He’s a rookie alright. And the debate can finally stop.

Last night at the NBA Awards, point guard Ben Simmons was named Rookie of the Year over the petty Donovan Mitchell, who came to LA in this:

Yep. The guy that said he didn’t care about winning the award was still doing this crap.

And voting wasn’t even close. Simmons earned 90 first place votes and 481 total points. Mitchell grabbed 11 first place votes and 323 total points.

Ben’s speech was short and simple, thanking his family, teammates, coach Brett Brown, and the city of Philadelphia.

As for the responses for Donovan Mitchell, they were gorgeous:

Also, Amir Johnson won the NBA Hustle Award, which is an actual thing, and Joel Embiid, who finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, was named the cover man for EA Sports’ NBA Live 19.

To cap things off, Bill Russell is still the king:

The Roundup:

It was the first of three games between the Phillies and Yankees at Citizens Bank Park, but it didn’t feel or sound like it with the influx of dumb New Yorkers (Kinkead: or locals wearing Yankee hats).

The Yankees dominated early on and held on for a 4-2 win last night. Aaron Judge hit a solo shot to left field in the fifth.

Scott Kingery had an RBI single in the seventh and Maikel Franco hit a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth. But prior to all that, pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga had a no-hitter up until the bottom of the sixth when Jorge Alfaro led off the inning with a single. He finished giving up just that hit in 5 1/3 with eight strikeouts and two walks.

Vince Velasquez gave up two runs on three hits and four walks but struck out seven.

To make matters worse, Rhys Hoskins had a tense confrontation with a fan after a strikeout in the sixth:

He later apologized for his outburst after the game:

“Someone said something in the stands that triggered me. I was pretty frustrated by the at-bat. Got caught up in the moment. Shouldn’t happen. Can’t happen. But it did.”

The Phils looks to put last night past them tonight as Jake Arrieta takes the mound at 7:05 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Edubray Ramos was placed on the disabled list, with Hector Neris being brought back up to the big club. Gabe Kapler will hope somebody can step up in the bullpen.

And check out an all new episode of Crossed Up.

With NHL free agency opening up on Sunday, the Flyers began to keep some of their own players. They extended qualifying offers to seven of their eight restricted free agents:

  • Tyrell Goulbourne (LW)
  • Robert Hagg (D)
  • Taylor Leier (LW)
  • Alex Lyon (G)
  • Danick Martel (C)
  • Anthony Stolarz (G)
  • Reece Willcox (D)

The only one that didn’t get a qualifying offer was goalie Petr Mrazek, officially making him an unrestricted free agent.

That wasn’t the only piece of news involving the team. Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold asked the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation if they would still hold the annual Flyers Celebrity Golf Invitational at the Trump National Golf Club in Pine Hill.

His tweet originally said the Flyers made the statement before the team called him to make the correction. The team also told him they’d still have players attend the tournament, but move the event to a different golf club next year.

Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was named the third best player in the NFL Top 100 last night. Tom Brady, a guy who can’t catch, was #1 for the second straight year.

Doug Pederson got praise from his predecessor, Chip Kelly:

“I don’t think it’s revolutionary,” Kelly said. “I think things trickle-up and trickle-down. And I think when you have good coaches, they don’t try to put a box of what they do. They say, ‘How do we adapt to what we have?’ And I thought what Doug (Pederson) did last year at Philly was as phenomenal a coaching job as I’ve seen in that way. He adapted from Carson (Wentz) to Nick (Foles). What a great coach does is he puts guys in position to make plays, and that’s what he did with those guys.”

La Salle’s B.J. Johnson will join the Charlotte Hornets for summer league action.

In other sports news, the third matchday of the FIFA World Cup saw Uruguay beat Russia to win Group A (Saudi Arabia beat Egypt as well), while Spain tied Morocco and Portugal tied Iran in Group B, with Spain winning the group. Uruguay will play Portugal in the knockout rounds, while Spain will take on Russia this weekend.

Today, Group C and D wrap up. Australia-Peru and Denmark-France begin at 10 AM, while Nigeria-Argentina and Iceland-Croatia play at 2 PM.

James Harden won MVP at last night’s NBA Awards.

The Denver Nuggets declined Nikola Jokic’s option in order to work out a max deal.

In the news, the search for a pilot who landed a plane on a Cape May beach continues.

Toys ‘R’ Us is officially closing on Friday.