’ sixth-round pick in 2022.
The recall became official Saturday night after Rasmus Ristolainen was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Although a team source said the early findings were positive and that they may have avoided the worst-case scenario, the defenseman did not make the trip west. He was placed on IR to give the Flyers a seventh defenseman.
Although his parents are on standby in Western New York, there are no guarantees McDonald gets into one of the three games on the road trip this week, beginning Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights (8 p.m., NBCSP). He skated with forward Nic Deslauriers, who was originally drafted as a defenseman, on the fourth pair at practice.
“He’s played better,” Tocchet said when asked about the reports he received on McDonald. “I think he had a tough start, from what I’ve heard, but I think the last couple of weeks, I think he’s finding his game a little bit.”
McDonald has five assists in 33 games and is plus-7 with the Phantoms. He has 61 penalty minutes but has been working at finding the line between being a physical defenseman and not getting sent to the penalty box. But don’t worry, the guy who was called a “throwback” to the Broad Street Bullies days by Jerry Keefe, his coach at Northeastern, is still there.
“I think a bit. Kind of, hitting people,” McDonald said with a chuckle. “I know that’s kind of like what it is, but coming near our net, I want to get a stick on you, ending plays. I think that’s a super important part of the game. If I can end these plays in the D zone, be a pain to play against, and then we can go play offense.”
Tocchet wasn’t one to shy away from the physical game during his days with the Flyers and called a player who can toe the line between physical and not taking penalties “the ultimate player.”
“I think like for him is just being a good first-pass D, being really good in front of the net,” Tocchet said. “And he skates pretty well for a big guy. Big guys, you get a guy that can skate, so there’s something there.”
Bobby Brink was a full participant at practice Sunday and skated alongside Matvei Michkov and Noah Cates, with whom he was on a line before suffering an upper-body injury. Brink has missed six games after a blindside hit by Jansen Harkins of the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 6. … Goalie Dan Vladař, who was injured against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, made the trip but did not participate in practice. … It looked like Tocchet mixed up the defensive pairings with Travis Sanheim and Emil Andrae together, and Cam York skating with Noah Juulsen. Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale were reunited. … The Flyers will not face former teammate Carter Hart in Las Vegas. The goalie suffered a lower-body injury on Jan. 8 and went on IR on Jan. 15.
Delicate snowflakes painted Philadelphia white Sunday morning, leaving icy roads and sidewalks to shovel. The storm will also leave behind a cold holiday.
“We have only seen round one; round two is on its way,” said Paul Fitzsimmons, a lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly.
Through Sunday, Fitzsimmons predicted a total of 2 to 4 inches of snow, with the second wave of flurries picking up after 1 p.m., possibly mixing with rain after 2 p.m.
Rain is not certain, but there is a 70% chance of showers, according to the National Weather Service. Couple that with a cloudy day, winds around 5 mph, and temperatures in the mid-30s (35 degrees being the warmest Philly will see today), and drivers are in for some hazy driving conditions.
“Roads are icy today: People should exercise extra caution, leave extra time to leave wherever they are going, and drive slower than normal,” Fitzsimmons said.
The weather prompted PennDot to advise drivers to avoid unnecessary travel. Commercial vehicles must stay in the right lane, PennDot said.
Stick to the speed limit even if the roads seem treated, because at the moment, PennDot’s main goal is to only keep them passable, not completely free of ice and snow, the department said.
PennDot’s crews will continue to treat roads throughout the day, but there is a slight chance of more snow coming before 8 p.m., with temperatures dropping as low as 20 degrees, and a 20% chance of rain, according to the weather service.
David Bond, of West Chester, walks his dog, Todd, in the snow at Okehocking Preserve in Newtown Square on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Monday arrives a bit sunnier, and with no snow, yet colder than Sunday, Fitzsimmons said.
Skies are expected to be fully clear, with a low of 14 and a high of 35 degrees. Do be mindful of the wind, as the National Weather Service expects gusts as high as 20 mph by Monday night.
That low would be the lowest of the season so far, with an even lower 10 degrees forecast for Tuesday.
