Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores signed a contract extension with Minnesota, the team announced Wednesday. However, NFL insider Tom Pelissero reported that the coach remains a candidate in the Steelers and Ravens’ head coaching searches.

The Vikings have signed defensive coordinator Brian Flores to a new contract, sources tell me and @RapSheet.

Flores is still a candidate with the Steelers and Ravens head coaching jobs. But if he doesn’t land one of those, he’ll stay in Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/RAPKF9kZkR

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 22, 2026

Flores’ previous contract had expired with the Vikings, and his new one is contingent on him not accepting a head coaching job elsewhere.

Flores had an in-person interview with the Steelers on Tuesday; he interviewed with Baltimore Jan. 13.

The Vikings extending Flores can be read a few ways: Minnesota doing everything it can to retain one of the best defensive coordinators in the league, Flores gaining some leverage and ensuring he has a backup plan if he doesn’t land a head coaching job, or writing on the wall that Baltimore and Pittsburgh are likely to hire someone else in their coaching searches.

In 2025, Flores’ Vikings defense finished seventh-best in EPA per play and points per game, second in yards per game allowed, and 21st in rush yards per game.

Both Flores and Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver have interviewed twice with the Steelers. Former Cowboys and Packers head coach Mike McCarthy had an in-person interview with the team on Wednesday.

The Rams’ Chris Shula and Nate Scheelhaase, also candidates in the Steelers’ head coaching search, have interviewed virtually with the team but cannot do so in person until after the NFC Championship game.

Inter Milan midfielder Petar Sucic praised his side’s performance despite an underwhelming 3-1 home defeat to Arsenal.

Speaking to Inter TV via FCInterNews, the 22-year-old lamented a lack of finishing in tonight’s clash.

Cristian Chivu handed the Croatian star only his second Champions League start this season.

And he wasn’t wrong as the former Dinamo Zagreb ace scored a stunning goal to draw Inter level in the first half.

Unfortunately, Sucic’s goal was in vain as Arsenal restored their lead through Gabriel Jesus before Viktor Gyokeres sealed the visitors’ win.

However, Petar Sucic delivered a promising performance in his first competitive start for Inter since the beginning of January.

Petar Sucic Praises Inter Milan Performance In 3-1 Loss to Arsenal

MILAN, ITALY – JANUARY 20: Petar Sucic of FC Internazionale Milano celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD7 match between FC Internazionale Milano and Arsenal FC at Stadio San Siro on January 20, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

“They are a good team and they play good football, but we played a good match as well.

“We had chances, especially in the first half, when we also managed to score.

“In the second half, we weren’t able to make the most of what we created, which is a shame.

“At the moment, Arsenal have the best defense in the world; we put them under pressure, we created chances, but we need to be more clinical.

“In football, you have to score goals – they scored three and we scored one, and that’s what matters.”

Asked about his brilliant goal, his first in the Champions League since arriving at San Siro, Sucic replied: “It was a nice goal..

“However, it’s not important right now; it’s a different kind of feeling.”

Inter’s third consecutive Champions League defeat has cast further doubt on their hopes of securing a top-eight finish.

Indeed, the Nerazzurri could drop out of the top eight if their nearest competitors win tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Chivu’s side will face Borussia Dortmund in a must-win final-day clash at Signal Iduna Park next week.

Jan. 21—VERMILLION, S.D. — Through the first 19 games of the 2025-26 season, the University of South Dakota women’s basketball team has raised the bar from a year ago.

The Coyotes have paired one of the league’s stingiest defenses with a balanced roster that continues to buy into second-year head coach Carrie Eighmey’s vision.

As of Jan. 21, USD is tied for second in the Summit League standings at 4-1 in conference play and 14-5 overall, its best start to league action since the 2022-23 season. With 11 regular-season games remaining before the Summit League Tournament tips off March 4 at the Premier Center in Sioux Falls, the Coyotes have already surpassed last season’s win total (11) and shown significant growth on both ends of the floor.

