We say: 43 wins

That’s our prediction for the 2006/2007 season that starts tonight at the Wachovia center vs the Atlanta Hawks. A 43-39 record. That would be a 5 W improvement from last year, which ended with a sad, disappointing, almost embarassing 38-44.

It would be also the same record of 2004/2005, with Jim O’ Brien as coach. That team made the playoffs, only to see its butts kicked by Pistons in a 4-1 series that actually didn’t even start. Yes, we know that for most of you/us Sixers fans 43-39 means “mediocrity”. And you are probably right about that.

That record probably means also a quick first round exit playing vs a # 1-2 seed in the Eastern Conference. Exactly how it went two seasons ago with Detroit. This year it would be Miami or Cleveland, maybe New Jersey. All teams that are clearly better than us, and that would surely beat us in a 7 games series.

But we want to be optimistic, think positive. The good thing about living in Italy for a Sixer fan is that we are an ocean away from that “Negedelphia” atmoshpere. So, for us, 43 wins would be a good result not mediocrity. Still a step further, in a good direction.

We’ve read a lot of comments before the start of this season, and many (fans, writers) think it would be better to “tank it”, miss the playoffs (again) and make the lottery (again), hoping to get a high pick in the 2007 draft, possibly get Greg Oden, and start a new era. We simply consider this scenario a losing one. Losing, and for losers. It’s sad when a franchise, a team decides to lose on purpose, in order to have more balls in the lottery.

It worked for Cleveland in 2003, when they had the worst record in the league, got the first pick overall and drafted Lebron James: to be sure of that, they managed to win 17 (seventeen !!) games during the 2002/2003 season, losing many purposely. Pretty sad, uh?

But they are the Cavs. We are the Sixers. A franchise with a glorious history, a winning tradition. Maybe we can’t afford mediocrity. We can’t afford incorrectness either.

That’s why we say: 43 wins, back to the playoffs. Probably it’s more a hope than a prediction. But a true fan doesn’t want to lose, hates watching playoffs on tv, like we did this summer. Enough of that.

For the next six months let’s try to forget who is our GM and who is our coach, at least for a while. Support our guys, keep in mind they are the Sixers, show them some love.

It’s gonna be a long, tough season. That’s nothing new for us, diehard fans, who passed through the Charles Shackleford-Freddy Carter-Shawn Bradley-Sharone Wright years