We Gotta Play It Cool About the Sixers Trying to Keep the Pick This Time
Spike writes about how it would be great for the Sixers to accidentally tank their way into a top-four miracle again, as long as we're not too sweaty about it.
It first came up a few podcasts ago, when Mike mentioned something about not making the playoffs, and I mentioned to him that in that case, we get to do another Lottery Party.
Then it really hit me during the Cavs game, when the Sixers were getting smoked.
It would be better if the Sixers didn’t make the playoffs, and had a chance at their pick, which they do not get unless it’s in the top four (otherwise the Thunder get it – cute, I know). Getting this year’s pick actually even saves the Sixers from having to give Brooklyn a first round pick, as Sixers Adam laid out for us.
But this is an entirely different situation than last year. I want us all on the same page. Last year we wanted to happen. This year is, “We’ll be ok if this is how it happens to work out, especially because it seems like it’s going to work out like this anyway.” We gotta play this cool.
Unfortunately we’re too deep into this to be rooting for losses and ping pong balls in front of everyone again. Last season was like alumni weekend at college, everyone knew why we were there so they let us have our fun as long as we’d leave on Sunday, or at the very latest Monday morning. Rooting for it again this year would be like if we came back again the following weekend.
(I would never go to an alumni weekend for college, I wrote it this way to seem more relatable. My actual version of this would be to go see, let’s say Yungblud once, be the oldest guy there, and have it be amusing to everyone until I showed up again the next time.)
So the “get the pick thing” just has to be in the back of your brain for the next couple of months. We’ll all do the “let’s see if they can get back to the six seed” thing, the play-in matchup thing, even the “if we’re healthy we can beat anyone thing” once the playoffs start (if they start).
Rooting for the pick is really the war on the zugwang. The zugzwang says nothing can happen that will put us in a better situation than we were before. The pick is its kryptonite.
Animals Again
Take a walk through animal shelter kennels just one time, and you’ll never stop thinking about getting those poor dogs and cats a place they can call home. I even slept in one of them one night with a dog, and I’ve never been able to shake it.
So even though I feel like I ask for donations for animal shelters a lot, I will never stop. This time I’m raising money with a local high school student named Alex for the Brandywine Valley SPCA’s Walk For Paws. Our goal is $6,000, and we’re about $1900 away. But to be honest, the real goal is to be the top fundraiser, and we’re about $5,000 from the lead. If you have it in your wallet and heart to donate, do it here.
Team Ricky
The Carl Landry Record Club is the music podcast I do with Mutlu that began with me and Mike reviewing albums during Covid. Believe it or not, The Carl is almost at 200 episodes and 400 albums talked about. This week we talked about a forgotten nu-metal era album from Boy Hits Car and a cool new song from Yumi Zuoma.
Speaking of music, this isn’t Team Ricky but I don’t know where to put it. We talked about a band called Jane a few times on The Carl. I love them. They have a new project called Yardsale that came out this week that you might enjoy. It’s five fun songs that all sound like they’d work as theme songs from a 90s sitcom.
It’s linked in what I wrote before, but MOC’s post about the Sixers being in the dreaded Zugzwang is a good read, though sort of depressing one. It’s worth reading and trying to figure out how he might be wrong, just so you can find a reason to keep watching the games at all.
Through just half of one season with The Ricky, Beckett is already like “how do you guys talk about the Sixers this much,” so he took a break. He didn’t write about food or the Phillies, but he did give the reasons why every single one of the NBA’s ideas to fix tanking will not work.
It’s funny, as it seems like this moment that AU wrote about may have passed so quickly for us and the Sixers that we never noticed. We went right from “oh no this is terrible” to “maybe they’ll get the pick” with lightning quickness. Still, a very adept observation from The Gold Man.
Team Everyone Else
Sixers Adam’s look at the tanking situation is a must-read (just if someone sees you reading it be like “these losers want to lose again LOL” but then privately be like “Adam write updates about this weekly.”)
I saw Robert Covington popping up everywhere and wondered why, and found out there’s a documentary about him that PBS produced. Here’s a link to the story, and I’ll watch it this weekend and let you know how it is.
Shout out Matt Cord for a great run.