Becoming The Beard | Sports Daily Newsletter

Long before he was The Beard, James Harden was “nothing special” as a high school freshman, according to his coach then, Scott Pera.

“At the time, he just wasn’t somebody that you thought, ‘Oh, this is a star’ or, ‘This kid has everything it takes.’ You just didn’t think it. Nobody did.”

Unlike many NBA superstars who were groomed to be such from an early age, Harden’s rise started later and is a much different tale. Ahead of the Sixers’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, The Inquirer’s Gina Mizell went back to Harden’s hometown to get to the bottom of how a kid who was once described as “nothing special” evolved into a three-time NBA scoring champ and a league MVP. Here is James Harden’s basketball origin story.

— Inquirer Sports Staff, @phillysport

After reading Mike Jensen’s piece on prominent Philadelphia basketball people and their most treasured pieces of basketball memorabilia, what’s your most prized sports souvenir or possession? Tell us at sports.daily@inquirer.com

» READ MORE: Click here to sign up for Friday's NCAA Round of 16 edition of Gameday Central with Mike Jensen, Mike Sielski and David Murphy

The Eagles have a lot of questions marks this offseason but wide receiver DeVonta Smith isn’t one of them.

Despite setting an Eagles rookie record with 916 receiving yards, the former Heisman Trophy winner is not satisfied. The proof? Smith’s grueling two-a-day offseason workouts in Tampa, Fla., with former NFL player Yo Murphy’s “Breakfast Club” at the House of Athlete Performance Center.

Our Josh Tolentino shadowed Smith for a day last week to get exclusive insight into what drives the young Eagles receiver and his continued work to try and perfect his craft.

Speaking of receivers, a day after the Eagles signed free-agent wide receiver Zach Pascal, beat reporters Jeff McLane, EJ Smith, and Tolentino weighed in on the move in the latest installment of Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down.

Even after signing Pascal, the Eagles could still draft a receiver, but that is far from their only position of need. Following the early period of free agency, EJ Smith identifies the positions the Eagles still need to address most in the draft.

Lots of players get labeled as “winners,” but what does that really mean? Bryce Harper identified Kyle Schwarber as a proven winner before he even signed his four-year deal with the Phillies last week. Alex Coffey talked to some of the people who know Schwarber best — the guys he played with — to find out just what it is about the new Phillies slugger that makes him a good teammate and a winner.

The Phillies avoided arbitration with two of their arbitration-eligible players on Tuesday, and a hard-throwing reliever stood out in his inning of work against the Tigers.

Next: The Phillies will introduce Nick Castellanos at a noon press conference today followed by a game against the Blue Jays at 1:05 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia).

Doc Rivers has experience managing stars like James Harden and Joel Embiid at this time of year. Back when he coached the Boston Celtics with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen on the roster, Rivers left his Big Three in New York after a game against the New Jersey Nets. Rivers and the rest of the roster traveled to Charlotte, and when they returned to play the Knicks, Garnett, Pierce, and Allen were there waiting for them.

While that might be an extreme example, the 76ers are certainly in that type of territory with Embiid and Harden, who will need all the rest they can get before embarking on what the franchise hopes will be a long postseason run. And as The Inquirer’s Gina Mizell noted, more nights like Monday against Miami, when Harden and Embiid cheered their teammates from the sidelines, could be on the way.

Next: The Sixers are in Los Angeles and will play against the Lakers tonight at 10 as Harden returns to his hometown for the first time since being traded to Philly (NBCSP).

With the Flyers trading two forwards in Claude Giroux and Derick Brassard, the final 20 games of the season will be an opportunity for several young players to show they belong.

This stretch might be most important for 22-year-old Morgan Frost, who has yo-yoed back and forth between the Phantoms and the Flyers this season. The former first-round pick is quickly running out of time to impress the organization’s brass, so his performance over these final 20 games could go a long way in determining his future with the club.

Frost was a minus-1 Tuesday night as the Flyers lost to the Red Wings, 6-3, in Detroit.

Next: The Flyers play the second game of a five-game road trip on Thursday in St. Louis against the Blues (8 p.m., ESPN+ and Hulu).

Raise your hand if you were captivated years ago by soccer when the World Cup was in the United States in 1994. Keep your hand raised if that’s when you first heard the name of Claudio Reyna, the boy wonder of the U.S. men’s national team who made that 1994 roster, but due to injury, never played in the tournament. Reyna would go on to be a key contributor in the 2002 U.S. run to the World Cup quarterfinals, bracketed by far more disappointing USMNT outings in 1998 and 2006. Now the son rises. Giovanni Reyna is returning from a serious injury in time to perhaps clinch the USA’s spot in the World Cup tournament later this year, and helping to redeem the team’s absence in 2018. It won’t be easy, however, as the U.S. faces its fiercest regional rival, Mexico, on Thursday in the legendary Azteca Stadium.

Closer to Philadelphia, the Union are No. 1. True, the MLS power rankings aren’t officially a championship title, but they are a reasonable indication of a team’s form. There’s no one hotter than the undefeated Union right now.

Now that you’re thinking soccer and want to scratch that itch, there’s no need to wait until Thursday or the weekend. Jonathan Tannenwald serves up a menu of games to watch.

Cinderella St. Peter’s has taken the 2022 NCAA Tournament by storm, upsetting both Kentucky and Murray State on the way to an improbable Sweet 16 berth. While the Peacocks, who are 12.5-point underdogs to Purdue on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center, might not win, there is some reason for optimism for bettors.

That is because the two previous No. 15 seeds to reach the Sweet 16 — No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast in 2013 and Oral Roberts last year — both covered the point spread. In fact, all four teams seeded 14th or higher to reach the Sweet 16 have covered in their regional semifinal games.

We asked: Who has the most assists in 76ers history?

As many of you answered, the correct answer was indeed B, Maurice Cheeks. Cheeks, who played for the Sixers between 1978-89 racked up 6,212 assists with the team. Cheeks ranks 15th in NBA history with 7,392 career assists.

Rich G. was the quickest to answer correctly, answering 25 minutes after the newsletter was sent. Well done, Rich!

We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Gina Mizell, Mike Jensen, Giana Han, Olivia Reiner, Alex Coffey, Jeff McLane, Scott Lauber, E.J. Smith, Josh Tolentino, David Murphy, and Jonathan Tannenwald.