Tag Archive: Philadelphia 76ers

Do You Know Who I Am? Yes, You’re Allen Iverson.

April 10, 2011 Randy Neil

It’s been a year and a half since Allen Iverson took the court wearing a Philadelphia 76ers jersey. What many thought would be a long tenure that would eventually lead into retirement and the NBA Hall of Fame has now turned into a sad downward spiral of bizarre behavior and poor decision making.

Since Stephen A. Smith publicly criticized Allen Iverson for having a gambling and drinking problem back in March 2010, Iverson has done everything he possibly could to live up to that speculation.

After a very weird, very abrupt departure from the 76ers last year, Iverson went on to sign with a 2nd-tier Turkish basketball team (mainly because he was getting absolutely NO offers from any NBA teams) called Besiktas. The contract was set to be a 2-year $4 million deal.

Since then it’s been a shit storm of bad things.

Earlier this year Iverson’s mansion in Denver was foreclosed upon after he failed to make payments on it. From what I’ve read, the house is now worth about $1 million less than he had purchased it for, and the total back-owed amount is roughly $2.5 million. Bummer.

In January, Allen left his team in Turkey to return to the U.S. for rehabilitation on his right leg. People were criticizing his poor play in the D-League of Turkey already, but his public appearances throughout Atlanta during the rehab didn’t help either.

What originally turned from a 4-6 week stint in Atlanta that was supposed to allow Iverson to return for the Besiktas playoffs, has now turned into an ongoing rehabilitation with no return date set, and no return announcement from the team. Basically, he’s not going back.

This is mostly hearsay, but reports were coming in from Sports by Brooks that Iverson was seen spotted at an Atlanta club almost every night, alone, wearing the same gear he was wearing in 2000. People claimed to have seen him watching the All-Star game on television with an incredibly depressing look on his face.

Then, most recently, Iverson’s Lamborghini was impounded after a traffic citation turned ugly. Allen was riding passenger while his friend, Antwuan Clisby, was seen ‘changing lanes without a signal.’ After the two were pulled over, police ran his tags that were 2 years expired, and Iverson wasn’t able to provide any documentation for the vehicle. Iverson was told the vehicle was going to be towed and apparently became irate. Reports were that he was cursing at officers, asking the now infamous “Do you know who I am?” question.

Sad, sad stuff. The days of Iverson being ‘The Answer’ for Philadelphia are long over. What seemed like a moving reception for his return back in 2009 now looks like a cheap, short-lived publicity stunt.

The sad part is that I think he still has talent. He probably could contribute in some way to an NBA team (or any team for that matter,) but his bad off-court antics have landed him a reputation that hinders any team’s willingness to find out.

Speculation is now looming that Iverson is bankrupt. Gambling, drinking, poor spending, stubbornness… it’s more than taken a toll on him. Iverson is now set to follow the cliche story of a famous athlete’s demise in the public spotlight. He’s denied several mentors and keeps a tight circle of ‘yes’ men around, so the outlook for this once amazing sports icon looks dismal.

Iverson…. take off the over-sized 2000-era velor jumpsuit, get a fitted that’s the right size, stop drinking so much, hit the gym, start doing some ‘practice’, and do something positive again. We miss you man.

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Bring the King. Off With His Head!!

March 25, 2011 Randy Neil

Well, it’s Friday. 6 days to go until opening day, and things have gotten worse. Chase Utley has officially been moved to the DL, Brad Lidge has been moved to the DL, Cole Hamels got lit up yesterday, Roy Oswalt got beaned in the head with a ball and is recovering…. It wouldn’t be a typical Phillies season without some drama. The Braves look amazing, and although people have been doing nothing but talking shit on the Mets (like me), they look pretty good so far too.

Every analyst keeps showing concern for the offensive voids in the lineup, and now, I am too. Maybe we are really gonna feel the burn from Jayson Werth signing elsewhere. Rauuuuuuuul ain’t getting any younger and Rollins has looked like shit all spring. I expect a slow start from him, followed by a slow finish. Dominic Brown hasn’t done a thing to make me feel he’s truly ready for a starting role, and if the Mets don’t want Castillo, I can’t fathom why we would. Somebody better get Howard a whoooooole mess of Subway Feasts.

