👋 Good morning! Looking sharp, Krukker.

Listening to Joe Girardi for three-plus hours is not my cup of tea, brings up some bad memories. But if I get to see John Kruk looking miserable in a suit while rocking a fresh, legitimately great haircut, it feels like a worthwhile trade.

You can reach me at [email protected]

This is one of two free editions of the Broad Street Bulletin this month. But I will have a new edition every weekday, as Eagles training camp starts this week. You can upgrade here and get it every weekday for either $5 per month or $50 per year.

The NBA transaction wire made it official late Sunday night.

Instead of dumping 10,000 words on you about LeBron James and the Sixers today, let’s break down the stunning turn of events over this entire week. I will try to hit on this thing from every single angle, and man, there are a lot.

We can get into the actual basketball later this week, but the thing about signing LeBron is that it is about more than the actual basketball. He is one of the most famous athletes in the entire world. Off the top of my head, I got Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Tiger Woods as living athletes that might be more famous than LeBron. Maybe I am missing someone, but the list is not much longer than that.

Sports are about community. In this case — LeBron signing for the veteran’s minimum, choosing Philadelphia with no past ties and no financial incentive to do so — invigorated this community that we all really care about. It really was something.

We all saw the excitement this weekend. The amount of Sixers jerseys, t-shirts and hats in the wild quintupled. The Sixers feel like the one franchise in the city with the most bandwagon potential, and I say that with love. When the team is bad or average, people check out pretty quickly. During the Eddie Jordan and Doug Collins days, most Philadelphians were doing better things with their time than commenting about Spencer Hawes and Arnett Moultrie on Depressed Fan and Liberty Ballers (guilty).

This is a sports town, but it is a football town first and foremost. The Sixers are not the Eagles, who are the biggest story in town even when they stink. But with the Sixers, things really can go from 0 to 100 if the team gives the people something to rally around. Remember all of the car flags during the 2001 playoff run? The city was on fire!

Heading into this offseason, the enthusiasm level was down despite the comeback against the Celtics. The difference in enthusiasm between the Philly and New York fans felt palpable as that series moved along. The Knicks were a true title contender, while the Sixers were not. But after LeBron signed, which followed the shocking Jaylen Brown trade, it feels different. That does not mean the Sixers are definitely an inner-circle title contender, but people are that excited ‘round here. On Friday, I walked around Center City and a ton of people had Sixers gear on. One guy outside of my apartment was yelling LeBron James in a similar twang to that little kid.

So, I figured I would spend today simply recapping how the Delaware Valley and Sixers fans everywhere responded to The Decision.

Let’s start with the key players:

Allen Iverson blessed us with an Instagram post. While A.I. definitely has his faults, I always respected that he never went the back-in-my-day route that so many former athletes take in their post-playing careers. He and LeBron seem to have a very good relationship, with a lot of mutual respect. I guarantee that LeBron talks about wanting to wear the black throwbacks because of Allen. A long time ago, LeBron was among the all-stars who were astonished when Allen cut off his cornrows. Legendary video.

There was plenty of LeBron-Sixers gear almost instantly. Mitchell & Ness wasted no time. The Wildwood boardwalk wasted even less time (RIP Dan McQuade). This single transaction could very well revitalize the local bootleg t-shirt industry and take it to heights never seen before.

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign… There were billboards hanging over the highway. The Met and Fillmore put LeBron messages on their respective marquees. Planes were flying welcoming LeBron over the beach. A boat in Ocean City put up a sign remarkably fast.

Local athletes were pretty pumped. Saquon Barkley asked LeBron when he would like to golf, which I think was a sneaky important part of The Decision. LeBron has caught the golf bug, a charming subplot because he does not appear to be very good. Hard game! You cannot golf during the winter months in Philadelphia, but in the fall and spring? We have better courses in the area than Cleveland and Miami. LeBron will be at Merion, Pine Valley, Aronimink, Philly Cricket and probably ten other places. Lane Johnson has been here for the whole Process, he was excited. Abdul Carter seems to love the Sixers in the same way that Jalen Brunson loves the Eagles, and he actually predicted it.

