Friday, June 1, 2012

Rasing the roof: Sixers management needs to take the next step

By: Steve Johnson

Yeah we get it Adam Aron and friends. We understand that you just bought the team during a lockout season, we get you're trying to get the interest back. We get that you were trying to milk as many wins out of a mediocre team as possible. We even get the balloons, the confetti, the mascot voting, and light shows. We're Philly fans, we're smart, we've been through this plenty of times. We can see right through you, we don't fall for your little tricks, not here, not in this town. We get it, you tried. In Philadelphia, a city where trying is usually all we ask for, well this year it wasn't enough. If you expect to sell our arenas in this town, you're gonna have to do more than provide light shows and confetti, you have to provide us with a winning basketball team.

The Sixers exceeded expectations but lets not believe for one minute that they are legitimate contender. Yes, they won a playoff series, and yes they took a team that was in the finals two years ago to 7 games. But is that the Sixers identity? Is that who the Sixers really are? Are they a team that is within a game of the Eastern Conference Finals? The answer is no, and for anyone to believe they are needs to set their bias aside and look at the big picture. The Sixers barely made the playoffs after almost blowing an incredible start. Then the Sixers lost game 1 to the Chicago Bulls, and only came back to win the series because of a gruesome injury to one of the games best players, and the Bulls second best player. Then they took a tired and beat down Celtic team to seven games, ultimately losing and being knocked out of the playoffs. Is that something to build on? Of course it is. Young players learned how to win playoff games and you cannot take that away from them. Now they need to build on that, and make the right roster moves to take the next step.

The Sixers need a change, and not the change that sees a certain gangster bunny being fired, and paper being thrown from the rafters after wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers and Washington Wizards of the world. The Sixers management is going to have to take a long look at the team this off season and realize what it's going to take to give the Sixers die hards a team actually worth rooting for. Give them a team that will actually put money in Mr. Adam Arons pocket, rather than having him pretend his "free ticket" giveaways are from the bottom of the heart not the fact that they can't sell out a game to save their life. Stop with the minor league baseball promotions and promote your team with the good, young talent already on this roster. Going into the 2012-13 season with the same roster would be a mistake. It would be a mistake to believe that this same Sixers team can do what they did last year. The other teams are only going to get better and hungrier. Let's hope this new Sixers management realizes that, because the Sixers have one step out of basketball purgatory. It would be a shame for them not to take the next step.