Things Fall Apart

As December approaches and we prepare to reflect on another year in sports, a disturbing trend has developed with all of the Philly sports teams. All of the teams that are playing right now have losing records. Not only do they have bad records, but the Sixers, Flyers and Eagles have looked downright woeful lately.
The Eagles are currently 5-6 and staring at their second consecutive losing season. On Sunday night, the Indianapolis Colts smashed them on national TV and exposed their weak (and heartless) run defense. The Sixers are 5-9 and recently let Dwayne Wade (above) light them up. Allen Iverson scored 45 points in that game and they still lost by digits. The Flyers are still stuck in last place in the NHL Eastern Conference, but at least they have two-game winning streak. Even the Phillies have been losing, and they're not even playing! They falied to land Alfonso Soriano and have made only one significant free-agent acquisition this offseason.
Well, at least St. Joes and Penn got off to good starts. With the current state of our pro teams, they might provide the only refuge from the futility.

When Will it End?

The Philadelphia Daily News ran an interesting series this week focusing on the city's championship drought. The city has not held a championship parade since Julius Erving, Moses Malone and current Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks cruised down Broad Street with the NBA trophy in 1983. Since then, there have been a lot of near-misses and even more frustration, especially from fans. Some people would even argue that our city is cursed.

True, we have the longest championship drought of any city with four major sports teams. Also, we have seen the leadership of our teams make some dumb personel decisions. I would say that maybe Philadelphians are too negative, but when our teams break our hearts like they've done over the past several years, we have a right to feel that way. I would also say we should be happy that our city has produced some consistently competitive teams (at least until this year), but it's hard to feel that way when you watch teams from undeserving cities such as Phoenix, San Antonio and Miami win championships. We have some of the best fans in the country. Philly fans care more about our sports teams more than any of these other cities. But we still suffer.

In the end, our frustration stems from the fact that we want to control things that we can't control. We can't make the personel decisions. We can't tell Billy King to stop overpaying for mediocre players. We can't convince to the Phillies ownership group to sell the team. We can't tell the Flyers to trade Peter Forsberg and start over. And there is no way for us to convince the Eagles coach Andy Reid that he needs to sign a big running back and some decent linebackers. The only thing we can do is wait and hope that the braintrusts for one of these teams truly commits themselves to winning. We can hope that they draft or sign players that can help our teams get over that perennial hurdle. When these things start happening, that's when the suffering will stop.

Sixers Show Defensive Commitment in Opener

"It's the most wonderful time of the year." No, it's not Christmas time yet, but it probably feels like it for all of the NBA fans who have been waiting for basketball season to start. The NBA season kicked off its schedule with two games on Tuesday night and the Sixers began their season with a 88-75 home win versus the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. The Sixers spent the majority of training camp and preseason working to improve their defense. In their season opener, Iverson and Co. held the Hawks to 33 percent shooting and captured a 47-42 advantage in rebounds. Of course, these are the Hawks. The real test will come within the next week, when they play the Magic, Heat, Pacers and Nuggets. If they can at least split those games, they will be in good shape.

There are some things that should concern the team, however. Samuel Dalembert had 11 points and 11 rebounds, but he struggled with foul trouble for most of the night. He just can't seem to stay on the floor. Also, Andre Iguodala scored 15 points, but he only attempted eight shots, while Iverson attempted 21 (making nine) and Webber attempted 16 (making four). If the Sixers want to prove the naysayers wrong this season, Iggy must shoot the ball at least 10 times per game. Overall, the Sixers effort was impressive, especially since they lost to a lot of bad teams last year. Now let's see what they can do against real competition.

Korver the Key?

We have been waiting for Andre Iguodala to emerge as a star for the Sixers since the beginning of last season. Last year, Iggy averaged over 12 points per game (ppg) and close to six rebounds, but many people felt he was inconsistent on offense. Everybody is expecting Iguodala to have break-out year in 2006-2007.

While everybody is waiting for Iguodala, Kyle Korver has quietly emerged as the third weapon on the team. Korver has averaged over 16 ppg during the pre-season. It is not unrealistic to expect Korver to come close to those numbers during the regular season. Korver has averaged 11.5 ppg in each of the last two seasons. This year, he will fulfill the role of primary scorer off the bench while playing 25-30 minutes per game. He should at least match his career totals, if he doesn't surpass them. Besides, he is the only player on the team (other than Chris Webber and Allen Iverson) that isn't afraid to shoot. I still think Iguodala will become a star caliber player in the NBA. In the short term, however, Korver will be third most dangerous player on the team.

