As with Roger Angell (RIP), Retiring Ray Didinger Leaves Behind a Looming Legacy

by gordie | May 29, 2022 | MLB, NBA, NFL

Roger Angell wrote long, long after it was fashionable to do so. Ray Didinger spoke evenly, even as hot takes became all the rage. You wanna call them dinosaurs, fine; have at it. I choose to believe that is true only in the sense that they have left (or are about to...

Jrue Holiday, Jimmy Butler and the Joys of Second-Guess Season

by gordie | May 14, 2022 | NBA, Philadelphia 76ers

One fine night in June 2013, reporters covering the Philadelphia 76ers gathered in the gym at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine to cover the NBA draft, confident the team would select some serviceable player (or not) and continue to bumble along, as...

Honey, I Swallowed the Clickbait: Here’s Where the Inquirer’s List of the 50 Greatest Sixers is Lacking

by gordie | Apr 20, 2022 | NBA

Rare is the day when the 76ers don’t give us something to fret about, but here we are. And here they are, up 2-0 against Toronto in their first-round playoff series. Joel Embiid is playing Gulliver to the Raptors’ Lilliputians (while “respectfully” giving Nick Nurse...

Rams Reaped the Benefits of Management’s Boldness; Can the 76ers Do the Same?

by gordie | Feb 14, 2022 | NBA

On Sunday night, we were reminded anew of the value of sports franchises taking big swings, when the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl. The victory came not quite 11 months after the Rams traded their previous starting quarterback,...

Where Ben Simmons is Concerned, it’s Time for the Sixers to Push All their Chips Into the Middle of the Table

by gordie | Feb 7, 2022 | NBA

Free Ben Simmons. Please, please, please free Ben Simmons. What’s that? You say that Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash said Sunday that his team wasn’t going to trade veteran guard James Harden, the Sixers’ apparent target in a Simmons trade? And that ESPN’s Adrian...

Bill Walton’s Long, Strange Trip: Unbelievable, in a Great Many Ways

by gordie | Oct 25, 2021 | NBA

The night of November 10, 1992, Bill Walton — raconteur, retired basketball star and renowned Deadhead (not necessarily in that order) — gave an address in Franklin & Marshall College’s Hensel Hall (now the Barshinger Center). It was followed by a...