Kevin Hart has a video series where he conducts interviews with athletes and celebrities while they sit in an ice bath.

It’s called…

…wait for it…

“Cold as Balls”

Past guests include LaVar Ball, Blake Griffin, Candace Parker, and Gabby Douglas, and this time Sixers’ point guard Ben Simmons joined the show to talk about a little bit of everything, from LeBron James, to Australia, and the city of Philadelphia.

I’ve got a bit of Kevin Hart fatigue, but I found this to be entertaining:

I hope you had a great President’s Day.

Sincerely,

-Kinker

Whenever I see Angelo Cataldi’s weekly column pop up at Philly Voice, I expect a short read, a bunch of recycled cliches cobbled together into an article featuring very little supportive evidence or meaningful analysis.

Today’s offering is titled “Angelo Cataldi: The Sixers’ weak spot may be head coach Brett Brown,” which is certainly fair and probably even true. This is the most talented Sixers team of my lifetime, and Brett Brown is under immense amounts of pressure to pull these guys together and get ’em rolling. General Manager Elton Brand did his job, and now it’s Brett’s turn. There’s nothing outrageous about Angelo’s premise, and Brett’s late-game management is one of the biggest question marks surrounding the team as we exit the All-Star break and hit the home stretch.

The problem with Angelo is that he ruins every decent topic with half-assed and/or incomplete execution, which makes him look lazy and ready for retirement.

Angelo takes issue with the end of the Boston game, writing the following:

Without belaboring every glitch in the final moments – every timeout Brown failed to call, every misplay Brown oversaw – let’s just say the game came down to Joel Embiid against Al Horford, 34 seconds left, the Celts ahead, 106-104. The NBA would acknowledge in its subsequent Two Minute Report that Embiid was hacked on the ensuing shot, and he was.

But why was the star center left to his own devices with the game on the line? Embiid later took all of the responsibility on himself, saying it would have been better to call a timeout, but his team had none. Actually, the Sixers had two. It was the responsibility of Brown to set up that play, not Embiid. As he so often does, the coach chose to leave it to his players.

Okay, first things first, I think Angelo is talking about two different things here. He begins that paragraph by talking about the Embiid/Horford no-call possession that took place with 34 seconds left. At that point, yes, the Sixers had two timeouts remaining.

But then he goes on to say, “Embiid later took all of the responsibility on himself, saying it would have been better to call a timeout, but his team had none,” which refers to the Sixers’ final possession, which happened on a different trip down the floor. It was the play where Tobias Harris missed the three-pointer and Embiid got the rebound, then scored the layup instead of kicking the ball back out.

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I know people say “nobody cares” and “who gives a shit” about anything Markelle Fultz related, but here are a couple of things for you to consider:

1. whenever we post a Fultz story, people immediately click on it and read it
2. the majority of Sixers fans still want to know why the #1 overall draft pick became a huge bust

That’s it. Site traffic doesn’t lie. For every complainer on here that doesn’t want to read Fultz stuff, there are ten times as many who are fascinated with what I’d describe as the most bizarre story I’ve seen in at least ten years.

This past weekend, Markelle posted this clip on social media, which is a hype video that ends with him writing “they quick to forget,” with a couple of sleepy-face emojis:

So Fultz posted a hype video on his snap story; adds “they quick to forget” and “keep that same energy” at the end.

He’s a clown I’m so over him pic.twitter.com/LjkD6TJgzM

— Josh Lyons (@TheLyons_Den) February 17, 2019

I disagree. Sixers fans and NBA fans at large were not “quick to forget” how good he was in college. He was the top pick for a reason. They showed much patience while he was dealing with Scapular Muscle Imbalance and Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, hoping he’d reach the level he displayed at Washington.

So anyway, this could be something, or it could be nothing at all. But like I said with the Orlando press conference and his mom’s comments, Markelle is leaving himself open to interpretation, and when you do that, you’re gonna get negative feedback from a portion of Sixers fans who feel like you’re shading them, even if you’re not.

Joel Embiid was recently fined $25,000 by the NBA for saying that the referees from last weeks Boston/Philly game “fucking sucked.”

Maybe he can pay that fine with cash from a new Hulu endorsement, which ran on Saturday and Sunday during the NBA’s three point and dunk contest, plus All-Star Game:

Child: “Mr Embiid, why did you change your nickname?”

Embiiid: “Money.”

That’s pretty good.

More on the commercial from Adweek:

The “Hulu Sellouts” campaign will include four national TV spots that will run through June, featuring athletes from varying professional sports. An ad to be released in the coming weeks will feature All-Star Game team captain Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The campaign, created in partnership with Big Family Table, will also feature home billboard takeovers, online banners and creative components across social media.

Damian Lillard also appeared on a 30 second spot this weekend.

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I wrote Thursday about Markelle Fultz’s introductory press conference in Orlando.

Did he take a shot at the Sixers? Or was his quote received the wrong way? Coggin ripped Markelle this morning, and while I’m not 100% certain he was intentionally shading Philly, my takeaway was that Markelle didn’t do himself any favors by leaving this quote open to interpretation:

“…Another thing I’m big on is just the relationships and everything like that. I heard a lot about coach, not only from players that played here, but a lot of players across the league that I’m really close to. I think it just excites me to know that I have coaches that are going to push you to be better and not just gonna tell you what you want to hear. So from that aspect that made me even more excited.”

People argued about that quote on Facebook and Twitter over these past 24 hours.

Interestingly enough, his mother Ebony, who reportedly is very involved in Markelle’s life and day-to-day affairs, said this to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, who covers the Magic:

That sentiment — that the Magic will be patient — seems to be the biggest takeaway Markelle and Ebony Fultz have taken from their interactions with the team so far.

“I get a great vibe,” Ebony Fultz said. “It’s very refreshing to hear the positivity, the support that they have for (the players) and the fact that they’re constantly saying, ‘We want to do this the right way.’”

This is another head-scratcher of a quote.

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NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was part of a presentation this morning where he revealed an electronic jersey that changes name and number via a smartphone app.

Don’t believe me?

See for yourself:

Adam Silver unveils the NBA jersey of the future. pic.twitter.com/h5GePOwOjx

— NBA (@NBA) February 15, 2019

This is PERFECT for posers, especially Los Angeles Laker fans living in our area.

For instance, when LeBron James misses a mid-range jump shot and then plays zero defense on the other end, you can change the back of your jersey to say “Kuzma” instead. And then when Kyle Kuzma gets traded to the Pelicans as part of the Anthony Davis deal, you can change the back of your jersey to say “Davis” instead.

It’s brilliant. All frontrunners and flaky bandwagon fans are going to have this on their Christmas list.