It’s July 24th. August is here. Many say that August is their favorite time of the year for The Ricky.

If you’re new, August is the time of the year that The Ricky lets its hair down. Some guests that might not be Sixers or basketball centric. More Relationship Advice (if you need it), Jigsaws (if I think of them), re-litigating old debates, so on and so forth. We’re also going to re-watch the Boston series from the playoffs (Mike keeps saying we should all do this but I don’t know how to provide everyone with the games so they can watch them).

I did not think we could start August before LeBron signed, even though I don’t think there’s any chance he’s signing with the Sixers. Mike changed my mind on that one. I’m kind of adopting his way of looking at this; when he signs, he signs. If it’s here, we’ll deal with it.

So, with August, comes you. August is always better with Ricky Community ideas. If you have email questions (Sixers or non-Sixers), send them to rightstorickysanchez@gmail.com. If want to reach us by voicemail, it’s 833-LICKFACE (you, yes you can get your own eyeroll from Mike when I start playing a voicemail! It’s absolutely free!). I’d say to hit us on social media but we’re checking those less and less. So just email us or voicemail us.

To get myself into August mode, I’m going to simply tell you about the non-sports content that I’ve been consuming, and whether I like it or not.

The Pitt (TV Show). It’s ok. I tend to not be watching shows, or as many shows, as most people do. I’ve got to watch all of the Phillies/Sixers games, and I just like movies better. So Val and I are always watching one show, which we’ll watch once or twice a week, and she picked The Pitt.

Also worth noting, if I think a show starts to suck I never “stick with it.” I’ll give a show two bad episodes and then I’ll bail, no matter how many seasons I’ve watched. Recent bails include From and Your Friends and Neighbors (season two).

The Pitt is an emergency room drama that takes place at a Pittsburgh hospital, and each season takes place over one day.

It is a fine watch. It’s reasonably compelling.

I’d give two warnings if you plan on watching it. First, it’s pretty gross and graphic. I have to cover my eyes almost every episode (I don’t deal well with realistic gore). Second, the show goes out of its way to teach you a lesson like four times an episode. It’s too much. I do not need some hospital show asking me if I’m tolerant enough every episode. There’s a fun game you can play where you can predict what lesson one of the storylines will teach you when it first is introduced.

Gracie Abrams, Daughter From Hell (Music). I think it’s great.

Pretty bold for a pop album to be sixteen songs and 56 minutes but she pulls it off with flying colors. You could probably cut a song or two but tough to find an album nowadays that you wouldn’t say that for.

I don’t know if it’s just the way things go from a timeline perspective, but there has certainly been a bit of an influx of ‘90s alternative feel to current pop music over I’d say even the last half decade. You can absolutely hear it several times in this album. I think the most obvious one is the title track, “Daughter From Hell,” which could absolutely be a Smashing Pumpkins song.

Listening to the album is almost like laying with a comfortable blanket on a Spring Saturday when it’s about 65 degrees and you’re drifting off to take a nap. There are some really great songs here, but none of them knock you out of the vibe.

Aside from the singles, “Hit The Wall” and “Look At My Life,” I’d say the standouts to check out if you’re interested are “The Knife,” “Good Reason,” “Sober” and “Daughter From Hell.”

And, some movies I’ve watched…

I do keep an active Letterboxd but my reviews are pretty short. Really just a couple of thoughts and a rating so I can remember what I thought of them.

Evil Dead Burn. Really just so so. I love horror movies, I love this franchise, and I really liked Evil Dead Rise. But this one didn’t really work for me.

Evil Dead movies are best when there is a little bit of humor, but it’s difficult to balance because it should be terrifying too. I do think the first of the reboots had no humor, which made it tough to think of as an Evil Dead movie, but was still a very solid horror movie.

I thought it was just a little too dumb and silly.

Deep Water. Plane crash and shark attack movie that has a terrifying plane crash but gets pretty boring once it becomes a shark attack movie. It’s OK.

Ready Or Not 2. I thought it was boring. Liked the first one much better.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. I kind of loved this movie. I acknowledge it’s pretty terrible and you have to take so many leaps of faith to just stick with it past the first hour that it almost seems like it was on purpose. But the second half of the movie was amazing and definitely seems like it is part of the Evil Dead universe.

I want to reinforce that the movie is very stupid, but if you like horror movies you’ll probably say “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I enjoyed that” at the end.

Over Your Dead Body. My wife really liked it. I tolerated it.

Crime 101. Paint by numbers crime movie really but a perfect movie to stream at home.

Disclosure Day. I am not a Spielberg guy at all. I do not want my movies to have ridiculous happy endings and I don’t want a positive view on life. I want my filmmakers to be fucking miserable.

I am an alien guy though, and while I didn’t think this movie was great or anything, I didn’t hate it, and Emily Blunt was awesome. I had a pretty good time with it even though I had pretty good idea where it was going and it was generally unbelievable.

Backrooms. Enough has been written about it. I am glad it exists, I loved how weird it was, I only thought it was OK. Just not enough story for me. Kind of reminded me how I felt after Skinamarink or In a Violent Nature. Glad it was made, unlikely I’ll ever watch it again.

Team Ricky

• AU with one of his funniest and most true columns of all time.

• The Statman did a Statman look at Jaylen Brown.

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The LeBron James Sixers thing is happening again. A short eight years since Malvern-Gate and Brett Brown and whoever else flew to Los Angeles to not meet with LeBron or even Rich Paul, it’s happening again.

I was hoping this whole story would be over before I’d really have to talk about it. But it’s been a week, and it’s not dead yet, so here we are. I just have to make myself clear.

I will have a very hard time rooting for the 76ers if LeBron James is on the team.

I am just being honest. If you’ve been with us for a while, this is not surprising to you as it’s not a new opinion. I felt the same way in 2018 or whenever someone would dream about it.

I am not denying that LeBron is one of the all-time greats or that he’d make the Sixers better. I don’t want to get into the basketball of it all.

I’m not saying he’s a bad guy. I don’t know him and have nothing personal against him. I just simply can’t stand him, especially at this point of his career. I just wish he’d sort of fade off into the sunset, and he refuses. Insisting that he is merely one more record I’ve never heard of away from convincing all of us he’s better than Jordan (he’s not).

This would, of course, be great for content. The Ricky would become more popular, more people would listen to our radio show, etc.. Maybe we’d get a few more LeBron lies out of it. “Yeah, I’ve always been a huge fan of Skinny Joey.”

But all Sixers content would all be about LeBron, as it is wherever he goes, whenever he goes there. I find it annoying and distasteful. I’ve found this entire Decision III or whatever number it is particularly irritating.

I do not think he’s going to the Sixers, at all, as I’ve said before. I don’t buy any of the arguments that people make as nearly strong enough for me to imagine LeBron spending his final year (or one of them), in Philadelphia, making $50 million less per year than three guys on the team, watching Jaylen Brown dribble into long fadeaway twos and Embiid decide at the last minute whether he feels like playing. I don’t think it really represents his best shot to win, and I don’t think the narrative arc is nearly as strong as Cleveland or Miami. I think ultimately the Sixers are in the conversation because it makes Tyrese Maxey look great, and Rich Paul is his agent.

What’s more, how does this work if he does choose Philadelphia? I will only know for sure if it happens. But I imagine it’ll just be like a supercharged version of when Ben Simmons was here. Except that it will be so supercharged that it will be difficult for me to put my happy face on for the sake of everyone who listens to the pod and cheers for the Sixers. It will be torture for me and I’m probably not going to be able to cover it up.

I’m sorry in advance.

Team Ricky

• It seems like I miss one week of podcasts and Mike is apologizing to everyone because of an opinion he had? I’ve got to get back (be back Sunday).

• Where is everyone else? Maybe time for some food lists.

Team Non-Ricky

I haven’t really consumed much/any sports stuff over the last week. So here are some things I did consume that I enjoyed.

• I re-read Otessa Moshfegh’s book Eileen. I really liked it this time. My favorite book of hers is “My Year Of Rest And Relaxation.” I read Elieen after that one and only thought it was ok, but enjoyed it much more this time. I generally have trouble reading fiction, but I find her style, which is particularly descriptive (like Chuck Palahniuk) to work for me.

• I half-listened to and half-read Dave Portnoy’s new book Cancel Me If You Can. I liked it. I’ve never consumed very much Barstool content but how he built the thing is definitely interesting.

• I watched Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. What a fucking wild ride that is. If you’re a horror fan, give it a go. You gotta get to the second half of the thing to make it worth it, when it really gets unhinged.

