One TLMOE theory I do have, that involves no spoilers: the basketballs are gone now and they were Phil’s only ‘friends’ for a good long time. Even after he met other people and fell in love with Carol, he still talked to them sometimes and used them to work stuff out. He’s still gonna need to do that occasionally, go off on his own and talk to something, but he can’t talk to the balls anymore –
– So he’ll talk to Mike.