Do you remember that Isiah Thomas meme from the Jordan “Last Dance” Documentary? You know, the one where he talks about how he was left off the Dream Team roster because him and Michael Jordan had beef.
Well, that basically describes the 2020-2021 Philadelphia 76ers and being recognized for their accomplishments.
The No. 1 seed Philadelphia 76ers, who are top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency rating, top 10 in points per game, and top 5 in both opponent shooting percentage and turnovers per game, are somehow still slept on after locking up home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The Sixers hold the fifth best odds to win the NBA title out of the eight remaining teams as analysts and media alike constantly try to undermine this team with their click bait opinions.
Everywhere I look, I see one hot take after another saying the Sixers will be bounced early and how they’re gonna fall to the Atlanta Hawks after one bad game.
And that’s not even talking about the Eastern Conference Finals. The national media basically has already penciled in the Brooklyn Nets to the NBA Finals, not even mentioning the Sixers in the same breath as them when their series with the Milwaukee Bucks isn’t even over yet.
And it’s not just the team itself, as the individual superstars that make up this great roster still don’t get the respect they deserve.
Joel Embiid finished second in MVP voting while Ben Simmons finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Meanwhile Tobias Harris got robbed of his first all-star appearance after putting up 19.5 ppg on a career best 51.2 FG%
Oh, and Doc Rivers, the coach who finally unlocked the true potential of all his stars and secured the team’s first one seed since 2001, didn’t even get a bid to be a finalist for Coach of the Year.
Now, I’ll admit, all the winners of the awards where the Sixers were snubs were still deserving.
Nikola Jokic averaged 28 ppg, 10 rpg, and 8 apg and played all 72 games this year.
Rudy Gobert averaged close to 3 blocks per game and anchored a Utah Jazz team that had the third-best defense in the league.
And all three Coach of the Year finalist did tremendous jobs with their squads, each with a narrative that’s deserving of the award.
But at least give the Sixers some credit @NBA. Like how is nobody on this team gonna walk away with any hardware yet the other one seed in the Jazz get both DPOY and Sixth man of the Year?
And when you look at what Embiid’s doing now and what he did all year, it’s not hard to see that he’s the most dominant player in the NBA.
He’s putting up 40 points per game this series on a torn meniscus while Jokic and the Denver Nuggets are on the verge of getting swept by the Phoenix Suns.
Ben Simmons, the anchor of the second-best defense in the league, is as versatile as they come as he can guard every position on the court. Oh, and when Gobert tried to guard him in Utah, he exposed him for a career-high 42 points.
And let’s be real, Tobias Harris should have been an All-Star over Jaylen Brown. (The Celtics having two All-Stars while being the seventh seed was a joke.)
But again, after I say it out loud, it’s Philly we’re talking about. The city that the national media loves to hate and discredit even though the results speak for themselves.
We never get the praise we deserve when something good happens, but right when we slip up, the stereotypes start coming out and we’re headline news.
However, we’re not new to this. We know what it’s like to be slept one as a number one seed against Atlanta with our star player injured.
How’d that turn out?
So, keep counting out the Sixers. We here in Philly take on that underdog role and where that with pride.
After all, no one likes us, and we don’t care.
(But if Joel is not on First Team All-NBA, we riot.)
