Tag: basketball

Clap your hands everybody, what the hell happened to the 76ers?

Where do we go from here?

Joel dropping 70 on Wemby is now a distant fading memory. My town, My team, My 76ers have become sad to watch and a championship is further away than expected and I still don’t know what the hell happened. How did we end up here?

“Uhhh yea, we are going to lose on purpose” not an exact quote so don’t fact check me on that. It was an ambitious thing to tell Philadelphia sports fans. In 2013 Sam Hinkie entered the chat. He told us he was going to start taking big risks with draft capital for eventual championships, we had to grind through 20 win seasons for the hope of multiple rings. The process began. Weirdly, We went along with it. We found ourselves approaching the cliff in a convertible Thelma and Louise style holding hands while Jrue Holiday flew out of the back of the car lost to us forever. Hollis Thompson, Arnett Moultrie, Jakarr Sampson and Tony Wroten all flew by our windows as we free fell into the ravine. We all bided our time while we waited to see if the big man we just drafted was actually going to play and to see if his ceiling was as high as experts said it was.

In 2014 the Sixers drafted Joel Embiid with the third pick from the University of Kansas by way of Cameroon. Embiid, still very raw, had only been playing basketball for a handful of years up until that point. He also was damaged goods The Sixers drafted Embiid knowing that he would have to sit out the full year. Even from the beginning of his career Embiid had been under pressure and scrutiny and his mentality was called into question. Famously, the night he was drafted there was a tape delay from wherever he was watching that showed him for a minute or so stone faced as the commissioner called his name making him a Sixer. We were all blinded by Embiid’s promise and talent being able to look past most of his immaturities not realizing they would linger with him this long. His twitter trolling, his attempts to win Rihanna’s affection and his shocking consumption of Shirley temples were all funny talking points while the Sixers kept tanking. Embiid sat out his first two seasons while we all waited patiently for him to be unleashed on the Association. It paid off. Embiid became a dominant big man and an undeniable scoring threat. Arguably one of the most talented scorers to ever do it. From 2021-2023 Embiid was appointment TV, a league pass superstar. He averaged around 31-11-4 and won an MVP in that time. Still a championship had eluded us and his mental struggles plague him and the team.

The Sixers tried. Simmons, Butler, and Harden were all run out of town. Second round playoff losses still piled up and Embiid’s championship mentality was continued to be called into question. Nothing worked. We were teased a little bit with Maxey and Embiid becoming a star duo but Joel’s body is failing him.

This year started with so much hope. Singing Maxey to his big deal, Embiid was going to learn from the best in the Olympics and get healthy and work on his conditioning and the team signed free agent prize Paul Geroge in the offseason. Record Scratch. Paul George has struggled as he’s dealt with injuries and age, very noticeably not playing to the level he is capable of. Embiid’s knee has gotten worse to the point of barely functioning..I guess the Olympics were a bad idea.. and Maxey is still Maxey. Not all hope is lost the Sixers do have a bright future with Tyrese Maxey and now Jared McCain two draft night steals and two Tasmanian devils seeking to test NBA defense’s cardiovascular systems for the foreseeable future. Even with Maxey and McCain to lean on, The Sixers future is still foggy and hard to predict.

I’m a positive person and have had a lot of patience with the Sixers (I thought Andrew Bynum was going to play) and I directed a lot of the positivity toward the team. I always have hope that a team can turn it around. It’s happened before. Though, this year it’s not. It’s been hard to stay positive especially with Embiid. I love Joel and have argued in his favor a lot over the years after he kept coming up short in big moments. I was pro him playing in the Olympics when most people said it wasn’t the right thing to do. It’s sad to see him in this situation whether you believe he put himself in it or not. It’s a sad situation for all of us. I love the Sixers. They were the team of my youth. The image of the Iverson step over is more iconic to me than that picture of the two people kissing in Times Square.

This is the reality we live in now. A June parade down Broad Street is more a mirage than an oasis at this point. Shut down the big man and start over. How the Sixers do that I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.

Trust the process.

Arvydas Sabonis

An inspiration for late bloomers and hard workers

Inspiration is a funny thing sometimes. It can come from unlikely places.  A picture, a movie, maybe even an outfit someone is wearing. I am always looking for sources of inspiration. One of those unlikely sources for me is Arvydas Sabonis. 