“It’s going to be cold overall, so bundle up,” Fitzsimmons said.
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It wasn’t the most clever joke ever told on U.S. prime-time television — not even close — when comedian Nikki Glaser took a swing at CBS News while hosting Hollywood’s Golden Globe Awards, which were seen live by an estimated 8.7 million viewers and clipped on social media by millions more. But the blow still landed hard, especially since the awards aired on CBS.
“The award for most editing goes to CBS News,” Glaser quipped, in a seeming reference to the recent flap over a critical report on the Donald Trump regime’s use of a Salvadoran torture prison that was spiked by 60 Minutes. “Yes. CBS News: America’s newest place to ‘see B.S.’ news.”
Last Wednesday, the network rushed out a report — sourced only to two unnamed “U.S. officials” — that the ICE agent who fired the shot, Jonathan Ross, “suffered internal bleeding to the torso” in his Jan. 7 deadly encounter with the driver who was pulling away from the scene, Renee Nicole Good.
What that report from what was once the most trusted TV newsroom in America seemed to imply — even though it did not explicitly state — was that Good’s Honda Pilot must have struck Ross in the encounter that touched off days of protests in Minneapolis and around the nation. If that did happen, it would radically alter the debate about the shooting and the violent nature of ICE’s deportation raids — creating an argument that the use of deadly force was justified.
This superb video analysis by the New York Times shows that the ICE agent who killed Renee Good in Minneapolis was not hit by her car. He had stepped away after approaching her car and killed her needlessly. https://t.co/63lI5FUVI0
I want to be careful here, because the CBS story was so vague that it’s as hard to disprove as it is to prove. Medical experts immediately noted the report could have been misleading — at best — since “internal bleeding” could mean a bruise, which might have been caused in the chaotic situation by something besides Good’s vehicle. But two reports just hours after the CBS bulletin suggested something far worse — a whiff of the utter baloney that Glaser had just joked about.
First, the New York Times released an in-depth frame-by-frame analysis of the multiple videos of the shooting captured both by citizen observers and by Ross himself as he fired his gun. The Times concluded from the analysis that “the currently available visual evidence still shows no indication agent Jonathan Ross got run over,” and published a photo showing significant daylight between the SUV and the agent as he fired.
Second, a Minneapolis Police Department report on the shooting was released, stating that Ross — who was shown on video walking around in the aftermath without any overt sign of an injury — was not taken to a hospital, as Trump had told the nation in a Truth Social post on the day of the killing. The police said Ross was driven to a government building.
Or, a different way of looking at the CBS “internal bleeding” report is in the context of Sherlock Holmes’ famous crime-solving line about the dog that did not bark. An entire pack of hounds stayed silent on this one. The facts most editors would demand before airing such an explosive claim about the biggest story in America — a medical report, or a quote from Ross’ doctor, or even a family member or an ICE colleague — weren’t published. Just the unsupported words of two officials from an authoritarian U.S. regime with a growing record for lying.
Indeed, it didn’t take long for the dismay from actual professional journalists — the ones who still work at CBS after its late 2025 takeover by a media conglomerate owned by pro-Trump billionaires — to pour out in leaks.
Most of the journalists’ consternation centered on the actions of Bari Weiss, the conservative public intellectual who has been installed as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, despite possessing almost no previous breaking news experience.
Here's Ross walking away and checking his phone after shooting Good. Doesn't look like someone suffering internal injuries after being struck by a vehicle . . . because he isn't and wasn't. pic.twitter.com/ZApbsuoyLv
“There was big internal dissension about the ‘internal bleeding’ report here last night,” a CBS News staffer who was granted anonymity told the Guardian. “It was viewed as a thinly veiled, anonymous leak by [the Trump administration] to someone who’d carry it online.”
A second insider told the news organization that it “felt to many here like we were carrying water for [the administration’s] justifying of the shooting to keep our access to our sources.” The Guardian’s sources said Weiss had personally pushed to get the piece published quickly online.
