This Feels Familiar

Tonight in Philadelphia, the Sixers succumbed in the exact number of games that I predicted before the series began, in a game that was never close.

I should be reasonably satisfied, all things considering. After all, they were the 7 seed, 17 games worse than their opponent. The Pistons were, with the exception of Miller on Billups, a terrible matchup for them. They played hard, were fun to watch, and overachieved. For the first time in years, it was fun to be a Sixers fan, and if Thaddeus Young becomes one of the best 10 players in the NBA (not impossible, given his age and skill level), they could become a 50 win team. Given the rest of the division (Boston, as good as they'll ever be, Toronto, somewhat middling, especially with the stunning collapse of Andrea Bargnani, New Jersey and New York, oy)... well, they look like a second-place team next year, and a return visitor to the playoffs.

But there's still the matter of watching your team get finished off, looking for all the world like a child taking a test that they didn't study for. From the start of tonight's game (3 turnovers in the first 3 possessions, a 10-0 Detroit run, a 30-12 edge at the end of the first quarter), there was just a malaise; I knew pretty early on that I'd be putting my kids to bed at their usual bedtime, rather than making them stay up to watch it with me. It didn't feel like a playoff game; it felt like a coup de grace.

For the past 25 years, the Sixers (and every other Philadelphia team) has ended the year without a championship. The Sixers have played for a championship and hosted two of the most entertaining players of the era in Barkley and Iverson. But unlike the blue snow '93 Phillies, the McNabb-Owens '03-04 Eagles, and (I'm guessing on this one, really) the Lindros Flyers team that lost to Detroit, there has never been a feeling that they really had a great team.

There's been hope. Charles Barkley gave you that. Allen Iverson could beat teams 1 on 5 in his prime. But when the other team finally stepped back and threw their best punch, you knew the team couldn't play at that level. And so it was again tonight.

Maybe Ed Stefanski changes things. Maybe Young really does develop, or Iguodala develops an eye to hit from 3 and a better handle. Maybe the whole team picks it up at the free throw line. They're young. It could all happen.

Or they could do what they've done for the past 25 years, which is to overpay for talent, always have a weak link starter, fail to adjust to a game where threes are important, and make me feel the same way in 12 months, give or take a few weeks.

It's nice to have a team that's watchable again. But dammit, it'd be nicer to have a team with real potential. And to not post this a long, long time before the actual game ended.