That progress is evident not only in the standings but also in how decisively South Dakota has won games. Eleven of the Coyotes’ 14 victories have come by 20 points or more, and they enter Thursday’s matchup against Omaha riding their third winning streak of at least three games this season. USD has won six of its last seven contests, building momentum as the calendar turns toward the heart of conference play.

“There’s some really good teams in this conference, and the top of the league is really tough,” Eighmey said. “For us, I think the next couple of weeks is where we’re gonna learn a lot about ourselves. And we’re going to have a way better understanding of what we need to do in the second half of the conference season to be in contention as we move toward the conference tournament.”

Offensively, the Coyotes have been effective without leaning too heavily on any single player. South Dakota ranks fourth in the Summit League in scoring at 73.9 points per game, but the more telling statistic may be its balance. Twelve of USD’s 14 players have scored in double figures at least once this season, a reflection of an unselfish approach that Eighmey has emphasized since her arrival.

“I think the balance has been pretty incredible,” Eighmey said. “It’s a testament to this group. They are unselfish, and willing to share the ball and work together to get the best shot that we can get. And we’ve got a lot of different people that can contribute in that way. We’re not having to rely on just one or two players to have to carry the load game in and game out.”

Senior guard Angelina Robles leads the team at 14.3 points per game, followed closely by junior transfer Molly Joyce at 12.3. Joyce, who joined USD from Truman State University, has made an immediate impact, scoring 20 or more points in four of five Summit League games and leading the conference in scoring during league play at 20.2 points per contest. She also surpassed 1,000 career points against Denver on Jan. 17, reaching the milestone in just her third collegiate season.

While the offense has been consistent, South Dakota has returned to a strong identity on the defensive end. The Coyotes lead the Summit League in scoring defense, allowing just 55.4 points per game — a mark that ranks 17th nationally — and holds opponents to 32.8% shooting from the field and 27.3% from beyond the arc. Seven times this season, USD has limited opponents to under 30% shooting.

“I feel like our defense and rebounding are significantly different,” Eighmey said. “On average, we’re holding teams to nearly 55 points, and that’s a significant improvement from where we were a year ago.”

That defense has translated into one of the best scoring margins in the country. South Dakota has outscored opponents by an average of 18.5 points per game, which ranks second in the Summit League and 27th nationally, trailing only North Dakota State in conference play.

USD earned a solid power conference win in November at Kansas State but otherwise, the Coyotes have had a soft schedule, which ranks 352nd nationally in strength of schedule out of 363 Division I teams. That ramps up considerably soon, playing at NDSU (which is No. 42 nationally in the NCAA’s NET) on Saturday, Jan. 24, and hosting SDSU on Jan. 31 (No. 50 in the NET). USD itself is at No. 113 in the NET, which is third-best in the Summit.

As South Dakota prepares for the final stretch of the regular season, Eighmey believes the team’s best basketball may still be ahead to remain in Summit League title contention with March slowly approaching.

“Honestly, playing together for three or four months, I think there’s a level of trust that continues to grow over the course of the season and you can see that happening with this group,” Eighmey said. “There’s still more growth for this team. We haven’t played as well as we can play yet, so I am just continuing to look forward to what this team is going to look like in a month.”

GREAT ABACO, Bahamas (AP) — Ian Holt steadied himself at just the right time Wednesday and had a two-putt birdie on the par-5 18th hole for a 1-under 71 for a one-shot victory in the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic.

Holt, who played his college golf at Kent State, won for the first time on the Korn Ferry Tour. Just two years ago he was having to go through Monday qualifying for the PGA Tour Americas circuit.

In gusts approaching 30 mph at The Abaco Club on Winding Bay, Holt had consecutive bogeys on the back nine and was tied for the lead when he holed a nervy par putt on the 17th. He closed by reaching the 575-yard 18th in two shots to set up his two-putt birdie.

Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands, who won the Latin America Amateur Championship a year ago to get into three majors, had a 69 and tied for second with Alistair Docherty (66).

