Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition reminds players that people’s names can look like regular words. Also, did you spot the SpongeBob SquarePants reference when the grid showed both SANDY and CHEEKS? If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: What’s your role?

Green group hint: Where teams shoot hoops.

Blue group hint: Iconic baseball players.

Purple group hint: Philadelphia.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Members of a staff.

Green group: Words used in NBA venue names.

Blue group: Hall of Fame pitchers, familiarly.

Purple group: 76ers head coaches.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is members of a staff. The four answers are coach, manager, scout and trainer.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is words used in NBA venue names. The four answers are arena, dome, forum and garden.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Hall of Fame pitchers, familiarly. The four answers are Catfish, Rollie, Sandy and Satchel.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is 76ers head coaches. The four answers are Brown, Cheeks, Nurse and Rivers.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

More vertical video features are coming to Netflix. Co-CEO Greg Peters revealed plans to expand the streamer’s mobile vertical video feed during Tuesday’s earnings call. 

Testing is already underway to expand the mobile experience, which currently features vertical clips of Netflix TV shows and movies. New vertical video content, including snippets from video podcasts, will be available on Netflix this year.

«You can imagine us bringing more clips based on new content types, like video podcasts, which Ted [Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO] mentioned that we’re adding to the general service,» Peters said. «We’ll bring the sort of appropriate components of that into that vertical video feed.»

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Netflix’s move to expand its vertical video offerings comes after Sarandos acknowledged during the earnings call that social media apps like Instagram are now seen as competitors.

«TV is not what we grew up on. TV is now just about everything,» Sarandos said. «The Oscars and the NFL are on YouTube. Networks are simulcasting the Super Bowl on linear TV and streaming. Amazon owns MGM, Apple is competing for Emmys and Oscars, and Instagram is coming next.»

Competing with the likes of Instagram and TikTok means evolving the content the platform offers. And if it wants to attract Gen Z viewers, leaning into bite-sized vertical clips of live programming like WWE Raw, competition series Star Search and significant moments from Netflix hits like Stranger Things and KPop Demon Hunters is a good place to start.

«Vertical» is the hot buzzword in Hollywood right now. New production studios are dedicated to the mobile-first content, and with the massive popularity of vertical micro-dramas — which Variety calls «a multi-billion dollar global phenomenon» — more streamers will likely follow suit in the near future. 

Peters also revealed Netflix’s plan to overhaul its mobile interface to «better serve the expansion of our business over the decade to come.» 

«We’re going to roll this out later in 2026, and just like our TV UI, it then becomes a starting point, it becomes a platform for us to continue to iterate, test, evolve and improve our offering,» he said.

I spent time inside living Mario and Donkey Kong attractions at Super Nintendo World in Orlando’s Epic Universe theme park last year, wondering when Pokemon might appear in the parks too. News from Universal Studios now confirms that Pokemon are also on their way, starting in Japan. Orlando will get them next, but we don’t yet know what the Pokemon experiences will be.

Nintendo’s been exploring real-life overlaps with its games in toys and theme parks for a while, going all the way back to Pokemon Go. But in a theme park, the ideas could go a lot further. The latest Pokemon game on the Switch even made me wonder how it could cross over into something location-based in a park.

According to the announcement from Universal Studios Japan released today, the details are still vague. The immersive Pokemon experiences don’t sound exactly like a ride, but they’re also unlikely to be a parade or show, since the press release already mentions shows that featured Pokemon in the past.

Expectations for some sort of Pokemon theme park experience have been high for a while, ever since Nintendo unveiled Super Nintendo World with Universal in 2020.

Since Pokemon Go still exists and Universal already has interactive toys in-park like tappable Power-Up bands and wizard wands, it also makes me wonder if some sort of interactive toy will be part of what’s in store. After all, Nintendo’s been getting into making more immersive home products, too. More details are coming in the future, so I’m curious.