Bryce Harper, who shares a similar backstory with LeBron as a prodigy who was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a teenager and impressively lived up to the hype, knew it was Nick Nurse’s birthday somehow. Impressive, he must have read his news clippings. I am surprised that The Ultimate Panderer (a compliment!) did not have LeBron cleats on at some point this weekend. The turnaround times on those must have been pretty slow.

The governor, who is such a Sixers sicko that he followed me on Twitter back when he was a little-known Montgomery County politician, declared it LeBron James Day in the commonwealth. Fair enough.

Local celebs weighed in…

Just like Iverson, the legend Marc Zumoff blessed the timeline with the following…

And on 97.5 The Fanatic, Matt Cord even cut a pregame intro of how he would announce LeBron on the Sixers. Cord literally just retired as the Sixers public address announcer after an excellent, lengthy run in the position. I do not know if Cord is set on retiring, but if he wants, please come back for another season. The circumstances have changed in a major way, you have more than enough justification for changing course. Seriously. Brandon Graham did it and everyone loved it.

I had a ton of fun seeing how excited everyone was about the local basketball team all weekend. Sports rock.

Tomorrow, I will get into the (much more divisive!) national reaction.

⚾ Phillies lose 2 of 3 to the Yankees: The Epic Midsummer Homestand of 2026 was an absolute bust. The Phils went 3-6, with some dispiriting losses mixed in there.

This weekend further showed that, until they prove otherwise, these guys are The Boom-or-Bust Phillies. This lineup is giving you no consistency.

Last week, I defined a “Boom Game” as seven or more runs and a “Bust Game” as one or less runs #Analytics. So far this season, the Phillies offense has submitted them at about a 1:1 ratio. That is not good. This weekend, the Phillies scored one run total in the first two games before exploding for 11 on Sunday Night Baseball and salvaging a win. Again, that is not good.

Schlittler and Luzardo both pitched a gem on Friday. Bummer that Trea Turner hits that ball in the eighth inning right at Cody Bellinger, but the Phillies were on base just five times all game. They have the lowest on-base percentage in all of baseball, which is both unacceptable and why they are so prone to getting blanked. And then on Saturday night, the Phillies’ issues against left-handed starters showed themselves again. A below-average lefty starter automatically turns into Sandy Koufax against these Phillies.

Big nights for both Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott on Sunday. The Phils need those guys to produce, because the Schwarber-Harper-Marsh trio are all having down months in July. I wonder if the dreaded Home Run Derby Curse is rearing its ugly head again for the first two guys, Abreu-style. So does Donnie Baseball.

The Phillies are now 5-21 when the dreaded No. 5 starter’s turn comes up, but it was not the pitching’s fault for a change in Saturday’s loss. Brian Keller, who made his MLB debut at 32 and threw three innings of one-run ball, was a bright spot. This guy apparently paid 12 grand out of pocket to get elbow surgery a few years ago and make it back on to the field. And there Keller was at 32 years old, pitching well in his big-league debut against the Bronx Bombers. How can you not be romantic about baseball?

Well, besides when you watch this Phillies lineup hit. Pretty easy to not be all that romantic about that experience.

It’s that time of year again.

Families are taking their summer vacations to the Poconos and the shore. Nothing major is happening on the sports calendar* outside of the Phillies. And the Eagles are about to strap on the pads and whip themselves into shape under the sweltering summer sun.

(*LeBron, the rare exception to that rule this year.)

And yeah, Eagles training camp is nothing like what it was during the Lehigh era. Andy Reid ran two-a-days that might as well have resembled the Junction Boys compared to what the players do now. But as my guys Sheil and ZB pointed out on the latest Ringer’s Philly Special, Eagles fans generally do not seem to care about the “soft” camps that Nick Sirianni runs anymore. That was a big thing about a decade ago. Whenever an Eagle whiffed on a tackle in September, you heard, “These guys do not hit enough in the summer!” You would constantly hear that line of criticism on WIP and The Fanatic all the time, sure, but I would say it sometimes. Your filter goes away on Sundays, in the heat of the battle.

