Good morning. If ever there was an indication of how God awful Philly sports are right now, it is indeed the back page of the Daily News today, which features the GM of the worst professional sports team in the country for a story about the inside baseball between him and another executive. Like, as intriguing as it is to bandy about this dynamic, do you get the sense that every other city with major sports teams is currently laughing at us?

Let’s hit it!

 

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The roundup:

Here’s how Marcus Hayes kicked off the cover story, which is as remarkable in its repetition as our continued responses to Hayes’ fundamental misunderstanding of what Hinkie has been doing all along is stale:

IF ANY HINKIEBOTS remain, Jerry Colangelo’s proclamations at NBA All-Star Weekend must have shaken their world like an Aaron Gordon dunk.

Colangelo announced that he expects to hire an experienced “basketball mind” to create “the strongest front office in the league.”

. . . Because the front office Sam Hinkie created is not even close.

Colangelo, who is 76, said he intends for the Sixers to be a dangerous playoff team within three years, when his contract expires.

. . . Because hoarding draft picks, losing on purpose and spending no money is a criminally flawed methodology.

For the Sons of Sam who remain true to the cult, a translation might be in order.

Oh boy, kiddos, Uncle Marcus is here to break it down for us. We will assume that he has finally come to terms with the fact that losing can, in fact, lead to winning. Nope:

Hinkie’s plan: accumulate “assets” in the form of young players and draft picks, clear cap space and grow a product that, at a point undefined, would contend for a title. Hinkie’s product: a dysfunctional team whose talent and performance was the worst in NBA history.

This is Colangelo, a four-time executive of the year, declaring that no asset is sacred: not this year’s overvalued, protected first-round picks from the Lakers, Heat and Thunder; not Dario Saric, the European unicorn on whom Hinkie spent a first-round pick two years ago.

I don’t think I need to tell you, the educated reader, that Colangelo may very well win by using those very “assets-in-quotes” that Hinkie has spent the past three years acquiring. When Colangelo trades the Lakers’ protected pick for a seasoned point guard and uses the available cap space to sign a free agent to a max deal and then pairs those players alongside European sensation Saric and Nerlens Noel, I fully expect the space-time continuum to rip a vortex through Marcus’ anus as he tries to wrap his head, located in his ass, around the fact that Hinkie’s grocery shopping and Colangelo’s culinary skills combined to make the delicious dish of basketball we may soon enjoy.

 

Hayes’ piece was in response to Colangelo telling reporters that he may add a basketball mind to the front office.

 

The Shield is looking into Lee Stempniak’s spear of G-G-Ghost.

 

Speaking of Ghost, who is terrific, he extended his point-scoring streak to 12 by backdooring the shit out of a last-minute secondary assist last night as the Flyers played the final 3+ minutes without a goalie and then on a 6-on-4 power play down 3-0. Here’s Ghost, just sliding into the score sheet like:

The Flyers lost 3-1, because they lack an entire second line of scoring. But don’t dare be so cheeky as to besmirch the good name of Ghost or insult the Flyers’ lack of scoring depth on Twitter, lest you hear it from both Flyers and Rangers fans:

Voila_Capture 2016-02-15_07-59-12_AM

Lighten. Up.

 

Good one between Wayne Simmonds and Dylan McIlrath:

 

Scorching hot take from Clay Travis of FOX Sports on Shaun King’s reporting for the NY Daily News which recently “revealed” that Peyton Manning has a 20-year-old assault accusation because he tea-bagged a female trainer in college. Here’s Travis:

So according to this report written twenty years ago the trainer made no mention of actually being put in contact with Manning’s rear end. In fact, she pushed him away and called him an ass. Then in a plaintiff’s filing several years later she suddenly has his butt, his rectum, his testicles and his taint all over her. Interesting that her story would change. The law generally favors the most contemporary version of events possible since it’s the one least likely to be altered by memory. So it’s important to note that in this trainer’s original statement to the University of Tennessee as part of her sexual harassment investigation she made no mention of Manning contacting her.

Travis went a little too far in calling King a “fake black guy” (…), but I mostly agree with his sentiment here. Tea-bagging a female trainer, especially when you’re a high-profile athlete, is colossally dumb. But you show me a college kid who hasn’t done something dumb, and I’ll show you that fine unicorn Hayes mentioned earlier. Legal analyst Michael McCann, writing for SI.com, finds mostly in favor of Manning in this case.

 

There was a report that ESPN instructed its employees not to talk about the story, but SI.com’s Richard Deitsch says that’s just not true:

On ESPN and the Peyton Manning story:

Many of you asked why ESPN had not reported/commented on the New York Daily News story on Peyton Manning. Here is a response from an ESPN spokesperson:

“We were following up and doing our own reporting. We posted something when we were comfortable and continue to report responsibly on the story.”

 

?????????? SEAN DON’S 2016 VILLANOVA HYPE VIDEO ??????????

I look forward to Temple’s effort to defeat this.

 

Republicans are calling for President Obama to not name a candidate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away over the weekend, and saying that we should wait to do so until a new president is elected. As someone who’s voted for more Republican presidential candidates than democratic ones, I find it remarkable that the party which claims to so staunchly defend and honor the Constitution has the gonadotropins in an election year to suggest that what the country needs, what the right thing to do, is to leave a vacancy on the Supreme Court for a year just so they have a better chance of getting the guy or girl they want to replace Scalia. It’s like they’re parodying everything the country hates about politicians.

 

Speaking of, I’d love to hear Ben Carson’s reaction to the SI swimsuit issue covers:

Voila_Capture 2016-02-15_08-31-45_AM

Mine? Derp.

 

Better place to spend your visual capital? Preston and Steve’s battle of Bucks vs. Delco ladies. Without looking– Bucks (unless the Delco girls are from Berwyn, in which case we’ll take this under the hood).

 

Headline: Ex-NY governor denies choking woman

 

A woman was stabbed in the neck by a broken beer bottle during a fight at a bar in the Northeast.

 

SNL: The Day Beyonce Turned Black

 

Star Wars Episode VIII has begun filming.

 

The Sandusky fallout still effects Penn State when it comes to luring high school kids.

 

The NBA dunk contest as called by Jim Ross.

 

Texas A&M fans chanted “76ers” at Ben Simmons.

 

This is dirty:

https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/698574350069407745

I’m sure Joshua Harris loved that.

 

Ruben Tejada is still bitching about Chase Utley’s slide:

“I know it’s part of the game, but not like that,’’ Tejada said. “I would never do that to another infielder. That is the position I play and I would never want to hurt another player that plays that position like that. It would have been different if some other position player, a corner infielder or an outfielder had done that to me, but he is an middle infielder, he should know better.’’

Boo? Rhymes with “duck phew”: ____ ___.

 

A mobster’s house may become a city landmark.

 

Solid Jeff Gordon-FOX Sports promo.

 

Congratulations to Taylor Swift superfan Jim Adair:

Voila_Capture 2016-02-12_09-24-49_AM

 

TMZ paid over $100k for the Ray Rice videos. Great article on the whole process. That is not market value.

 

Podcast:

Here is an unsolicited email I received about our podcast from reader Dan last week:

Hi Kyle,

Just listened to the podcast from last night and I enjoyed it. I’ll be honest, last night’s and the one before are the first two I’ve ever listened to. They are great. A lot of solid insight into different areas of the sports media industry and other industries around sports. As someone who prides myself in sports fandom, it’s cool and enjoyable to hear about.

Side note: for a very long time, I thought that your website didn’t work for me because of the gray lines that were everywhere. Then I realized that you had to take the surveys first. So funny to hear about that on the podcast.

Dan

You all should be like Dan:

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