A sentiment I’ve seen expressed towards Philadelphia’s participation in the NBA Play-In Tournament, both in person and online, is apathy.
The line of thinking goes that the Sixers aren’t at all likely to win the title this year, so why worry if the season ends this week or if it is prolonged until after a probable first-round series loss to Boston or Detroit. And I understand that ‘championship or bust’ mentality. The Sixers haven’t won a championship in my lifetime. I’ve seen the Phillies win one
(in person) and watched the Eagles hoist the Lombardi trophy twice. There’s no greater feeling as a sports fan and seeing the Sixers do it is the last item on my Philadelphia sports bucket list. (I’m not a hockey guy, but good luck to everyone getting Flyer’d up starting this weekend, seems like a fun squad.)
Still, on average, your team is going to win a title once every 30 years. So the three-decade intervals in between are just passing the time and chock full of disappointment? No. I mean, yes, we’ve had plenty of disappointment. More than most in Philadelphia, I’d wager. But sports are great not only because of the big moments, but the small ones too. In the Play-In Tournament, we have two decent enough teams equally motivated to give it their all with the entire season on the line. (In the case of the 7-vs-8 game, the loser gets one mulligan, but you get my point.) Isn’t seeing that sort of game what we’re always looking to watch in sports? It’s why we tune into early round NCAA tournament games, even if it’s two middling SEC and Big 12 teams who we know aren’t getting out of the Sweet 16.
If Wednesday’s game against the Magic was the final regular season game, with a playoff berth hanging in the balance, I bet the anticipation would be a lot greater. But because the Play-In Tournament creates this sort of ‘not quite playoffs’ event as a waypoint between the two seasons, it seems to dull the excitement. But no more!
Think of where this Sixers group was one year ago. They won just 24 games. It was their worst season in over a decade. Now, they’re not a true championship contender, and Joel Embiid’s appendicitis takes a lot of the wind out of our sails, but there’s still a lot to root for here. Don’t you want to see Tyrese Maxey have some more playoff moments like the Knicks series a couple years back? Or have VJ Edgecombe get his first taste of NBA playoff basketball? Or see Paul George in a Sixers uniform in the postseason? Those would be cool things. And all we have to do to get to see them is have the Sixers beat Orlando (or subsequently, the winner of Charlotte and Miami).
So let’s toss aside our inner pragmatists and just be fans in the truest sense of the world. Offseason roster-building discussions are the time to debate the franchise’s ceiling and getting off the treadmill of mediocrity. But when the local basketball team is taking the court in a (kinda) win-or-go-home scenario, let’s get amped up and appreciate what could be a really fun moment for the team and us as fans at home.