After two weeks in the Bahamas, the Korn Ferry Tour heads to Panama and gets back on a Thursday-to-Sunday schedule.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

LOS ANGELES — To say that Dave Roberts and Maury Wills were close is an understatement. Wills, the Dodgers’ all-time stolen base leader and six-time National League steals leader, took the base-stealing Roberts under his wing when Roberts was playing, and became a confidant for two decades, until Wills died in 2022.

“He was a friend, a father, a mentor, all of the above for me. This one is a tough one,” Roberts said after Wills’ death three and a half years ago. “He showed me to appreciate my craft, and what it is to be a big leaguer. He just loved to teach. A lot of where I get my excitement, my passion, my love for players is from him.”

Twenty-three different Dodgers players have worn number 30 since Wills last donned the uniform in 1972, including Roberts from 2002-04 when he was playing for the Dodgers. Roberts resumed wearing number 30 when he took over as manager in Los Angeles for the 2016 season.

So it was going to be a tall order for Kyle Tucker, who wore number 30 in his last five seasons with the Houston Astros, and also in 2025 with the Chicago Cubs, to keep wearing that same number with the Dodgers. But he had to at least try.

“I kind of knew the reasoning behind having the number 30, but I was like, I’m just gonna take a shot in the dark here and see what happens,” Tucker said during his introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday. “I wasn’t necessarily expecting it.”

“It was a fun conversation Tuck and I had, and it was more — you know, Maury and I just had a great relationship,” Roberts said Wednesday. “One of the things that he was like, ‘Gosh, when I die I hope no one else wears that number.’ It’s really near and dear to me, so we talked about it.”

The Dodgers typically only retire uniform numbers of Hall of Famers who go into Cooperstown representing the team, with only two exceptions to date — Jim Gilliam and Fernando Valenzuela. Roberts is well on his way down the Hall of Fame path, having won three championships and five pennants in his 10 years on the job.

Roberts is one of only 11 managers to win the World Series at least three times. Nine of the other 10 are in the Hall of Fame, and Bruce Bochy will likely join them as early as 2027, depending on whether he decides to keep managing. Same for the 16 National League/American League managers with at least five pennants under their belt — 14 already in Cooperstown, plus Bochy and Roberts.

In other words, Roberts will likely have a plaque of his own in the Hall of Fame one day, and the number 30 will be retired at Dodger Stadium. He’ll be the last one to wear it.

Another connection to Wills is that in 2003, the middle year of Roberts’ three seasons playing in Los Angeles, he was teammates with utility man Jason Romano, who is now Tucker’s agent at Excel Sports.

With 30 unavailable, Tucker chose to wear number 23 with the Dodgers. That was the number worn by Michael Conforto, who’s one year with the Dodgers last season did not work out as either side planned. Though Tucker is going to play right field — with Teoscar Hernández shifting to left field, which both Roberts and Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman confirmed on Wednesday — he’s essentially directly replacing Conforto, who played left field last season. So perhaps it’s fitting that he’s wearing the same number.

But Tucker had a different reason for choosing it. That was the number worn by Michael Brantley, the longtime Guardians outfielder who played the final five seasons of his career (2019-23) in Houston, alongside Tucker’s rise to a full-time player and eventual four-time All-Star.

“With me going to 23 — I mean, [Roberts] looking up to Maury Wills and kind of being his mentor and everything coming up, and him wanting to wear that for him — kind of the same thing with me, with 23 and Michael Brantley,” Tucker explained. “He’s the guy I hung out with a lot coming up in Houston, and he was a phenomenal ballplayer and one of my close friends. That played a big part into my choice going with that.”

The Oklahoma City Thunder are a tall order for the Milwaukee Bucks, with the Oklahoma City Thunder installed as a big road favorite tonight.

Speaking of tall orders, OKC big man Chet Holmgren has had to play even bigger than his slender 7-foot-1 frame over the past month. 