That subject was part of the classic “Rest vs. Rust” debate. But nobody seems to bring up the Eagles’ lack of physicality in the summer anymore, for three reasons:

Are the lack of serious injuries mostly due to lighter training camps? Or does it have more to do with drafting healthy players in general, a sharp medical staff, other internal practices, or just luck? I dunno, probably all of the above to a degree. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And it sure ain’t broke.

There is only so much we can learn from training camp, and yet, Eagles fans are still starving for any information that is available to us. Back in the Lehigh days, I devoured Les Bowen and Paul Domowitch’s practice observations in the Daily News. As it turned out, the Ernie Sims hype train got derailed the second that the real games started.

And now, The Gigantic Eagles Beat Corps provides us with training camp notes. Literally all of them. The Inquirer, NBC Sports Philly, Bleeding Green Nation, PhillyVoice, PHLY, The Athletic, etc. All of those outlets have writers recapping the practices in great detail, letting us know what is going on. And while I consider chronicling the Paul Turner underdogs of the world a civic duty, these places all do that for a reason: People click on those articles!

So, what will The Gigantic Eagles Beat Corps be focusing on as practice starts later this week? I see five major storylines for Eagles training camp:

🦅 What does Sean Mannion’s offense look like? Like, structurally. What does the thing actually look like?

In Nick Sirianni’s ideal world, the Eagles would practice behind closed doors and unveil their revamped offense Week 1 against Washington at The Linc. He might get some additional ChatGPT time in there, too. But nobody would know anything about this new system until September 13th.

The good news is that the Eagles are not allowed to hide from the media for another month. Training camp practices are open to the media and some fans at Son of NovaCare. And while there might be a few things and wrinkles that Mannion shies away from to keep things away from prying eyes, this is valuable practice time. When you are making major structural changes to the offense, this is the time to rep the basics. We are going to be hearing about these changes over the next few weeks.

As ZB always says, “When in doubt, write the quarterback.” It feels like everyone in Philadelphia has at least one eye focused on Jalen Hurts at all times. But that is probably even more so the case this summer, because what Jalen is doing can largely tell us what Mannion is trying to accomplish with the entire offense. We think that we will see more under-center, motion, play-action, throws over the middle, etc. But is that what it looks like in action?

During some training camps, the offense is ahead of the defense. That was the case in 2017, when you could see that Carson Wentz was about to have a special season. More times than not, it is the other way around. I expect the Eagles’ defense, which is more talented and playing under the same (amazing) coach for the third straight year, to consistently get the better of an offense incorporating new pieces and a whole new system. But how does that whole new system look? That is the question.

Speaking of those pieces, though…

🦅 What do the new pass-catchers look like? The Eagles’ passing offense will be the dominant on-field storyline of camp, so it ends up making up both of our first two bullet points. It is not just the new scheme, but also the new players who are tasked with carrying out that scheme. If A.J. Brown were still here, there would be less interest in the pass-catchers. But A.J. Brown is very much not here.

DeVonta Smith ascending to the No. 1 receiver role will be one of the major storylines to track all season. That said, we know what Smitty’s baseline is. Watching him smoke Ambry Thomas in a one-on-one rep might make for a cool social media clip — I am a particular sucker for the DeVonta ladder drill — but will not tell us much about his upcoming season. DeVonta going up against Quinyon Mitchell should be valuable in an “iron sharpens iron” sort of way, but the proof will be in the pudding when the real games roll around.

But everyone else in the receiver and tight end rooms not named Dallas Goedert? They will be of interest. For example, does Johnny Mundt catch a single pass over ten yards? The people are waiting with bated breath!

The first two draft picks are really gonna be under the microscope. Makai Lemon, who seems to possess the traits that fit the Shanahan-McVay scheme perfectly, recently said that he will be 100 percent for the start of training camp after suffering a supposed hamstring injury during spring practice. That injury was mildly concerning, so hopefully he is all healed up and ready to make some Lemonade. Eli Stowers reportedly had a quiet training camp. That was also mildly concerning, because you would expect an athletic freak like him to thrive when the pads are not on.