So far, all the factual, on-the-ground journalism from Minneapolis suggests that CBS News, which has stood atop the pyramid of mainstream American media for decades, has just committed one of the worst acts of bad journalism in U.S. history.
The worst? That’s a high bar, considering other historic missteps like Judith Miller’s later debunked New York Times reporting on alleged Iraqi chemical weapons that bolstered the dishonest case for war, and which was also rooted in boosting government fictions.
But with approval for ICE, Trump’s immigration policies, and the president himself reeling after Good’s killing, and a flood of viral videos showing violent actions by government agents in Minnesota, any aid for a White House campaign to rewrite history is appalling. It could be used by the Trump regime to bolster a case for invoking the Insurrection Act and sending troops to Minnesota, which would cause the simmering crisis of American democracy to boil over.
A CBS News spokesperson told the Independent that the network “went through its rigorous editorial process and decided it was reportable based on the reporting, the reporters, and the sourcing.” It should be noted that ABC News ran a nearly identical story shortly after the CBS report. The parent companies of both CBS and ABC reached multimillion-dollar settlements of questionable lawsuits by Trump at the start of his presidency rather than fight them in court.
In this undated photo released by Paramount, one of the Free Press’s cofounders, Bari Weiss, poses for a portrait. Weiss is the editor-in-chief of CBS News.
The CBS report did not happen in a vacuum. There was a reason, after all, that Hollywood’s elites guffawed when Glaser told her “see B.S.” joke. And it went even deeper than the recent brouhaha over Weiss’ last-minute postponement of the 60 Minutes report on the mistreatment of U.S. deportees in the Salvadoran prison, supposedly because she believed it needed more reporting and more input from the Trump regime.
Critics noted the slow-motion impeding of that story that was so damaging to the White House was the polar opposite of the rushed Minneapolis “internal bleeding” story that was desired by the regime. It’s also come out that a second in-the-works 60 Minutes piece that could make Trump’s government look bad — about its preference for white South African refugees — has also been delayed by intense edits.
This is exactly what many feared last year when the Trump regime green-lighted the sale of CBS’s then-parent Paramount to Skydance Media, owned by David Ellison, son of Trump-supporting Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison, and when the new owner brought in Weiss, a former New York Times opinion journalist whose right-leaning site Free Press — also bought by Ellison — is popular with the superwealthy.
It became almost a cliché to point out how the new team has threatened the storied legacy of CBS News and the iconic moments its star journalists had questioned authority, including Edward R. Murrow’s 1954 takedown of red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, or Walter Cronkite’s 1968 call for a Vietnam withdrawal that infuriated Lyndon B. Johnson’s White House.
Variety's @DPD_ says that Tony Dokoupil is making "CBS Evening News" all about himself even in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting:
"The anchor who promised, as he prepared to launch his and his boss Bari Weiss’ reinvention of the newscast, to outdo Walter Cronkite had, in… pic.twitter.com/nk00sx3Yje
But already the new reality of CBS News as a kind of state media for the Trump era has been worse than anyone could have feared, now creating “fake news” in the term’s original clear-eyed meaning and not its bastardization by Trump’s MAGA movement.
Weiss’ handpicked anchor, Tony Dokoupil, set the tone when he declared the new CBS News wanted to listen to everyday Americans and not put so much stock in experts — presumably like the doctors who could have told them the “internal bleeding” story didn’t make sense. In the immediate aftermath of Good’s killing, Dokoupil delivered a mush-mouthed “both sides” monologue that surely set Cronkite and Murrow spinning in their graves.
That was almost as embarrassing as Dokoupil’s 13-minute interview with Trump in which the president said the quiet part about the new slant at CBS News out loud, telling the anchor that if Kamala Harris had won in 2024 instead of Trump, “You wouldn’t have this job, certainly whatever the hell they’re paying you.”
That was not edited out of the interview when it aired on CBS Evening News — perhaps because, it later came out, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Dokoupil and his crew that the president demanded all 13 minutes must be broadcast without changes or “we’ll sue your asses off.”