My Thunder vs. Bucks predictions focus on Chet’s spike in rebounding, facing one of the worst teams at cleaning the glass. 

Here are my NBA picks for January 21.

Thunder vs Bucks prediction

Thunder vs Bucks best bet: Chet Holmgren Over 9.5 rebounds (-110)

Chet Holmgren’s role in the Oklahoma City Thunder frontcourt has been amplified since losing fellow big man Isaiah Hartenstein to a calf strain in late December. The most notable change in Chet’s output has come on the glass. 

Before the heftier Hartenstein went down, Holmgren was grabbing 7.9 rebounds per game on an average of 14.3 rebounding chances. In the 11 games without Hartenstein, Holmgren’s pulling down 10 boards on 17.6 rebounding chances a night.

In fact, Chet has been making a conscious effort to be bigger on the boards over the past two weeks.
 
After recording only six rebounds in a shocking loss to the Hornets on January 5, the 7-foot Gonzaga product noted the dip in rebounding without Hartenstein and pointed the finger at himself for not picking up the slack. Holmgren had this to say:

I just got to look in the mirror and be better in that area.

Since that game, Chet has recorded double figures in rebounds in four of his last six outings, and he has an excellent opportunity to add another 10+ boards vs. the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Bucks enter Wednesday with the second-lowest rebound rate in the NBA (47.6%), watching foes collect 54.7 rebounds per game (11th most). Milwaukee could also be down standout center Myles Turner and reserve Kevin Porter Jr. (who combine for more than 10 rebounds an outing).

Holmgren’s projections sit between 8.5 and 10 rebounds, with the majority of models pointing to another 10+ rebounds. My number comes out to 10.5 boards, which should have the Over 9.5 priced around -130.

Thunder vs Bucks same-game parlay

Milwaukee is offensively challenged at the best of times, without the help of the NBA’s stingiest defense.

Ryan Rollins sees a significant split in scoring at home, averaging four more points on 50% shooting.

Thunder vs Bucks SGP

• Thunder -9.5
• Chet Holmgren Over 9.5 rebounds
• Ryan Rollins Over 13.5 points

Our “from downtown” SGP: Thunder Struck Bucks

The Bucks are one of the best Under bets in the NBA, and they’re now facing OKC’s top defense.

Thunder vs Bucks SGP

• Thunder -9.5
• Chet Holmgren Over 9.5 rebounds
• Ryan Rollins Over 13.5 points
• Under 227

Thunder vs Bucks odds

• Spread: Thunder -9.5 | Bucks +9.5
• Moneyline: Thunder -400 | Bucks +320
• Over/Under: Over 227 | Under 227

Thunder vs Bucks betting trend to know

Milwaukee is 4-10 SU and ATS vs. Western Conference opponents this season, including 1-5 SU and ATS at home in non-conference clashes. Find more NBA betting trends for Thunder vs. Bucks.

How to watch Thunder vs Bucks

Thunder vs Bucks latest injuries

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here

This was pretty audacious, even by the Dodgers’ standard. Their $17-million left fielder flopped last year, so they threw $240 million at another corner outfielder to supplement the three most valuable players already in their lineup.

Still, as Kyle Tucker smiled for the cameras at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, it was hard to imagine this one man could sign here and take down the 2027 season.

On Tuesday the Athletic quoted one ownership source that portrayed the Tucker signing as a tipping point that made it “a 100 percent certainty” owners would push for a salary cap when the collective bargaining agreement expires this fall. Owners have been complaining about the Dodgers’ signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell and Tanner Scott, and on and on, and it sounds silly that the signing of one Kyle Daniel Tucker would turn the owners in a direction many of them already indicated they want to go.

“I agree,” said the man who signed him, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

Read more:Plaschke: Dodgers’ ruination of baseball continues with Kyle Tucker, and it’s a beautiful thing

If baseball comes up with new rules next year, the Dodgers will abide by them. Until then, Friedman said, their “only focus” is on delivering the best possible product to the fans who pack Dodger Stadium every night and shop the team store like crazy. In return, he said, the Dodgers can sell themselves to stars like Tucker.

