Sean Brace
Yes, today is January 9th. My take is, we can continue to look back at 2018 until the end of this month. Haha, so here we go!
No. 4 on the list is easy. The Jimmy Butler trade was the biggest trade in Philadelphia sports all year! For the obvious reasons to start, the newly anointed general manager Elton Brand and head coach Brett Brown’s first major move as a duo who are now in total charge of the direction the 76ers take. Things were easy when the Sixers were just hoping to make the playoffs, however that’s not the case this season. The Sixers won 52 games last season and won one playoff round.
There’s the line. Brand and Brown must take the team to another level this season and, credit to them, they felt that the starting five from last year would not be enough! Enter Jimmy Butler.
I will fully admit that when the original rumor presented itself, I wanted no part of Butler. I thought the money would be too much and the picks the Sixers would have to give up would be too much. Remember the rumor, the T-Wolves turned down four (4!) first-round picks!?
So how could the Sixers even get in on the conversation? By trading starters Dario Saric and Robert Covington, that’s how. A move that absolutely crushed a lot of Sixers fans and birthed the one of the worst takes from Sixers Twitter [one that was deleted and I didn’t save it] so you’ll have to take my word on it. A writer for Liberty Ballers said, “Sixers fans don’t deserve Robert Covington.” HAHAHAHA, come the fuck on.
With plenty of NBA season to go, the results of the trade are still unknown. And with that being said, I don’t care about regular season success. To me, it’s all about advancing to the Eastern Conference Final, a conference that has become much stronger with the growth of the Bucks and the Pacers busting on the scene. No matter what, we’ll have postseason basketball for the second straight season and I’m looking forward to seeing how Butler plays when that time comes around.
Be sure to keep up with the top 10 Philly sports stories that moved the needle in 2018!
#10: Everything surrounding Super Bowl 52
#9: Gabe Kapler
#8: 4th and Jawn
#7: Go Birds podcast/94WIP.com
#6: Missanelli’s show on NBC Sports Philadelphia
#5: Sixers minority owner Michael Rubin
You can follow Sean Brace on Twitter (@Sean_Brace) and Instagram (@sean_brace), and e-mail him at [email protected]. You can also watch him sports anchor on weekends at FOX 29.
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