A.I. vs. A.I.
Basketball is my favorite sport to watch and in my glory days of yesteryear, to play. As a Philadelphia sports fanatic that means I am in for a long winter. The Sixers are predicted as a lottery team this year for good reason. They should have traded A.I. and started over, but instead they looked at that horrible finish last year, the whole Fan Appreciation Day fiasco and decided to basically stand pat.
Yes Rodney Carney will be a nice addition eventually, and Andre Iguodala 
just might step up big time this year, but he has to get the ball. With A.I. and C-Webb in charge, how likely is that? A.I. talks a good game at the beginning of the year, and I really believe he wants to get everybody involved offensively so they will have incentive to work on the defensive side. But then the season starts and A.I. sees too many passes bang off the hands of Sam Dalembert, or shots clang off the rim by the rest of the team, and he will feel the need to take 25-30 shots as usual, with C-Webb getting 18 himself. That doesn’t leave much for the other A.I. He can’t bloom as a superstar until the tattooed one is playing for a contender when he is traded during the all-star break. That said, I will be watching and hoping my team plays like it has a chip on its shoulder, and defies logic. Until, that is, ten games are played and that brutal schedule sabotages good intentions (6 of 10 games on the road to start, including a West Coast swing). And two of the home games are Miami and Detroit, are you kidding me? Of course, the defending champion Miami Heat went out and lost their home opener by 42 points, 108-66 to the Ben Wallace-led Chicago Bulls. So maybe the basketball world is crazy enough to give my Sixers a chance to make the playoffs.
You can dream, can’t you? College basketball should provide a better alternative once the season begins, except that none of the local teams look like they will be top contenders this year. Villanova lost its three best players to the NBA, John Chaney is happily retired, Phil Martelli’s St. Joe’s team struggled last year and isn’t likely to be much better and LaSalle lost its best player Steven Smith, to a bench-sitting role with the Sixers. Penn has to deal with losing its coach to Temple. The good news is that whatever teams come out on top in the Atlantic 10 will be in Atlantic City for the Atlantic 10 tourney in March. We get to have a slice of March Madness right here. So no matter happens with the Sixers and the Big Five, March will be a special month for B-ball fans in the area.
Later