I'm watching (well, listening to) this Iverson press conference in Philly right now, and I'm seeing a guy with tears in his eyes describing what the Philly fans mean to him. While I respect that, and probably even believe it, it's still an even that brings up some mixed feelings for me.

I should preface this by saying that Iverson means a lot to me as a Sixers fan. The man has arguably* sparked more interest in the team -my favorite team- more than any other player in history, and as a fan I owe him that. I can't think of a player that threw himself into the game as hard as he did for the better part of a decade, and he took us to the finals. So please don't mistake what I'm about to say as hatred of Iverson.

I was against him coming back. I think I still am. His leaving was tumultuous at best, and we're still getting over the ramifications of building a team around him before he left. We have a bunch of young players now that need to learn the game in their own way, and I think Iverson could damage that in a way that could never be fixed. There's also the off-court drama associated with Iverson. I've had four people send me the "practice!?" clip in the past week, and it's not like I needed reminding the first time. I think Iverson will sell a shitload of tickets, but in the long run bringing him back might be detrimental to the young talent.

But watching this press conference... watching him picking up that uniform -the uni that he should've been wearing in his first run here- and seeing his smile when he did it... I can't help but feel a little hopeful. It might be the desperation of a horrified fan who has seen his favorite team in shambles all season following the coaching style of a lunatic. I might be grasping at whatever optimism I can pull out of the situation.  But there's also something else, something that I forgot about a while back.

This is Allen Iverson.

This is a guy who in the past has thrived on defying odds and proving people wrong. This might be the last stop in the league after dropping lower and lower on the the ladder, but he might just be able to rejuvenate this team and smack some sense into them. And if we're really lucky, he might just get Eddie Jordan fired. It's a longshot, but it's still the best shot I, as a fan, can have at the moment.

Sure, there's a strong chance I'll be eating these words (not literally) in a few months, but for now I'm kind of excited. the way I see it, the team can't possibly get worse than they've been so far, so let's give him the shot.

*with apologies to Charles, Julius and Wilt

oops

Also, Philadelphia Will Do had one of the best/and most infuriating sports posts ever the other day.

and thus I find myself in the completely unexpected role of defending Michael Vick. As someone who is almost absurdly fond of animals and will readily admit that he's the least dedicated male football fan he knows, I can say it's a strange position.

Still, I can't pretend to be outraged by the Eagles' choice to sign Mike Vick. He's a talented guy and they got him for cheap. and I while I'm horrified by what happened at his house or farm or whatever, I also believe in second chances and rehabilitation. Vick did what he did (and while I read those initial reports, I'm not going to pretend to know just how involved he was in the whole thing), and he got caught and then punished for it. He got punished more than anyone has ever been punished for a crime like that. His fame and money put him in front of a bus, and he paid the fines and served his time. He lost a fortune and two of the most profitable years of his life, and I haven't heard him complain once.

Look. I'm sure that Vick regrets his little dogfighting adventure more than anyone. And I'm even more sure that considering the scrutiny, he's not going to think about so much as sneezing towards an animal for the foreseeable future.

So I'm fine with signing Vick. Shit, we have a better chance now than we did yesterday, right? Vick didn't circumvent the law. He didn't manipulate jurors. He did his time and how he's ready to play ball again. Good for him. and good for us.

I can't blame the Eagles for signing him. On the contrary, they'd be foolish to pass up on the offer. They're not condoning what he did. They're not harboring some unrepentant killer. They're giving the guy a second chance. and while I'm proud of the progressive mindset, I think it has far more to do with the Eagles organization's desire to win, and I'm just as proud of that. I want my team to have that desire. I want them to be willing to do almost anything to win, aside from cheating or doping or whatever. If you take a few knocks from PETA, so be it. There were worse people in the NFL than Vick 3 years ago, and there are worse people than him there today. I think he knows what he has ahead of him, and I hope we can help him do it. and maybe we'll impress everyone in the process.

update: there's a good article by John Gonzalez here that does a good job of summing up what you just read here. I'm pretty sure he wrote his first.