  

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Just a normal week, huh!? You can say this about the Sixers, they never win anything, but they certainly always want to give the podcast something to talk about.

When we did the emergency pod on Tuesday night after the trade, the timing was sort of weird. It wasn’t exactly when the trade happened, so I wasn’t able to present my immediate emotional reaction. It also was only like an hour after it happened, so I hadn’t fully digested it. I was trying to figure it out on the fly.

With the time I’ve had, I’ve settled on a few things.

I’m Very Glad They Made The Trade

Jaylen Brown is really good, a Finals MVP just two years ago, and plays hard and often. The idea that we’ll get to watch him in his prime for the next few years (I assume) rather than Paul George seems sort of like a miracle. I’m excited to watch him as a Sixer.

We (I) can get precious about the draft picks end of it sometimes, of course. But two first round picks seems more than fair. You can think of first round picks as future players (as Mike likes to) or as currency (to go exchange it for something of value). And just like currency, you can always get more of it. The league just gives it to you after every year that passes.

Also, I’ve never like hated Jaylen Brown they way I couldn’t stand say, Al Horford.

They Need to Find a Way to Move More Quickly on Joel Embiid

They’ve got to find a trade for Joel.

I say this knowing it’s going to upset a large portion of the fan base. I love Joel Embiid. I’m sorry we’re at this place.

By trading the future picks for a 30-year-old Jaylen Brown, they have doubled down on right now and Tyrese Maxey’s prime as well. You can not win a title with a $60+ million super max sitting on the bench for half of the games and unable to play every game in the playoffs. It just won’t work in the 2026 version of the NBA.

It would be hard enough to build out a roster with Brown and Embiid’s salary together (only one of the players with a Top 18 NBA salary was even playing in the Finals), much less when one of them doesn’t play enough. And to top it off, Embiid isn’t some role player or “fits anywhere” wing. When Embiid is playing, it all revolves around him.

Also, don’t act like the fact that Shams noted that Brown reached out to Maxey and Edgecombe, and did not do that with Embiid, isn’t notable. Don’t act like Brown calling Maxey and Edgecombe on his Twitch stream, but not Embiid, isn’t notable.

The Knicks weren’t just the best team in the playoffs this year, they were the healthiest. I was mostly resigned to letting the Embiid years play out, rather than spending draft capital to do it. I don’t think you can wait it out anymore. I don’t think now is the time for half measures. Not to mention, I’m just not sure we need three players thinking they’re the No. 1 option.

The Sixers need a deeper roster, a rim protecting center (or a true stretch three, or both) they can count on to play every game, and to not waste the prime years of Brown and Maxey.

I Am, Of Course, A Little Terrified of Trading With the Celtics

The Celtics are a well run organization who have been in the Finals twice over the last decade and won one. They lost their coach to some weird controversy and just had the next Coach Of The Year sitting on their bench. Their other coach just decided to be their GM and somehow is great at it. They already took advantage of the Sixers almost ten years ago with the Fultz/Tatum trade. There are a lot of reasons to be scared here.

While I think the Sixers did the right thing, I am just going to stop short of the people saying they “fleeced” the Celtics. That doesn’t add up to me. No matter what price the Sixers paid, they still offered more than everyone else.

The Celtics mismanagement of the situation is of course the reason for a lot of this I’d guess. But it doesn’t change the fact that the player we just traded for was available for every team, and every team either decided to pass on the opportunity or offer less than us.

Perhaps it’s because I’m damaged emotionally from the last 13 years. But I’m sleeping with one eye open on this one.

The Year of the YouTube Big Board

The Sixers took Labaron Philon Jr. in the draft, who was #2 on this year’s YouTube Big Board. It was a big win for the YTBB.

But the signing of Anfernee Simons might be an even bigger one. The die-hards know that Simons was one of the original “what are you talking about?!” YTBB stars from years ago. Both Mike and our draft expert guest were taken aback when Simons was in my Top 10. I’m thrilled that he’s a Sixer.

The last time a new POBO tried to pander to us we ended up with TLC and Furk though, so I guess be careful what you wish for.

No LeBron

No, I don’t want LeBron.

Also no, I don’t think LeBron is spending the last year of his career in Philly watching Brown dribble the air out of the ball and Joel showing up at 6:45 for a 7:30 game deciding at the last minute if he wants to play. Yes, even if Maxey has the same agent.

Team Ricky

• Here are Beckett’s initial thoughts on the trade. He’ll have a detailed Stat-Man type analysis next week.

• Here’s the draft night pod.

• Here’s AU going long on turning 40.

Team Non-Ricky

• Here’s KOC’s trade reaction pod (it’s a good one).

  

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Mike mentioned on our NBA Draft night podcast that after drafting Labaron Philon Jr. (who was #2 on my YouTube Big Board) with the 22nd pick, he believes there’s a real possibility that the Sixers trade Tyrese Maxey.

Now let’s put aside the “Mike said this” part of it, because we all know Mike was being emotional, and while I do believe he believed it when he said it, he’ll likely be much more measured on the next episode.

But it did get me thinking about what the next three years of the Sixers are really about, assuming that Joel Embiid isn’t going anywhere.

The first instinct is to say “well let the young players grow.” But as of now, there are not really many substantial young players on the Sixers. There is VJ Edgecombe, absolutely. But the minute you get past him, we’re in Barlow and Edwards territory. And while we hope both of those guys get better, the improvement of those guys cannot be what the team is about over the next couple of years.

And Tyrese Maxey… well, he’s not that young. He’s young in the grand scheme of things of course, and he’s got a long career ahead of him, but he’s in his prime. He’s on his second contract, was All-Third Team NBA, and is now firmly past the “watch him grow” phase.

So the next couple of years might just be about getting through them.

And that’s where we get to Philon. Because if the team isn’t considering trading Maxey (I don’t think they are), then the next couple of years has to be about making Tyrese Maxey’s life easy and fun enough that he doesn’t notice they have no chance of competing for a title at the moment and doesn’t get antsy and want to leave. Make Maxey like coming to work every day.

One way the Sixers can do this, is by not forcing him to play 43 minutes a game because the Sixers do not have anyone else who is capable of being a primary ball handler. While you could look at the Philon pick and say “well that’s a guy who can’t play with Maxey so they must be moving Maxey,” I think you can also look at it and say “that’s a guy who probably can’t play with Maxey, so Maxey gets to sit on the bench for 16 minutes a night.”

Team Ricky

• Here’s our draft night pod. It’s a doozie.

Team Non Ricky

• Here’s Sixers Adam’s annual free agency primer.

• KOC was on my WIP show to talk about Philon.

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The NBA Draft is tomorrow night, and the off-season is actually flying.

Some people are calling this August. It ain’t even CLOSE to August yet. You think this is August?

Man, we have the NBA Draft tomorrow night. We’ve got free agency next week. Then we’ve got Summer League. THEN there is August (starting mid-July). That’s when things start to get a little weird on The Ricky. So if you’ve got a relationship advice question, get ‘em in now.

The YouTube Big Board was actually born in this format. I’m not sure when we started doing it on the podcast, but when I first started doing it, it was just a website post. The setup is this: I don’t watch college basketball. I’m not interested in it at all. So before the draft, (like almost everyone), I catch up on the players watching YouTube highlights. I’ve had some hits and some misses, and some mispronunciations (shout out OG and Jakucionis).

It is not Sixers-centric, in the way that there are many players here that either wouldn’t fit the team and/or won’t be there at the 22nd pick anyway. But it is Sixers-centric in that I’d like to have any of these players on the Sixers. (If you want a more specifically Sixers-centric draft preview, check out Beckett’s looks at the guards, wings and bigs who could be both available and of interest for us this year.)

Here’s my top nine guys, in roughly descending order.

No. 9: Darius Acuff (Arkansas) - BUCKETS! I’ve seen this guy’s name pop up a lot on Twitter, and it seems like people fight about him. True bucket getter, doesn’t matter how many people are guarding him. Seems like a pretty good passer. Definitely has guts. If I’m being honest with myself, this guy would have been like #2 or #1 on the YTBB a decade ago, but they almost always bust. Still love ‘em anyway

No. 8: Mikell Brown (Louisville) - Whoa, this guy is fast as hell. Great handle. Exciting passer. Is he kind of like John Wall? Kind of skinny. I don’t know. He’s very fast. Also kind of reminds me of Lillard or Derrick Rose. The shot doesn’t look great. How do these guys get this far in their careers without being able to shoot (not sure if he can shoot just looks iffy).

