Sixers try another re-building season

The 76ers have been trying to shake the feel of the Allen Iverson era, the last time they were a relevant team in the NBA. They’ve changed the uniforms from the ugly black, red and gold back to their traditional red, white and blue and brought in former Sixer and well respected coach Doug Collins. They are also watching number 2 draft pick Even Turner and his development closely, hoping the versatile Naismith award winner can become a do it all 2 guard, the position that new coach Doug Collins feels is lacking the most. I saw Even Turner at the Brew Pub in Manayunk and couldn’t help but text my friends who are Sixers fans, at the time I was telling them he was only about 6’5 and they should be worried, but I was drunk and spiteful. This is actually rare when speaking about the Sixers to my friends who are Philadelphia sports fans. Whenever I talk to them about their teams there’s usually a degree of hatred involved, I will openly admit that I hate the Eagles and The Phillies and derive pleasure from watching them lose, but this isn’t the case with the 76ers for some reason.  I’ve never really had that kind of animosity for the Sixers, in fact I almost kind of root for them sometimes.  I like that they represent the old school northeast basketball culture, they’re an original and classic NBA franchise and the city of Philly does have a good basketball culture. I also worked as a stats intern for the Sixers legendary stat man Harvey Pollack.

                The fact that they haven’t been very good in recent memory and I haven’t had to hear Philly fans rant and rave about how great they are and how they’re going to beat the Knicks, because neither team has been very good for a while now. Things might change if these 2 teams can reverse their fortunes.  I think that would be a very good thing for basketball, I think the teams like New York, Philly, Boston, Washington, Chicago and L.A. should have good teams, because they reside in great basketball cities. Obviously there all now going to be good all the time as we’ve witnessed, but things would definitely heat up in the NBA (no pun intended) if the traditional basketball powers like the Knicks and the Sixers climbed back into serious contention, especially now that Lebron, D-Wade and Bosh have created a team that’s very good, very easy to hate and begging for a rival.

                This is obviously what the media would call an east coast bias, but whatever, basketball has historically been an east coast dominated sport and many of the years glory years was spent being celebrated by east coast teams, with the notable exception of the UCLA dynasty and the Lakers. I’m getting pretty picky with the NBA this year, all I really want is for the Knicks to be good again.