No, not hearing it. We have gone through too much and travelled so far to hear any kind of bullshit regarding LeBron James joining the 76ers. They can shout, they can smugly laugh, and they can try to diminish his arrival in Philadelphia but it is not going to bring us down from this good feeling or take anything away from what we may accomplish. Not one bit. We have no f***s to give to that noise.
Superteam? That Shouldn’t Count
Notice how having too much talent is a bad thing only when it’s Philadelphia? The Rams bringing in Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald is lauded for its on-paper dominance to the point where Matt Stafford is already being inducted into the inner circle of QBs thanks to his hypothetical 2nd Super Bowl ring. It’s a completely different tone with Philadelphia (the Eagles too, but that’s a different article).
LeBron James coming to the Sixers is seen as the Sixers being overloaded with talent and a thing to be condemned. If they win this season, it will not be the culmination of franchise wide efforts and suffering or the crowning of the King’s greatness. Instead, it will be how the NBA isn’t exciting, it’s scripted, it’s boring, and things need to be changed. Anything to take it down a peg.
Would they be doing this to anyone else? LeBron came to Philadelphia on a league minimum contract and could have gone anywhere. Would coming “home” to Cleveland or Miami be labeled with the same attempted shame? Would Denver and media-darling Nikola Jokic be reviled? How about the Warriors, veteran of Superteams past? Never. This is why everyone is gushing over the Rams. It fits their story.
He’s Ring Chasing
This is some three-pronged bullshit right here…
First, is it now wrong to try to win? This is not surprising. Trying to win is more of a virtue these days than actually winning. A QB throwing into traffic, getting intercepted, and losing the game is better than someone throwing the ball out of bounds and winning. A baseball player putting up “expected” stats is better than not actually allowing runs or driving them in.1 In basketball, it’s efficiency; take high percentage shots and fill the stat sheet. The only thing that really matters is actually winning! For everyone that dings LeBron for having “only” 4 rings, what would you have him do?
Second, was he supposed to go to a bad team? Are we really cursing him for not going to Sacramento? How about the Brooklyn Nets? Again, would it be ring chasing had he gone to another team? Denver won only a few years ago. Miami just landed former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Cleveland has stars all over its expensive roster. All those teams are built to win right now. Those aren’t ring chasing though?
Finally, since when are the Sixers considered ring chasing??? Are we really putting them on the same level as last year’s 3 best teams, the Knicks, Spurs, and Thunder without LeBron? Are they even on their level with him? The Sixers are a cursed franchise that has spent the last decade getting lambasted for their decisions in the media, but now we were somehow the favorite?
For any Sixers fans who lament that should we win, everyone will give the credit to LeBron, all I can say is that the Process is dead and Sam Hinkie is not walking through that door. It’s like a son hoping for approval from a father who will never give it to him. That team didn’t win. It is time to move on. Not winning the way you intended is a weird way to cheer on your team.
The Easy Way
All of the arguments somehow boil down to LeBron making the easy decision to come to championship ready Philadelphia. Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what we’ve been through over the last decade…two decades…FOUR DECADES??? The Sixers have been making all the wrong decisions since basically 1986. Don’t believe me? Nothing about being a Sixer or Sixers fan is easy.
To claim this is “easy” is to ignore Brad Daugherty, Jeff Ruland, the Charles Barkley trade, “practice”, Evan Turner, Andrew Bynum, Doug Collins, “The Process”, Zhaire Smith, Mikal Bridges, Ben Simmons, multiple Colangelos, “Tobias Harris over me?”, Al “Sleeper Agent” Horford, Markelle Fultz, and Joel Embiid having the longest injury history in the league.
LeBron winning in Philadelphia would be the equivalent of Andy Dufresne escaping from Shawshank for us.
He’s No Michael Jordan
This is probably an amalgam of all of the above. People can argue about MJ vs LeBron all they want; I’m not going to say who is right. I grew up with Michael and remember so much of what he did so I’m a Michael guy, but I’ll hear arguments for 23 years of being at the top of the NBA. What I can’t take is people acting like LeBron shouldn’t even be in the conversation. That’s pure bias.
Did Michael have a Superteam? Of course he did! Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper, Toni Kukoc (I know not all at once), and some of the best shooters of all time, these aren’t great players?
Michael couldn’t “ring chase” because he only played 15 years and two of them were as an owner. It’s not like Jordan played his whole career in Chicago. Let’s also not forget that Jordan retired from the Bulls after 13 seasons. He didn’t want to come back when they were going to break the team up. LBJ has been going for 24 years now!!! Was he supposed to play all of those years in Cleveland?
If you are a person who tries to find the negative in everything LeBron James has accomplished in his time in the NBA, what are you doing? You don’t have to like him, but he’s at least the second-best player you’ve ever seen and he’s been doing it most of your life.
Philly Isn’t Top 6 in the East
I’m not declaring that the Sixers are going to win the championship. I’m a Philly fan, I know better than the count my rings before they’ve been forged. We are clearly on the short list of contenders though. If we don’t win, we and LeBron will be laughed at nonetheless with some of the worst analysis you’ve ever seen.
For right now though, anyone who has the Sixers not in contention in the East is just an angry person. The reasoning is backed up by the most inconsistent logic possible, usually focused on everything that will go right for the other teams and everything that will go wrong for the Sixers (it’s the same with the Eagles).
- Knicks – no arguments here, they are the champs
- Cavs? – James Harden and Donovan Mitchell will lead the way despite regularly failing in the past and not playing any bit of defense
- Heat? – It’s Giannis, Bam, and who exactly? Andrew Wiggins? Klay Thompson? Simone Fontecchio? Get the hell out of here.
- Celtics? – Right, they are better off without Jaylen Brown who carried them last season and with surgically repaired Jayson Tatum and the reason why no one believed in the Sixers last year, Paul George? That’s what we are going with?
- Pistons? – They were very good last year but are currently without their second-best player who also happened to fall off a cliff in the playoffs.
- Hawks? – It’s a fun team, but there is no star here. The 4th best player on the Sixers would be the best player in Atlanta.
You can believe in one or two of these teams, but all of them being better than the Sixers? Have some dignity.
Save It
If you hear any of this nonsense, pay it no mind. As always, it is designed to make us mad, to get clicks, and to be the calling card of someone to claim “I was right” in a world where no accountability is ever given to those who were wrong. Enjoy LeBron, Embiid, Maxey, VJ, and Brown. It is going to be a fun season. Yell out “I don’t give a f***” and mean it.
- I’m not against baseball analytics in the least, but over the long run, actual results are a better tool for evaluation than expected results. Did the thing happen or not? ↩︎
Photo: Tim Shelby, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Leave a Reply