Looking back with hope for the future

As a Philadelphia sports fan, it seems like draft day is usually the most positive, where we get a new addition to the team, and usually a cheap one at that. I was happy with the Eagles picking up Pitt alumn Shady McCoy, and despite the relatively low pick in a far from sensational draft, I remain optimistic for the Sixer's pick. Partially because of the new uniforms (it's for real, and Sonny Hill was there for proof!) and partially because of the fact that it's the Sixers, and I gotta look upwards. It's almost certain we're going for a guard, and if the mock drafts around the internet are believed, it's practically a lock that we'll go after Ty Lawson (though I saw one somewhere with us taking Chase Budinger, which terrifies me). I like Lawson, and I like pretty much every name I've seen thrown around (Maynor, Ellington, Maynor, Holiday, etc...), so I can't really complain as long as things go to plan.

Of course, it's the Sixers, so I'll probably have somehting to complain about tomorrow night. But for now, I remain hopelessly optimistic.

incidentally, there's a great bunch of photos over here of Philly throughout the 60s. There's legends, there's riots, there's everyday life, there's sports, and there's... Candice Bergen. It's honestly some great pictures, and I recommend the view. If you go over there, though, and look at the zombie prom pictures instead... I don't know you.

How awesome was that Sixers game?

I have to say, every time I think Sammy D is picking up his D and picking it up again, he does something completely stupid on the court and looking confused. Right around the third quarter, it was killing me. If you had told me that a Donyell Marshall and Theo Ratliff were going to come in and make everything okay when they were down by 18, I wouldn't have believed you.

In any case, I'm going to bed a happy happy man.

Also, Reggie Evans is my favorite player to watch on the the bench ever. Not that I necessarily want him benched, but he really maintains this energy that I love. He's on the edge of his seat the whole time shouting his support and you know he's just one of those hearts of the team that goes much further than a box stat would lead you to believe.

ratfarts

Obama picks Pitt to go to the Final Four

Well, here's to that. Don't jinx us, buddy.

Actually, I get a little nervous every time I see this, but that might be more a result of my being weirdly superstitious or because I'm just not used to seeing it. Either way, I'm excited.

Also, I didn't comment on that Sixers game the other night in LA. I haven't gone out on St. Patrick's day in probably 8 years or so. I hate the big bar holidays, and this one is no exception.

But I wanted to see the Sixers play and beat the Lakers. And they DID, with Iguodala hitting a game-winning 3 in the last seconds of the game. I've never cheered so loud or come so close to getting beat up. What a great game.

Herb Magee: Basketball legend

Waitasecond...

The Harlem Globetrotters are playing a game on the ROOF of the Spectrum?

This sounds like the most interesting recipe for disaster EVER. How will people even know it's happening? I wonder if I can sneak onto the roof of the big house and watch it from there. Either way, I'm not missing it.

Also from PWD, another middle finger found its way to the Daily News.

On December 12, 1998, I got to watch one of the best games of basketball I'd ever had the chance to see. The no. 1 ranked, undefeated UConn Huskies were visiting Pitt at the old Fitzgerald field House in North Oakland. Pitt was ranked 20, and we were really starting to get used to our game. We were a program with little respect on a national level, and our fans, new to the concept of having a decent team, were ruthless*. That we were playing Big East rivals only intensified things.

It was a hard-fought game, and as the second half wound down, we were still on top, having put the defensive stops on both star Richard Hamilton and rising PG Khalid El-Amin. There were nine seconds left, and we enjoyed a four point lead over the best ranked team in the country. Now, there are a few things I should clarify here. First, that El-Amin was more... rotund than your typical point guard and second, that the Fitzgerald Field House was roughly the size of a high school gym. It was an old and creaky building and everyone knew that in order to ever be taken seriously, Pitt would need a new home court.

