May 17, 2026
At his final news conference as 76ers director of basketball operations, Daryl Morey gathered the media together to offer his latest NBA pearls of wisdom. The occasion was another failed trade deadline, with Jared McCain headed out and no one coming in.
At one point on that memorable February day, Morey made a statement so vacuous, he should have been fired right then. right there, rather than last week after his team got swept by the Knicks in the second round of the playoffs.
“You for sure always want more good players than bad players,” he said.
I heard those words when he uttered them three months ago, and I looked up the quote last week to make sure my memory wasn’t failing me. It’s on tape. He said it, with no sense of irony or sarcasm.
First of all, thank you, Capt. Obvious. Can I get the cost of car fare to travel to today’s session?
Second, stupid me. For all of these years, I thought the goal of a GM was to have no bad players.
And third, how did the fraud making that comment manage to receive over $60 million during his six-year tenure?
The post-mortems on the Morey era here have been laughably positive – no surprise from the generous media now covering sports in Philadelphia. Hey, the argument goes, he drafted the core of our next winner, with Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecomb. All in all, Morey did OK.
Oh, please. The truth is, Morey was brought here for one reason – to win a championship. Instead, he saddled the organization with outrageous contracts that will weigh down the salary cap and haunt the organization for the rest of the decade.
Just ask yourself this question: Would any team agree to take on the – gulp — $300 million still owed on the contracts of has-beens Joel Embiid and Paul George? How about half? Anything?
Embiid has become an albatross on the roster, a stat hound who still puts up respectable numbers but rarely in service to the team’s success. Between his countless health issues and his shameless theatrics, his value as an NBA player is diminishing by the day.
And George, who had a few flashes of his prime after his suspension for violating the NBA drug policy, is 36 now, with salaries of $54 and $57 million guaranteed over the next two seasons.
Good luck to the next GM trying to build a team with these two aging, declining health risks glomming over $100 million of the $166 million cap limit next season.
As for Maxey and Edgecomb, well, Tyrese was definitely an inspired pick, true, But Edgecomb was the chalk third selection of last year’s draft after the Sixers lucked out in the lottery. No brain was required there.
Otherwise, Morey’s legacy is one of profound failure. Instead of winning an NBA championship, the Sixers now haven’t made it to an Eastern Conference final in a quarter-century. The Knicks beat them by a total of 89 points over the four games, an average of 19 a game,
Other than Maxey and Edgecomb, the parade of stiffs brought here by Morey is imposing: James Harden, Seth Curry, Danny Green, P.J. Tucker, Buddy Heild, Guerschon Yasubele, Kyle Lowry and many others.
OK, Kelly Oubre and Andre Drummond have made contributions, but not nearly enough to move the needle for the organization.
And let’s not forget how rarely Morey made himself available to discuss his record of failure. He rarely spoke publicly, and when he did, the reason for his reluctance became obvious.
It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Good riddance to Daryl Morey.
Here’s hoping the Sixers do better the next time they pick a GM.
It’s hard to imagine they could do worse.
After being a prophet of doom about the 2026 Eagles, I got a major shock last Thursday when the schedule came out.
It is not nearly as difficult as last season’s. In fact, the Birds have the easiest schedule among NFC East rivals, despite the weighted process that pits the best teams from the previous season against each other.
Opponents of the Eagles in 2026 have a combined winning percentage of .481, compared to the Commanders (.502), the Giants (.498) and the Cowboys (.493).
It’s no longer logical for me to envision a losing season based on that schedule, despite questions about the new offensive coordinator, the defections on defense and life after A.J. Brown.
The Giants are going to be much better with John Harbaugh in charge, and the Commanders figure to improve dramatically now that rookie sensation Jayden Daniels is healthy again. (Dallas still sucks.) Otherwise, the list of opponents is not nearly as imposing as I expected.
So, in keeping with an old WIP tradition, I have updated my prediction for the new season.
Drum roll, please.
Ten wins. A 10-7 record. Maybe they eke into the playoffs after all.
Hey, it’s more optimistic than my original 8-9 prediction, isn’t it?
Clearing my head:
- Joshua Harris, by all objective measures, is a horrible owner. None of his pro teams has gotten a sniff of a championship over a combined 29 seasons in three different sports. But it does appear that Harris made a smart hire, for once, when he put Bob Myers in charge of the hunt for a new Sixers GM. Myers has a winning track record as a sports executive – four championships with the Warriors – and he came across as focused and knowledgeable during his first media session. At no point did he say he wants more good players than bad ones. That’s progress, I guess.
- Where are all of the Rob Thomson supporters now that order has been restored on the Phillies? He was fired when the team was 9-19. Since then, under interim (and far better) manager Don Mattingly, the Phils are 14-4. If you think this is a coincidence, you, too, are allowing Thomson’s friendly manner to alter your judgment.
- I am absolutely the last guy who thinks fans should ever applaud failure, but I had no problem with the standing ovation by the Flyers faithful after the sweep by Carolina. Of our four major-sports franchises right now, the Flyers have the best foundation for a future champion. And no fan base deserves a Stanley Cup more than those people who have stayed loyal during 51 ringless seasons. Flyers fans have earned a standing ovation of their own.
- I had surgery last week for a bladder stone. I will spare you the grisly details. All I will say, especially to all males reading this blog, is to get your plumbing checked regularly. And if at any point the urologist mentions the word cystoscopy, jump off the table and run for your life. (And do NOT look up the definition of that word. In this case, ignorance truly is bliss.)
- I have revealed many times my new-found appreciation for watching golf on TV since my retirement, but my surgeon shocked me when he said I had been growing a stone in my bladder that was the size of a golf ball. Being a wise guy, I asked: “Did it have the name Titleist in the middle?” Being a wiser guy, my surgeon replied: “No, but it did have dimples.”