Our Sixers

Luckily, the Sixers have been better at this than I am.

[photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images]

Andrew Unterberger is a famous writer who invented the nickname 'Sauce Castillo' and is now writing for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey As Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard. 

Andrew's writing is brought to you by Kinetic Skateboarding! Not only the Ricky's approved skate shop, but the best place to get Chucks, Vans, any apparel. Use code "DAVESILVER" for 9.1% off your order.

---

I'll try to keep the intro short about how it didn't feel right to write about anything this week, either in this timeline or the JJ Redick timeline, besides the killing of George Floyd and the protests that have risen up around the world in response. Honestly, I don't have much to say this week in general, at least by my usual standards -- outside of echoing the sentiments that black lives do in fact matter, that people are more important than Targets, that systemic racism and brutality need to be ripped from the country's police force no matter what or who else comes out with it, and that with just months left in his (first?) term it still doesn't feel real that we have a president who's the more dystopian version of Biff from Back to the Future Part II. Typical stuff. 

Luckily, the Sixers have been better at this than I am. It been heartening to see how the guys have piped up in response to this tragedy and worldwide moment of crisis. Ben Simmons sporting an I Can't Breathe t-shirt and telling racist fans of his to stay on that side and out of his corner. Mike Scott dunking on misguided rookies and the Associated Press like they were Khyri Thomas getting between him and his hand sanitizer. Josh Richardson calling the shot-clock violation on the San Francisco 49ers' pathetic social media bandwagon-jumping.

Even Furkan Korkmaz at least coming with the “Black Lives Matter” during the Tuesday blackout; not a huge statement but still more than a lot of non-black people (including recently deposed play-by-play announcers) are willing to commit to. Indeed, given what mind-numbing things some athletes are saying at the moment -- and what a large percentage of the sports world has said nothing -- it's cool to see that most of our guys care enough to use their platform, and use it smartly.  (Shoutout to Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard's participation in that must-read ex-ballplayer roundtable discussion in The Athletic as well; we're claiming half Sixers credit for that too.)

Of course, leading the way has been one Tobias Harris. Tobias has been the most active and vocal of the Sixers the last few weeks, not only speaking out against Montgomery County commissioner Joe Gale's ignorant, anti-BLM press statement, but taking the streets in the Philadelphia protests (along with buddy Matisse Thybulle). I also found his Players Tribune statement this Wednesday on America's ignorance about racism pretty powerful, particularly because he owned up to his own previous ignorance in the matter -- having grown up relatively privileged, even as a black kid -- and related how he's had to continually educate himself to see beyond his experience, to learn from history and to put knowledge into action. If as a $180 million pro athlete, Tobias can still have that kind of perspective about his own need to do better (and the drive to actually do so), it really shows how there's no excuse for the rest of us -- especially us white folks who think of ourselves as allies -- not to as well. 

(And no, I won't insult Tobi by pretending that his activism makes me feel any different about his contract, or the trade that brought him here. I always liked him as a person! But I suppose I can make an effort to not bring them up quite so often — at least until the playoffs start.)

We open up the podcast talking about the George Floyd protests and demonstrations, then move to the two-year anniversary of the Bryan Colangelo Burner Accounts discovery (21:05), your chance to get the Brotherly Love script (38:20), Andrew Unterberger's Top 20 Food List (44:13), and head into the Lorenzo Brown mailbag to talk about a pandemic parade, the rules of signing free agents, and some Bryan Colangelo relationship advice (55:42).

Speaking of the playoffs: Looks like those are a thing that are probably going to happen this year after all, for better or worse. Woj reported today that the NBA’s plans would be approved to launch a partial resumption of the NBA's regular season this July in Orlando (with 22 of the 30 teams in attendance), as well as a short play-in tournament and regular postseason to follow. It's news that obviously would've felt significantly more triumphant in the world of two weeks ago -- but even then, a lot of Sixers fans would react to it like they were being forced to finish the final hour of Dr. Zhivago when they were already exhausted 30 minutes in. Frustration around the team had gotten so high back in the long-ago that a lot of Process Trusters seemed fine waiting outside indefinitely after the fire alarm had been pulled on this season, and were probably cool with just going home altogether. 

I don't know what to say to those fans, except these are our Sixers. These guys are worth caring about, worth emotionally investing in even in the fact of almost certain calamity, in large part because they seem to care about us, about each other, about society in general. Even Joel Embiid, who hasn't made any kind of statement related to the killing or the protests -- not that he owes us anything, but I'd certainly be interested to hear what he had to say, given his singular voice and perspective -- has certainly still proven during this layover period that he gives a fuck. (And yes, so has Al Horford, too.) These guys won't always live up to what we want them to be, on or off the court, but they're still very much ours, and I'm so grateful for that. I have no clue what the world is going to look like in late July, or how much any of us will feel like watching basketball then, but no matter what it’s like or how it ends, I'll be glad it's these guys we get to root for. 

In the meantime, the example they’ve set for this terrifying and galvanizing cultural moment is one worth following. Speak. Listen. Learn. Protest. Donate. Try harder, do better, and posterize whoever stands in the way.