“A destination spot is where players and their families feel incredibly well taken care of,” Friedman said. “If they’re playing in front of 7,000 people, they don’t feel that as much.

“Playing in front of 50,000 people, and seeing the passion and how much people live and die for the Dodgers each summer and each October, I think, adds to the experience and allure of playing here.”

He also said this, which might infuriate some fans and perhaps some owners outside Los Angeles: “This isn’t just about, let’s spend a lot of money.”

If the Dodgers’ spending habits border on satire to you, well, the Onion got there first. Two decades ago, when fake news actually meant fake, the Onion ran this headline: “Yankees Ensure 2003 Pennant By Signing Every Player In Baseball.”

The Yankees led the major leagues in payroll that year and for the next 10 years. They won the World Series once in that span, in 2009. They have not won since.

So, when the Dodgers splurged last winter, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner offered a measured response.

“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing,” Steinbrenner told YES Network. “We’ll see if it pays off.”

Read more:Dodgers’ scorching offseason continues by landing star outfielder Kyle Tucker

It did. The Dodgers won their second consecutive World Series. They made more money on ticket sales alone in 2024 than roughly half the 30 teams made in total revenue. Same for their local television revenue.

There’s more: an estimated $200 million in sponsorship revenue last year — thank you, Shohei. In all they took in an estimated $1 billion last year — an MLB record — meaning they spent close to $600 million in player payroll and luxury taxes and still made money.

At that level the cries that owners of other teams should just spend more start to ring a bit hollow. They should spend more, of course. But the issue is how to persuade owners to spend another $100 million when the Dodgers still might outspend them by $300 million.

The Yankees can do the kind of things the Dodgers do, and the San Diego Padres have shown how fans in a small market turn out when an owner is more concerned with winning than profit. However, the implosion of cable and satellite television means that local media revenues have cratered for teams outside large markets.

More than half of MLB teams never have paid anyone the $240 million the Dodgers committed to Tucker. The Dodgers committed even more to Ohtani, Yamamoto and Mookie Betts.

The owners could agree that teams should share more revenue, with luxury tax penalties not just in cash but also in restrictions that would hamper the ability to compete, something more significant than the loss of a couple of draft picks.

But that Tucker deal: The Dodgers committed $64 million in a signing bonus — never mind the salary! — to a player they arguably did not need. Owners will be very happy to argue the luxury tax has failed and only a salary cap will stop the Dodgers and New York Mets.

This was part of that Onion satire in 2003: “Yankees manager Joe Torre, whose pitching rotation prior to the mass signing lacked a clear seventh ace, now has the luxury of starting each of his hurlers twice a season.

“ ‘As they say, you can never have enough pitching in this league,’ Torre said.”

Let’s see: Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell, Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan. That might be six aces. And, since you never can have enough pitching: Ben Casparius, Kyle Hurt, Landon Knack, River Ryan, Gavin Stone, Justin Wrobleski. There might be a seventh ace in there, or on the trade market during their coming walk year: Freddy Peralta of the Milwaukee Brewers, or even Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers.

A salary cap would provide cost certainty that likely would enable owners to sell teams for more money. Whether a salary cap would solve the issue of competitive balance is questionable — in the capped NFL, the AFC championship game has included either the New England Patriots or Kansas City Chiefs for 15 consecutive years — but that would be the owners’ pitch.

So would this: You could compete with the Yankees for the first two decades of this century, but you just can’t compete with these Dodgers, even if that reflects less on payroll and more on management, a dash of October randomness, and that horrendousfifth inning of Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.

In 1994, when owners called off the World Series rather than surrender their pursuit of a salary cap, the following season started a month late, and even then the owners did not get a cap. If they really want a cap, baseball insiders say, the owners will have to vow to stick together and support doing what the NHL owners did to secure one: calling off an entire season.