No. 7: Baba Miller (Cincinnati) - I don’t know, I kind of love this guy. He’s enormous, but handles the ball and moves like a wing. I bet he could be really good on defense too. It’s hard to say who he is like, but it looks like there could be a monster defender in there. I can’t think of a comp for him. There must be something wrong with him because I haven’t heard anyone bring him up (aside from a throwaway mention at the end of our last pod by Mike and Kyle). People are missing out.

No. 6: Jayden Quaintance (Kentucky) - The truth is, if I had never talked with Mike on the pod about this guy, he’d be No. 2 or No. 1. But I talked about him, and I found out about his knee, and it seems like the knee is still a problem. There is a part of me that is basically like, “I don’t care how good this guy is, I just want people who can actually play.” And then there’s another part of me that is like, “this guy is a fucking MONSTER.” I can imagine him dunking and patrolling the paint for a decade. Do you see how he moves for a guy this big?

No. 5: Darryn Peterson (Kansas) - Gets his shot off quickly. Explosive at the rim. Makes tough shots. Seems pretty polished offensively. He also seems like the perfect two-guard size. He kind of seems like a more explosive Devin Booker? This guy is going to be great. Unless there is something wrong with him, physically or upstairs, seems like a can’t-miss.

No. 4: Kingston Flemmings (Houston) - Love that he’s super fast but is not always playing that way. Looks like he uses his speed the right way and changes it up. He’s a good passer. He has a great idea of space on offense. Shot is a little janky from three but hey we’ve been there before.

No. 3: Caleb Wilson (North Carolina) - HELLO! I love this guy. He’s 6’10”?! Can you imagine when he fills out his frame? He’s already pretty powerful and athletic. Really comfortable dribbling for a guy his size as well. Not any highlights of him shooting threes. Moves incredibly on the perimeter and protects the rim. Holy shit man, love this guy.

No. 2: Labaron Philon (Alabama) - He looks like Jalen Brunson with hops. I love this guy (and so does the Statman). He’s got a bag and a handle and can get to the rim and finish in a bunch of ways. He’s doesn’t have to blow by defenders, he can sort of snake his way to the rim. Can also shoot.

No. 1 - Cam Boozer (Duke) - This is a veteran pick here. I know, he’s not at all a YouTube Big Board guy. He’s not explosive. He’s not a bucket getter. He’s not flying around all over the place. What is clear, however, is that he is going to be the best NBA player out of all of these guys, most likely. He’s quite obviously the best basketball player of the bunch, and the sport they’re being drafted to play is basketball. I’m quite certain people are like, “ah I worry about him defending on the perimeter at the next level,” or whatever they say about guys like this. He’s just obviously good.

Some other notes on guys that might be of interest:

AJ Dybansta - Haven’t seen a loser face like this since Deandre Ayton. Just screams loser (no offense).

Koa Peat - This guy stinks.

Karim Lopez - Since the Korkmaz and TLC incidents, I do not trust YouTube from other countries.

Chris Cenac - Pretty good!

Allen Graves - Come on man, doesn’t look like an NBA player at all.

Morez Johnson - Kinda like him!

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The Sixers have the 22nd pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, and for the life of me, I’m having real trouble giving a shit.

The draft has always been more Mike’s thing than my thing, but to say I didn’t care at all would be untrue. I put real work into the YouTube Big Board, I became invested in my guys, and would at least be able to have some opinion about what the Sixers did.

In a lot of ways, The Ricky was built on the NBA Draft. The Ricky has always on some level been about hope (or the lack of hope), and where is hope more prominent than the Draft and the Lottery? “What’s behind Door No. 3?” is always more exciting than whatever is actually behind Door No. 3.

This year though, I dunno. I’m working through my YouTube scouting but I find myself going blank two minutes into a highlight reel — staring at the screen, but not really seeing anything. Sort of like when you’re reading a book and all of a sudden you realize you have no idea what happened in the three pages that you supposedly just read.

Maybe it’s a lack of hope for the team overall. Maybe it’s what I perceive as the slow degradation of college basketball in general. Maybe it’s the letdown of going from the No. 3 pick last year to the No. 22 pick this year. Maybe it’s because the pick came at the cost of one Jared McCain. Maybe I’m just getting old. But I simply am not getting the joy or rush out of this part of the process (non-proper-noun version) than I did previously.

Maybe I’ll get there by draft night, but I’m saying this now with the expectation that there are some people who feel the same way.

The San Antonio Sixers

I can’t get over how Sixers-y the Spurs choke was in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

We’ve all seen that Sixers game before. They come out shooting the lights out, and build up a big lead. But we all know what is going to happen…

Eventually, the hot shooting will stop, the team will progressively panic a little bit more every possession and jack up a three just a bit earlier in the clock trying to reclaim the magic that existed earlier in the game.

The clock ticks down at half speed. How are there STILL seven minutes left in this quarter?

The missed free throws from our star player. The why are you doing that?! moment from one of the guards down the stretch (Fox’s attempted layup that got blocked by Anonuby reminded me quite a bit of Maxey not calling timeout against the Knicks). The holding on for dear life, just hoping in vain that the other team runs out of time or chokes a little bit more.

My little prediction here is that the Spurs win Game 5 but Wemby ends up getting himself suspended for Game 6.

Team Ricky

• Beckett’s Draft Guide has begun, and he laid out all of the wings he hopes the Sixers take and the wings he doesn’t hope they take.

• Then Beckett joined us on the Ricky to talk to us about it.

• Giant Knicks fan AU wrote a little lover letter to one of his former Sixer favorites who is thriving in the Finals.

Team Non-Ricky

• Sixers Adam wrote about which other teams might be interested in Quentin Grimes.

• I like the new Olivia Rodrgio album. We’ll be talking about it on The Carl this week.

• The new August Burns Red album is also awesome. I think it might end up being one of my favorite albums they’ve ever released.

  

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The NBA Finals between the Spurs and the Knicks seemed like a lose-lose for me. Either the Knicks and the worst fan base in the NBA wins a title and I have to hear about it for the rest of my natural life (we all will), or the Spurs win the NBA title and everyone who crowned Wemby the Greatest Of All Time before he deserved it would double and triple down on this for the foreseeable future.

As it turns out, just like there is a thin line between love and hate, there is also a thin line between something being a lose-lose and a win-win.

It is admittedly terrible thinking about the Knicks winning the title, which looks incredibly likely now. To be clear, we will never escape this. I despise Knicks fans, but in a lot of ways because I know the type (they are remarkably similar to Eagles fans). Whatever the version of a group of 3,000 Phillies fans going to Citi Field and chanting “E-A-G-L-E-S” during the 6th inning of the game is for Knicks fans, we’re going to find out. It’s going to be worse than you think.

But I also get to watch everyone who crowned Wemby not only the best player in the NBA, but maybe the greatest player of all time before he had won an MVP, or a title, or even became one of the best 20 offensive players in the NBA, have to take a breather for the next six months. Maybe we should wait to see if someone gets obviously outplayed by Karl-Anthony Towns, gets muscled by Landry Shamet or boxed out by Jose Alvarado even though he’s 8 feet tall before they take the crown of current best player, or all-time best player.

Wemby is clearly a great player, and often times terrifying on defense. He is super tall and remarkably skilled and athletic for his height. But his rush up the ranks and more annoyingly, turning everything he does and says into some urban legend or “we just don’t see this stuff in current athletes now” has been irritating and more notably, just wrong. Players dunk all the time, players react emotionally when they win all the time.

You may say I’m being a contrarian (that is part of my personality, I’m not doing it to annoy you), but I’m also right. Sometimes when everyone thinks something at once, it’s wrong.

Just let him earn it. It won’t kill you.

TEAM RICKY

AU wrote a tear-jerker about missing Daryl Morey the online Ricky-adjacent GM (the guy, less so the GM).

We did a Carl Landry Record Club about rapper Mandy Rose and Finley Quaye.

Mike gave three PF/C prospects that the Sixers could take with the #22 pick on the latest Ricky

TEAM NON RICKY

Sixers Adam is guest co-hosting on today’s Ricky..

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With the Sixers out of it (as usual), I have really two choices for the remainder of the NBA playoffs (as usual). Those two choices are either barely pay attention (which I do sometimes), or decide which outcomes will bother me the most (which I’m doing this year).

There usually no positive outcomes once the Sixers are eliminated, only which are the least negative. So with the Knicks already in the Finals, and the the Thunder and Spurs heading to a Game 7, I figured I’d give a little insight into how horrible each of these outcomes could be.

To be clear, these are very personal, I’m not saying these should be your rankings as well. I’ll scale them from 1 (Won’t Bother Me At All) to 10 (Catastrophic).

