What I missed during vacation

Here we are, blogging again after a well deserved 9 day vacation in the beatiful island of Zanzibar (Africa).

So what did I miss in the meantime? In chronological order:

1) Iguodala was officially signed to a 6 year-80 million extention (the pic shows that both him and Stefanski were happy for the deal…)

2) Sixers brought back Theo Ratliff, signed to a 1 year contract for the veteran minimum

3) Sixers’ GM Ed Stefanski made a conference call with a panel of selected bloggers.

Brian/Depressed fan has the links to all posts of other sites, Sixers.com has the transcript of the conference, Recliner GM has the podcast.

I had the privilege to get the invitation to the conference from Micheal Preston, Sixers’ PR director (thanks again), but unfortunately couldn’t join it because I was out. I will surely be part of the next one, scheduled… well, they don’t know yet, but it will be before the season starts.

Anyway it’s great to see that Sixers keep us bloggers/fans in such high consideration, and that a GM takes some of his time to talk directly to us. This is something new in the NBA, as far as I know, and hopefully it becomes a trend and eventually a standard for every team. Hats off to Stefanski and the Sixers’ public relations dept for setting up this.

4) Sixers brought back Jeff Ruland also, this time as an assistant coach

5) USA Team won the gold medal at the Olympics in China, beating Spain after a fantastic game. 

My quick takes on the aforementioned subjects are:

Drive us to the Promised Land !!!

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

Dear Andre Iguodala,

I’m leaving for vacation, I will be back on Sun 24th.

While I’ll be away, CAN YOU PLEASE SIGN THAT CONTRACT with the Sixers so that we can stop being worried, fill blogs, sites, forums with BS and focus only about basketball?

We would like you to join this wonderful team and be one of the leaders of the upcoming, exciting Sixers season. We need you to complete what it already looks like a nice picture.

Thanks and regards from Guidoland.

Ricky

(on a side note, on a couple of forums I’ve read that apparently Jason Smith suffered a serious injury that could even sideline him out for the whole season. No official statements yet, so this has to be confirmed.

If it will, I would be really sad because I like the guy and his Summer League play was very encouraging. Let’s hope for the best, we need the dude healthy. In culo alla balena, Jason)

Royal Ivey seen from Bucks fans

(BRING THE OLD SIXERS UNIFORMS BACK ! S4G CAMPAIGN – SIGN HERE)

Ok, given that Lou Williams will sign a 5 year-25 million deal soon, and given that Kareem Rush has already had his breakdown (see the previous post), how about hearing Brew Hoop’s thoughts about Royal Ivey?

I did another Q&A session with the guys from the finest Bucks blog, and here are Frank’s answers:

S4G: do you think you will miss Royal Ivey?

Frank: “There are worse options for a third-string point guard off the bench than Ivey, but Bucks fans should be very pleased to have Tyronn Lue replacing him in 08/09.  Last season the Bucks were forced to play Ivey like a primary backup (a career-high 19.1 mpg in 75 games) and that was definitely not a good thing.  All told, I’m not surprised that the Bucks didn’t make more of an effort to bring him back” 
 
Which are his best skills, that you think Sixers fans will appreciate?

Ivey’s short on skills but long on work rate and gumption.  He’s a good bet to lead the Sixers in dives for loose balls, plus he at least provides some versatility in that he can play both guard positions (I’d say he’s about equally inept at both).  He’ll hit open mid-range shots and was vaguely passable from beyond the arc last year as well (.327).