The Mess That Is...The 76ers (And The NBA)

I'm a little shocked that I feel the need to rant about the 76ers. Basketball is my fourth favorite of the four major pro sports. So I don't watch Sixers games or other NBA games nearly as much as I watch MLB, NHL or NFL games. But this is brought on by a tool named Scott O'Neil. He's the team's CEO. He was interviewed on WIP-FM, the main sports talk radio station, Saturday morning. I was not up early enough to hear that, but I heard a few lines that were excerpted for the station's sports updates at :20 and :40 each hour. In one of them he commented that the Sixers were "fun to watch," that he had fun watching the game the previous night.

Really.

In that game, Friday at Milwaukee, the Sixers trailed 82-81 with 8:21 left in the fourth quarter. And didn't score again. Not a single point. The lowly Bucks scored the final 11 points of the game to finish off a completely forgettable 93-81 win. The 76ers missed their last 14 shots from the field and, during those amazing final 501 seconds, didn't get to the free throw line once. After Saturday night's loss in the home opener, they're now 0-3 to start the season.

But Scott O'Neil thought it was fun.

This comment came a day after he decided to take some verbal jabs at Larry Brown, the coach of the team the last time the Sixers were actually any good, because Brown had the temerity to criticize the team's current approach to building a team: by destroying it completely.

Their strategy the last year-plus has been to get rid of just about every half-decent veteran player they had, ditching high salaries and acquiring draft picks and woefully inadequate, untalented replacements, in order to turn into a mediocre team into one that is not remotely capable of winning, trying to maximize their chances of getting the top pick in the NBA draft. Last season they finished 19-63, second worst in the NBA, but only got the third pick in the draft thanks to the league's lottery system of allocating the top picks.

The draft is the other part of the strategy: picking players with an eye to improving years down the road, instead of players who might help the team now. As a result, for two years in a row the Sixers picked players who were injured in college, and wouldn't be fully recovered for months. In the case of Nerlens Noel the Sixers had him sit out the entire 2013-14 season. This year's top pick, Joel Embiid, seems to be on the same slow track. (Added to the Andrew Bynum disaster, this would make three consecutive years that the 76ers' key summer acquisition would fail to play a single game in the following season.) Also, another draft acquisition (Dario Saric) is under contract with a team in Turkey and can't play in the NBA for at least a year, possibly two.

The end result is a team that will struggle to reach last season's 19-win mark, looking to get yet another top pick, and then hoping that their young talent will flourish. And, with money to spend because they're well under the salary cap, the 76ers hope that will entice quality free agents to sign with them, and voila! they're one the best teams in the league, fighting for a championship.

That's all well and good. But they're charging full price for the tickets they're selling for the slop they put on the court last year, and this year, and probably next year as well. Scott O'Neil doesn't have to pay to watch this dreck so he can have all the fun he wants. The average fan? Not so much.

And this is the NBA's fault. Because of the way the league operates, with ridiculously complex rules for the salary cap and free agency, and a draft system that, even with the lottery in place, still encourages teams to essentially lose on purpose, the only way for most teams to become true contenders is to follow the slash-and-burn process the 76ers are currently undertaking. It's a joke.

Here's a prime example of the cap idiocy: last week the 76ers and New York Knicks made a trade. In addition to a couple of future draft picks (the 76ers may now have 76 picks over the next few seasons; you normally get two per year, one in each of the two rounds), the Sixers acquired a player, Travis Outlaw, from New York and sent one of their players, Arnett Moultrie, to New York.

After the trade, the Sixers cut Outlaw. The Knicks cut Moultrie. Because of the salary cap complications, the Knicks couldn't just cut Outlaw themselves They had to trade him so they could keep another player on the roster.

It's the same stupidity on draft night. Unlike the NFL, where teams will trade up in the draft before the pick comes up, in order to draft a player they want, NBA teams draft players first, and then trade them. It's lunacy. Players get drafted, march up to the podium to pose for pics with the commissioner and put on a cap with their new team's logo. Five minutes later they're on some other team.

76ers fans, to be sure, support what the team is doing. They want a team that can legitimately compete for the NBA title. I can't blame them. But I also can't be bothered to watch any of their games, unless there's absolutely nothing else interesting on TV or someone gives me a free ticket.