Hey Matt..Why does a 7’3 Lithuanian former professional basketball player inspire you?

I’m a late bloomer and I need to work harder than most to achieve or understand things. For most of my life it was something that embarrassed me and hurt my self esteem. But recently it has become a source of pride. This is who I am. I know all too well how it feels to feel lost in the world and how hard it is to tell yourself to keep going and to stay the course even when you think you’re further away from a goal than you actually are. It becomes a struggle to find the motivation.

It wasn’t until the other night while I was watching the new Netflix series Starting 5 that this unlikely source of inspiration came to be.

Starting 5 is a docuseries that follows the lives of five NBA players throughout the course of a NBA season. Lots of stretching and massages. Among the five players is Domantas Sabonis, an emerging star in the league and son of Arvydas. Hearing the name Sabonis sparked something in my brain. Sabonis..oh yea his dad was kind of a legend in the sport wasn’t he? Let me look him up.  So naturally I went down a bit of Arvydas Sabonis rabbit hole. This is the moment where I became inspired and maybe you will too. 

I love basketball but I consider myself a casual fan. I only really care about my team the Sixers and how they do.  I don’t have League Pass so any future chance at employment at The Ringer is in jeopardy for me. I’m getting close to the point where I might make a Chris Croker style “leave Britney alone” type video in my bedroom for Joel Embiid. 

Arvydas Sabonis was not a rookie in the NBA until he was 31 (with a body of a 65 year old).  No he wasn’t drafted out of college at 31 he had a storied European career Br before entering the NBA. But his path to the league had its roadblocks. Sabonis was drafted 77th overall in the 1985 NBA Draft. A notable and controversial draft that featured two of the best big men of all time, Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone. To Sabonis, Ewing was not a threat. As told by Kevin Garnett during an interview in Starting 5 when talked about playing with Sabonis at the 1996 Rookie Game in San Antonio.

“I played with his father, and we played at this thing called the Rookie Game in San Antonio, and it was the first player I ever seen in the locker room have his wife in the locker room, smoking a cigarette in his drawers, talking shit.”  

“David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, I better than all of them guys,”  

 Due to a league rule Sabonis was under 21 and the NBA did not allow foreign players under the age of 21 to play at the time.  Next year.. 1986.. Arvydas was drafted again this time 24th overall by the Portland TrailBlazers. Yet again he was met with another obstacle. The Cold War was going on and Soviet authorities would not allow Sabonis to play in America. 

Around this time Sabonis suffered an achilles tear which is an absolutely devastating injury to receive as an athlete. Adding to the list of injuries that he suffered during his career. Like I mentioned before his body was basically in its 70s by the time he made it to the NBA. 

Imagine suffering an injury like that in the 1980s in Russia. All I can picture is a bunch of sort of chubby balding Russian trainers chain smoking in a locker room telling him to “just ice it”. 

That actually isn’t that far from the truth. During the 1988 Olympics Sabonis was part of the gold medal winning USSR Men’s basketball team, but was treated as an outcast and did not receive much attention from his teammates and coaches because he was from Lithuania and at that time Lithuania was not considered to truly be part of the USSR. But Arvydas continued to fly under the radar and put together an illustrious European career. Winning multiple championships and MVPs. 

Maybe Sabonis wasn’t such a late bloomer. He was obviously touched by the hoop gods and those abilities did not get overlooked by his peers. Garnering this quote from the late great Bill Walton:

“ He had the skills of Larry Bird and Pete Maravich. He has the athleticism of Kareem (Abdul Jabaar) and could shoot the 3 point shot. He could pass, run the floor, dribble. We should have carried out a plan in the early 1980s to kidnap him and bring him back right then.”

But Arvydas Sabonis is an inspiration for those who grind and put in the work everyday even when you feel like you’re going nowhere. He is someone who wasn’t supposed to be a part of something but still made his way in despite the obstacles, or his age or his  health.  He said I’m going to do something great and kept on his journey. He had a NBA career that lasted 7 years and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

If you’re inspired by hard work and keeping on your path maybe this post will inspire you or at the very least you can watch some Arvydas Sabonis highlights. Check out some of his sweet behind the back passes in the low post. Chef’s Kiss.

I guess what I’m trying to say is just keep working hard and you can reach any goal you set your mind to and always try to find your inspiration no matter who or what it is. 

Thanks for Reading.