Gratitude

So last night as we were on final approach to the second coming of AI, an old friend and fellow Sixers fan and I were talking about the merits of the move. The conversation got me straight into the mind of an AI detractor, in that my man really isn't about anything but the championships. He questions why the management can never bring in the boring but winning guy, like a Tim Duncan, and he blames AI for not making his teammates better, since he never became a point guard or stopped dominating the ball.

And, well, sure. But don't the moments count for something?



The plain and simple act of the matter is that the very best Sixers team of the past 20 years was AI's Finals runner-up squad -- a 56 win team with copious amounts of Tyrone Hill, George Lynch, Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, Jumaine Jones and a haf dozen other guys that weren't very good there, or for anyone else. And yes, he's not as good as Kobe Bryant, who was in the same draft... but there's no way the Sixers were either going to trade down from the #1 spot, or risk taking a high school project with that pick.

And if the Sixers had done everything right with him -- which also probably includes going back in time and having him play for a real college coach, rather than John Thompson, architect of the 1988 Olympic embarrassment and the guy who couldn't win in the NCAAs with freaking Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutumbo on the same team -- they surround him with Dirk Nowitzki or Paul Pierce instead of Larry Hughes, roll the dice with high school Tracy McGrady instead of the Keith van Horn / Tim Thomas experience, and...

well, they would lose in six games, not five, to the Shaqobe Lakers. And probably lose to the same team in the Finals next year, because the ugly fact of the matter is that Motivated Shaq and Behaving Himself Kobe were just unstoppable.

And here's the bigger moment and issue; if you need your team to win a championship to be happy, you really should not be watching sports. And I flatly refuse to believe that this was a bad fan experience, because it just wasn't. And if you don't agree... watch the clips again. See AI step over Tyronn Lue like a man crushing a cockroach. Watch him cross over Jordan. See him throw down the put back slam against the Raptors. And show a little freaking gratitude, OK?