For the Dodgers and their fans, that is someone else’s problem, at least for this year. In Los Angeles, the prevailing question is not “Salary cap?” but “Three-peat?”

Tucker likely will bat “second or third” in the Dodgers’ lineup, manager Dave Roberts said. He’ll better the defense by playing right field, allowing Teoscar Hernández to move to left field.

Of all the potential offseason acquisitions the Dodgers discussed, Friedman said, “There was really nobody that moved our World Series odds for 2026 more than Kyle Tucker.”

I asked Tucker how he felt about supposedly having so much power that his signing could shut down what owners say is a troubled sport.

“I think baseball is in a good spot,” Tucker said. “We have phenomenal attendance around the world. … Fans are being very supportive of their teams and their players and their organizations. I think it’s a good thing having that interaction with everyone, and I think it’s just going to grow the game from there, as long as we can — as a league and as players — continue growing the fan base.”

Read more:Shaikin: Make starting pitchers great again? MLB isn’t. This independent league will try

Ohtani and the Dodgers are rock stars, as evidenced by the team selling out of $253 seats next to the on-field stage at the annual fan festival next week.

The players will not be playing. They will appear for short interviews with team broadcasters.

Seats in the stands are available from $28 to $153, for an event that was free three years ago. While fans and owners of other teams complain, the Dodgers shake it off and find ways to make even more money.

Life is good when you’re the champions. Enjoy it this year, Dodgers fans. If a lockout is happening next January, as it likely will be, the fan festival will not be happening.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Last season, the Phoenix Suns managed to turn disappointment into an art form. The most expensive roster the league has ever seen could not even sniff the Play In, let alone the postseason. A masterclass in how fast things can go sideways. Most of us have tried to memory hole that year and move on, but every so often, a new detail leaks out. Another breadcrumb. Another explanation. Another quiet “why”.

This time, it came from Brent Barry. He popped up on an episode of the No Dunks Podcast and peeled back the curtain a bit on how that team actually functioned behind the scenes. And the picture he painted helps explain how something with that much talent unraveled the way it did.

“The situation there overall, I would tell you guys, being on the inside, was it was a team that just didn’t know how to get along,” Barry stated. “They were all cordial towards one another. They all came to practice and were friendly, but it was one of those situations where you’re just not invested.”

“I thought it was going to be a slingback from what happened with Frank Vogel and the disappointment from the year before that there would be some piss and vinegar in the team and that these guys would want to show like, hey, we’ve got the highest salary in the league,” he continued. “We’ve got to figure this thing out together. Let’s use our superpowers to do that. Let’s use our superpowers for good. Unfortunately, they used them the other way and found ways to dismantle that roster. And sadly, they just didn’t commit to one another.”

“If clearly those guys don’t have a hierarchy and you’re not, as a member of the team, as a player, you’re not aware of which of the guys were leaning on the most, it confuses the rest of the team. And I think we had a lot of guys who didn’t exactly know what the expectations were. And again, this comes back to really good coaching and leadership. You have to define those for a team. And at no point did we do that for the Phoenix Suns last year.”

This was incredibly revealing. It highlights the contrast between last season and this one in bold print.

Starting with Bradley Beal, it became clear that he never fully bought into operating within a true team structure. He had been the alpha in Washington for so long that the adjustment never really took. When reports surfaced that he took offense to his head coach asking him to play more like Jrue Holiday, that told you everything you needed to know. That was a crack in the armor.

I have said it plenty of times. I liked the player. I did not like the contract or the situation. But once that detail came out, it reframed things. This was not only about fit on the court. It was about mindset. When a player resists being part of something collective, when the instinct is “me” over “we”, the whole thing starts to wobble. That mentality bleeds. And last year, it bled everywhere.

And if you take Barry’s comments one step further, they also shine a light on the challenge Kevin Durant brought with him.

