One Eagle’s silence, Nick Nurse’s big challenge, and Matvei Michkov’s hot stretch: the week that was in Philly sports

First and final thoughts on some non-Phillies-related matters from this week …

Landon Dickerson, the Eagles’ Pro Bowl left guard, said something interesting the other day, which is interesting in and of itself, because Dickerson tends not to say very much, not to the media anyway. And the strange thing was, he said something interesting about how he tends not to say very much to the media.

Before the Eagles drafted him in 2021, Dickerson transferred to Alabama from Florida State and played for two years under Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban. Here’s the interesting part: Dickerson said Wednesday that every ‘Bama player undergoes media training during his first year in the program, that those players learn what to say (or, more important as far as Saban is concerned, what not to say) and how to say it.

The residue from this training clings to those Alabama alumni who are on the Eagles, the most prominent of whom are Dickerson, Jalen Hurts, and DeVonta Smith. All three can deliver a punchy, memorable quote when pressed, and Hurts so frequently speaks in aphorisms that sometimes you have to say to yourself, Oh, so this is what it would have been like if Ben Franklin were the Eagles’ quarterback. But none of those guys is quick to escort any reporters behind any dark curtains. Good luck getting any of them to open up about himself or about anything related to an Eagles game plan or strategy. We reporters, as Hurts has said, are rat poison. That is a Saban mantra, and his disciples abide by it.

Which is fine. Really. If a college program — or an NFL organization, for that matter, or any sports franchise — wants to be so control-freaky that it limits exposure to questions and cracks down on those players who speak out of turn, that’s the institution’s prerogative. To a degree, it’s understandable why it would put the clamps down.

It has never been easier for someone to strip away the context of a quote, repackage it, and fire off a hot take or misinformed opinion, and it has never been easier for high-level athletic organizations to prevent such problems from arising. They have their own websites and content-providers, and the financial incentive structure of many media outlets nowadays — appeal to the most passionate, loyal, blinkered fans, because they’re the ones who will click and subscribe — discourages examining these organizations with any kind of critical eye. And with postgame and midweek press conferences so often televised or available to watch online, any question to an athlete or coach that is edgier than How awesome is it to be so awesome? tends to solicit eyerolls and jeering from those fans who want to hear and believe only the best about their favorite teams and players.

Which, again, is fine. It comes with the territory of covering big-time sports or pretty much anything else. So let’s propose an arrangement: Those coaches and players who don’t want to answer questions, who don’t think they benefit from helping reporters understand what’s happening and why, can stay as silent as they like. The tradeoff is, they can’t then complain about the inaccuracy or ignorance of the coverage they receive.

If you’re not going to tell us what’s really going on, you can’t whine that those dummies in the press box don’t know what’s really going on. Same goes for fans: If you don’t want people asking difficult questions and digging a little deeper, cool. We’ll settle for the standard pablum about how every team is taking it one day at a time and every player is on the grind. Just don’t be surprised when some important and revealing matters get missed.

Deal?

Nick Nurse has a challenge this season, his first as the 76ers’ head coach, and he knows it. He has had to prepare as if he is coaching two NBA teams, not one.

“We’ve got Plan A,” he said Monday at Sixers media day, “and we’ve got Plan B.”

Plan A is James Harden shows up and plays. Plan B, as of Wednesday, is James Harden shows up but doesn’t play. This is not a minor problem for Nurse to solve. Assume for the moment a very large assumption: that Harden will indeed operate in good faith, get himself in shape, and play for the Sixers for some or all of the regular season. Nurse’s strategy for getting the best out of that team, that lineup, will be far different from his strategy for getting the best out of a roster without Harden.

In the former scenario, Nurse will have to maximize Harden’s offensive skills, which will likely require Harden to have the ball in his hands a lot and play pick-and-roll with Joel Embiid. In the latter, Tyrese Maxey becomes the quasi-point guard, and faster and more frequent ball movement should become a staple of the offense. Either way, it’s hard to see the Sixers catching up to either the Celtics or the Bucks in the Eastern Conference. But hey, at least it won’t be dull. These are the Sixers, after all. Nothing ever is.

» READ MORE: Insiders explain why James Harden’s trade saga could linger into the Sixers’ season

Don’t look now, Flyers fans, but Matvei Michkov has five goals and 12 points in his first 10games for HC Sochi of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League. This might turn out to be the longest wait for an elite prospect to get here since Embiid was recovering from surgery and chugging down vats of ginger ale mixed with grenadine.