An Old Phillies TV Broadcast Failure

I'm watching a rebroadcast of the last Phillies game played at the Vet, which Comcast Sportsnet has been airing recently. I recorded it the other day and I'm going through it while my new tablet PC is charging for the first time. I never saw this broadcast because I was actually at the game. Remember when starting pitcher Kevin Millwood (whose Phillies career started with promise and ended up well short of expectations) was removed from the game after giving up 5 runs in 4-plus innings, walked off the mound and tossed his glove into the stands? Amazingly, the broadcast didn't catch that moment live because they had WIP's Anthony Gargano roaming the stadium doing reports, and at that moment he was interviewing former Phils Bake McBride and Manny Trillo. Granted, it was a special day so such reports are kinda warranted, but still...

MoneyMoneyMoneyMoney...MONEY!

This post brought to you by the O'Jays! The Sound of Philadelphia!

Tonight I had tentatively planned to see "The Ides of March" at the theater at Neshaminy Mall. I was on the route 14 bus, headed north on Roosevelt Blvd. to go to the mall, but I had a last-minute change of heart. I needed a new alarm clock radio for the bedroom, so I got off the bus and went to Best Buy and bought one instead. It has really lousy AM reception, at least for KYW Newsradio, but I only set the clock radio to KYW if someone I don't want to hear is on WIP sports radio (usually happens early on weekends). And since WIP is now on FM, the AM side isn't something I'll use much.

Anyway, I got home and looked at my mail -- I got my first paycheck today! A whole week's worth of salary! YES!

The only problem is, way back when I had my interview for the job, I gave them (as requested) my direct deposit information. I'm not supposed to get my check in the mail. Now I have to make a trip to my credit union to deposit it. An inconvenience, but hey, the important thing is I can finally start crawling out of my financial hole.

Vote For Me And I'll Set You Free

Many of you* have been asking me, "Joe, we just love your blog so much! You're awesome! Short of actually handing you piles of cash, is there any way we can show our appreciation for you?" Well, now there is!

CBSPhilly.com is the catch-all site for the local CBS-owned TV and radio stations, including CBS-3 television, KYW Newsradio (1060 AM) and sports-talk WIP (610 AM -- at least for now; it's been reported that they plan to move to/simulcast on FM next month). At their website voting has now begun for Philadelphia’s Most Valuable Blogger Awards 2011, in the following categories: Dining/Entertainment, Sports, Lifestyle, Local Affairs, Health/Fitness/Medical and...Everything Else.

And guess who's been nominated in the "Everything Else" category?

Go on...guess!

Okay, I guess the image at right sort of gives it away.

Now, the stakes aren't that high. The only prizes they're giving away are $50 Amazon gift cards (12 in total, 6 to the top vote-getter in each category and 6 "Editor's Choice" picks.

You can go here to vote in my category. (Scroll down -- the nominees are listed alphabetically, so I'm in the T (for "The") section. And you can check out all the categories here. The voting is open now and runs through September 9, and you can vote once every day. And feel free to pass this on to your family, friends, neighbors, frenemies, acquaintances, pets, the supermarket cashier, the file clerk at your office, the toll collector on the turnpike, etc. Thank you for your support!

*"Many" in this case equals "no one." This is called "writer's embellishment." But it seems I have my friend Kurt to thank, as he told me today that he nominated my blog. How I became a finalist, I have no idea.

Eagles Finding Scapegoats

That may be a cynical title for this post, but it may also be accurate. The Eagles have fired two coaches in the last two days, and neither of them are named Andy Reid. Today it was defensive line coach Rory Segrest. Segrest was in that job for the last two years. Before that he was special teams coordinator, and we know how horrendous special teams were during that time (although they're not exactly stellar right now), so the fact that their D-line has been similarly subpar can't be much of a shock.

Yesterday it was defensive coordinator Sean McDermott. Reid said on Monday at his final post-game press conference that McDermott would be back. Why say that, only to dump him five days later? Some of the media pundits thought that if anyone should take the fall it was Segrest, so it's interesting that he actually lasted one more day than McDermott. (Is it that hard to fire more than one person at a time? Other teams do it.)

I was interested to hear today, on WIP, that former Eagle Jeremiah Trotter mentioned speaking to a current player who said that McDermott was the worst defensive coordinator he'd ever had. Perhaps that sentiment was shared by many players and they made their feelings known to Andy Reid.