You can talk all day about his greatness on the court, and none of that is up for debate. But the laissez-faire approach, the mentality of wanting to hoop and nothing else, showed up in exactly what Barry was describing. That disengagement, that singular focus, warped the hierarchy of the team and bled into the locker room. That’s the lack of investment.

With great power comes great responsibility, or at least it is supposed to. That has never really been Durant’s lane. He wants the praise. He wants the contract. He wants the freedom. He does not want the accountability that comes with steering a group. Last season made that painfully clear. When the players carrying the largest financial weight do not define or embrace their role, everyone else drifts. Structure erodes. Accountability disappears.

What you end up with is a roster full of mercenaries. Guys playing for themselves, not for each other. The coaching staff never had a chance to pull it back together because the egos were too big and the buy-in was never there. That was last year’s Suns in a nutshell.

Devin Booker was obviously part of that group too, and he even said early this season that last year was the toughest stretch of basketball he has ever lived through.

“Definitely the toughest two years of my career.”

Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker discusses why the last couple of seasons were more difficult to navigate than even the lean years when winning didn’t come easy.@BurnsAndGambopic.twitter.com/AgcUrJubYK

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 25, 2025

We do not know how much responsibility to pin on him for what did or did not happen, but one thing is clear. His voice was muted. Just ask Coach Bud, who, when the team was struggling, reportedly told Booker to “tone it down”. He’s not free of sin, but he’s the only one who appeared to try to vocalize the issue and was muted. When you stack that many stars together and no one clearly owns the room, even the franchise guy can get drowned out.

That is the clearest contrast to this season. This team works because everyone knows where they stand. There is a hierarchy. There is clarity.

You can hear it when guys like Jordan Goodwin, Collin Gillespie, Mark Williams, and Ryan Dunn talk on The Old Man and the Three Podcast. The reverence they have for Devin Booker. The respect they show for what Dillon Brooks brings. That stuff matters. It sets the tone. And it is a big reason why this version of the Suns feels connected in a way last year never did.

“There was a lot of noise outside last year.” — Collin Gillespie + Ryan Dunn talk about the Suns this year vs. last year pic.twitter.com/OwIL7MORRH

— TheOldManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) January 1, 2026

The difference is obvious, and you see it every night on the floor. When there is a clear hierarchy behind the scenes, it shows up in how the team plays. Roles are defined. Effort lines up. Execution follows.

This team has already won 27 games. Last season, it took until February 22 to get there. 59 games. This group did it in 44. That is not coincidence. That is structure. That is buy-in. And it traces back directly to the issues Barry pointed out. When everyone knows who they are and how they fit, winning stops feeling accidental and starts feeling repeatable.

No prizes for guessing who’s on it.

With the Houston Rockets coming to town Thursday the Sixers released their injury report and it’s filled with the usual suspects. After playing in the front end of their back-to-back earlier in the week, Joel Embiid is listed as probable. Instead of left knee injury management though the reason given in right ankle injury management, the same reason he missed that second game against the Phoenix Suns. That ankle issue has popped up on the report here and there for the past month or so, but hasn’t caused him to miss significant time.

What was surprising was Paul George missing both legs of that back-to-back, he was listed with the usual left knee injury management. The first game against the Pacers, George was ruled out right before pre-game press availability. The second against Phoenix he did make an attempt to warm-up, but was obviously ruled out for that one as well. Before the Suns game, Nick Nurse didn’t give any indication there was an attempt to stagger those two over the back-to-back.

George last appeared on Jan. 16, playing 30 minutes in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He might have just needed a couple extra days off, but any further missed time should be cause for concern.

The rest of the report is rounded out by MarJon Beauchamp and Johni Broome, both doubtful on a G-League assignment. The only thing noteworthy there is that it does not include Jared McCain. He didn’t play in either of the games for the Sixers since being recalled from his second G-League assignment, though the Blue Coats don’t have another game until Jan. 24.

Houston’s injury report is fairly light as well, outside of obviously missing Fred VanVleet who tore his ACL before the season started. They’ll also be without Steven Adams who suffered an ankle injury two games back.