PHILADELPHIA – Joakim Noah still winces at the mere thought of it. Sitting in the same locker room where the new and according to the experts much improved Chicago Bulls had just finished holding off the still winless but feisty Philadelphia 76ers 118-115, the painful memories of May, 2012, came flooding back. Those Bulls were top seed in the East then, with Doug Collins’ No. 8 seeded Sixers expected to be a speed bump on their way to a Conference Finals matchup
In a perfect world, the Philadelphia 76ers would flip a switch and have the calendar turn to 2016 or beyond. By then presumably all their wounded would not only be walking, but running at full speed. Dario Saric, the Croatian sensation, would be ready to show the NBA what made him such a hot draft commodity. Some of those other “assets’’ general manager Sam Hinkie has acquired since arriving in 2013 would have proven their value, justifying the moves that brought them
PHILADELPHIA – Joel Embiid passed the ball effortlessly, the navicular bone in his broken left foot hardly seeming to present a problem. His endearing smile lit up the place and thrilled the crowd, happy to see their hoops savior looking well and wondering if the civic basketball nightmare was about to finally end. Don’t worry, Sam Hinkie. Nobody’s raining on your “parade,’’ which continues to look more and more like the only celebration Philadelphia 76ers fans will ever see — if
PHILADELPHIA – Let’s begin with a question. In the three-plus decades since David Stern took the reins as NBA commissioner from Larry O’Brien and handed them to Adam Silver, what do these franchises – the Atlanta Hawks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards, New Orleans Pelicans, Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers – have in common? Answer: None has gone to the NBA Finals. Furthermore, among that group only Denver, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Sacramento and
PHILADELPHIA— Jimmy Fallon, sportscasters throughout the country and op-ed columnists can stop making them the butt of jokes and wisecracks now. The Philadelphia 76ers will only share a piece of the record book, rather than having it all to themselves. By scoring 70 first-half points on their way to a 123-98 blowout of the totally disinterested Detroit Pistons here last night, the Sixers avoided the ignominy of owning professional sports’ all-time losing streak. Never will a team be so willing and grateful
PHILADELPHIA—Did you hear the one about Allen Iverson extolling the virtues of “practice” on a recent trip to SMU? Probably not. And we are unsure if Iverson actually did extol those virtues, although he was brought in to give a pep talk to the team. Why? Because Iverson and Larry Brown still have a bond, and the in-person tutorial was Brown’s idea. And the pep talk helped fuel the team’s rise to a 20-6 record. To fully comprehend the strength of the relationship between
PHILADELPHIA — Evan Turner is in the top 20 in the NBA in scoring – No. 20, to be exact – and still feels unloved. Turner is still paying the price for not being what was expected three years ago as the No. 2 pick in the 2010 draft – even though he is starting to do it now. He’s still being judged by what he considers unreasonable standards, as if he was supposed to be a flawless stone rather than
PHILADELPHIA –They came to bury Andrew Bynum when the man who was supposed to be the 2013 Philadelphia 76ers’ savior—if only he could’ve played– came back to town last night. He wasn’t impressed with the frosty reception. “I thought it was a little weak, honestly,’’ Bynum said after a less-than-triumphant return to the city that once came out in droves to shower affection on him one sun-drenched August day in 2012. That now seems like light years ago. “I thought it would be