We need to keep our expectations in check. The track record for rookie receivers is slightly better than the track record for rookie tight ends. But they are both still rookies, and a quiet rookie season is not the end of the world (particularly in Stowers’ case). Howie Roseman has been on a draft heater for a half-decade, and it would be nice if that continued for at least one more season. This offense is in desperate need of a youth infusion. Let’s see how both Lemon and Stowers fare at camp.

Dontayvion Wicks is an important character here. Wicks played in Green Bay for a team with a bunch of pretty good pass-catchers, and he got lost in the shuffle over the last three years. Drops were a problem. The Eagles did not have to pay much in terms of draft capital (5 and a 6) to acquire Wicks, but they are definitely gonna give him more of a consistent opportunity than he ever got in Green Bay. Can he take advantage of it? We will see.

Hollywood Brown is here as well. We will see if he has any juice left, after featuring prominently in that terrible Kansas City offense from a season ago. Looking at Brown, Wicks feels even more important. Hollywood as a fourth receiver feels much more palatable than Hollywood as a third receiver. And then epic poems will be written about the Johnny Wilson-Darius Cooper camp battle that is about to commence.

Realistically, all of these guys are gonna struggle at times in camp. Have you seen the Eagles’ starting corners? But if any of them pops, I will get excited, probably irrationally so.

🦅 Does Jalen Carter get a contract extension at some point? We all know the Eagles’ modus operandi. When a young player proves that they are worthy of a big-money extension, they do not mess around. They immediately pay that player at the top of the market, usually with a bunch of cash up front. The price of the brick is always going up in the NFL, so getting your business done a year early can end up saving you millions down the line. Jerry Jones still does not seem to understand this, bless his heart.

All of that makes it so interesting that Jalen Carter does not have a new contract yet.

Carter sure is eligible for an extension, now heading into his fourth season. We are almost in August. At the same point of their careers…

Of that group, Smith was the only first-round pick. That is an important detail, because there is more urgency to extend second-round picks (like the other three guys) that prove worthy of said big-money extension. The Eagles still have Carter under team control for two more seasons, because he was a first-round pick.

But Carter is every bit as good as those players. Talent-wise, he probably possesses more of it than any of them. But Carter’s sack numbers have gone down for each of the last three seasons. He particularly had a down year last season, which started with The Loogie Heard Round The World and included PRP injections on both shoulders.

I do not particularly care that Carter finished with 4.5 sacks in 2024, that was an incredible individual season. The man played 831 regular-season snaps, singlehandedly saved the Eagles’ season in a playoff game and then spent the NFC Championship and Super Bowl getting doubled while everyone else on the defensive line ate. I love sack production, but Carter possesses real “gravity” in terms of how much attention the opposing offensive line pays to him. And I love Uncle Vic, but Carter has played a ton of ball at a physically-demanding position over the past few years. This is a player whose impact goes well beyond the numbers.

And obviously, Carter has brought other off-field considerations with him over the years. I do not know how the Eagles view him as a culture fit and locker-room presence (maybe better than we think!), but if they did have concerns in those areas, it would not be surprising. All of that stuff falls under Coach DiSandro’s area of expertise.

About a month ago, Jeffrey Simmons signed a three-year, $105 million contract. Simmons and Carter could not be playing in different situations:

Carter and Drew Rosenhaus might look at that market-setting $35 million AAV for Simmons as the number that they would want for Carter. Maybe the Eagles take the rare step and want to see more from Carter before committing long-term. Maybe the sides find common ground at some point. But this will be a major talking point all camp, until it happens.

🦅 How does the one starting position battle turn out? You go to OurLads, and that is one handsome depth chart. Maybe not 2022 or 2024 level loaded, and definitely some players that are getting up there in age and dealing with injury concerns. But there are not a lot of holes on paper. WR2 would be the big one on offense, but the Eagles just spent a first-round pick on that position.

There is one major exception: safety.

The Eagles clearly do not view the safety position as much of a priority. It is almost like safety replaced how they viewed linebacker six years ago, before this became Linebacker U all of a sudden. I am not criticizing them about this line of thinking, mind you. Even with Jeffrey Lurie paying cash and Howie Roseman spreading the money out, every team runs into positions where they have to devote fewer resources. That is team-building. The organization’s track record over the past decade speaks for itself, too.