The Knicks Win the NBA Finals - 10

Knicks fans are currently the worst sports fans in the United States. They first want you to acknowledge them as some sort of a sad sack, “it never works out for us, we’ve been waiting for so long,” dedicated and deserving group, but then immediately insist you bow down the superiority of the team and the City That Never Sleeps. They simultaneously insist that you know that they haven’t won in so long that you should be happy for them, but also celebrate them for winning even though they haven’t won anything yet.

They also live very close to us, will never shut the fuck up, and are generally distasteful.

They’ve also got an insane number of annoying famous fans, who all act like their dream is to be Knicks bloggers or something, just your rag tag bunch of millionaires who date super models and just happen to find themselves courtside. Ben Stiller, Marty Supreme, Turtle from his basement in Ohio, they can all go fuck themselves.

The team themselves don’t particularly bother me, except for Brunson’s weird celebration where he smells his thumb (??)

I know there will be someone who is like “oh duhhhh you’re a Knicks fan!” And I know Mike likes to bring it up with his bullshit little smile that he doesn’t know what he’s doing as well. Dude, I was 16. I’m 49. If we’re all the same at those two ages, I’m happy to page through your old photos as well. I promise you, the fact that I loved John Starks (still do) has very little to do with how much I hate these current fuckers.

We’ll have to resort to reminding them that their team leadership (Rose, Wes) are both Philly guys.

The Spurs Win the NBA Finals - 7

I can’t take the Wemby stuff man. I just can’t do it. In this case, both the fans and the player himself are super irritating.

The group of NBA Twitter dorks who spent three years slobbering over Jokic and insisting his defense was “actually good,” have quietly ignored his recent failures and just moved over to glazing The Alien. Every time the guy dunks we’ve got to act like we’ve never seen a tall person before, and the fact that a person who can dunk without even jumping actually dunked is such a sight to behold.

And Wemby himself, just the fraud of all frauds. Everything about him is a put on. The false competitive Kobe guy Wemby, the thoughtful guy Wemby, the tough guy Wemby, the monk guy Wemby. I just can’t, man. I’m sure there will be a time where he “owns the league” or whatever, but I don’t feel like dealing with Mr. French Ethical Hoops just yet.

Plus, if he really cared about winning, wouldn’t he just learn how to do a sky hook and score 80 points a game?

The Thunder Win the NBA Finals - 1

The Thunder don’t bother me at all. I love Jared McCain. I find SGA actually far more fun to watch than most people seem to, and I don’t think they flop any more than any other team.

Team Ricky

• The Statman (Beckett), wrote how the entirety of the Sixers failures does not rest on Daryl Morey shoulders alone.

• I wrote about all 121 songs that Spotify said are my most listened to songs of all time.

• We’re still doing the podcast.

Team Non-Ricky

• The new Lottery rules are hilarious.

  

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Andrew Unterberger is a Knicks fan.

This was the realization I came to reading his post from earlier this week when he announced that he was cheering for both the Knicks and the Thunder in their respective Conference Finals matchups.

I know this is rich from me considering that in my teens I was an actual Knicks fan, but maybe it takes one to know one. I can assure you that there is not a team or a fanbase that I hate more than the Knicks and their aura farming mouth breathing fans at the moment.

In any case, back to Andrew “Spike Lee” Unterberger. I think he’s an excellent writer. I’m truly honored that he’s such a big part of the Ricky. One of the reasons i know he’s a good writer is that regularly I yell at what he’s written out loud as I’m reading it. This week, I didn’t get past the subject line before gasping.

I am aware it is possible to have a rooting interesting in a series once the Sixers are eliminated. I’m also aware that this could be for a rival, for one reason or another. But I sniffed out more than that with AU. I sniffed out actual fandom, likely due to proximity for an extended period of time.

This happens of course, quite often. There is no doubt that while Mike is primarily a Phillies fan, he is secondarily a Dodgers fan. This is not just in a “makes his wife happy” way, it’s in a real way. I suspect he feels the same way about the Lakers. He may deny this, but you talk to someone about sports for three hours a week for 13 years and you figure some things out. I am not criticizing Mike for this… it happens. He’s been out there for a decade and a half, the Dodgers and the Lakers aren’t like, natural rivals to our teams, and it just kinda happened. As well, I’d say my three years working in New York made me kind of a Yankees fan. We run the Yankees Radio Network up there, they’re not natural Phillies rivals, etc, etc…

This has happened to AU with the Knicks, though he probably won’t admit it. There are a couple key lines in his post that give this way.

I can’t even feel the same as Spike about their fans — most of the Knicks fans I know are actually pretty cool.

LOL, are they? I am not sure how many links I should share here of Knicks fans being decidingly uncool, but we’d probably need to build an entire data center to house them. I’m sure AU did stand next to two unassuming ones for two and a half hours one time, but to say they’re “pretty cool” in light of the evidence to the contrary is honestly Stockholm Syndrome stuff.

Most importantly, I need them to embarrass the fucking Cavs. The fact that the Cavs, that Donovan Mitchell, made a conference finals before us has been maybe the toughest part of these whole playoffs for me.

Ah yes, our long-standing war with Donovan Mitchell must be held sacred. I mean, he did wear a t-shirt making fun of Ben Simmons once, and we all know we’re very dedicated to defending Simmo the Savage’s honor. Not to mention, was Mitchell totally wrong? Aside from that, I can’t think of one moment where we’d have any issue with him.

What has happened here is AU has lived in New York for too long and has a soft spot for the Knicks. It disgusts me but it’s understandable. I just wish he’d admit it.

All that said, I do feel good about AU’s support of the Thunder largely being about telling everyone to fucking relax with Wemby. Let him earn it. He’s 8 feet tall, he runs like a gazelle, it’s possible he ends up the best player of all time. He should probably make the Finals first though. The Thunder won the title last year, had the best record in the league this year, were 8-0 in the playoffs until that point, and had played six of those games without their second best player. They lost one game in double overtime after a week-long break, and immediately their entire run was being extinguished so we could slurp up Wemby. Relax!

Team Ricky

• We did a deep dive on Bob Myers with Ethan-Sherwood Strauss (who covered him for years) and Saam Esfandiari (who has podcasted about him for years).

• Here’s AU’s fucking piece of shit column.

Team Non-Ricky

• Marcus Hayes has some sources that pretty unsurprisingly say that Josh Harris badly wants Bob Myers to run the Sixers and Bob Myers badly doesn’t want to do it.

• Tony Jones says that Jameer Nelson is the real only internal candidate for the POBO job and gives us some other names as well.

• A new Sixers Adam Mock Draft roundup on what the Sixers might do with the 22nd pick.

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I had one primary thought after listening to Josh Harris and Bob Myers blather on for an hour yesterday…

“Ah, so are we doing this again?”

Yes there were the normal lies (Josh Harris on the luxury tax), avoiding answers that committed to anything, talk of how badly everyone wants to win, but that wasn’t really what I took away from everything.

My big question is this – Is Bob Myers shadow running everything or is he up there trying to make Josh Harris think he’s going to shadow run it so he gets to keep his job doing very little and getting paid a lot?

For all of the criticisms lobbed at the Harris/Bltizer era, the one that is most troubling and harmful is their inability to commit and stick to an organized leadership structure for any reasonable amount of time.

Since purchasing the Sixers in 2011, we’ve had the following clusterfucks: when Doug Collins, Rod Thorn, Tony DiLeo and Adam Aron all thought they ran the team. When Sam Hinkie ran the team but Scott O’Neil thought he ran the team. There was very little confusion when Colangelo was here, he was a disaster all on his own. Then, instead of actually choosing a leader, when Elton Brand was named GM, it was actually them not able to choose any of the internal candidates, so letting them all run the team while Brand was the face of it.

Almost every person in the front office during the Brand era had a direct line to Harris, but the most destructive of which was Colangelo right-hand-man Alex Rucker, who when he wasn’t trying to manipulate fan sentiment by emailing bloggers and podcasters and high-ranking social influencers, was doing the same with Harris. Then, the Sixers allowed Brand to rid the front office of those folks to put him really in charge, for a couple of weeks before they hired Doc Rivers and gave him some say in personnel. Then they hired Daryl Morey with Doc Rivers already in place.

So that brings us to today and Bob Myers. Myers certainly made it a point to sound like he would be part of the day to day operations with the Sixers. This is for one of two reasons.

