January 15th, 2025 - Philadelphia 76ers vs New York Knicks

The Machine finished another chapter of his young career against the New York Knicks and he absolutely COOKED them! Unbelievable! One of his best performances, just stunning. The Sixers as a whole dominated the Knicks!

The Machine finished with some outstanding stats:

• 37 Points, 78% field goal percentage, 4 Rebounds, 5 Assists
• Teammate Grade: A+

It was certainly a night The Machine will tell his kids about. To do it in Philadelphia in front of the home fans, against a rival team, and in his home state was truly special.

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🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎

In the real world, the NFL season concluded with the Seattle Seahawks finding victory against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX. The result was not too surprising overall. The Seahawks were more talented and seemingly slightly more experienced as well.

I'm not going to pretend to have predicted QB Sam Darnold's fantastic turnaround to his career but I do find the subject pretty fascinating.

Last season was Darnold's best season with the Vikings and yet the Vikings still let him go. The Vikings do look pretty silly right now unless J.J. McCarthy improves which is certainly possible but some do question if McCarthy has what it takes.

Funny enough, Darnold himself is a prime example to perhaps have caution and patience with McCarthy, so I certainly won't write McCarthy off yet.

The funny thing about Darnold though is, he was never really that bad. Like he never one time appeared terrible. He just didn't set the league on fire right away and people just seemed to find him boring I guess. But I personally don't mind watching him play.

The dismissal of pocket passers and all out desire for mobile quarterbacks is always stunning to me I'll admit. Darnold is surprisingly mobile though and has some Big Ben tendencies to his play style which I find cool. The guy is sturdy and stocky.

Still, I don't want to totally shower Darnold with praise. The Seahawks have talent all over the place.

It was awesome to see a running back in Kenneth Walker III win Super Bowl MVP! He played great all night long!

Of course Seattle's defense was also outstanding!! That can't be forgotten!

This 2025-26 Seahawks team was simply gritty and absurdly well balanced! What's scarier still is, I don't see a reason why this team can't continue to be great for the next handful of years!

For the Patriots, I do think they have a pretty bright future for the most part. I think they need to get more receivers and bolster their o-line. It was rough seeing Drake Maye get bashed for much of the night unfortunately.

The AFC is in an odd spot at the moment and looks to be the weaker conference off the top of my head. But we'll see how next year develops I suppose.

I had no idea who the halftime show artist was so I didn't bother watching that. I don't think the majority of the USA knew who that dude was. Players were interviewed before the game and also had no clue who the guy was which I found hilarious. I think like three dudes knew a song LOL. Kinda wild how the literal players playing in the Super Bowl didn't even know who the artist was. Strange.

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So, the NBA had it's All-Star events and well, I barely watched only because the whole format was confusing. A tournament? Several teams? World vs USA? I don't know why it has to be so complicated. They should just have East vs West and have some type of reward or consequences that impact the season.

The dunk contest is just sad. I'll likely touch on the Rising Stars Game in a future Sixers post.

I did find it cool that Damian Lillard won the Three-Point Contest though despite not playing a single game all year. He won't be healthy enough to play until next year actually! I've always had a ton of respect for Lillard. Cool story for sure.

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But yes, the NBA will return for it's second half of the season shortly and in roughly five weeks or so the MLB shall return!

Time flies!!

The sports world never sleeps, till next time!