PHILADELPHIA – The hard truth of life in the NBA is that once you’re down, it’s nearly impossible to get back up.
The haves always seem to have it.
The have-nots seem to be perpetually buried near the bottom. Or worse, in the middle of the pack, where there’s little chance of finding that rare gem in the draft and not much hope in free agency, either.
Think about it. It’s been 30 years since they celebrated a championship here where Wilt Chamberlain used to roam, followed by The Doctor, Julius Erving. Each won a single title. More than a full generation has since grown up with no tangible reward to show for it—other than the 2001 team Allen Iverson led to the NBA Finals under Larry Brown.
And that didn’t turn out to be all that rewarding, after all.
But Philadelphia’s hardly the only place where this is true. While young Sixers fans have waited their whole lives for another crown, so have the vast majority of fans in most NBA cities. It simply boggles the mind to know in those 30 years only eight teams have hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy, which wasn’t even called that back then.
But unless you cheer for the Lakers (8 titles), Bulls (the Jordan 6), Spurs (4), Celtics (3), Pistons (3), Rockets (2), Heat (2) and a mere solo job by Dirk Nowitzki and the 2011 Mavericks, you have always been disappointed.
In contrast, baseball (19), hockey (16) and football (14) have been far more championship equal opportunity sports.
So go get ‘em, Sam Hinkie, new president and general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers, a man with a reputation as a master of analytics, the statistical breakdown of player strengths and weaknesses that’s becoming the rage.
Maybe somewhere mixed in among all the data you’ve been compiling the last eight years in Houston – the last couple as the Rockets’ No. 2 man to Daryl Morey – is the formula that can return this once proud but now struggling franchise among the league’s elite.
But with virtually no chance to move up from the No. 11 spot in the draft in next week’s lottery and not a whole lot of cap space to pursue prospective free agents, he knows this is no overnight fix – unless they decide to roll the dice again on Andrew Bynum, gambling the potential upside is worth the risk of Bynum’s sorry knees giving out on him the way they did this season.
MJ is definitely the king. Every time i listen his records i feel as he is still alive. Absolutely one of the biggest pop music celebrities ever been born!