1. He’s actually going to be part of this, without question shrinking the pool of candidates who are going to have their names attached to the success or failure of the next few years. There are definitely fewer people who will want the job if they think that Myers is the guy really doing the job. This already coming from probably a smaller pool due to the challenging circumstances and the fact that this person cannot hire their own head coach, at least for the first year.

2. Josh Harris, who previously tried to hire Myers away from the Warriors, asked Myers to do it. Myers doesn’t want to do it because his current job pays more money, is less work, and is more in line with what he wants to do in the future. However, Myers wants to keep this cushy job where he has one or two main projects a year along with answering a couple of Harris calls a week. So he tells Harris, “don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye on it,” and was putting on show during the press conference.

Neither one of these options are good, and both of them are pretty in line with the bullshit we’ve seen over the years.

This isn’t a condemnation of Myers’ ability to do the job if that was what happened. He’s got his hits and misses just like everyone in those positions does. You can find people who think he was carried in his time with the Warriors, and people who rightly point to the fact that they won four titles while he was in charge (that’s the only argument I need Shawn!). I don’t really have an opinion on Bob Myers, only that if he’s the one doing the job he should just do the job.

Finally a related note on Elton Brand. There seems to be a group of vocal people (perhaps just a small group, I don’t know), who are insistent that Brand also be let go. I think there are some misperceptions about Brand.

First, you simply cannot hold the things you hold against him, against him in the way that you do. The internal dynamics of when he was “in charge” were untenable, and it was more like a GM by committee (with the aforementioned Rucker) really doing things. That’s no way to run a team. Brand was certainly green and probably had the position early, but it just was not him going around making those calls.

Since then, Brand has been an asset and it’s almost impossible to find someone who has worked with him or around him to say a bad word about him. He’s well thought of and had a ton of opportunities to work elsewhere that he has passed up to stay with the Sixers. I am not saying he should get Morey’s job, but I am saying that the Sixers are probably better off overall if he stays. They’re certainly not worse off.

At the very least, when someone like Morey is let go, it’s rare that his entire staff is let go before a new hire is made. As Myers mentioned, the Sixers still have to run a team between now and when the new person is hired, with the draft right around the corner. If they were to move on from Brand, it would be almost assured this would happen after the new person is hired.

Team Ricky

• Our Daryl Is Gone pod.

• The Statman reminds us that we should have all seen this coming from a mile away.

• AU is still delusional.

• My (non basketball related) Daryl Morey farewell.

Team Non-Ricky

• This one is dedicated to Sixers Adam, who had the scoop and story of the off-season so far.

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Daryl Morey is out as President Of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, as you may have heard. Nick Nurse is remaining the head coach, as you also may have heard.

Mike is busy coaching tonight (cue Coach Mike song), so we’ll be live tomorrow night at 8pm to discuss all of it.

I remember a surreal moment in October of 2020, when I was on the air at 94WIP, arguing with Billy King about the Sixers hire of Doc Rivers. I told Billy that the hiring of Rivers didn’t mean anything to me, I wanted them to go out and hire Daryl Morey.

It is rarely the case in Sixers Land, but I got exactly what I wanted. The Sixers hired Morey. He really shoved it up my ass with the Jared McCain trade, didn’t he?

We first had Daryl on the Ricky when was running the Rockets, and he was stuck in The Bubble in Disney World. I truly don’t even remember how it happened. I’ve never listened to it. I don’t even know what we talked about.

Since then, he’s been on the Ricky like ten times, regardless of whether we were ripping him or praising him. He was always very fair to us, even if we were tormenting him. He recognized how die-hard Ricky listeners are, and I know always appreciated the opportunity to talk directly to you.

The guy running the Sixers let us replay his hug with James Harden with him over and over again while demanding he analyze whether he wanted the hug more than Harden did.

I will save my takes about the move and his tenure for the podcast (I have many of these. But I will say here I think he is good at his job, has always been generous with his time and otherwise with us, and I am glad he had the job.

It didn’t end up with a championship, or the Finals, or past the second round, but we did finally beat a good team in the playoffs.

We’ll get him on with us eventually so I can yell at him about Jared McCain. He owes us that at least.

I am stuck today.

I am caught in the middle of two things I want to tell you. And I don’t feel right telling you one thing without including the other.

If I just told you one of the things, you’d think I was a delusional homer, caught up in the excitement of the playoff run, once again convincing myself of something insane.

If I just told you the other thing, you’d think “there goes angry Spike again, stuck on something that doesn’t matter anymore instead of just enjoying the moment.”

So instead of going deep on either of these things, I’ll just tell you both all at once.

I feel pretty good about where the Sixers are in this series, so much so that I bet on them to win the series, but also, I am furious that the Sixers only have 1.5 playable guards and wings off the bench while Jared McCain is scoring 18 points in 18 minutes for the world champion Thunder.

(quick note here: I was going to use a couple of dashes after “all at once” before I said the sentence, but I’m terrified to use those now because people always assume that AI wrote it if you do that. This is not AI, it’s me.)

To expound on the first part – there were a few things that happened in Game 2 that made me feel pretty comfortable moving forward. First, the defense looked again like the defense from the Celtics series, that is to say, pretty suffocating. Brunson ended up hitting some big shots at the end but generally looked pretty frustrated and stifled all game. They weren’t just walking into open shots, they did have to work for everything (special shout out to VJ for the job he did on Brunson). Second, they found an option with Dominick Barlow at center. I don’t think this is something they can do often, and to be honest it might not even work against either of the Knicks primary centers, but it’s nice to know that it’s there. Third, OG Anunoby got hurt. I am not celebrating an injury, that’s bad karma, I’m just being honest. He’s pretty important for them. Obviously McBride will proceed to go 6-8 from three, but Anunoby’s size and defense makes a big difference there.

Speaking of Anunoby, here is my guess of who is playing that was on yesterday’s injury report:

Embiid (Questionable) - playing
Hart (Questionable) - playing

Anunoby (Questionable) - not playing

Robinson (Probable) - playing

And look, if the oddsmakers were right, the Sixers would not have beaten the Celtics, so take this with a grain of salt, but it’s pretty interesting to me that the Sixers are 1.5 favorites at Draft Kings for Game 3. The Sixers have not been favored in any playoff game this year, and it hasn’t even been close. The Knicks were 6.5 point favorites in Game 1 and 10.5 point favorites in Game 2.

Now to the second part – I just can’t believe that Daryl told everyone at the deadline that he thought this Sixers team could make a deep playoff run, and chose to go into the playoffs with their only bench options as guards or wings being Quentin Grimes and Justin Edwards, one of whom Nurse does not like playing at all even though he praises him at every turn. I’m sure he’d bring up Cam Payne at this point (who suffered an injury and was cut), but thinking that your second bench guard (and only bench point guard) is a guy you signed off the street who was playing in Serbia is a pretty bold choice.

Meanwhile, over in the Western Conference, last year’s NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the deepest team in the league, is somehow finding a way to get Jared McCain on the court. McCain had 18 points in 18 minutes in Game 2 against the Lakers, and 12 points in 15 minutes in Game 1 against the Lakers. Both victories. The Sixers entire bench in Game 2 against the Knicks had 15 points in 56 minutes.

McCain was on the floor for the deciding run on Thursday night while SGA was on the bench with four fouls. This quote from Chet Holmgren really stings:

“Every time I see him shoot, I think it’s going in. I know it’s going up at this point, as it should. If you get those shots off and make them at that type of clip, it’s probably the best play for us. So, credit to him, he’s got just a certain type of confidence in him to come in the game cold after a lot of time sitting long stretches and then just bomb and make shots.”

Would he have been the key to winning an NBA championship? Of course not. Would he provided a playable guard to give up 10-15 minutes off the bench to spell Maxey, and potentially catch a little fire from three? Of course he would have.

What the fuck? Honestly man.

Team Ricky

• The Statman wrote about the keys to a Sixers victory over the Knicks after the drubbing in Game 1, and with Embiid likely returning in Game 3, I think it’s still prescient.

• Our friends at Shibe Vintage Sports are having a huge sale on Sixers stuff right now.

• AU wrote a bunch about Game 7.

Team Non Ricky

• Man this video of Tobias Harris getting crossed over so bad he fell down is really ruined by this other video showing that Donovan Mitchell actually grabbed his leg.

• I can’t believe James Harden had such a bad performance in a big playoff game!

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Quick note before you read this: I was going through Ricky emails and I became inspired to write the following post. I didn’t know if anyone else was writing anything, I just knew I needed to write it. I then sent a text to Ricky Editor In Chief Andrew Unterberger, and this is the exchange, and the reason you’re getting two posts from two people essentially saying the same thing but unaware that the other was going to say it.