Which isn't to say that we didn't take advantage of the accoustics of the small building. During game play, the slightest utterance from anyone in the stands could be heard quite clearly on the court. It was as opportune an environment a heckler has ever seen. Not only could you personally heckle opposing players, but you could probably get your commentary picked up by the national press who happened to be filming that game.

I've been to playoff games for the Eagles, Sixers, Phillies, and Big 5. I've seen championships won and lost, and I've been used to obnoxious crowds for most of my life. I say this in no way to brag, or make myself sound like a bigger sports fan than I am, but to give you some perspective that the crowd attending that game was the most verbally abusive I have ever heard. Maybe it was because the players could hear everyone. Maybe it was because the Pitt student body had a bunch of dicks in it. I can only say it got bad.

Of course, it would get worse. Because in the last 9 seconds of that night, I watched what seemed like a rock solid lead just dissolve, starting with the worst inbounds pass I have ever seen. Luck was turned over completely, and at the game's final buzzer, we'd somehow blown the best chance I'd ever see of us knocking off a number 1 ranked team. El-Amin, instrumental in the win, jumped on top of the scoring table and taunted the crowd who responded with a barrage of soft drinks and profanity. It was a queasy moment for me, and it took me years to recover the confidence in our program lost in that game.

I never forgot that night. As depressing as it was, it also taught me that the game's never over. That night -and Reggie Miller- have encouraged me never to give up while there was even a little time left. Even if both of those instances resulted in my team losing, I knew that the favor could be repaid one day.

Last night, ten years and some change after that night, Pitt got back by defeating the No. 1 ranked UConn at their home stadium, the first time in history they've beaten the top team. It was a long time coming, and I'm just happy I got to watch it, especially after seeing that Pitt/'Nova game earlier this year.

So keep it up, guys, and don't get cocky. I want a second win on March 7.


*In retrospect, I should've been comparing Pitt fans to Philly fans a long, long time ago.

Gatorade's "Quest for G" commercials will probably remain the best commercial of 2009

Speights lookin' great

Nice little roundup of the recent Sixers' success over at Philadelphia Will Do. I still wanna go to that last game in the Spectrum more than anything, but if that Nova game was any indication, I'm wearing one of those inflatable sumo suits. Screw the seats, I'm not walking through that bottlenecked crowd by the merch booth again.

But for real, Young and Speights are looking fantastic. There are definitely some changes to be made, but I like the way our guys are hustling out there.

Will Bunch on the C*** Park hooplah

As much as I like the idea of Taxpayer Field, it doesn't seem likely. Besides, weren't we just going to call it Shitty Park anyway?

Yeah, a hundred bucks of my own money for the first of my guys who really nails that creep.

I tend not to care about sports movies all that much. Sure, there are glaring exceptions, but for the most part they come off as hackish and predictable. For me, it's easy to make a sports movie. It's very difficult to make a great sports movie. Hoosiers. The Natural. Chariots of Fire. Seabiscuit. Pride of the Yankees. These are my favorite sports movies. I can also count those tangential movies, in which sports is a theme but little more: Brian's Song. Caddyshack... the list goes on.

But my favorite ever will always be Slap Shot. Because it's both realistic and absurd. Hilarious and somber at times. It was written by the sister of a minor league hockey player, featured actual players in nearly all of the roles, and contained what must have been an ungodly amount of swear words at the time. It carries itself with a look at the athlete's lives much less glamorous than was usually shown at the time. Long hours on the road, overblown contraversy put on for the fans, locker room discord... this wasn't the picture of superstars, these were the bums of minor league hockey. Which means that they're either on the way out or on the way up.

It also shows how a team deals with decreased interest in them as a local economy falls into decay. Filmed in Johnstown, PA (and based loosely on the Johnstown Jets) as the mills were all starting to get shut down, you get to see it in the exterior shots as plain as plain as possible. Notice how in the parade scene, which runs right along the square in the center of Johnstown, the movie theater is running Deep Throat. Why they set the movie in Charleston (claiming the loss of "factory jobs" and even going so far as to mention a flood there) seems pretty ridiculous, but then I guess things were pretty bad all over then and that's what they were trying to get across.

