Here’s a video of Pete Ciarrocchi from Chickie’s and Pete’s at the tryouts for the Sixers Dancers. Be sure to catch the “celebrity judges” at the 1:48 part, Jamison (he gets called “James”) Uhler from NBC 10 and (of course) Jennaphr Frederick from Fox 29. Later, there’s an interview with Roots keyboardist Kamal Gray.
I am shocked an appalled. Where’s Gervase from Season 1 of Survivor?!
The team’s coach wouldn’t comment on Sammy D’s status, saying he was only no longer with the team.
The Sports Network of Canada reported that Dalembert had a confrontation with a Canadian team official.[...]
After an 86-70 loss to Slovenia on Tuesday, [ex-76ers first round bust and Canadian coach Leo] Rautins criticized Dalembert’s effort in the postgame news conference, saying: “He never got on track offensively or defensively. I didn’t see him leave the floor to challenge people defensively, and on the offensive end he struggled not only with his shooting but with the decision-making behind the shots.”
Hey! We say that kind of stuff about Sammy all the time! I guess the idea this time is that he just couldn’t take it when it was coming from a Canadian.
Anybody who was ambivalent about the 76ers signing Elton Brand has to be swayed now. Before yesterday’s press conference introducing him to Philadelphia, Brand posed for photos. But he only posed in the throwbacks from the 1983 season.
Brand appeared headed back to the Clippers to team with ex-Warriors guard Baron Davis; the 76ers, though, cleared cap room by trading Rodney Carney and Calvin Booth — ha ha, somebody traded for Calvin Booth — plus a future first-round pick to the Timberwolves for a $2.8 million trade exemption. (What an exciting transaction!) Marc Stein writes that Brand also wanted to go East, where the centers are not as tall and the teams are not as good.
Shockingly, Brand’s surgeon says Brand’s injury — he missed almost all of last season while recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles’ tendon — is nothing to worry about. Reminiscent of the Phillies’ trade for a closer who came to his first press conference on crutches, the 76ers have signed a player coming off an injury. On the plus side, the Brad Lidge deal has worked out pretty well so far.
The 700 Levellinks to John Smallwood, who writes about the 76ers’ awful draft history. And, yes, since the lottery, the 76ers best pick is Allen Iverson. Ignoring the recent picks who appear to be panning out at least somewhat, the second best is probably Jerry Stackhouse or Clarence Weatherspoon. Simply frightening.
The NBA Draft used to be probably the best off-season day in sports; now that it’s been moved to ESPN it is significantly less fun. Still, might want to tune in and see who the newest cager in town will be.
McKie was charged with lying on a gun application. The state never said something this awful could happen if we passed gun laws.
Allegedly, McKie went to purchase two guns in Abington, and wrote he didn’t have a protection from abuse order. he has an active one in Delco preventing him from buying a gun. Hmm, okay. So, ah, what’s the penalty there for lying on a gun application, like a fine or something?
McKie faces a felony charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of fifteen years
Oh, I see. Well, goodbye, Aaron. Memories of the 2001 Sixers continue to fade off into the distance.
Oh, how did I almost forget: Yesterday, TMZ posted documents of Samuel Dalembert’s lawsuit against a group of business partners he says scammed him out of money he invested. Apparently, he gave over a million dollars to a group that was to license Speed Racer merchandise; the lawsuit contends the group never even owned the rights to Speed Racer.
Oh, yeah, and look: Teddy Pendergrass II is also named in the lawsuit!
The Daily News points out: “In an unrelated development, Dalembert has withdrawn from a scheduled trip to India with the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders initiative to concentrate on training with the Canadian national team as it attempts to secure a berth in this summer’s Beijing Olympics.” Unrelated? I don’t know, I bet it has something to do with this Speed Racer lawsuit.
I have seen Shawn Bradley and Clarence Weatherspoon play in the ugliest uniforms known to man. I have seen the 76ers play so poorly in such an empty arena a fan yelled out for everyone to hear, “Let ‘Nute bring it up!” (He was referring to the 7′7″ Manute Bol, who one year led a frontcourt along with the 7′6″ Bradley. I believe they wore the numbers 77 and 76, respectively — but don’t let the sideshow act fool you, the Sixers were more Washington Generals than Harlem Globetrotters.)
I have seen the post-Barkley years, the early post-Iverson games and everything in-between. There have been some amazing moments, some incredible comebacks and many losing seasons. Last night might have been the worst game I have ever seen the 76ers play. The Detroit Pistons not only eliminated the 76ers from the playoffs last night, they destroyed them.
A lot of fans didn’t show up for last night’s game; there were only just over 14,000-plus in the Wachovia Center. The 76ers gave away a boatload of free tickets, including my pair, which I won during an email contest during Game 5. (The 76ers hilariously sent out an email saying they had “released more tickets” yesterday afternoon, and it some people even fell for it.)
While the fans didn’t show up, it’s not like the Sixers did either. Yes, the 76ers were not even expected to win a game in this series, and they led twice. Pistons coach Flip Saunders must have told his team something magical at halftime of Game 4, with the 76ers up 10 points looking like they could grab a 3-1 series lead against the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Sixers were simply outclassed in the final 10 quarters of the first round series, but a little effort would have been nice. Last night could have been an Irish wake — when the 76ers rolled off eight consecutive points in the second quarter, the crowd was loud, and excited, even though the 76ers still trailed by double digits — but the Pistons scored the first 10 points en route to a 30-12 lead at the end of 12 minutes.
Thats’ not to say the 76ers season wasn’t fun, unexpected and that the players tossing their shoes to fans in the stands after the game wasn’t a tremendously classy, fitting end to the season. Things are looking up for the Sixers next year; after starting the season 18-30, the 76ers went on a 22-8 stretch before dropping their final four regular season games.
Yes, I am finally excited about the 76ers again for the first time since the team traded for Chris Webber. That didn’t end up turning out so well; let’s hope this year’s second-half finish can carry over into next year.
Okay, so the 76ers got destroyed by the Pistons tonight, and now trail 3-2 in the series. But check out Samuel Dalembert’s new haircut! He now has a mohawk and has “SD” (which stands for Sammy D, or “strong defense”) carved on one side and his girlfriend’s initials carved on the other. (I think; the announcers didn’t do much but identify the 76ers as “young” and urge fans to go to Game 6 and I had stopped paying attention to them by pre-game.)
Yeah, I have no idea. But if someone told me before the season how much I’d end up liking Samuel Dalembert by late April, I probably would have punched him in the mouth. Who even knew the 76ers would be playing in late April?