And with that, here is my original post, reluctantly edited and posted by AU.

“It’s OK to lose, just don’t embarrass us,” was the theme of the end of the podcast that Mike and I did on Thursday night.

That’s been pretty much the theme the entire series, as evidenced by how furious we were with the 30 point losses (embarrassing), and relatively unbothered by the six point loss (not embarrassing).

When we were finishing up and discussing whether the Sixers would win Game Seven, we both settled into that comfortable spot we had spend the entire postseason. “Just don’t make us have to defend you in public,” is essentially what we’re saying. But as I said it, I could tell that I really didn’t believe it, I was just too scared to express it publicly.

They have to win tonight. They just do. They can’t come this far and lose. I do believe they will win. I am full-on dumb-fuck bought in. I can’t believe it. I haven’t believed in the Sixers in literally years. But they have to win tonight and I think they will.

“Just don’t embarrass us” originates from two basic feelings. First, neither of us believed they could win the series. I am not ashamed of thinking this. It was reasonable. It’s also funny that we both believed it. As the podcast goes on, Mike is thinking more like me (he’d disagree which is fine but it’s true) and I’m thinking even more like me, so we do occasionally agree on things. It’s probably when we’re the most wrong, as well. The second feeling this thinking comes from is an unwillingness to believe, given all of the times we’ve been punished for doing so.

We have many memories of the last thirteen years of Process basketball and podcasts. Some of them are good, but most of are bad, or at best, weird (and also bad).

Bad: collapse against the Celtics, choke against the Heat, sweep by the Celtics in the bubble, the Kawhi shot, the Ben Simmons turned-down dunk against the Hawks, the various injuries, Zhaire Smith almost dying, Scott O’Neil, the entire 24-25 season, etc, etc…

Bad but Also Weird: Markelle Fultz forgetting how to shoot, Simmons never learning how to shoot, the Bryan Colangelo burners, Hinkie’s manifesto, the minority owner who claimed to be running the team with Brett Brown and then leaving several years later, New Philadelphia, etc, etc…

We deserve one real moment of pure basketball joy. The best moment of the era simply cannot be Joel Embiid watching TV to learn that he won the MVP. Having one of the consensus top five players in basketball for a decade can not be highlighted by that guy watching TV in some random room somewhere. It has to be on the court.

People will call us losers for celebrating the way we will celebrate if the Sixers win tonight, but I don’t particularly care. They have not beaten a good team in the playoffs during the Process era, and beating the largely consensus best team in the Easter Conference, after being down 3-1, when Joel Embiid misses the first three games, opening as a -900 underdog, and that team being the Celtics, who the Sixers haven’t beaten in 42 years, is a big fucking deal. It just is.

Not to mention, they deserve it. And when I say “they,” I mostly just mean Joel Embiid. Tyrese Maxey for sure deserves it, but he will get other chances. Same for VJ Edgecombe. I will feel good for Oubre of course. Paul George, I dunno, I’m glad he’s playing well but “deserves it” would be a reach. Embiid is the only person on the team, or front office who has been through all of this with us. I would like for him to get this moment as well.

If they win tonight, I would recommend you do not jump immediately to “there’s no one in the East we can’t beat.” Give yourself the chance to enjoy something for once. If I can do it, I am pretty sure you can.

Now go fucking beat them.

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This Sixers series against the Celtics is the single most shocked I’ve been by anything that has happened during the Process Era. I am trying to figure out what emotion I can express to you the morning after Game 6, and all I keep saying to myself is “I can’t believe this is happening.”

I am obviously elated, and still kind of anxious (as they still have to win one more game), but the number one thing I am is shocked.

Markelle Fultz forgetting how to shoot was less surprising. Bryan Colangelo’s burners? Easier to predict. Zhaire Smith almost dying because of a food allergy he didn’t know he had from food that the Sixers served him? Well, if you look at the odds, there are a lot of food allergies out there and a Sixer was bound to have one of them.

Something happened prior to the 4th quarter of game five that turned the team into the ideal version of themselves. The way they’ve defended for the last game and a quarter is just not something I believed they could do. They went from a team that gave up more open threes than any team I’ve ever watched in my adult life to being able to prevent the Boston Celtics, a team that is built around getting open threes, from getting any of them.

There were no signs pointing to this happening prior to this series starting.

(Before I continue, I know you could be reading this saying out loud, “I knew they were going to win!” I am happy for you. I believe you thought they were going to win. If we’re all being honest with ourselves you’ve said this every time.)

The numbers didn’t say it could happen. The Celtics were one of the best teams in the league on offense and defense all year long. The Sixers were, even with Joel and PG on the court, pretty uninspiring.

The vibes certainly weren’t pointing to it. The Celtics went into the playoffs with a “we can win even sitting all of our best players” victory over the Magic, while the Sixers fumbled themselves into the play-in, and their best player had an emergency appendicitis.

History was not on our side. The Sixers haven’t beaten the Celtics in a playoff series since Ronald Reagan’s first term in office. And once the playoffs began, once the Celtics went up 3-1, 95.6 of those teams win the series. The Sixers have never won a playoff series after going down 3-1.

Mike predicted a sweep. AU was writing missives about how sad we all are just a few days ago. The Stat Man was like “better pray!” None of us saw this coming.

And yet, here the Sixers are, on the verge of the first good playoff series win since we’ve been doing the Ricky.

A lot of times people say, “I’d be happy to be wrong but…” right before they say they think something bad is going to happen. Every time I laughed at the idea of the Sixers winning this series, I would say that.

Needless to say, very wrong. Very happy. Go win Game 7.

Team Ricky

• Most of the content we’ve produced over the last week is really not that timely to be consuming now, to be honest.

• Here’s last night’s Ricky. It’s a good one. There is an NSFW part toward the end where I suggest Nick Nurse might show up on my doorstep and play a guitar solo with his dick so be careful there.

• Beckett, the Stat Man, wrote about how the SIxers could win Game 6. I suppose all of this holds for Game 7.

• The new album from The Fray is my favorite album of 2026 so far. It’s really incredible. We did an episode of The Carl Landry Record Club about it. If you want to suggest an album for the podcast, do it here.

Team Non-Ricky

• Kelly Oubre is a gift. Speaking of surprising, never thought he would become what he is. May he never sign anywhere else (unless it’s a record deal).

• KOC with some kind words about Maxey.

• I don’t really have anything else. The Sixers forced a Game 7 with the Celtics. The Flyers are not only in the playoffs but are “the hot young team nobody wants to face with the hot goalie.” The Phillies are now undefeated with Donnie Baseball signing the lineup cards (shout out SixersAdam). Soak it in, baby.

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There are several layers to being a Sixers fan at this point.

When I say “being a Sixers fan,” I mean in the way that we are Sixers fans. Not in the way that most people in the Delaware Valley would of course, prefer to see the Sixers win. I mean in that being a fan of this team is part of your identity to other people, whether you choose for it to be or not. It’s sort of like when I got a cat years ago (rest in peace, Alabama, love you), and even though I didn’t choose it, I immediately became a cat guy to my mom and many others. Cat birthday cards, etc… Oh, that’s Spike, he has a cat and he likes it so he must be a cat guy. I mean that kind of Sixers fan.

The layer I’m going to write about is the layer of having to answer for the team, even though you had nothing to do with it. And the material piece of information here is what you’re going to have to answer for if Joel Embiid comes back and the Sixers lose anyway. Particularly, if he comes back tonight (he is listed as doubtful), and the Sixers end up losing the series 4-1, so the final win we see is the VJ/Maxey game in game two.

This is, no doubt, a nightmare for this kind of Sixers fan. Not just because the Sixers will have lost to the Celtics again, which you’re likely very emotionally prepared for, but because you’re going to have to argue about Joel Embiid again.

“I told you they should have gotten rid of him!”

“They just play with so much more hunger when he’s not there!”

“They’re just so much more exciting without him!”

And although there might be some morsel of truth in these things they say, I must recommend you do not even engage. Your response should be, “haha yeah,” and nothing more. If it’s in text messages or group chats, just “haha yeah,” and come back later. If it’s in person, it’s obviously tougher, but the less interested you seem and the less your blood pressure raises, the better.

The well actually route is just going to make you insane, and this is coming from a card carrying member of the Well Actually… Hall of Fame.