CBS clearly complied. Of course it did. In a matter of weeks, the storied CBS eye logo has become a knowing wink to an autocratic U.S. government. The changes at CBS, and their implications for American democracy, have somewhat been lost in the recent tsunami of unthinkable headlines like the unrest in Minnesota, the bombing and regime change in Venezuela, and Trump’s once-unthinkable threats against Greenland.
But we can’t ignore this. The four million or so Americans who watch Dokoupil and the CBS Evening News every weeknight might be a huge drop from Cronkite’s era when three TV networks dominated the landscape, but many of those folks — older, less politically obsessed, often swing voters — are vital to the future of democracy.
The success of Trump’s strongman project — just like the prior century of dictatorships that have paved the way for this — depends on creating alternative realities for the true believers and a cloud of uncertainty for the rest of us. The goal is to convince the masses of people that truth is fungible — except for what is dictated by the leader.
The only “internal bleeding” we can confirm with any certainty is the battered and visibly bruised reputation of a newsroom that was once a bulwark of press freedom, as well as America’s run-over democracy. OK, that’s kind of an obvious observation, but maybe Glaser can use it if CBS lets her host the Golden Globes again next year.
Entering this season, Penn was looking to break its yearly cycle of finishing fourth in Ivy League women’s basketball.
Now, with the team off to an 0-3 start in league play for the first time since Mike McLaughlin’s first season as head coach in 2009-10, the Quakers look ahead to an uphill battle.
On Saturday, Penn (10-6, 0-3 Ivy) got off to a 10-0 start against Harvard (9-7, 2-1), relying on high energy and pressing defense to control the pace. Once the game settled, Penn’s offense flatlined, with the Quakers scoring only four total field goals through the second and third quarters — leading to a 53-42 Harvard victory.
“Great start,” McLaughlin said. “Really proud of the way we came out. Obviously, get out on that type of lead. We just struggled. Struggled to score the ball. Score in transition was probably our biggest challenge.”
Next up, Penn will host Dartmouth on Monday (2 p.m., ESPN+).
‘Not where anyone wants to be’
After finishing their nonconference games on a five-game winning streak, the Quakers then dropped three straight against Princeton, Brown, and Harvard to fall to the bottom of the Ivy League standings, alongside Yale and Dartmouth.
“Playing against Princeton in the beginning,” McLaughlin said. “A tough road trip to Brown and a good Harvard team. You know, I don’t want to say it’s just the opponent. I don’t think we’ve played well enough the last two times on the offensive side to beat whoever in our league. Coming in after league play, I was expecting us to come out of the gate a little bit faster, to be honest with you. This makes a lot of pressure on Monday to have some success here, for sure.”
Despite being three weeks into league play, Penn finds itself searching for a must win this week. A loss to the Big Green on Monday would cement Penn at the bottom of the Ivy League standings.
“Oh-and-three in the league is not where we wanted to be,” McLaughlin said. “It’s not where anyone wants to be, but this team’s got a lot of basketball to go. Monday’s really vital for this program to get where we need to go, and we’ll respond.”
Not enough help
During its three-game skid, Penn has been overly reliant on junior guard Mataya Gayle, who led the team with 16 points against Harvard.
McLaughlin is aware of his team’s top-heavy disposition on offense and hopes other guards will step up in the coming weeks to alleviate defensive attention from Gayle, who shot 39.2% from the field over this three-game stretch.
Penn’s offense has relied heavily on Mataya Gayle this season.
“Unfortunately, Mataya has taken some really difficult shots,” McLaughlin said. “I see it. You see it. Everyone sees it. But I think not having other kids that are able to make a play at times [and] pushes the ball back in her hands. That’s a tough hill to get over. With good players you’re playing against, they’re the type of shots you’re going to get, and I don’t like that for us to win.”
‘Playing to exhaustion’
Meanwhile, the 2025 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Katie Collins, is carrying an even larger weight for the Quakers.
Ranked ninth in scoring, averaging 13.1 points, second in rebounds per game (6.4), and second in blocks per game (1.8) in the Ivy League, Collins, a sophomore, has excelled in a larger role after the departure of frontcourt partner Stina Almqvist.