But yeah, the Eagles do not care much about safety right now. And what I find interesting is that seems to be a Vic Fangio belief just as much as a Roseman one. Under Vic’s watch, the Eagles traded C.J. Gardner-Johnson coming off a Super Bowl, when he was making a reasonable $9 million AAV. The following year, they let Reed Blankenship walk for an incredibly reasonable $8.5 million AAV. You cannot spin the locker-room concerns for letting go of Reed! The Eagles seem to think they can replace those guys on the cheap.

Now we are at a point where I do not feel incredible about either safety that is penciled into the starting lineup (when the Eagles are in nickel, which will be the majority of the time): Andrew Mukuba as Safety 1, Marcus Epps as Safety 2.

Mukuba made a bunch of understandable rookie mistakes early on, but seemed to be settling in before his season ended due to an ankle fracture. You would hope that you could get competent play from a second-round pick moving forward. Epps was perfectly cromulent down the stretch, stepping in for Mukuba. He has enough of a track record to suggest that he will not make many crippling mistakes on the back end. Vic said during OTAs that he would be perfectly fine with Epps starting again, which feels like pretty high praise from a guy who historically tells it like it is.

Behind them, there is Michael Carter II (transitioning from the slot), seventh-round pick Cole “Not Stefan” Wisniewski and Andre’ Sam. Maybe Howie makes a late signing or trade as well. But safety feels like the position with the most volatility.

🦅 Uar Bernard: I know most people are excited for Riq Woolen, and I am too. But we have seen him play football before. That is not the case for Bernard.

I gotta see what this guy looks like on a football field. Jordan Mailata showed some flashes as a rookie, even if he was a few years away. Bernard feels a few years away from being a few years away. But good or bad, it will certainly be interesting to track his summer.

The news and notes of the day…

Andrew Painter, signs of life? I do not know if Painter is making any strides with his much-scrutinized fastball shape down in Triple-A, but that is two pretty solid starts in a row for the kid. The Phillies are not gonna call him up, and nor should they. But hey, it is better than reading about him getting shelled down there.

Tyler Spangler, signed on the dotted line: The Phillies were able to sign their top overall pick, getting the tall shortstop to pass on Stanford. Andrew Luck is gonna be bummed about that. Looks like the Phils were able to sign everyone in their draft class besides local kid Braeden Lipoff (Gloucester Catholic), who they selected in the 19th round. Seems pretty reasonable.

Alex McFarlane got sent back down over the weekend, which was a bummer. At least it was to Triple-A this time, though.

The Vengeance Tour rolls on: Matvei Michkov scored on the Michigan, stuffing it under the poor goaltender’s armpit.

That was from “Match of the Year,” which is a big charity hockey game in Russia that is organized by NHL stars. I do not know anything else about it, but apparently Michkov wanted to play in it.

Seems like Matty was working hard in Russia. He is lifting weights, running stairs and does not appear to partying like crazy. I believe the plan for him was to come back to New Jersey after the big Match of the Year, to take that Vengeance Tour stateside.

KCP: I will get into this more tomorrow, but two-time NBA champ (once with LeBron) Kentavious Caldwell-Pope seems like he is joining the Sixers after getting a buyout in Memphis. After waiving Dalen Terry to clear the way for LeBron, the Sixers are probably looking for a place they can trade Johni Broome. They should show teams the one time he dunked in summer league.

KCP appeared to be celebrating on the golf course with his friends. Maybe he can play golf with LeBron in Philly.

Union 1, Seattle 0: After one win in 15 matches before the World Cup, the Union are now two for two post-World Cup. Nice goal by Milan Iloski.

The Phils are in Miami (6:40 p.m., NBC Sports Philly), where I am not kidding you, the Fish have now lost 12 games in a row. I like their chances to get off the schneid much better tomorrow night, because it is Zack Wheeler against My Favorite Psycho Tyler Phillips this go-round. Phillips is probably pretty pumped about LeBron, though.

Let’s make it a good one.