Dave T, you read my mind about the Boston Celtics and the incredible feat they accomplished last year and now.  The Sixers and every other team need adjustment periods, so hopefully by the end of November we will get a better sense of the Sixers and they will hopefully gel sooner rather than later.  They know the first halves of their seasons need improvement, but they are unbelievable in the 2nd half. 

HAVE PHAITH!!

“If they’re playin’ zone in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?– Zone Busters.  I ain’t afraid of no zone.”

Hopefully, Rush and Marshall will be our Zone Busters!

Thanks for being here with me.  All of our conversations were great.  I actually liked the fact that you took the other side on a lot of issues.  I have no problem with explaining my side of an issue.  In fact, I think it’s a good check to ensure that my position has validity, that I actually do believe in my reasoning, and that I remain consistent in my views.

I hope your move goes well and you take care of whatever personal matters have arisen.  I will be here trying to hold my own with the basketball guys until our 2009 title defense season rolls around.  Check in when you can and keep in touch.  Good luck with everything.  I look forward to talking with you again soon.

I just have a pet peeve where sometimes people get a little too premature with accusations.  Hell…our now world champion Phillies had ONE AND A HALF MONTHS where the whole team went into utter crappola mode and three of our best hitters went .150 during that time…obviously, we bounced back in dramatic fashion.  The Wizards started last season 0-5 and all of DC thought the world was ending…they made the playoffs.  A few years back the Hawks went 4-0 or something similar, and everyone had Hawks fever, and then they sucked a phat one for the whole season.  All I’m saying is players are allowed to have bad games, and it’s great for us to call them out on that, but I don’t think it’s right to start making blanket statements until they do it for the long term.  (that said if the Sixers start out the way we did in 01-02…my face might pop off out of frustration).

My expectations for this season: I think it sounds like my expectations are a bit lower then some others.  I see us as a 48-50 win team this year, tops.  It is VERY rare for a team to do what Boston did last year…i.e: major changes take place, and they go on a true tear terrorizing the league.  That is an incredibly anomaly and it’s a credit to the maturity and passion of KG and the others that they had the hunger to make that happen.

The more usual model is what the 00′s Spurs and Pistons had to do…the late 90′s Kings, Mavs…and what the LeBron Cav’s have had to do, etc.  All those teams needed at least 3 years to gel properly and get things to where they could make deep playoff pushes and be called contenders.  We have a total, odd hodge podge of talent right now with all these new pieces…I think it’s going to take this entire season to iron the kinks out and the seasons I’m really looking forward to are 09-10 and 10-11. 

We are talking about a team that needs to overcome the fact that we have NO legitimate three point shooters in our starting lineup.  Not ONE.  It takes AMAZING basketball chemistry and really knowing what we are doing at all times, and being on the same page, and always hungry to make up for that lack of 3 point shooting in our starting unit.  IMO, that’s going to take a whole year to develop.  I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, and around the 20 game mark, will look for huge improvement to take place, and by the end of the year, I’d think we’d be all set to go, get to the 2nd round, make a nice dent,  the bow out and really get scary the year after. 

Last word…Phoenix two years ago: Classic example…and a pretty common one…of a team that started 7-14 or something terrible and went on to win 60 games.  Turnarounds happen…so if we are .500 at 20 games, I still 100% believe we’ve got a shot for good things to happen…as long as our defense is in place by then.  Let’s just hope that horrible game 1 was just jitters, and that we won’t have to worry about things like .500 records. 

Next game, I’d look for real strong ball movement, lots of cutting off the ball, and for us to work an inside-out game much more.

About the negative posts…  I just felt like SOMEONE had to be a skeptic and question things.  I get your counterpoints to my arguments, but I’m sorry, I don’t feel like countering back, because, simply put, we’re the champs, and it’s over with, the Phillies have done it, and I just wanna think about that.

And you know what?  For me, following the season with you and the other guys (and that one girl) on here was far more satisfying than the actual championship itself.  I’m already missing the games, trying to keep up with you, and trying to outpredict each other.  Ha ha…  I guess I’m one of those “life is a journey” guys.

I’m going to take quite a long break from sports.  One reason is that I’m making like the Warriors and moving from Philly to San Francisco.  Another is that other things have come up, and I need to give them their time, I’m sure you know what I mean.

Still, it’s been so enjoyable following this season that you’ve actually made me wonder if basketball is still my favorite sport.  I’ll let you know later.  Last night’s Sixers game definitely didn’t help.

Anyway, I can’t stress this enough, I had a blast phollowing the Phils with you, I’ll see if I can join you again in 2009 as we DEFEND OUR TITLE.  You know, it’s not just the championship that gets me, it’s those little things like that.  “The Phillies will be defending their title in 2009.”  That’s awesome.  And today on Mike and Mike, they were talking about the Phillies visiting the White House.  And all those newspaper front pages.  So phreakin’ cool…

Last thing – gotta share with you the two best moments for me:  #2 is the Jenkins double – I was just so happy for the guy, he spends all postseason cheering and yelling for the other guys, but I bet that deep down inside there was a sense of hollowness about it all because he wasn’t contributing anything on the field, but then, in his last possible chance to contribute, he comes through, and you could see how happy he was about it, how happy he was that no one can ever come up to him and utter the words “you didn’t do squat in the playoffs”.  Completely storybook.

#1 is Joe Blanton’s homer.  I mean, Joe Blanton hit a home run.  I wish that, instead of the words “Joe Blanton”, I could use a picture of him in those previous two sentences.  What he did was as close as you’re going to get to ripping a hole in the space-time continuum.  But, for me, it was also “THE” moment of the series.  Take care, buddy.

I also will be concerned if what I saw last continues for 10 games without improvement, but, unless you tank, the season is not really in jeopardy until 15-20 games in.
All the negativity aside, what we saw in the first quarter was exactly what we have been hoping for from this team. Fantastic on the boards, strong on D both inside and out, and 4 play makers on O.