I just can’t root against them
Posted by Ricky - Sixers4guidos on February 6, 2007
I can’t help it. I watch them and I want them to win the game. It’s a useless game, and maybe it would be even “dangerous” to win it, but I still root for them. Maybe I will regret it this summer, when someone else will draft Oden, or Durant. But as of now, I am happy to see them win.
That’s what happened this night while I was watching live (damn, those P2Ps are great once you learn how they work !!) the 100-98 OT win vs New Jersey. Our third worst overall record at 16-33 (.327) will probably not last that long, since we won now seven of the last ten games, and our schedule looks good (?) with five more games at home.
But there is still hope for the tankers. Hey, I am a tanker myself, I just “instinctively” happen to root for the Sixers whenever I see those uniforms… but I digress.
The hope for us is Maurice Cheeks. No disrespect for the man, but is he THE DUMBEST COACH EVER?
Flashes from last night’s game:
1) up three with 13 seconds to play (Joe Smith’s jumper, 88-85), he chose not to foul and leaves Nets’ best three point shooter wide effin open. Result: Eddie House ties it at 88 with 7 seconds to play with an easy three from the corner.
2) so there is still 7 seconds to play, and we have the ball. Now Mo will draw a play for a (good) last shot, right? Hey, you see him in the picture, he has even a chalkboard. Well, he actually has it, but it seems the call is more for a “put-the-ball-in-Iggy’s-hands-and-pray-God” type of play. Result = a total mess, no shot taken, and ball out of bounds with 1.1 seconds to go.
3) Ok, now. We have a play for this kind of situation, right? Because ever effin team in this league has one. An alley hoop pass, a “catch and shoot”, c’mon, it’s the NBA, coaches get paid for thinking about this stuff !!! Well, Orlando has one (they won a game @ Portland with a similar play, a nice alley hoop from Turkoglu to Grant Hill), but our play is setting up Joe Smith for a long three pointer (!!), that misses everything, obviously. So it’s overtime.
Ok, this time we are up three at 99-96 and Mo woke op, he finally decides to foul. Kidd hits a pair from the line and makes it a one point game, at 99-98 with 9 seconds to go. Sixers ball. He puts the ball in the hands of the best free throw shooter we have, my boy Kyle Korver. Wow, Mo, you are a real coach, I apologize !!
But Korver misses one (on a side note: man up, my dude, @ Milwaukee you missed again down the stretch and it costed us the game, we can’t afford that…). Nets ball, Sixers up two. Our choice? Leave the notorious choker Vince Carter wide open for a shot that could win the game for them. But he misfires, so we win. Ok, Rodney Carney completely lost Vince on that play in a really surprising way for who is supposed to be a good defender, so he is to blame as well.
But Mo… are we watching the same game? Then I stopped for a while and remembered that Mo is the same coach that:
4) leaves our best shotblocker on the bench to lose the game vs Portland on a last second layup in the lane by their big man, Zach Randolph, that everybody knew was going to take that shot.
5) not happy for that, leaves our best shotblocker on the bench again to lose the game vs Golden State on a last second lay up in the lane by another big man, this time Al Harrington.
Probably Mo is fooling us all, guys. He’s the head of the Tankers bandwagon, it’s just that players and fans still didn’t realize it.
Side notes: Louis Williams seems to me two years away from being a NBA player. Too raw, he doesn’t have a single move to rely on. And work on your jumper, young fella.
Willie Green played just 9 minutes. Good news. My friend Rolen76 of the Sixers board is happy, I know. Me too. He still managed to take 5 shots in that short stretch. Seems that the less he plays, the more he shoots. Unbelievable. Like many other things in this crazy season.
Sixers 4 guidos 
raffaele said
well, buddy, don’t be too harsh on the man. after all, when they let him go, portland said they ‘d do so because it would have been “unfair” for a young coach to lead a rebulding process. very kind of them. too bad poor ol’ cheeks now finds himself riding a young team whose only realistic goal is lottery. to make things worse he’s working under the dark shadow of larry “fresh air” brown, who’s already spending sleepless nights thinking hard on how to spoil any gram of young talent we got to bring in some tough-minded, play-the-right-way-attitude veterans so he can get back to coaching the kind of team he likes.
sixerguy said
good article Ricky as always.
Raffaele, Cheeks coached here last season when the Sixers weren’t rebuilidng and still couldnt get them into the playoffs (which was the same team from the year b4 which Jim Obrien could). Mo is suspect..
The whole tanking discussion is unsportsmanlike so yea I feel like you do too Ricky. Then I wake up and realize the NBA and sportsmanship don’t go hand-in-hand. Look around the league with the money these guys make, the crap they pull, and then tell me how fans should pay $70 a ticket and also be, excuse the term, “sheep,” and root for the team to win. I can make an arguement for tanking either way however when it comes to paying $70 a ticket, I vote for sacrifcing a year so to better the next 5.
raffaele said
sixersguy you definetely right. in fact I did not mean to justify mo. i think he’s as a bad a coach as you can get (and therefore, i agree with ricky, our best hope to get to the lottery). in fact my comment was meant to be kind of tongue in cheek (better, tongue in cheeks…in this case) pointing out destiny of a guy who managed to get a couple of succesfull seasons in portland (only ’cause he had good personnel) and was then realesed by the team once they realized he’s lame with a polite excuse (and much gratitude fot those foolish that were allowing them to get rid of him..). the irony is that he soon found himself in the same situation his old team allegedly wanted to free him from ’cause it would have been “unfair” to him. the thing is even more ironic – from mo’s point of view – if you think now he’s a pro-tempore, get-to-the-lottery-and-get-outta-here coach.