At the center of the whole story though, is Reg Dunlop, who might be my favorite Paul Newman role ever*. He's conniving, endearing and tenacious. He is unscrupulous and desperate to keep having a career. Kevin Costner stole much from him in Bull Durham a few years later. But of course he was no Paul Newman. Nobody ever will be again. Which is why I got super pissed off earlier today when I read that they're going to remake Slap Shot.

It's bad enough they made that sequel with the shitty Baldwin brother. To remake this movie doesn't even make sense anymore. Violence is no longer a selling point for minor league hockey the way it was back then. I don't think player-coaches have existed in any sport since about that time period, either. And Paul Newman is dead. I wish someone -ANYONE- had learned a lesson from that remakes of The Bad News Bears and The Longest Yard that these films are indicative of a certainl era and that attempts to remake or to relive those movies will result in failure and (hopefully, for the makers of that last movie) embarrassment. These movies all contain a sense of... crudity that virtually cannot be featured in films today. Usually for good reason, but to try and sterilize these plots now is just insulting.

There are millions of sports movies that you can make. Try one about that famous Willis Reed play. Make a movie about Tommy Carlos. Dock Ellis's career would be a great movie, even without the gimmick. I'm sure there's some Japanese baseball team that's earned the right to have their story told. Or even just make something up. But stop fucking around with the movies that are loved by millions of people and try to think up something new. Please.

Hell, remake Space Jam if you have to. But leave Slap Shot alone.

*I think this directly contradicts a previous post of mine about Mr. Newman.

Also, this means that pretty much every movie filmed in Western PA has been remade with 2 exceptions. I think The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is safe for now, but I'm willing to bet that some idiot will take a shot at The Deer Hunter in the next few years, further provoking both my anger and rationality as a concept.

Here's some stuff that makes Slap Shot an even better movie than you thought.

Throwback logo you're not going to see in a game anytime soon...

Baltimore Bullets, NBA
1948 - 1954

Still, it'd be kind of awesome and sad.
(via sportslogos.net)

A 22 year old man was discovered to have pictures of him on the internet smoking pot. Also, he may or may not have tried to use his status as an international celebrity to get him laid. Oh, and he drinks.


good for him.

The last college game ever at the Spectrum. It did not end well for me.

Awesome: Sixers to return to their old uniforms

When I was 13, the Philadelphia 76ers changed their uniforms and logo. It was bad enough that they were changing the uniform, which had been the same for all of my life and to me was pretty iconic. The logo, which will always be among my favorites in sports history, was wiped and the uniforms replaced with what can only be surprised as the ugliest uniform EVER. Seriously:

ugh. And you wonder why Barkley spat on a young girl and wanted to be traded.

Anyway, since that season, we flirted once with going back to classic-looking uniforms (remember the Weatherspoon years? Or a pre-cornrows Iverson?), but for the most part have punished our players and fans with some hysterically ugly uniforms and logos. Well, the dark days are over! I personally think that all of our teams should revert back to their late-70s, early 80s uniforms. Maroon and powder blue for the Phils! Kelly green for the Eagles! Orange and black for the...nevermind*.

Anyway, it's a happy day for me, because I've always hated the current uniforms. It isn't that I want to deny the Iverson years, but I can certainly forget the current uniforms. Who goes from red, white and blue to red, black and blue, anyway? Man, I'm surprised more people didn't freak out about that.

Well, that time is over, and I'm happy to see that our boys will look like basketball players again. I personally would've preferred the old Wilt-era PHILA jerseys (not the ones with the red band around the waist), but I'll take these with a smile.

*in their defense, the Flyers have stood by their classic logo and uniforms with little variation (these abominable concept jerseys notwithstanding). Hockey teams tend to have the best logos to me, and the Flyers have always had one of the best. Good for them.

The Cavaliers have a theme song by Bootsy Collins.

I absolutely love the Eagles fight song, but maybe now that the Roots have loads of spare time, they can slap something together.