Embiid’s brash and outspoken, exactly why we need more like him
If ever Philadelphia was in need of a trash-talking braggart promising a march to fulfillment, this is the time. And if that is Joel Embiid wrist-flicking his cap into that ring, well, at least someone showed the belly.
In an era when the Phillies believe it best to keep their most intriguing talents penned in Allentown, when the Flyers harbor a stale nucleus ever unable to achieve, and when even Jeffrey Lurie is caught saying the Eagles’ ascension to greatness may take a while, there is Embiid, ready to give a cyber-finger to anyone who doubts the Sixers’ greatness. At this point, can it hurt? Even if Embiid’s attitude cost him ten large — that was his fine from Adam Silver for going electronically profane against equally egotistical LaVar Ball — it is a worthwhile business expense. Because nothing great is going to happen along Pattison Ave. as long as the decision-makers are excused from
trying to make anything great happen along Pattison Ave.
Last season, the Sixers were actually starting to resemble a proud basketball team when Embiid announced they should compete for the playoffs. That elicited snickers and knee-slaps. But he was right. And they might have done so, had he not been injured.
The other day, Embiid began talking about the Sixers winning a championship by June. Even if that reveals that he evidently did not watch Kevin Durant in the last postseason, it beats the trust-theprocess, together-we-build, show-patience, build-a-culture lunacy that has brainwashed a generation of Philadelphia sports fans.
The risk, of course, of promising something and delivering less is that that the snap-back can sting. For instance, had the 1983 Sixers lost their first four playoff games, Moses Malone would have been banged over the head by his famed fo’-fo’-fo’ comment for the rest of his career.
Still, somebody in Philadelphia had to sound the all-clear, the way Jimmy Rollins said the 2007 Phillies were the team to beat.
• There literally is a rolled-up banner at the far edge of the display of retired 76ers numbers hanging
in the Camden training center, clearly waiting to be unfurled. So obviously Malone is about to formally join the most glowing franchise constellation. Either that, or it’s Tony Wroten.
Though he only played four seasons with the Sixers in his prime, along with a part of another at the end of his career, Malone was as individually central to a championship as any athlete to have played in Philadelphia in the modern era. Call it a tie between No. 2 and the Flyers’ No. 1, Bernie Parent. • Free Pete Rose.
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Faithful reader @achs_ fred wonders if I ever got Rudy Vallee. As usual, if you have to ask …
••• Among the least publicized but significant sports stories of the summer has been that the Supreme Court has agreed to listen this fall to New Jersey’s appeal to legalize sports gambling.
The people of New Jersey have voted to allow race tracks and casinos to conduct sports wagering. And the idea is supported by state lawmakers of both parties. Yet an archaic federal law has denied their wishes.
The NFL, NCAA, NHL and Major League Baseball have fought the concept. Why? Because it makes them feel holy, all while they cash multicomma checks from TV networks that would never
broadcast one game if it were not for the underground wagering industry.
Finally, that hypocrisy is about to be exposed. After a long, long losing streak, sports fans look like they are about to win one.
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Would you ever be caught dead wearing a lobster bib?
••• The Phillies finished the effective first half of the season with an 11-23 record in one-run games. They had 14 blown saves.
So, just asking: What the heck was the big rush to get rid of Ken Giles, anyway?
If the whole concept of rebuilding is to grow
talented, popular players, was it necessary to bum-rush a farm-grown 24-year-old pitcher with the ability to push the radar gun to a third figure?
Since they were about to rebuild, the Phillies argued that they were not soon likely to enjoy enough late-inning leads to justify the luxury of a valuable closer.. Better, they figured, to move Giles for multiple arms. So they did, trading him to Houston for, among other items, pitchers Vince Velasquez, Mark Appel, Thomas Eshelman, Brett Oberholtzer and Harold Arauz.
While the strength-innumbers approach to collecting young arms has worked to a point, remember: Giles was a young arm, too. And he had 39 strikeouts in 32 innings and 19 pre-All-Star break saves for the Astros, baseball’s best team.
The Phillies made their choice. And Velasquez and Eshelman yet may prove valuable. But here’s a reminder to Matt Klentak, Pete Mackanin and everyone in the clubhouse who bellyaches nightly about the misfortune of losing so many close games: You can’t have it both ways.
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