Check out Bryce Harper's Phanatic tattoo

Happy Friday! We made it through another week of winter. The Phillies play a spring training game tomorrow, in 16 days the sun will set at 7:00 p.m., and we’re just 34 days away from Opening Day.

Hang in there, we can make it.

In the email today:

• 👀 Check out Bryce Harper's Phanatic tattoo

• ☘️ Celtics look like Eagles in thrashing of Sixers

• 🔫 NBA correctly catches strays as Canada wins 4 Nations Face-Off in OT

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Many consider Bryce Harper the "King of Pandering" to Philadelphia sports fans.

He's been fined for wearing Wawa apparel, for example. Here's Harper on Instagram, "long[ing] to see the Liberty Bell and party on the streets where Bobby Clarke, Nick 'BD' Foles, and Chase Utley had partied!" He even listens to Philly sports talk radio.

And maybe more than anything, Harper loves the Phillie Phanatic.

So it's not shocking to see that Harper recently tattooed the Phanatic on his arm. Utah-based tattoo artist Hannah Matthews recently shared these photos to her TikTok account:

Can we even call Bryce's actions "pandering" at this point? The word connotes that Harper is disingenuous in some way, when his love for the city of Philadelphia seems completely authentic.

By the time the Phillies first baseman's contract is up, he'll probably look something like this:

The Phils play their first spring training game of 2025 on Saturday.

The Eagles won the Super Bowl (and the NFC Championship game) by greedily taking what their opponents gave them. Saquon Barkley ran amok against the Commanders. The Chiefs took Barkley away, but that left Eagles receivers running free.

Last night, the Celtics came to Philadelphia, took one look at what the Sixers presented them on defense, and greedily took advantage of the Sixers’ greatest frailty, which is this: The Sixers’ perimeter defense sucks.

“They’re putting Joel Embiid in every pick and roll,” Reggie Miller said late in the first half. By that time, the Celtics were well on their way to posting their 72-point first half. They shot 15-25 from three-point range, and most of the looks were WIDE OPEN.

Sure, Payton Pritchard was on a heater, but play the clip: Pritchard has time to dribble and set his feet, to catch off the pick and roll with his shoulders square, to catch unguarded and release. In a related story, he finished with 28 points and eight threes.

Pritchard does exactly one thing well, and the Sixers let him do it. Unfortunately, the Sixers’ half court defense wasn’t a whole lot better.

The Celtics led by 16 at the half. They had 100 (and a 26-point lead) through three quarters. The fourth quarter should have been played with a running clock.

It was the Sixers’ eight loss in nine games and seventh loss in a row. The “healthy” version of the Sixers (Embiid, Maxey and George all started) couldn’t do any better than this.

Ultimately, this game underscores what everyone already knows — making the play-in would be a terrible idea for this group, because even if they survive the play-in, they’d be disemboweled by the Cavaliers or the Celtics in a seven-game series.

Kind of the way the Eagles ripped the throats out of the Commanders and the Chiefs.

The Sixers specifically and the NBA generally are making a compelling case for owners taking away guaranteed contracts. Any given night, you never know which stars will play — or try.

Player effort matters, and it’s why the 4 Nations Face-Off was an unqualified success. Every player on every team played hard and played fast. Granted, these were to an extent all-star teams. But the NBA’s All-Star weekend was a disaster.

P.K. Subban was an irritant as a player, to the Flyers and every other team he played against. So it’s been funny to watch him emerge as something of an “elder statesman” voice of reason at age 35. But Lord, did the man nail it with this analysis.

That whole clip is worth your three minutes, and somewhat remarkably, last night’s USA/Canada final at TD Garden in Boston paid off on Subban’s passion. This was another great hockey game in a mini-tournament full of them.

It took overtime to declare a winner. This wasn’t the Olympics or even a World Cup of Hockey. It was entertaining as hell, though, because the players were trying so hard to win.

It was fitting to see one of the NHL’s biggest stars score the goal that won it for Canada. The moment encapsulated Subban’s whole point. McDavid wasn’t just out there for himself. He was out there for his countrymen, too.

The NBA put the NHL deep in its shadow decades ago. One week of international play isn’t going to reverse the current natural order.

But NBA players would be wise to heed the worlds of the likes of Kevin Garnett and P.K. Subban. You can rip off some of the people some of the time, but you can’t rip off all of the people all of the time.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On February 21, 1996, the Sixers made some history! (Not the good kind.)

📊 Poll

Results from Wednesday:

🔗 Links

• 🤠 The Spurs announced that Victor Wembanyama has a blood clot in his shoulder and will miss the remainder of the season.

• 📺️ ESPN and MLB are parting ways after the 2025 season.

• 🏥 Cam Jurgens had back surgery after the Super Bowl.

• 🇦🇷 A match official asked for and got Lionel Messi’s jersey after a CONCACAF Champions Cup match.

• 🎙️ Legendary Penguins play-by-play man Mike Lange is dead at 76.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

• Flyers vs. Oilers, 1:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

• Sixers vs. Nets, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you Monday.

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