Phillies = Sixers?
The Opening Tip
Hello & Happy Almost Weekend - It's the Corner Three!
Spike & Mutlu Live
Connor Barwin's Make The World Better Foundation's annual concert is August 26th at The Dell. As always, there is a VIP Pre-Show Tailgate. A ticket gets you food, booze, and a live Carl Landry Record Club. The event is across from the Dell from 4:30 till 6:30. Get tickets here!
Oh Yeah, The Sixers
Harden Hostage Crisis Day: Give me a fucking break it's August
The hot tea this week is that, wait for it, hold on to your seats, the Sixer and Clippers are going to engage once again in a trade discussion centered around James Harden. Harden has no intent on being a Sixer again (makes two of us) and the team will work to oblige. In other words, we're exactly where we were 36 days ago except now everyone is back from vacation and ready to hop on microsoft Teams again.
This Week's Top 10: Things I would have done differently throughout the Process
10. Kept Roco & Dario in the program longer (EB got his guy, always does, but would have been nice to keep one of those guys around longer for depth, development and other possible trade scenarios
9. Traded down and not drafted Okafor (I do contend that Hinkie was forced by ownership to get a "showcase" player and had Okafor forced upon him)
8. Not traded up for Fultz
7. Not let Jerry Colangelo take over the team via skype, hire his son and run away (shoutout Mike Baumann)
6. Not let Scott O'Neil run anything (fuck him)
5. Not trade the Bridges pick (I don't blame Brett Brown for that, he should have never been in that position)
4. Not signed Al Horford (Fuck Him)
3. Not let Sam Hinkie walk/fire him
2. Not let Jimmy walk
1. Not traded for Tobias Harris (nice guy, BUT!)
Mike's Corner... It's Hittin' Season
Every week Spike or Mike will give you something that's on their mind. It's Mike's week, and he's absolutely not talking about the Sixers (well maybe a little).
Look, we're barred from looking at the Sixers roster, and it's hittin' season.
Wednesday's win over the Nats was the best Phillies regular season day in recent memory. Career minor leaguer Weston Wilson hit a homer in his first major league at-bat (and drew 2 walks! arguably more impressive to be patient when your nerves are sloshing around like a Rita's gelati you're driving home for mom). Nick Castellanos banged two opposite field homers to become the 371st player in MLB history to get to 200 for his career. Michael Lorenzen threw the 14th no-hitter in the franchise's 141 year history. Dynamic 22-year-old temporary (?!) everyday centerfielder Johan Rojas caught the last out then convulsed with joy. And Rob Thomson left Lorenzen in to do it, resisting the modern urge to take him out well after the 100 pitch threshold, and evading the ire of uncles across the Delaware Valley.
History made in several ways. All done by arguably zero of their five best players (although let's give JT credit for calling the game and managing one of the best staffs & pens in baseball despite a rough year when he's not crouching). Just an incredible evening for a Phils team that is, somehow, once again, pulsating with juice.
It's hard to imagine anything resembling this feeling happening for the '23-'24 Sixers.
Some of that is just the nature of baseball. Everybody in the lineup gets a turn, which means anybody can be the hero. Joel doesn't sit late in the 4th because it's Springer's turn in the order. But when something as special as a no-hitter does happen, the defense rallies behind the guy to make sure, as Castellanos said after the game, "Nothing drops." For a sport as individualized as baseball, there is a magical, unquantifiable sense of team that either you have or you don't.
The other reason it's hard to imagine something this pure happening for the Sixers from October to mid-April, is that as the words we've carved into our thighs say: Doesn't matter 'til May. The fans know it, and so do the players. The Sixers are a cold weather team. They fade in the warm months. Like the opposite of what we thought the '02 Buccaneers would do.
Sure, there've been good regular season moments in this era. Some erstwhile Jimmy game winners. The Joel 59-point game against Utah. Korkmaz beating Portland at the buzzer. Markelle's triple double. The stretch of games when everybody had Covid and Danny Green had to take 28 shots a night. Beating the Bucks on Christmas. Embiid demolishing Jokic to essentially end the MVP race.
Unfortunately, six straight seasons of making the playoffs and not really super going anywhere will dampen a fanbase's enthusiasm for a January Tobias run. At this point we're as jaded as we could possibly be-- like Daria meets Llewyn Davis being caught in the middle of a bank-sponsored flash mob after the climate apocalypse-level jaded-- and even if Nick Nurse does forcibly inject some juice into this team, will the fans be able to enjoy it? The "isn't it enough just to have a decent team?!?!" crowd will. (And it's obviously not enough, grow up.) But the majority of fans who have lived and died and died and died and died and died and died with this team will just not be able to trust them until they break the Tin Ceiling Of Unseriousness. Maxey could do something cool, or Bball Paul could successfully finish a game at the 4, or Dan House could inexplicably score 25 in an undermanned win over the Lakers. But... so what?
While the joy of this one Phillies game out of 162 will linger a while and beget more joy in the future when it's someone else's turn to play hero, any Sixers' taste of bliss will evaporate until they prove they can survive the elements of a 79 degree day in May. Go Phils.
Peace, Love and Process Go for a walk - watch some preseason Birds
-Zo