This is fine, but barring something shocking, it's going to continue to be the same story with the Eagles. For all his success, Reid has enough flaws that it's hard to imagine him winning a Super Bowl here after all this time. The formula just doesn't work any more.

More On Sports Talk, Plus Some Sports Talk

Yesterday I talked about the local sports-talk radio stations. One thing I didn't mention in that post, but was reminded of today, is that the stations and their callers often seem to be stuck in a time warp, endlessly discussing/arguing/screaming the same tired points. An example of this was the constant whining about the Phillies not keeping Cliff Lee this season.

Now, I mentioned that I listen to WIP when my clock radio goes off and when I'm in the bathroom. When the radio clicked on today (well, after I turned it off and went back to sleep for a while and then turned it on again) there was a caller complaining about how "people talking about not wanting to sign Michael Vick to a long-term extension because he might get hurt" (like he did against Washington) are way off because Brett Favre gets hurt all the time. Favre hasn't missed a start since 1992. Vick, just this year, missed three full games and part of a fourth, and might have been out another game had it not been for the bye week. In other words, you dare not say anything negative about Vick, in this guy's mind. The next caller called Vick "sub-human," doesn't think he should be allowed to play football, etc. So the whole debate over Vick and his crimes and his punishment just goes on, and won't end until whenever he stops playing for the Eagles.

Or will it? A while ago

A Little Talk On Sports Talk

Around these parts you often hear complaints about sports-talk radio in general -- hosts don't know what they're talking about and/or callers are idiots. In particular there are complaints about WIP (610 AM) because when they've had a competing sports-talk station they've generally beaten their competitor in the ratings over the last 20-plus years. The most recent competition has come from what is now known as The Fanatic, which started out on 950 AM, then began simulcasting on 97.5 FM as well, and added ESPN Radio programming to their mix.

I mainly listen to WIP only when the alarm clock radio goes off and when I'm in the bathroom. Other than that I'm listening to music or, on occasion, all-news KYW. I have rarely, if ever, listened to The Fanatic.

One thing people say about sports fans here is that they're so interested in Philly teams above all else, that national programming (such as shows carried on ESPN affiliates) just doesn't work here. But The Fanatic doesn't have too much ESPN stuff, so they're really trying to compete with WIP.

And now I have some real proof of this.

Bad Day To Miss The Eagles

If you follow me on Twitter you already know that I went to play softball this morning (after a couple of skip weeks, one due to bad weather). This was the only week so far that the schedule threatened to cause me to miss part of the Eagles game. The other weeks either my games were scheduled earlier or the Eagles didn't play until 4 pm or later. Today, however, the softball games were set for 11 am and noon, and the Eagles started at 1. So I figured I'd miss a little of the game but go to a bar and watch it. If I went directly home I'd miss the first half, at least.

I got to the FDR Park entrance at 10:30 (these fields are actually convenient for me despite being all the way down near the stadium complex, since the Broad Street Subway is right there) and took this picture of the WIP pre-game show hosts, as this is their broadcast location for home games. It wasn't very crowded around their stage at all at this point, 2 1/2 hours before kickoff.

There were two problems today: the softball teams were scrambling to have enough people to field teams (apparently a fair number of players either quit or just didn't show up), and the games either didn't start on time or ran beyond their alloted time. Thus, my first game didn't start until almost 11:20, and the second one was similarly delayed. I didn't get out of the park and back to the subway stop until 1:30, then had to wait 10 more minutes for the next train to arrive (thanks, SEPTA).

Two things amazed me at this point. One:

Random Stuff: B-52's, MLB on Fox, McNabb

Just covering a few things at once...

• My ears are still ringing some from last night's B-52's concert. Between their show and the opening act, a Philly band named Gang, the music was really loud. When I blogged about my trip to the box office to pick up the ticket, I had a comment saying the B-52's were now "a tired act." I can understand that a little, since the commenter had seen them perform here in 1979 and 1980. They do look a little older, a little heavier (well, not Keith Strickland -- he looks yummy), but I thought it was a great show and the crowd seemed to agree. I took some video but the sound quality is pretty bad because it was so loud and the camcorder in my cell phone isn't that special, so I don't think I'll bother posting it. (Plus a couple of them are sideways because I held the phone sideways. I have to remember to slide out the keyboard first if I want a wider view.)

