December 8th, 2024 - Philadelphia 76ers @ Chicago Bulls

The Machine had one of his best days as a pro out in Chicago! Nearly had a triple-double!! The Machine should definitely be proud of himself. He's slowly beginning to find his place in the NBA! The Sixers also got the win! Definitely a memorable night, hopefully one of many memorable nights to come! He finished with:

• 13 Points 9 Rebounds, 8 Assists
• Teammate Grade: A+

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🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎

In the real world, NFL preseason games are here! Pretty awesome! Today I want to give my general thoughts on the AFC East heading into the upcoming season.

Throughout my life, the New York Jets have mostly struggled. Off the top of my head the best Jets days I can personally recall were when Chad Pennington and Mark Sanchez were the quarterbacks. Those eras were pretty short lived unfortunately. Although I was surprised to see that in those Mark Sanchez days with Rex Ryan as the head coach and with that excellent defense they had, the Jets actually made it to TWO straight AFC Championship Games in a row in the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons. I knew they got to an AFC Title Game in those days but I didn't realize they did it TWICE. That's wild. Crazy how time flies. Darelle Revis was the man too! Can't forget to mention his greatness! But practically a decade and a half later the Jets have failed to even make the playoffs. Justin Fields is set to be their starting QB. This is Fields's last shot at being a franchise QB, it will be interesting to see how it goes. The organization is really basically relying on him to take advantage of this opportunity. Otherwise, the Jets are basically pretty lost as a franchise I feel. I don't see them doing much unless Fields takes the league by storm.

In my lifetime the Dolphins have never really been much of a threat whatsoever. While Dan Marino was great, they couldn't even win a Super Bowl with him at QB. In 2025, they feel like the definition of a Wild Card team. I think they need to bring some grit and toughness to their game because they seem like they have spammed finesse traits while neglecting any sort of strength trait. They are mildly interesting, but sort of odd as well. They have great wideouts in Tyreek Hill and Jayen Waddle, an up and down QB that struggles to stay healthy in Tua Tagovailoa, and a sort of interesting/funny head coach in Mike McDaniel. I think they need to start striking some actual fear into teams, because they feel nifty and skilled but that's about it.

The New England Patriots are arguably the worst team in this division on paper but they have some good hope I believe. Drake Maye seems like he's got some good potential heading into year two as a pro and as the team's QB. He's incredibly young and athletic. He seems primed to take a good next step in year two I feel. Mike Vrabel is the team's new head coach and well, as a Titans fan I do think highly of him. The team hasn't been too great recently but I still feel like they can turn things around for some reason. I may simply still feel the residual vibes from the Brady/Belichick days. Vrabel was a part of that though so I guess that's why I feel that way for the most part. In my opinion, they could easily be a seventh seed in the playoffs next year. They also spent a ton in free agency. With Maye perhaps improving and Vrabel being defensive minded, they could be on the right track.

Lastly, the Buffalo Bills. The Bills are excellent and are by far the favorite in this division. Josh Allen is a superstar QB and just a problem year in and year out. Last season he won MVP and he absolutely deserved it. He didn't just put up numbers he completely carried the Bills. It was eye opening! His rise has been wild to witness, it's like he levels up every year. He can really do it all as a QB at this point. If the Titans can't win a Super Bowl I wouldn't mind at all seeing him do so. Sean McDermott is also a solid head coach as well. All in all this team is a just scary and are 100 percent Super Bowl contenders.

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Saturday's UFC Fight Night features an interesting variety of veterans. Eryk Anders, Andre Fili and Angela Hill are set to face off in Vegas. All three of those fighters I respect a lot. Andre Fili infinitely intrigues me. He's like the lite version of Dustin Poirier in the Featherweight Division. Fili is definitely not as good as Poirier but he vaguely reminds me of him. Both are super tough strikers. Fili is simply underappreciated in my opinion overall. Fili is allergic to losing consecutive fights, it's literally never happened throughout his career. He's fought in the UFC since 2014 and has fought a ton of guys. He's never had a big win but is rarely dominated and if he does have a rough night in the octagon, it's usually by a recognizable name. He does have wins over Cub Swanson and Charles Jourdain. It would be wild to see a random push for a belt by Fili. I don't really see that happening but meh, MMA can be random who knows! I just love underdogs sometimes I guess.

The main event between Roman Dolidze and Anthony Hernandez looks pretty awesome. These fighters seem potentially very evenly matched. This is a critical match in the middleweight division. I lean towards Hernandez because he is on a tear and hasn't lost in practically a half decade, a seven fight win streak! But after glancing at Dolidze's recent fight history he's been really good as well. He's on a three fight win streak. His only recent losses coming from current number one contender Nassourdine Imavov and Marvin Vettori, but Dolidze also just beat Vettori in a rematch so that's pretty good.

I lean towards Hernandez in this one though, he seems super locked in, is significantly younger and has ridiculous cardio. I think he gets it done probably by unanimous decision and solidifies himself as a title contender.

The sports world never sleeps, till next time!