I was in town listening to Mike Missanelli this week and I heard him make some disturbing observations. Basically he said that this was a bad year; one of the more bland, uninteresting, and non-intriguing year of Philly sports in recent memory.
I wish to elaborate on this premise: The Eagles ruined Christmas by failing to improve and make the playoffs. They remain in 10-6 perpetuity. The Phillies and the Flyers are also stale and remain in pro-sports purgatory. Only the Sixers, in hell, at least not purgatory, offer a glimmer of hope. But is that glimmer just to liquidate them and take the assets to the next city?
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I do not like conspiracy theories. They are non constructive and built on shoddy evidence and research. They substitute real thought, commentary, and analysis with weak and sub-par thinking. Perhaps what I propose here is conspiratorial and short sighted, because it is overly speculative, but I fear the Philadelphia 76ers could leave town for good. It seems very oversimplified but hear me out.
The other night I witnessed the 4-26 Sixers get pulverized by the 25-5 Golden State Warriors by forty points. This final team to blast the Sixers in 2014 was first established in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors and was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Is Project Hinkie working all too close to plan? Is something going to happen to the team? Is Adam Silver too cozy with the tanking idea? Was the breaking of ground to create the Sixer embassy in Camden, New Jersey a sign?
Adam Booth and Kyle Scott have both written on the mistrust they have for Joshua Harris, the principal owner of the 76ers and the New Jersey Devils. They wrote about the different personalities that impact a team’s day to day operations.
Booth wrote, “I don’t trust Mr. Harris has the best interests of my ball club when he is running several other entities. He is on the opposite end of the spectrum . . . which is a good and bad thing. Mainly bad.”
Kyle Scott also stated that no one should be convinced that Joshua Harris is dedicated to keeping the Sixers in Philadelphia. Mere business platitudes and street-cred references aside, the decision will ultimately come down to economics. Scott holds, if Philadelphia professional basketball is not seen as a viable major media market, the 76ers could move without ever considering the nostalgia.
Dave Zirin has commented that the 76ers are scheming with the draft but not in underhanded fashion like Seattle. Zirin asked fans to “think about the public funding of the stadiums for the Seahawks, the Mariners, the snatching away of the Sonics, the fact that the Sonics are only gone because former NBA Commissioner David Stern insisted on the socialization of debt and the privatization of profit.”
Zirin also tweeted:
What the 76ers are doing is not nearly as egregious as Clay Bennett gutting the Sonics just to move them to his hometown in OKC.
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) March 28, 2014
Adam Silver has endorsed Sam Hinkie, but indirectly, and no collusion seems apparent. I hope.
At this point it seems to be conjecture. Will data points connect? I hope only in securing the number one pick and allowing Hinkie and Brown to stick to the blueprint.
I’m guessing 76ers owners Joshua Harris and Marc Leder, who both hosted the 2012 election altering fundraiser for right-wing presidential candidate Mitt Romney, are not merely using Hinkie’s Bain & Company brilliance to build a ready made product to move across the river.
Former Commissioner David Stern is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. This is essentially a global think tank of high profiled elite investors that ensure that local economies stay subordinate to more powerful business interests and methods of protections for privatization.
Recall that Clipper owner’s Donald Sterling was never disciplined by the League during his far more offensive years of denying property to potential minority occupants. This is the economic mood and reality of the powerful in the NBA.
Harris is worth over two billion dollars and looks to be a part of similar bottom line interests. When asked about the cute and nice trivialities that fans hold near and dear, he knows exactly what to say. Maybe this is not a matter of trusting Harris, Hinkie, Silver, or any other stakeholder for that matter. So goes the nature of “ownership.”
It may come down to something very basic: The hope that New Jersey never looks like a more attractive place for the 76ers.