Oklahoma City is making it impossible to ignore that Nick Nurse failed Jared McCain in Philadelphia. 

One year ago, McCain was the Rookie of the Year frontrunner before a meniscus tear ended his season with the Sixers. Then McCain tore his right thumb shortly before this current season, delaying his comeback, and he struggled once he returned. But by January, he was moving fluidly and began to drain shots like he always had. The second-year guard’s role had dwindled though. McCain played in 37 of 60 possible games with the Sixers, had a quick leash any time he was on the court, and scored only 6.6 points in 16.8 minutes per game prior to the ]

Executives have said the Sixers were actively making calls pre-deadline, though nothing seemed remotely close. Some sources suggest Morey was star hunting with Kawhi Leonard being a name that was connected to Philly. But nothing happened. So Embiid, Maxey and the team saw McCain get dealt, the tax get ducked, and no pieces brought in to help.

“The trade deadline was difficult,” Maxey said on Tuesday. “That’s something that we have to put in the rearview mirror.”

One thing is clear: Sixers owner Josh Harris wanted to get under the luxury tax — again.

Since Harris purchased the team in 2011, the Sixers have paid the luxury tax once (during the 2019-20 season following the Al Horford signing). Over the last two deadlines, the Sixers traded a combined three second-round picks to dump salaries to duck the tax in both 2024 and 2025. This year’s maneuvering was made easier because the 25-game suspension of George gave them a tax credit of $5.8 million, which brought them to just $1.3 million over the tax. Moving McCain got them under, then salary dumping Eric Gordon left wiggle room to sign Dominick Barlow to a standard contract and possibly add a player off the buyout market.

“I love all the guys that are in here. I think we got a shot,” Embiid said prior to the trade deadline. “In the past we’ve been ducking the tax, so hopefully we think about improving, because we got a chance.”

We’ve seen a lot of bad owner decisions over the years. This is up there. You have Embiid, still one of the 15 best players on the planet when he’s healthy, in the final chapter of his prime, a closing window, and your response is to pinch pennies to avoid the luxury tax? The luxury tax that exists specifically for a contending situation? Indefensible doesn’t even cover it. It’s awful for the fans, and it’s awful for Embiid, who has given everything he has to this city, played through injuries and watched the franchise nickel-and-dime itself time and time again.

Now Philly sits in this strange purgatory where they kind of, sort of think they have a shot. But one of their best young players is dropping buckets in crunch time for Oklahoma City. It doesn’t make sense. Nothing ever does in Philly. But the Sixers did this to themselves.

Jason Benetti will be named NBC’s lead play-by-play announcer for its Major League Baseball coverage, the network announced on Wednesday.

Benetti, who is the current play-by-play announcer for the Detroit Tigers, will kick off the season on March 26 when the Los Angeles Dodgers host the Arizona Diamondbacks. He will then settle in as the main voice of NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” with a rotating cast of local analysts from each team involved.

Prior to his time calling Tigers games, Benetti was the main television voice of the Chicago White Sox for eight seasons.

NBC won’t be Benetti’s first time in front of a national audience. Since 2022 he has worked as an announcer on Fox’s college football, college basketball and MLB coverage. This also won’t be Benetti’s first time with NBC. He served as the lead voice of Olympic baseball coverage during the 2020 Summer Olympics and was part of the network’s MLB “Sunday Leadoff” games on Peacock.

NBC has already announced that former MLB players Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto and Anthony Rizzo will serve as studio analysts on its broadcasts for 2026 and beyond. Longtime announcer Bob Costas will serve as studio host.

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Last year, NBC struck a deal that will see it pay nearly $200 million per year for “Sunday Night Baseball,” formerly of ESPN, and a “Sunday Leadoff” package, as well as the wild-card round of the playoffs. Peacock will be the exclusive home of many of those games, as its broadcast schedule lays out. 

Former MLB slugger Mark Teixeira won the Republican primary in Texas’ 21st congressional district on Tuesday night.

Teixeira moves on to the November general election where he’ll face off against Democratic candidate Kristin Hook in a bid to replace U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, who is headed for a runoff in the Texas Attorney General race.

The 45-year-old Teixeira, who was born and raised in Maryland and lives near Austin, Texas, said when he began his campaign that he is “ready to fight for Texas families, conservative principles and the America First agenda.”

Last month, President Donald Trump endorsed Teixeira saying the former MLB player was a “total winner” and “he will never let you down!”

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

Teixeira played 14 MLB seasons with the Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the New York Yankees. He was a three-time All-Star and Silver Slugger Award winner, as well as a five-time Gold Glove Award winner. In 2009, he was a part of the Yankees’ World Series championship team.

The Rangers selected Teixeira with the fifth overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft and he spent parts of five seasons in Texas before being traded to the Braves. He hit 409 home runs and drove in 1,298 runs. He retired in 2016.

The Memphis Grizzlies will be without center Zach Edey for the rest of the season.

The Grizzlies announced Tuesday that Edey would miss the remainder of 2025-26 after undergoing successful surgery to “address ongoing discomfort and bone stress in his left ankle.” He is reportedly expected to make a full recovery in time for the 2026-27 season.

The Grizzlies have just 22 games left on their schedule after Tuesday’s 117-110 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, not leaving much time for a recovery.

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Edey has not played for the Grizzlies since the team’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Dec. 7. He was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his left ankle shortly after that, and has been sidelined since. Edey underwent ankle surgery last June and missed the start of the season as a result.

The team said Sunday that Edey’s lateral ligaments in his ankle remain stable despite the ongoing discomfort he’s dealing with, and that the procedure will “reinforce the medial ligament complex and accelerate bone healing.”

Edey has averaged 13.6 points and 11.1 rebounds per game this season, his second in the league. The former Purdue star was selected with the No. 9 overall NBA Draft pick in 2024. Edey has appeared in only 11 games this season and also missed time with a head injury.

Listed at 7-foot-3 and 305 pounds, injuries remain a significant concern for the 23-year-old Edey.

Of course, Memphis has plenty of reason not to sweat losing its starting center at this point. At 23-37, the team is five games out from the final play-in tournament spot in the West, likely making it one of the teams more preoccupied with their position in the loaded 2026 draft. 

As of Tuesday evening, the team has the eighth-best position in the lottery, in a draft where the entire top 10 could offer impact talents based on how this year’s college basketball freshman class is performing.