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Pushing the opponents
The 76ers put their 10- and 20-game packages on sale Tuesday, pushing the fact that you can get weekend heavy plans or weekday heavy plans. That's fine, they're a business and they've got to sell tickets.
What isn't so fine, at least how I see it, is that each plan will contain tickets to Detroit, Miami, Boston and Western Conference teams.
Pushing Detroit and Miami is one thing. They've been Eastern teams to watch for a few years now. But the Celtics? Ugh.
Does anyone else cringe at the way the Celtics have gone from the lottery to contention? It is, after all, a team that tanked in an effort to get one of the top two picks in the draft. And there is no doubt in my mind that it did just that. The Sixers second game in Boston made that clear. Early in the game, Boston was up by about 20, the Sixers were without key players like Andre Iguodala and the next thing you knew it was a romp for the Sixers.
Now, because the Celts didn't get Oden or Durant, because Paul Pierce was apparently grumbling, Danny Ainge did a 180, trading for Ray Allen on draft night, then giving away the rest of the young talent for Kevin Garnett. Instant contender. Reports say ticket sales in Boston are up 50 percent. Good for them.
But for the Sixers, who have done nothing this offseason to improve but preach patience and the fact that they'll have cap room next summer, to use the Celts as a selling point is just flat-out gross.
Patience isn't necessarily a bad thing. They've tried the quick fix route, trying to surround Iverson with pieces, and it culminated in Chris Webber. How'd that work?
Still, I'm not convinced that what they've got is good enough, or will get good enough, to carry them to contention two or three years down the road. Where's the power foward who can really bang the boards? Where's the shooting guard, with an emphasis on shooting not slashing to the basket?
So while Ainge has rebuilt the Celtics into a possible contender in a little more than a month, the Sixers have yet to fill any of their holes.
Does pointing that out to the fans by hawking the Celtics games make any sense?
What isn't so fine, at least how I see it, is that each plan will contain tickets to Detroit, Miami, Boston and Western Conference teams.
Pushing Detroit and Miami is one thing. They've been Eastern teams to watch for a few years now. But the Celtics? Ugh.
Does anyone else cringe at the way the Celtics have gone from the lottery to contention? It is, after all, a team that tanked in an effort to get one of the top two picks in the draft. And there is no doubt in my mind that it did just that. The Sixers second game in Boston made that clear. Early in the game, Boston was up by about 20, the Sixers were without key players like Andre Iguodala and the next thing you knew it was a romp for the Sixers.
Now, because the Celts didn't get Oden or Durant, because Paul Pierce was apparently grumbling, Danny Ainge did a 180, trading for Ray Allen on draft night, then giving away the rest of the young talent for Kevin Garnett. Instant contender. Reports say ticket sales in Boston are up 50 percent. Good for them.
But for the Sixers, who have done nothing this offseason to improve but preach patience and the fact that they'll have cap room next summer, to use the Celts as a selling point is just flat-out gross.
Patience isn't necessarily a bad thing. They've tried the quick fix route, trying to surround Iverson with pieces, and it culminated in Chris Webber. How'd that work?
Still, I'm not convinced that what they've got is good enough, or will get good enough, to carry them to contention two or three years down the road. Where's the power foward who can really bang the boards? Where's the shooting guard, with an emphasis on shooting not slashing to the basket?
So while Ainge has rebuilt the Celtics into a possible contender in a little more than a month, the Sixers have yet to fill any of their holes.
Does pointing that out to the fans by hawking the Celtics games make any sense?
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posted by Sixers Blog at
10:13 AM
7 Comments