• On the final weekend of the baseball regular season, Fox is again showing the less meaningful Yankees-Red Sox game instead of the crucial Giants-Padres matchup. The Padres need to win to stay alive for both the NL West and NL Wild Card. The Giants are trying to clinch the NL West, and at the same time hurt San Diego's chances of catching the Braves for the Wild Card. (If current results -- Padres leading, Braves losing to the Phillies -- hold, tomorrow will be a heck of a day for clinchers and there could even be a one-game playoff on Monday.)
  
  Oddly enough, though the Phillies are also playing at the same time, they're showing the Phils on Comcast Sportsnet. I think they're on Fox as well in parts of the country. Usually if the Phils are one of the Fox games, Fox shows the game locally. It's hard to believe that Fox isn't blacking out a local Phils telecast, and that they're showing us the stupid New York-Boston crap instead of the game that directly affects the Phillies -- the Giants-Padres will help determine the Phils' first playoff opponent. They'd get more people here switching back and forth between Fox and Comcast if Fox were showing the Giants-Padres here.

• I've avoided all of the national sports outlets this week because, not unexpectedly, they're too busy taking potshots at Philadelphia and at Eagles fans. After all, Donovan McNabb returns to the Linc tomorrow for the first time as a Washington Redskin. Between McNabb, drama queen/martyr that he is, and his suck-ups in the national media, there's really no reason to watch ESPN or NFL Network or visit any of the national sports websites. There's no actual journalism there this week as it relates to the Eagles, only misinformation, outright bias and lazy (blah blah blah Santa Claus 40 years ago blah blah blah) writing. Of course, it's not exactly fun listening to WIP either, with the callers and hosts pushing their own agendas re: McNabb. So, many heartfelt thanks to the Phillies for giving me another playoff run to keep my mind off the Eagles/McNabb melodrama.

Phillies Clinch...Something; Also: Eagles/NFL Stuff

Even though the Phillies have lost two in a row (to the whiny New York Mets, no less) they still clinched a playoff berth today after the San Diego Padres lost. The explanation is here, if it's important to you. It's not important to me. I've decided to save my post-clinching drinking for when they reach their real goal for the regular season, the NL East title. They've clinched a tie for it thanks to Atlanta's loss today. Tomorrow the Phils are in Washington (weather permitting) and the Braves are home against Florida. A Phils win or a Braves loss and I start downing rum and diet cokes and writing up a blog post while under the influence. It's now a yearly tradition, with a bonus drunk post after another event of some significance, so be sure to read it!

Meanwhile, a 28-3 pounding of the Jacksonville Jaguars has the Eagles at 2-1, and all by themselves in first place in the NFC East. While the Eagles played quite well, I don't think Jacksonville is very good, so I'm still not entirely sold. And even with Donovan McNabb, Washington is 1-2 after they lost today. McNabb brings his new team to town next week, and then the Eagles go to San Francisco, a team that would have been better off getting McNabb from the Eagles instead of sticking with Alex Smith at QB, and a team with a coach, Mike Singletary, that I've come to believe to be highly incompetent. I think the Eagles will be 4-1 going into their game against Atlanta (currently 2-1, having won at New Orleans today) and we still won't know how good they really are. They lost to the only good team they've faced.

I think the league is mostly wide open this year. There are five unbeaten teams -- 3-0 Pittsburgh and Kansas City, 2-0 Miami (playing the Jets as I write this), 2-0 Chicago and Green Bay (they play each other tomorrow). Of those five, only Green Bay and, to a lesser extent, Pittsburgh seem to be for real at this point. Some highly touted teams -- Minnesota, NY Giants, Dallas, Cincinnati, New England -- have some issues. I think that, and the disaster zone that is the offensive line, is why Andy Reid decided to stick with Michael Vick at quarterback even after Kevin Kolb's concussion symptoms went away. That will work now, against weak competition. We'll see how Vick does when he has to face a real defense again.

By the way, I've been eliminated from that WIP Suicide Pool. I went with Washington this week. Thanks, Donovan.

My Pool's Alive, Eagles Alive, Kolb's Career On Life Support

Here's an update on my previous post regarding the Eagles and the 610WIP Suicide Pool: before Week 1, there were 26,100 contestants in the suicide pool. After two weeks, only 11,989 remain. More than half the contestants have been wiped out. The losses by Dallas and Minnesota that had me so ecstatic were the main cause this week. I, on the other hand, am still alive in the competition thanks to my pick of the Eagles.

