Sixers

The Athletic Has Deemed the Sixers Worthy of Having a Beat Writer this Season

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Sep 17th, 2025 · 12:06 PM EDT

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Sports media news:

Some personal news: I have moved to Philadelphia and will be covering the Sixers full-time for @TheAthletic. I am excited to return to the East coast and to cover such a historic franchise. I will miss Utah greatly…..(thread)

— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) September 16, 2025

And covering the Sixers is a huge opportunity and a huge challenge that I am looking forward to embarking on. I get to return to a place I spent childhood years. I get to be closer to my mother and college age daughter. I get to write about Joel Embiid and company….

— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) September 16, 2025

Nice to see The Athletic (now with ads) has deemed the Sixers worthy of beat coverage in 2025 and 2026. You will probably recall that The Athletic started with three Sixers writers in Derek Bodner, Mike O’Connor, and Rich Hofmann. Bodner eventually left to go independent and then made his way to PHLY. O’Connor started writing for the RTRS podcast, and then Hofmann was swept up in a 2023 layoff round. That left the publication without a Sixers writer entirely, and honestly, with the way that game 7 against Boston went, the Sixers were probably not worthy of anybody’s time or energy.

Nonetheless, The Athletic has beefed up its Philadelphia beat writerdom. They’ve got Brooks Kubena on the Eagles, and recently welcomed back Zach Berman in a senior role. They have Kevin Kurz on the Flyers and the combo of Matt Gelb and Charlotte Varnes on the Phillies. Now Tony Jones comes aboard to write about the Sixers, completing a relatively robust Philly beat corps compared to the last couple of seasons.

Let’s give Mr. Jones a warm Philadelphia welcome.