“I do think Katie has definitely stepped up,” McLaughlin said. “I mean, this girl is, as you see her, she’s playing to exhaustion. She’s playing both ends of the floor at full pace. I think she’s taken that next step for sure.”
Katie Collins, a sophomore, is ninth in the Ivy League in scoring.
Collins also ranks third in total minutes (34.6 per game) in the Ivy League. Against Brown, Collins played 48 of 50 minutes in a double-overtime loss.
Collins transitioned from center to power forward in the offseason to fill Almqvist’s role in the lineup, which has left a gap at center. Tina Njike and Gabriella Kelley have filled that role, but with a lack of offensive production, McLaughlin has experimented with movingCollins back to center, while subbing in players like Brooke Suttle to boost the lineup.
“We need her,” McLaughlin said regarding Suttle. “She is going to be in the middle of the lane most of the possessions on both sides of the ball. But some opportunities around the rim, we need more out of her. She’s got to put the ball in the basket. She puts the ball in the basket there, things could change.”
Monday’s game against the Toronto Raptors showed who the 76ers could be.
Wednesday and Friday’s matchups against the Cleveland Cavaliers revealed who they are currently.
As much as their talent level has improved because of health and key offseason additions, these Sixers still don’t know which version of themselves will show up on any particular night, a reality they were reminded of in a 117-115 loss to the Cavs on Friday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
With Cleveland playing without two-time All-Star Darius Garland (right big toe soreness) and key reserve Sam Merrill (sprained right hand), the Sixers should have been able to make up ground on the fourth-place Raptors (25-18). Instead, they’re seventh in the standings.
Fortunately for the Sixers (22-18), there are 42 games remaining in the regular season.
But if it concluded today, they would be bound for the play-in tournament for the second time in three seasons. Last year, the Sixers missed the postseason entirely. And with Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Jared McCain over last season’s injuries, the hope was that the squad would be a contender in the East.
At times, they appear to be. But this season has been a roller coaster of inconsistency.
The Sixers will resume play at home Monday against the Indiana Pacers in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day game (6 p.m., NBCSP). On paper, they should defeat the Pacers, who have the NBA’s second-worst record of 10-33.
Entering this week’s games, it’s unclear if Joel Embiid (21) will play against the Pacers or the Suns.
But there are several questions the Sixers will face.
Will Embiid and George play against Indiana or on Tuesday versus the Phoenix Suns, given they haven’t been cleared to play on both nights of back-to-backs?
Can they resemble the Sixers squad that rarely missed a shot while scoring 80 first-half points in Monday’s 115-102 victory over the Raptors at Scotiabank Arena?
Or will they come out sluggish and fail to match their opponent’s intensity, as they did in Wednesday’s 133-107 loss to the Cavs (24-19)?
And will they’ll fail to close out the game as they did in Friday’s loss and in several other winnable games?
“I think seven or eight [games] this year, where we just had [it] in our hands and then slip away,” Tyrese Maxey said. “Two Detroit games up in the fourth quarter, let them slip away. Chicago [on Nov. 16], same thing. Two of those games, let them slip, and Toronto as well [on Sunday]. Both times, had them beat, kind of let the game slip away. It’s probably more. Just those are the ones that come on top of my head, but those hurt.”
On Friday, the Sixers had an 11-point cushion with 8 minutes, 47 seconds remaining. After the teams traded baskets, the Sixers missed six straight shots, as Cleveland tied the score at 102.
The Sixers responded by making four consecutive baskets to build a 111-104 cushion with 3:53 left. But they fell apart down the stretch, turning the ball over before missing five of their final six shots.
Something to remember: The Sixers have only played with a full complement of key players in their last six games. Even that’s a bit misleading, with Dominick Barlow leaving early in the third quarter of Wednesday’s game with a bruised back. That ugly setback came after the Sixers briefly looked like they’d turned the corner.
