Dave Uram
Dave Uram is an update anchor and fill in host on 94 WIP. You can follow him on Twitter (@MrUram).
Why beat around the bush? The current Sixers are the most insulting, clueless and embarrassing team in the long history of Philadelphia sports, and this city experienced its fair share of stinkers prior to them.
It’s not the players fault because they try hard despite their lack of NBA talent. It’s not Brett Brown’s fault because he’s a lap dog for an organization that has provided him with too many D-League players for three seasons. The 76ers ineptitude and inability to care about their fan base starts at the top with owners and executives who rarely speak, and when they do, spew bologna.
On the day of Wednesday’s home game against the lowly Washington Wizards, the team elected to sit Joel Embiid so the big man could suit up Thursday night at Karl-Anthony Towns’ Minnesota Timberwolves, a game telecasted nationally on TNT. Prior to this, Embiid was sitting on the second part of back to backs and not the first.
The problem is, the majority of the nearly 15,000 in attendance Wednesday bought their tickets to see Embiid. They were denied that opportunity and were given no chance to refund their ticket because the news broke too close to tip off, another dumb policy by the Sixers. The starving fan base deserves to see him play more than out of towers or a national television audience.
Brown downplayed the TNT and Towns aspects as reasons why. Instead, the head coach made it out as a part of a medical decision made by people “smarter” than him. The argument of injury risk carries validity, but only to the point that Embiid is always at risk of getting hurt, as are all athletes.
If anything, give the fan base more of a heads up so they can exchange their tickets. It’s hard to believe the esteemed 76ers medical minds didn’t make up this decision before Wednesday.
If national TV was in fact the reason, it would be easier to accept. If playing Embiid against Minnesota instead of Washington gave the Sixers a better chance to win two games, that reason would also be more acceptable. Those explanations are still hard to muster, but understandable.
The load management excuse is bogus. The Sixers need to cater to their long suffering fan base first and foremost. They need to adhere to the people who watched three years of garbage, including the cult “Hinkie-ites” who bow at their feet despite their highway thievery.
Instead of rolling Brown in front of the media to take the hits for decisions that are obviously not his, why don’t the medical minds, Josh Harris or Bryan Colangelo speak about these matters? Turns out Colangelo is picking and choosing when he speaks to the press, which is very Hinkie-like and opposite the type of transparency Colangelo said he would offer.
Remember, this is the same organization that took forever to comment on Jahlil Okafor’s off court issues last season, acted childishly by not acknowledging the building they play in as Wells Fargo Center and lost on purpose for three consecutive seasons.
Shame on them. They’ll never understand or be able to relate the city they represent.