The circus atmosphere that surrounds the Eagles took another twist. Tonight they suddenly announced that Michael Vick was their new starting quarterback even though Kevin Kolb has been cleared to play after the concussion he suffered in the first half of the opening game. This, despite Andy Reid repeating over the last week, after Vick replaced Kolb in Week 1 and gave the offense a lift and after an even stronger performance this past Sunday in beating the Detroit Lions, that nothing had changed and Kolb was still the starter.

The Eagles traded their 2007 first-round draft pick to Dallas for some lower picks. With their first pick in the 2nd round they unexpectedly drafted Kolb, essentially anointing him Donovan McNabb's successor. They ended up spending three seasons grooming Kolb for the job. Although some fools said that McNabb's benching in a 2008 game marked the end of McNabb's Eagles career, it actually didn't occur until the 2009 season ended in infamy at Dallas (and Kolb, substituting for an injured McNabb, became the first QB to throw for 300-plus yards in his first two career starts). The Eagles finally sent McNabb to Washington in April, then signed Kolb to an extension through 2011.

Eagles And...Sudden Death

I was going to be a bit snarky with the title of this post. Why? I entered the 610WIP Suicide Pool again this year. The concept of the suicide pool is that you pick one NFL team each week to win a game -- no point spreads, just to win. If they win, you get to keep playing. If they lose, you're out of the contest. Hence the "suicide" you commit by picking the wrong team. Once you pick a team, you can't pick them again the rest of the season. That makes it more difficult because you can't pick the same obvious winner every week.

Last week I went with Arizona to beat St. Louis, and they did, although it wasn't easy. However, over one-third of the 26,100 contestants who entered the contest are already gone. A lot of them went down in flames because they picked San Diego, who lost to Kansas City on Monday night.

So this week, I decided to go with the Eagles and get it out of the way. The snarkiness of a title such as "Will Eagles drive me to suicide?" would be based on the absurdity that once again surrounds this team, even though they've only played one game, and despite all the proclamations about how this was a fresh new era now that Donovan McNabb and his drama are down the road in Washington.

Hot Dog!

On Monday, as my friend Kurt -- that singing fool :) -- was off getting ready to go onto the field to compete in a singing contest at the Camden Riversharks' Country Music Night, I was standing on the concourse at Campbell's Field with a couple of his friends when one of the team employees came up to us and asked if anyone would like to participate in a hot dog-eating contest.

Now, we've had the Wing Bowl here in Philly for almost 20 years now, and I've always wondered what it would be like to be part of something like that. We were laughing about it, and I hemmed and hawed, and she said, "You can just eat one or two and have a free meal," and finally I said, "What the hell, why not?" and signed up. I am a sucker for a free meal.

Phils leave DC with bad game, bad hair

The Phillies finished a strange road trip with a 2-5 record. After the 4-game sweep at the hands of Houston the Phils won twice in Washington, but looked less than impressive. They finally started scoring runs, but most of them were on solo home runs, and Brad Lidge has finally lost his job as closer (at least for now) after another near-disaster. But last night they failed to finish a sweep against the worst team in baseball. Jimmy Rollins, who hadn't made an error in ages, made two last night. Joe Blanton, who's been stringing together quality starts for the last three months, reverted to his April-May form. The offense got two runs in the first and then were shut down until the 9th, when the woeful Nationals nearly let an 8-2 lead disappear.

An error, an infield hit and a walk was followed by a pinch-hit grand slam by Matt Stairs that ended two streaks. Stairs broke an 0-for-30 slump with his first hit since July (or, as a caller to sports-talk station WIP put it the other day: "The last time Stairs got a hit I had two kids and now I have three" since his wife gave birth recently). The Phils also had hit 17 consecutive homers without runners on base before the slam.

A Rollins single, a wild pitch, a Shane Victorino double and a Chase Utley infield hit later and it was 8-7 with the possible go-ahead run on first. But Ryan Howard grounded into a double play to end the game. The Phils' lead is now down to 5 games over Florida. They return home for 4 against the almost-as-woeful-as-Washington New York Mets.

Speaking of Victorino, what is he thinking with this hair?