On Monday, the Sixers were on top of their game against the Raptors as the ball moved freely and they boasted balanced scoring. Maxey finished with a game-high 33 points on 10-for-16 shooting. Rookie VJ Edgecombe, his backcourt mate, added 15 points while making 5 of 6 three-pointers.
But the standout duo, considered among the league’s best young backcourts, failed to have the same scoring impact against Cleveland. Edgecombe had nine points on 3-for-10 shooting on Wednesday — and missed five of six three-pointers. He finished with 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting on Friday. However, only two of his shot attempts came after intermission. The shooting guard didn’t attempt a shot while logging 7:19 in the third quarter, and shot 1-for-2 while playing the entire fourth quarter.
Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey (0) averaged 18 points on 35.9% shooting in the past two games.
Meanwhile, Cleveland appears to be Maxey’s Kryptonite.
The point guard, an All-Star in 2023-24, entered Saturday as the league’s third-leading scorer at 30.3 points per game. However, he averaged 18 points on 35.9% shooting — including making just 4 of 16 three-pointers — in the past two games.
“They do a good job on all my ball screens, and they just put a lot of attention on me,” Maxey said of his struggles against the Cavs. “So it’s a lot of times, even when I’m coming off a ball screen with Joel, and Jarrett Allen’s guarding him … I’m throwing it back to Joel. So, I mean, that was that, and then I missed some good looks tonight.”
Maxey and the Sixers will attempt to regroup during this week’s games against the Pacers, Suns, Houston Rockets (Thursday), and New York Knicks (Saturday). They should have a great opportunity to climb up the standings with all four of those contests at home, but the Sixers are 10-11 at Xfinity and 12-7 on the road.
Two games into their six-game homestand, the 76ers took time for a community event at their practice facility, where they brought in in 40 local kids from Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia.
The Sixers often attend community charity events individually or in small groups. Saturday’s event, in honor of Martin Luther King day and Mentorship Month, was a rare full team event, something the players said helped them decompress after Friday’s loss.
“It’s cool to see the entire team here, entire staff, that’s a really cool scenario,” Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey said. “I’ve never done this since I’ve been here.”
The team split into small groups with the students and competed in a series of different games, including a basketball obstacle relay course, knockout, a math station, and a rock, paper, scissors challenge featuring a few hula hoops, which many of the Sixers chose to bypass.
Through each of the four stations, the teams worked to earn points, which ultimately led to a win for star rookie VJ Edgecombe’s team.
Sixers big man Dominick Barlow enjoyed the down time with the students and his teammates.
“[I love] just being around the guys, I like these events,” Barlow said. “Obviously, when we’re around like the youth and the community, we get to show them that they mean a lot to us, and we try to give that back to them.”
Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia is a non-profit that helps put students from underserved parts of the Philadelphia area on the path for top high schools and colleges, and helps educate and inspire the next generation of teachers through a teacher-in-residence program.
The organization was a Sixers Youth Foundation grantee and served 211 total students across grades five through 12 in 2024-25.
“Seeing the smile on some of these kids faces, obviously, some guys on the team are their favorite players, like Tyrese, VJ,” Trendon Watford said. “It’s just good to see the smile on their faces, and take a little time out of our day to make their day.”
Nestled under all the success of last season for the Union is that their manager, Bradley Carnell, proved yet again that he’s one of Major League Soccer’s bona fide tacticians.
In his first season at the helm, he came within one point of the club’s record, a statistic that originally took more than a decade to amass. He guided the Union to their second Supporters’ Shield, which is given to the club with MLS’s best regular-season record.
With 30 teams vying for the shield, that’s no small thing.
While aspirations of their second MLS Cup final appearance were dashed in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, success was already apparent, and Carnell, 48, was orchestrator, the proof in the form of the 2025 MLS Coach of the Year award.
However, in the afterglow of a banner year for the Union, Carnell knows the limelight, particularly for him, is fleeting. He’ll never admit it, but his vision board, whether real or imaginary, surely includes the notion that success this season would right a lot of wrongs along his coaching path.
He knows it. It’s why in a conversation with Union sideline reporter Sage Hurley, he said: “I take personal accolades and forget about them very quickly. In our business, it’s very fluid, very daily, and we focus on the present.”
