Credit: westwoodfire.com

Yes, I’m bringing the vigils back, since we’re actually missing games. Some people have found creative ways to pass time during the lockout. NBA journalists have become hotel loiterers. Casual fans have become casual. Some devoted fans have become psychotic. ESPN is resorting to simulating games in the DDL Chat. Sixers fans have been learning how to spell “love” correctly.

Me? I’ve been keeping myself busy with class, work, this (well, in the last week everything else got in the way, plus there’s been no lockout resolution), and trying to sleep. And with the NBA gone, my main source of entertainment for half of the year is no more, at least for now. So now we mourn.

First, a few changes:

- The vigil, instead of a summary of the day’s event, will essentially be me sharing my thoughts on the day’s activities/inactivities. Some links to recommended articles will be provided too. The rant can be as short as a paragraph or as long as a few pages if that’s what I’m thinking at the time. I hope it’s entertaining or informative or something.

- Ian at Saving the Skyhook does a great job with his “around the network” feature. So I’ll refer to him instead of typically picking at least one article from the FanSided Network like I did before.

- No more twitter stuff or things to watch or overpaid players. None of that honestly matters anyway.

So given that, here’s tonight’s rant/thoughts:

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Photo from The Philly Phour

I’ve resisted writing about the new ownership group because, honestly, I’m not sure what to make of it. I do know a lot about current ownership, though, and the fans that occupy the seats. While current 76ers owner Ed Snider denied being a Flyers-first owner, fans and the media knew what the situation surrounding the ownership of the two teams entailed. The Flyers were Snider’s baby, the Sixers the stepchild. Now that Comcast is devoting billions to the Olympics, the company no longer needs the team.

While the relationship between Snider and the Sixers team wasn’t bad by any accounts, you could classify his interest in two ways: “financial” and “passing”. While taking an active role in the operations of the Flyers, Snider usually allowed the basketball management teams, whoever they were at the time, to make any and all decisions, rarely intervening in the operations of the team. Owners that are willing to pay but not wanting to intervene are few and far between in the NBA. While some intervening owners are good (see: Mark Cuban) others can be frighteningly terrible (see: Jim Dolan). Having owners willing to putting money on the line is important, as having a cheap owner could set a team back. The Sixers have not had cheap owners – they want to win and were willing to spend to win. You can blame ownership for bad hirings, but you cannot say they didn’t care or try to win.

However, while the owner’s have spent money and the team has improved, fans have not shown up. The Sixers ranked 25th in the NBA in home attendance this year despite having the 16th best record.

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