Here are a couple of links to get you through your boring Thursday evening. I need the weekend to come as soon as possible, so after this I'm going to chug Niquil,and play 2k tilI my little eyes close -- life's fannnnnnnntastic.
Here are you're links:
James Beale from City Paper is the latest Sixers fan (writer) to plead his case for M16 to start. He says it's the only way for the team to escape mediocrity. He also brought to my attention just how mediocre the Sixers are.
The 2008-09 Philadelphia 76ers are, almost inarguably, the most mediocre team in the NBA. They're 8-21 against teams with records above .500 (0-9 against the top three teams in the East) and 2[3]-10 against sub-.500 teams (11-1 against the three worst). They're... exactly .500, and not because they're good one night, bad the next. They're more like the control in a scientific experiment: They don't win or lose games; their opponents do.
Those are interesting splits. Anyway, his article is on Marreese Speights changing that mediocrity. His reasons for Speights starting are nothing new -- good offensive player, better than Reggie Evans, etc., but I think it's good to be persistent. Just ask my boy, Rick Kamla. In the 2006-2007 he coined the phrase, "Free Monta" on his fantasy basketball show. On March 9th he wrote about it. It took 20 days, but he eventually got his wish -- Monta started from March 29th to season's end. So, today, March 12th, nearly a full two years after Kamla wrote "Free Monta", I'm going to start the official "Free M16" campaign. A special thanks for James Beale and his article for pushing me over the edge.
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Speaking of M16, I'm not exactly sure where the nickname came from, but it's here to stay. Romy Aquino has a feature on nicknames around the NBA. Here are the Sixers.Philadelphia 76ers (Courtesy of Ricky of Sixers 4 Guidos)
Sam Dalembert - "the Haitian sensation" or, for most of the fans, Sam Dumbert/Dalembum (LOL)
Marreese Speights - "Ace of" Speights, or "Speighterman"
Reggie Evans - Lunch Pail
" that was created by Marc Zumoff aand Bob Salmi, Comcast Sixers' commentators.. they are repeating that to death, LOL.. like "Reggie is lunch pailing tonight", "he came with his lunch pail" and so on...``(Courtesy of Jordan of Liberty Ballers)
Marreese Speights - M16
"It's kind of generic, but Marresse Speights is known as M16 around our blog."
With all due respect, I haven't heard a single person refer to Sam as "Sam Dalembum" or Marreese as "Ace of". What do we think of these nicknames?
We can do better right?
I call most of the Sixers by their name, or generic nicknames like:
- Iggy
- Thad
- Lou-Will
- Theophilus (That's Theo's full name in case you were wondering.)
- I used to call Sam "SAM BAM" in my younger days, but quickly realized that was dumb.
- The only cool, legit nickname I have for a Sixer is "Fat Ludacris" for Donyell Marshall. I also call him "Donny-Ice" when I'm playing with him in 2k. Me and my buddy think it's hilarious.
Last link. Brian from Depressed Fan goes over some stats/splits for the Sixers and they're players this season. This was my favorite stat.
Three-point percentage in wins: 38.3%
Three-point percentage in losses: 25.9%
Three-point percentage allowed in wins: 32.3%
Three-point percentage allowed in losses: 40.2%
See how good a team we could be if we just did two simple things better?