It’s really heating up in theheadrush.com March Madness competition. I have the lead right now, but it’s thin. Adam’s bracket has basically busted because of Syracuse, although with some pretty extreme circumstances, I believe he can still win. Duke lost last night, in very poor fashion, not only making Brendan elated, but also giving him a pretty good opportunity to win this little competition of ours.

He has Ohio State winning the whole thing, and 32 points would be a huge boost in the standings for him. I can’t have that. Here’s to praying that they choke. That’s basically the only way he’s gonna win, and I simply can’t have that. YOU can’t have that. The universe will collapse.

I know I don’t talk about the Sixers much, but I think I should note the importance of tonight’s game. The 76ers travel down to Miami to face the Heat, a team we are most likely to face in the play offs. The Sixers actually have a good chance to win this game. Jrue Holiday will probably be guarding Dwayne Wade, a daunting task for anyone. That’s my main concern. Iggy will be on James most likely, and I’m never disappointed in Andre’s defense. We have the big men so Bosh will have some trouble. Our bench is 10x deeper than theirs. It gives us hope and a great way to gauge ourselves going into the playoffs.

Bring the king.

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March Madness, Sprinkled with Sixers Talk? Yes Please.

March 14, 2011 Randy Neil

Bracketology. A science only few are familiar with and only the elite can master. Deciphering the strategies and match-ups of a 64 team tournament into one great spectacle, analysts around the horn are going to be on TV for the next 3 days speculating what players have enough “swagger” to lead them to Houston for the NCAA Championship.

Before they can even get to that, arguments need to be made about what teams were left out, and which undeserving ones got in. When analysts on ESPN starting jabbering about which teams got robbed, arguing that bigger market teams were chosen instead, my first response was “duh.” Of course they did. The NCAA is still a business at the end of the day. But, after some thought, I’m kind of glad it was said. It needs to be said. This is the system, as shitty as it is, that helps recycle universities in need of some recognition. Complaining gets you there. It IS retarded that teams that haven’t played all weekend in their conference tournaments have lost ranking to teams that did good in their poor…. poor… just god awful representation of a conference. I’m looking at you, UNC.

Good news is you don’t have to listen to those idiots. theheadrush.com is having their own predictions this year, and we’re so cocky and confident in our choices, we’re going to compete and wager against one another. Starting Wednesday, I’ll have a bracket in place on the site, listing our predictions, constantly updating the score throughout the entire tournament. Should be a good time.

Talk about the Sixers? Alright you twisted my arm. Yes, I did in fact see the victory over the Celtics on Friday. It was sick. When we hold teams to 80-90 points with great defense, we have a chance against anybody. So if I check correctly, we upset not only the #1 team in the West, but also the #1 team in the East. It was almost a given that we’d lose to the Bucks on Saturday. Back to back home-away games always spell disaster. We just poured our hearts into a game against a great Celtic team, and then had to travel 500 miles to play less than 24 hours later against a youthful Milwaukee Bucks team that has nothing to lose. We were tired. We looked tired. Doug Collins made note to address that in the post-game interview.

And I take anything that man says as the truth. Doug Collins was named Coach of the Month in February for leading the Sixers to a 7-3 month, the best winning percentage we’ve had since 2007. He’s still got my vote for Coach of the Year. We have already surpassed our total wins in a season for last year and clearly shown we can hang with the elite in the NBA.

Tonight, we face the brand new Utah Jazz. They’ve been dropping coaches, players, training staff, wives, all kinds of crazy stuff. The Jazz are coming off a 2-4 record this month, with scoring in the 100’s almost every game. The Sixers boast a 108 pt. average the past 9 games, in spite of the two lack luster offensive performances last weekend. The Sixers have been 2-19 going into Utah, and this road trip proves to be tough, but I have faith with the Jazz’s recent troubles that we’ll light it up.

Stop the Mormons.

And one of my favorite highlights from this weekend coming from the NBA Playbook. Best part is, KG gets burned.

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Before the Storm Comes the Thunder

March 9, 2011 Randy Neil

Man, all these NCAA violations are getting me fired up. First, BYU suspends their second best player before the biggest national tournament because he got freaky in pre-marital sex, then today Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel gets suspended 2 games and a quarter million dollar fine for knowing about players selling their used uniforms for cash.

