Weekend Voices: Sixers’ Time Isn’t Now
With Roy Halladay joining Don Larsen in a select circle as the only pitchers to throw post-season no-hitters, with Andy Reid and Eagles continuing to play musical quarterbacks as they reach the quarter pole, and with the Flyers opening defense of their Eastern Conference championship, you couldn’t help but think of the character in “Airplane” constantly bemoaning his fate when it comes to the other team in town.
Yes, Doug Collins, you and the Philadelphia 76ers certainly did pick a bad week to start playing hoops.
But, fear not – it won’t always be like this. Eventually, there will come a time when people actually pay attention to what happens on the court. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it.
After sinking to the abyss last year under Eddie Jordan, it’s going to take awhile for the Sixers to climb out. But along the way, if you look carefully, you’ll find that the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is almost within sight.
Have some patience with them and someday you just might get rewarded. There are pieces in place to turn things around. No, not pieces on the level of a LeBron, Kobe or D-Wade. But quality pieces who should make this club more than respectable in time.
Not that Collins – back behind a bench for the first time in a decade – is particularly willing to wait. But he’s been around the game long enough to know that you don’t turn a bad club coming off a 27-55 disaster into a contender overnight. With players like Andre Iguodala, Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, Lou Williams and prize rookie Evan Turner, he can see the potential to put together a solid team.
How long that will take is pure conjecture. But simply by getting them to play defense; something alien to Jordan, there’s bound to be improvement. As long as the Sixers work hard at both ends of the floor – something Collins will insist upon or else the offenders will find themselves on the bench – play fundamentally sound and stay within their own limits, they figure to put an entertaining product on the floor.
Of course, Collins would like more than that. He’d like results that show on the scoreboard. Otherwise, in his pragmatic mind this can’t go down as a success.
At the same time he knows that while Iguodala and Elton Brand head a list of veterans who’ll play a significant part of the Sixers’ fate, the main purpose of this season is to develop the kids. How far along Holiday, Turner, Jodie Meeks, Marreese Speights, Spencer Hawes, Young and Craig Brackins come by the end of the season will determine how bright their future as a team can be in the years to come.
For now, though, the Sixers must content themselves being almost an afterthought in the Philadelphia sports scene. As much as they’d love to change the landscape, their time clearly is not now.
But perhaps if things break right, it just might not be that far away.
Jon is a freelance reporter with more than 30 years experience covering local and national sports. His work can be found here.
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