Bottom line: Judge this manager not by what he has done, but by what he does in 2026.
Here’s why:
Been here before
It’s important to remind folks that what Carnell accomplished with the Union last season wasn’t new for him over his nine seasons in MLS. Replicating it or even eclipsing it in Year 2 would be.
Why? Because he’s well aware of just how quickly a sophomore slump can turn into a crash-and-burn.
In his previous stint as a manager, Carnell’s St. Louis City SC became the first expansion team to win its conference in its inaugural season. St. Louis topped the Western Conference with a 17-12-5 record and reached the 2023 MLS playoffs.
Like the Union this year, St. Louis crashed out of the playoffs early. It was swept in a best-of-three first-round series against Sporting Kansas City after entering the tournament with the fourth-highest point total (56) that season.
Copy and paste.
As coach of expansion team St. Louis City SC, Carnell led the team to the best regular-season record in MLS’s Western Conference.
Carnell didn’t even finish the following season. He was replaced in July following a dismal start in which St. Louis was at the bottom of the Western Conference standings with just three wins.
But in his final regular-season news conference of 2025, while answering questions about who will orchestrate player moves with sporting director Ernst Tanner on leave amid an investigation into his alleged misconduct, Carnell was asked what he learned from the season to ensure he doesn’t find himself in the same boat.
He seemed like he couldn’t wait for someone to bring it up.
“This has been an amazing journey for me as a coach,” Carnell said. “I’ve grown up, and I’ve learned a lot more through the players and the engagement and just the people here at the front office. [I’ve learned that] when there’s support, alignment, [and] collaboration, a lot can be achieved. I think we’ve shown that over the course of the year that we are all pulling in the same direction.”
A big takeaway, Carnell said, too, is just how easily he assimilated into the culture of the club, its fans, and the city. Philly feels like home for the South Africa native, as he noted that the team and front office have made it easy for him and others who felt like outsiders to want to be here.
“I think about [former Union defender] Kai Wagner, who has been here multiple years now. You would assume he’s from Philadelphia,” Carnell said. “There’s a certain edge and a drive and a determination and a quality about this group. That speaks volumes for the development of the club and the development of people, staff, and players.”
It’s safe to say the pressure Carnell will feel entering Year 2 will eclipse his second year with St. Louis. The Union made massive changes in the offseason, as proven players (like Wagner) were brokered for top dollar and replaced by some complete unknowns.
Bradley Carnell (right) was all smiles last season, celebrating the Union’s Supporters’ Shield title with midfielder Danley Jean Jaques.
Also, Carnell wasn’t operating St. Louis City during a FIFA World Cup year in a city that will host six matches. Soccer eyes will be on MLS — and just how good the local MLS club is. Especially one that was the league’s best under his guidance a year before.
Another thing he won’t admit: There is newfound pressure for the Union to come out strong — not just to further erase the pain of coming up short last season, but also because events like a World Cup tend to bring transformative change within an organization.
The club won’t admit it, but there are questions in the background that perhaps only top Union management and ownership can answer. But no one expects those questions to arise until the afterglow of the World Cup.
Union majority owner Jay Sugarman has figured out how to remain one of the league’s best clubs on a shoestring budget. Carnell is a big reason.
There also are other reasons. The obvious is that, entering a seven-week World Cup break beginning in May, sitting near the top of the Eastern Conference standings bodes well once MLS play resumes.
And while he’ll naturally mask that last factor by suggesting that the focus is “on the collective,” a familiar phrase from his first season in Philly, nothing would make people forget his sophomore slump in St. Louis more than not replicating something similar in 2026 with the Union.
“Around 11 months ago, we stepped in here in a world of our own,” Carnell said. “I hope 11 months later, through the team’s performance and collective effort, some of those questions have been answered.”
Some have, sure. But on a personal level for this manager, heading into 2026, just one more needs closure.
Players showered manager Bradley Carnell with a lot more than just praise after the team’s massive 2025 season.