It’s a god damn joke that players are intended to make absolutely no money the entire duration of their career at a college they help make millions of dollars. It’s a quarter million dollar joke that Jim Tressel is losing for knowing about the events and not disclosing it. What’s really stupid is the NCAA has a system where college recruits are allowed to visit schools and players, but they can’t bribe them in any way, shape, or form before they enter one of the largest grossing industries in the entire world. That’s insane.

You know what calmed me down though? THE SIXERS BABY!! Tough week ahead for the Sixers, going for a 4 game stretch in 5 days, but guess what? After tonight’s win against the Pacers, the 76ers are 16 of their last 21 games. I saw a lot of good signs from the Sixers today, most notably Evan Turner’s continual emergence from his cocoon into a NBA player. He looks mean now. He knows how to draw fouls. He’s asking for the ball all the time now (maybe too damn much.) But I certainly don’t see the same timid, uncomfortable player I saw when the season began.

Iggy getting two triple-doubles in a row. Brand looking like a damn monster this season. Yesterday on PTI Tony Kornheiser said he still thinks the Knicks are better than the 76ers. Call me crazy, but I don’t. The Knicks gave up a lot of good positional players to grab Melo, and no sweet cut-off jean jacket is going to save you with how many crappy bench players you have. The Sixers are a half-game behind the Knicks.

Last year I went to 7 Sixers games, and they lost every single one. I watched the old Heat blow us out by 40 (Adam wrote a post about it.) I watched the Magic destroy us. I watched Bosh on the Raptors get like 19 rebounds. We were awful. I probably spent about $400 on tickets last year, and the only memories I can walk away with are the friends I went with, and Matisyahu beat-boxing the National Anthem on Jewish Heritage Night. Damn that was fun.

Tonight, I’m going to spend about two-thirds of that to watch just one game. A game that I don’t expect the Sixers to win. Coming off a game the night before, 644 miles away, doesn’t give me much hope for a win, never mind that it’s against one of the top 3 teams in the Western Conference. But with all that in mind, I still got the best tickets I could possibly find, first row behind the 76ers bench. And I’m still going to cheer. I’m going to cheer so loud that Coach Collins is going to turn around and give me Matt Cord’s job for play-by-play announcements over the intercom (just listen to me, I’m good.) I hope the Sixers embrace the challenge as much as I do.

I want this win. I need this win. You think the Sixers could finally get some love after upsetting the best team in the NBA already, but I suppose upsetting the top scorer in the league Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder will do just fine as well.

Bring the Thunder boys.

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SIXERS IXERS IXERS!!!

February 14, 2011 Randy Neil

This week has been sweet. Super sweet. The 76ers, after starting the season 5-17, have since had an above .500 record for the past 3 months. They have been f-in crushing it.

Let’s recap the week shall we?

Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. That was a blowout. I haven’t seen the 76ers win by 34 in… oh… I don’t know. Never. The universe must be collapsing upon itself because the 76ers never win a game in blowout fashion… especially not to a team fifth in the division.

Very next night the Sixers lose a pretty close game to the Orlando Magic. At this point I wasn’t expecting much, so to even hold their own with the likes of Hedu Turkaglue (is that how you spell it?) is amazing. I’ll take it.

Friday, back in Philly, set to play the San Antonio Spurs. Like a fine wine, they seem to get better with age. Manu Ginobili’s bald spot now acts a distraction to opposing players trying to make a fast break, often leaving them blind crashing into the stands. There was no way the 76ers were going to hang with the 45-9 best record in the NBA, coming from the Western Conference, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs. But they did! They friggin’ won!

Now, many critics have already noted that the Spurs did put up a meager 71 points and had their worst shooting percentage of the season. Some would even further press to point out that the very next night San Antonio managed to score that same figure in one half, stressing that the Spurs simply had an off night shooting, and typically a team with little talent like the 76ers were handed a fluke. To which I say : 76ERS DEFENSE RUNNING CIRCLES AROUND YALL SUCKAS BABEEEEYYYYYY!!! DOUG COLLINS FOR COACH OF THE YEAR!!!

It’s just a good sign. Typically opportunities like this are often squandered, leaving a sad and lonely basketball fan to hope for off season and next year. Well.. guess what? It’s next year.

The 76ers have now won 5 of their last 7, and 4 of their last 5 on the road. Huge improvements from the beginning of the season, and signs of things to come. Greater let downs to be had in the play offs. :D

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