Last Chance To Save These Poor Dogs That Don’t Have Homes

This is going to be the last money ask for a while. I’m just $391 from my goal of raising $10,000 for the Brandywine Valley SPCA and their mission to save as many of these dogs and cats (also the occasional bunny or goat) as possible. I look at my two idiots, Rebel and Scotchie, and realize how they’ve changed my life. I figure it’s my job to make sure I can save as many Rebels and Scotchies as possible. You can donate here. If you’ve already donated, or even have just shared this, thank you so much (to be clear it’s a slightly larger thank you if you donated than if you just just shared).

Team Ricky

• Beckett looked at the numbers of a Sixers vs. Celtics series and how the Sixers might be able to shock the world.

• We did a Carl Landry Record Club pod about an album from an artist named Samora Pinderhughes that I had never heard but am glad I did. Very cool album. New pod about the new album from The Fray coming out this weekend.

• If you’d like to suggest an album you love for the Carl, just submit it here.

• The pod after Game 2 was a fun one. Also, we had noted that some of the playoff pods might not happen right after the game, that is no longer true. Mike’s finished with his writing duties for the second season of The Paper, so we’re right on time now.

Team Non-Ricky

• Sixers Adam’s substitution chart from Game 2. Great job, Sixers Adam, on charting the substitutions again.

• Jeremy Lin is trying to gaslight us about Nick Nurse. I love Jeremy Lin but I will not forget this.

• Lastly, I have to admit, I’m Flyered up. There was a part of me that was like, “I do not have time to add the NHL playoffs to the diet of sports I have to watch,” but it is nice to watch a team in that spot we were in 2017, when the team was young, had no expectations, and everyone figured was going to get better for the next several years. The poor Flyers die-hards have no idea what’s about to happen next year, when everyone just assumes they’ll win the Stanley Cup, but for now, this is fun.

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The Boston Celtics really don’t bother me that much, all things considered. They never have. I don’t like them, but also, I don’t really hate them.

I have a hard time lying about how I feel regarding these sports things. I’m not good at faking optimism. I could never put a brave face on and just say I loved watching Ben Simmons. It would probably make my life slightly easier as some kind of public facing Sixers fan if I could.

If I’m thinking about Eastern Conference teams that I truly hate, the Celtics aren’t even close to the top. I hate the Knicks. I know this is rich considering my history, but it’s true. I hate the fans, I hate the whole weird, fake tough, “We’re New York bro!” aura of both the fans and the team to be really just disgusting. I hate the Heat, “Heat Culture,” and the way everyone slobbers over them and their overrated coach. The Bucks have always truly annoyed me, them getting Doc Rivers was just the icing on the cake.

But the Celtics? Meh. It’s annoying that they’ve already eliminated the Process Sixers three times in the playoffs, but it’s not their fault they’re better than we are. I couldn’t stand Al Horford, but he’s gone. Kyrie was a little annoying, but he’s gone. I can’t really imagine Tatum or Brown inspiring much emotion at all either way. If I’m being honest, I mostly love Joe Mazzulla and wish we had him coaching our team more than a guy who spends most of his free time binging Pitchfork reviews, waiting for like Kurt Vile to invite him to a jam session.

In fact, when I’m thinking about this year’s Sixers, being eliminated by James Harden or Tobias Harris would be way more annoying. Being eliminated by the Knicks while their fans, drenched in axe body spray and false bravado paraded through the halls of The Eczema would be worse. Losing to the Celtics almost seems like the most merciful of all of our possible killings.

Mike will have to be your guy on this one.

Save These Doggies

I’ve got about 8 days to help get our team to over $10,000 raised for the Brandywine Valley SPCA. We’re about $3,000 away. Won’t you help me?

Verb Starter Pack

If you’ve wanted to try Verb Energy bars (protein or otherwise), they’ve got this starter pack now. It’s 10 bars for $20, and if you use the code RTRS at checkout, you get another 20% off. The bars have fit quite nicely into my life replacing the shitty for me Diet Soda I’d always have around noon.

Team Ricky

We did a Ricky after the Orlando game. It’s available everywhere now. It wasn’t available for about 16 hours on Apple and many other platforms besides Spotify. I want to be clear that this was not our fault. I don’t mean to sound like Doc Rivers here, but really we’re not the ones to blame.

I have to say, for once, I agree with AU. But he keeps talking about how he can’t talk himself into them beating the Celtics, though. I can tell it’s just below the surface.

Team Non Ricky

Sixers Adam on the ramifications of no Lottery Party this year. I’m so happy I don’t have to plan a Lottery Party this year. Not because it would mean the Sixers didn’t make the playoffs, and not because I don’t like Lottery Parties. I just didn’t feel like planning it. Win for me.

I was on House of Strauss earlier this week to talk about the NBA at large and some other stuff with Ethan Sherwood-Strauss.

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This was never going to work. We all knew it was never going to work. There was no chance that this Sixers season was going to result in the playoff success we all so desperately crave and deserve. Still, I’m glad they gave it a try.

There will be many people in the next days or weeks or months that say that the right thing for the Sixers to do with Embiid was move on from him a few years ago, and with him, this era of Sixers basketball. I will probably even be one of these people.

The debate will not be if they should have, but when they should have. Perhaps the best time may have been immediately after his MVP season as, insane as that sounds, as it may have been the last time he had positive value in a trade — but there was still fair skepticism that it was “ever going to work.” It would obviously certainly be before they gave him the extension and then went and doubled down on him with signing Paul George for four years and $212 million.

Still, I’m still glad they’re going to be a year late on that decision rather than a year early, even if it is the wrong thing strategically. It’s just the right thing for my soul… to make sure they gave this thing every chance they could have. There will be what-ifs in every scenario, but I am, we all are, so emotionally invested in Joel Embiid’s success in the same way (if not more) we’re invested in the team’s success, that one “what-if” I am not sure if I’d have been able to resolve would have been “what if we had just given it one more chance, and done it a little differently?”

I know this will probably result in the Sixers being in basketball purgatory until at least the end of this decade. But I just think leaving no stone unturned with this particular guy, for this particular era, is something I needed. Even if I have said or will say differently.

Unfortunately sometimes you turn over all the stones and there’s nothing underneath.

PS: We only have two weeks left to raise a few more thousand dollars for homeless animals for Brandywine Valley SPCA’s Walk For Paws. We want to get to $10,000. Also, I want to be the #1 team and quite honestly we’re in danger of falling to #3. Donate here. It will help dogs like Diamond.

Team Ricky

• AU wrote something about whether or not he’s gonna be able to talk himself into this Sixers team having any kind of shot at a postseason run (spoiler alert I’m sure he will).

• Beckett Sanderson put all this work into his numbers piece that is very good, and looks at whether Dominic Barlow or Kelly Oubre should be the sixth starter. Hours later, with the release of the Embiid news, it tuns out it doesn’t matter at all! Who gives a fuck! They were going to lose in the first round anyway but now this is even a bigger waste! Welcome to the team Beckett, it’s always like this.

• Here’s the podcast we did on Thursday night after the Rockets loss about the Embiid news. At least we had some fun Doc stuff to laugh about.

Team Everyone Else

• KOC broke the news on how NBA Lottery reform is going to work. I don’t think it’s going to work. It’s almost obviously not going to work. They should have consulted us.

• Here’s the thing Shams wrote about the Bucks with the awesome Doc Rivers anecdote from the pod.

• Sixers Adam is keeping everyone updated on the Sixers playoff/play-in scenarios.

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Well, God willing, these assholes are going to be in the playoffs again, so us assholes have to do our part.

Our part, is as always, convincing ourselves that the Sixers will have a chance to beat any of the teams they play in the first round. I, one of the head assholes, am here to help you do that.

I’m going to skip over all of the convincing you’ll have to do about the Sixers themselves. We know what those steps are (fresh legs, nobody there to guard Embiid, etc…). What I’m going to present to you here is how to convince yourself that the Sixers can beat any of the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference that they may play.

Detroit Pistons

This one’s pretty easy! First of all, we have the “they might not have Cade Cunningham” to lean on until proven otherwise. I will chose to believe that he’s not going to play.

From there it gets pretty easy. There is simply no way you’ll convince me that the Sixers are going to lose to a team who is starting Tobias Harris against us. The world is often times cruel, but not cruel enough to let us lose to a guy who scored zero points in his playoff finale against us. If it were a “carrying books into the locker room” contest, we may lose, but not basketball.

Boston Celtics

Are you kidding me? The Celtics are a tinderbox just waiting for someone to throw a match.

They were cruising along as the feel good story of the season as they looked great without Jayson Tatum, thanks to greatest coach of all time Joe Mazzulla. Tatum came back, and they’ve admittedly been very good since then. However, we all know they’re one playoff loss away from some Jaylen Brown subtweet or postgame comment that suggests they were better before Tatum came back. From there, it’s smooth sailing for our Sixers.

