The last time we left Bryce Harper, it was early November and Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was telling reporters he cleared the air with the two-time MVP after publicly questioning if he can post another elite season.

They might need another conversation.

It can be hard to determine intent from a single social media post or fashion choice, but there are only so many ways to interpret Harper posting a video of himself on TikTok takings swings while wearing a shirt that says “Not Elite.”

The could obviously mean a few things. Maybe Harper is still peeved about Dombrowski’s comments. Maybe he’s become friendly enough with the executive that the elite question has become a joke to them. Maybe he’s decided to lean into the criticism and is now presenting it as motivation.

Still, it’s quite a choice to drag that argument back into the public sphere, especially during an uneasy offseason for the franchise.

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In case you need a refresher, here’s what Dombrowski said about Harper in an end-of-season news conference:

"He still is a good player. Is he elite like he was before? Probably not to the same extent. And so that's nothing negative. Freddie's a tremendous player, and that, to me, is Bryce. Can he rise to the next level again? I don't really know that answer. I mean, really, he's the one that will dictate that more than anything else, is what it comes down to.

"I don't think he's content with the year that he had. And, again, it wasn't a bad year, but when I think of Bryce Harper, you're thinking elite, you're thinking one of the top 10 players in baseball, and I don't think [his 2025 season] fit into that category. But, again, very good player."

Harper responded by saying he was “hurt” by Dombrowski’s comments and some subsequent trade speculation, leading to Dombrowski speaking to him in private and indicating the matter was settled.

Dombrowski wasn’t exactly wrong with his initial comments, though, which might be why the comments bothered Harper.

It’s been four years since the 33-year-old won his second MVP award in 2021 after hitting .309/.429/.615 with 35 homers. In the seasons since then, he’s hit .281/.374/.506 while struggling with injuries, which still makes him a very good hitter, just not in the top tier of MLB hitters. His. 361 wOBA ranked 21st among qualified MLB hitters last season.

Millions of viewers turned into Prime Video to watch the final game of the NFL’s Christmas tripleheader. They also got a first taste of how “Nicolas Cage as John Madden” is going to work.

The streamer released the first trailer of its upcoming biopic “Madden” on Thursday during the Denver Broncos’ close win over the Kansas City Chiefs, showcasing the mercurial actor’s take on the beloved coach-turned-broadcaster.

You really only see him in action for a single five-second scene, but that can still tell you a lot:

You can compare that quick rant to the real thing in this clip.

The film is being directed by David O. Russell and will chronicle both Madden's life as a Super Bowl-winning coach with the Oakland Raiders and his involvement in the Electronic Arts video game franchise that still bears his name.

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In addition to Cage as Madden, the film features Christian Bale as former Raiders owner Al Davis, Kathryn Hahn as Madden’s wife Virginia and John Mulaney as EA co-founder Trip Hawkins.

Fittingly, the release date is set for Thanksgiving 2026. It was the NFL’s Thanksgiving broadcasts where Madden arguably made his biggest mark as a broadcaster, introducing the famous turducken after games as a celebration of the winning team. The league’s Thanksgiving slate is now officially called the John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration.

Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick was not in a charitable mood after the team’s 119-96 loss to the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day.

The team took its third straight loss Thursday in a one-sided affair, an outcome made worse by rising star Austin Reaves exiting the game with another calf injury. The Rockets led by double-digits for the entire second half and outrebounded the Lakers 48-25.

After the game, Redick railed against his team’s effort level and bluntly assessed how it performed:

“The two words of the day were ‘effort’ and ‘execution.’ I feel like when we’ve done both of those things at a high level, we’ve been a good basketball team. When we haven’t, we’re a terrible basketball team. And tonight, we were a terrible basketball team.”

He went on to note the team’s next practice Saturday will not be a fun one for certain players, whose consistency he is directly questioning:

“We don’t care enough right now. That’s the part that bothers me a lot. We don’t care enough to do the things that are necessary. We don’t care enough to be professional.

It’s a matter of making the choice, and too often we have guys that don’t want to make that choice. It’s pretty consistent who those guys are. Saturday’s practice, I told the guys, it’s going to be uncomfortable. Meeting is going to be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”

That choice calls back to what Redick said after the Lakers’ previous loss to the Phoenix Suns, in which he painted the team’s defensive effort as a series of choices it wasn’t making correctly.

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His full postgame conference Thursday:

The Lakers have spent nearly the entire season on solid footing despite LeBron James’ early season absence, but now sit at 19-10, good for only fifth place in the Western Conference. The team can only hope Reaves isn’t further injured after missing three games last week with a calf strain, but it has other problems to figure out now.

The Lakers’ next chance to get back on track will be a Sunday home game against the Sacramento Kings, who currently hold the worst record in the West at 7-23.