Korver the Key?

I'm finally back online after experiencing some "technical difficulties" over the last couple of weeks. There is a lot that I could talk about, but I will focus on the Sixers. The began its pre-season schedule a couple of weeks ago in Barcelona with a loss to Winterthur FC Barcelona. They followed the loss with a win over the Phoenix Suns, another win over CSKA Moscow and a loss to the New York Knicks. The games don't mean much, but they provide opportunities to assess the team. There is not a lot to assess, however. The Sixers return virtually the same exact team from last season, with the exception of a draft pick and free-agent hopefuls. That's not good news, considering last seasons outfit won 38 games and missed the playoffs for the second time in three years.

The Sixers front office believes, however, that the continuity will help the team more than it will harm it. The main question is whether their familiarity with one another will improve their defense and rebounding. Coach Maurice Cheeks has spent the majority of training camp focusing on defense. Since they did not bring in any big-name free agents, their only hope comes in the form of each other. On a positive note, center Samuel Dalembert has been playing like a beast. If he stays healthy and plays that way in the regular season, the Sixers just might quiet the naysayers who picked them for last place in the mediocre Atlantic division. In my opinion, he IS the key player for them, more than Allen Iverson and Chris Webber. Hopefully, he can play that way. Stay tuned!

A Lot on My Mind

There's a lot to talk about this week in the world of Philly sports. The Eagles are fresh off a excruciating loss to the hated (at least by me) NY GIants. The Eagles should have won that game, obviously.To make things worse, they lost Javon Kearse for the season. Maybe Donte Stallworth will change his jersey number to 81 and go do some sit-ups in his driveway. That way, we can re-live the horrible 2005 season all over again.Seriously, I think they'll be alright.
Then there's the Phillies.Last night, they finally caught up to the Dodgers and tied them for first place in the wild-card standings.If they make the playoffs this year, it will be the most amazing Philly sports story since Rocky (Or maybe not). It will still be amazing, considering the fact that the team's own general manager pronounced them dead earlier this season. Honestly, making the playoffs will be tough, considering that their schedule is tougher than the Dodgers and Padres. That doesn't mean they don't deserve to make it.
One last thing. What in the world is up with the Temple University football team? Last weekend, they lost to Minnesota 62-0.It was the second consecutive week they lost to a team 62-0 (last week, Louisville thrashed them).If you are a NCAA division I football team, how do you manage to get blown out 62-0 two weeks in a row? They haven't scored a touchdown all season (three games).Watching the Temple football team is like watching one of those sports movies where the team is embarrasingly awful and can't do anything right.The only difference is the team usually gets better by the end of the movie and there is a happy ending. Temple's football team has not had a happy ending (or a clue) for 16 years and counting.

One Last Prediction

The NFL kicked off its 2006 season on Thursday night with the Pittsburg Steelers beating the Miami Dolphins 28-17. After a month of feeding my football appetite with meaningless preseason games and smirking at the predictions of NFL experts (many of whom feel the Eagles might not even make the playoffs), me and the rest of the hungry NFL fans will finally see our teams do it for real on Sunday. With that said, I wanted to make one more Eagles prediction. As I perused their schedule, however, I came to the conclusion that the Eagles will finish 16-0(just kidding). Seriously, the Eagles can beat every team that they play this year. Of course, they won't. I think they will go 11-5 and possibly 12-4. They will split their six games against the NFC East and they will probably lose to either Indianapolis and/or Carolina. They have the talent to beat both of them, however. The deciding factor will be the play of the offensive and defensive lines. The Eagles are one of the few teams in the league that can control the line of scrimmage from both sides. If the lines have the same level of productivity that they had in the preseason, the rest of the league could be in trouble. The uncertainties with this team is the play of the linebackers and the health of the running backs. If the LBs play above average, and the RBs stay healthy, the Iggles could find themselves contending for the Super Bowl in January. If not, they could still challenge for a wild-card spot. That's my prediction and I am sticking with it.Of course,this prediction (and every other one) will mean nothing once the Eagles face off against the Houston Texans on Sunday. So enough with the speculation already. Let's get it started!