New York Knicks

Since I used to work in New York, with a lot of Knicks fans, I do get to see a lot of their chatter online. Let me tell you this loud and clear — if there’s any fanbase who thinks their team sucks more than we do, it’s Knicks fans.

They’ve benched KAT a few times down the stretch and it doesn’t seem like the other players respect him very much. Josh Hart has some comment once a month about what’s wrong with the team. And let’s be honest, Jalen Brunson is a guy but he’s not THAT guy. Does he hit clutch shots? Yes. Is he tough and not afraid of the moment? Also yes. But he’s just not good enough to dribble the air out of the ball as much as he does.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Going against James Harden in a playoff series? In this economy? Say no more.

Team Ricky

• Beckett took a look at which Sixers players will benefit most from the return of Joel Embiid and Paul George.

• Although I did a pretty good job of talking myself into things at the start of this post, nobody talks themselves into stuff like AU does.

• We had Sixers Adam on the Ricky this week and just tortured him the entire time.

Non-Team Ricky

• Truly, what is Evan Turner’s problem?

• Finally – has anyone been on the injury report for an illness more than Joel Embiid over the last five or six years? Could someone do that research for me?

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I’d like to explain why I yelled at AU on the podcast the other night. I know sometimes people think I make the content of the podcast about the podcast too much. But I also know that so many of the true Ricky people both A) love this stuff but B) really don’t need another opinion from me about Jared McCain or how I don’t think the Sixers are going to win anything this year.

Mike and I really don’t argue anymore, so it’s probably been a while since the pod has had one of these moments. We disagree, but much like any two people who have managed to get along for this long, you figure out how to avoid serious conflict. We’re both also older and much more tired. We have our rhythm.

I know AU quite well (maybe not as well as you’d think I know him, but I know him well), but we don’t podcast together a lot, so I certainly wouldn’t be quite as apt as seeing the ship heading for the iceberg.

Ok, let’s pull back the curtain, why it happened. It wasn’t because I massively disagreed or cared very much that AU thought the Sixers win over the Bulls was the biggest win of the season. I didn’t disagree all that passionately (though he’s clearly wrong). I think it probably came off like I got mad because he thought the Sixers were great at that moment (they’re not) and I thought they weren’t. I wasn’t trying to like, crush his dreams.

I got mad at AU at the moment because I did not know how we were going to talk about the game and do the podcast. I know this seems like a way too Xs and Os way to think about things, but it’s very difficult to debate how you feel about something, and much easier to debate what you think is happening/should happen. So we were 5 minutes into a segment of the pod that should take 20-25 minutes, and the core disagreement is that AU thinks it was huge and I don’t.

So when I’m yelling “go ahead and talk about it Buddy Boy,” I’m frustrated because I’m trying to convey that it’s not really a topic we can discuss. It just is or isn’t. I’m sitting not knowing whether to keep talking about the game or move on and go to the next topic. And then his mic didn’t sound how we wanted it (it’s my fault for not supplying him with the right one), and I had already spent four hours arguing about sports at my day job.

So, Spike the Host Who Needs Everything to Be Right threw a temper tantrum, that in the end was sorta funny but probably uncalled for, and that’s why I said “sorry AU,” and we moved on.

These Dogs Are Homeless and Only You Can Save Them

Please? My goal is to raise $800 more dollars by Sunday night to get me to $6,000.

Team Ricky

• Against all odds, Paul George is back and Joel Embiid is back at the same time. MOC wrote about both of their returns, and how he doesn’t generally trust PG and wonders why people get so mad discussing Joel Embiid. He also snuck in a Markelle Fultz segment, and I’m going to have to talk to him about that because we’re supposed to pretend like it never happened.

• If you happen to be a fan of Alkaline Trio, me and Mutlu did a podcast about Matt Skiba’s old side project Heavens, and talked a little bit about the new song from Joji on the Carl Landry Record Club.

• Wow, looks like Team Ricky has been mostly quiet this week. Maybe AU should be fighting with me less and getting on everyone’s ass a little more.

Non Team Ricky

• Where is Keith Pompey?

• Former Ricky guy Sixers Adam caught up with Zhaire Smith about his weird time with the Sixers.

• What is it with Phillies players and their family members stealing their money?

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I am not trying to cope about the Sixers trading away Jared McCain, I am truly living with the grief (anger).

Every time he has a good game, as I will do for the next decade, I tweet something about how good it was and say something sarcastic about how the Sixers couldn’t possibly have found minutes for him. After he led the Thunder in scoring (again) in a win (again), you have examples here, here, and here. As I’ve said before, I’m never going to let this go.

When I send out these posts, there are several coping responses I get, and all of them are bullshit. There is however, one coping response that nobody has sent me, that is not bullshit, and would be the one thing that could possibly save this for GM Spreadsheet and Rock N’ Roll Coach. Before we get to that though, some of the bullshit:

1. “He only does this in garbage time against bad teams!” - BULLSHIT! Sorry, this is bullshit. Did he score 26 against the Nets and lead the team in scoring in a win again? Yes. Do the Nets suck? Yes. But he also played well and hit big shots in crunch time against the Nuggets and Timberwolves. Also, for what it’s worth, we barely beat the Nets! We could have used him.

2. “He’s not going to play during the playoffs for them!” - BULLSHIT! First of all, I’m not sure about that. Second of all, I don’t give a shit! They’re the deepest team in the league, so what? During a game this week our backcourt was Cam Payne and Kyle Lowry. What the fuck! No disrespect to either of those guys, love ‘em both, but one of them didn’t think he’d even be playing this year and is playing with a spare tire around his waist, and the other guy was literally in Serbia a month ago.

3. “He’s too small and doesn’t play defense!” - BULLSHIT! Is he some longer super-athlete who is going to win Defensive Player of The Year? No. He’s also not Muggsy Bogues. He’s 6’2”, he’s got a strong lower half, he’s smart, he works hard and he’s got good hands. I’m not saying he needed to start next to Tyrese Maxey; I’m thrilled with Edgecombe being that guy. But if you’re doubting that McCain’s defense can’t get to a spot where he can play real minutes on a contender, you would be wrong to do so, as he’s doing it now.

Here’s the one nobody says to me that might be the only coping mechanism that might work: “The Rockets are only three games out of the play-in and we have their pick.” Now you’re cooking with a little bit of gas.

When we first got the Rockets pick, we all assumed it would be in the mid-20s. It may very well be. But the Rockets are certainly not a team that seems particularly stable, has been leaking a little bit of oil — and what if they leaked a little too much oil, fell into the play-in, and lost? There’s not what I’d call a large chance of that happening. It’s not even a coin flip. It’s probably below a puncher’s chance. But it’s possible, and whatever percentage it is, it could be the only chance our friends Dr. Data and Coach Jamz have of escaping being tormented by us forever for this trade.

Begging

Still raising money for homeless dogs and cats here. Many people have been incredibly generous. The list is too long for me to write out. But we’re still like $3,000 out of the top spot and when we raise money for stuff I always want us to be the best at it.

Team Ricky

• I, personally, have not cared about the NCAA Tournament in many, many years. As an aside, it did actually used to be much better, the teams were much better, and this not just some Gen X cope. It might be fine now, but it used to be much better. In any case… Since the Sixers have a pick (hey maybe two!) in this year’s draft, Beckett wrote a good piece about the players in the tournament for you to keep an eye on from a Sixers perspective.

• AU will eventually have his day in Ricky court to defend this anti-tanking post he wrote earlier this week. Mike and I hardly ever agree, but when we do it’s when we want to yell at AU for something. The best thing about this piece is you can feel how much AU feels it in the piece, he knew he had to write it.

Team Non-Ricky

• I am actually watching last night’s Sixers win over the Kings as I write this, and Justin Edwards is draining bucket after bucket. Mike and I generally disagree on Edwards (I truly believe this is a case of Mike being locked into his pre-draft assessment of Edwards). Sixers Adam wrote a good little ditty about the game Edwards had.

• Just a solid post from our guy Kelly Oubre of photos of him.

• I really can’t believe the NBA is going to expand and add two more teams while a third of the league, literally a third of the league is so bad that they’re trying to lose to get better players. It really seems like current NBA owners are trying to cash every check before their world starts crumbling in about seven years. The streaming deals were very nice but they’ll never happen again, a few of them have already sold, and now they want to add two more teams so they can get an easy check from the two new ownership groups. The NBA does not need two more teams! Move the Pelicans, move the Clippers or something, they do not need two more teams.

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