Bill Simmons and his buddy Joe House had an NBA playoff preview podcast (extra points for alliteration) and didn't have very nice things to say about the Sixers or their series. Take a look.
BS: Orlando/Philly, God what a crap series that is. Ughhh.
JH: It's, you know, the East has one crap series every year.
BS: Annnd here it is.
JH: That's right. Each year, the last handful of years there's been one, and it always seems to involve one of these teams.
BS: Yeah.
JH: Wasn't last year's Orlando/Detroit?
BS: I think the worst thing about this series, I'd be fine with it... well I wouldn't be fine with it, cause Philly's just terrible.
JH: Yeah.
BS: But... two bad crowds.
JH: Yeah, right.
BS: Orlando's crowd sucks, and Philly's crowd is worse, like you can extensively have 5,000 of your own fans at a Philly playoff game... which Orlando won't because they don't have 5,000 fans total.
JH: I wonder if what happened here in Washington is the same thing as in Philly, cause you remember back in the day Philly used to have crazy crowds for hoops.
BS: Yeah, but it was very, like the current Warriors crowd -- very urban -- a nice mix blend of people, but you know even back then, they didn't even sell out some of those Celtics playoff games.
JH: Oh okay.
BS: But I agree with you that the spirit of the crowd was much better. They had a better announcer, Dave Zinkoff was their announcer.
JH: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
BS: Now it's like, new arena umm....
JH: Who are the fans? Who goes to those?
BS: I don't know, I mean, they, you know, they have uhh, the Eagles and the Phillies I think are just so far more important -- and even the Flyers.
JH: Sure, yeah.
BS: Sixers are a distant fourth. It's gonna be a awful series and I'm gonna try to watch as little of it as I can. But here's the thing though, if Turkoglu's hurt (sigh) maybe that's goes seven.
JH: Is he hurt?
BS: Yeah, he's hurt, he hurt his ankle last week.
JH: I mean, I know that he didn't play, right, but is he hurt, hurt? That's what I meant to ask.
BS: I think he like, really sprained it.
JH: Huh.
BS: And he was already slow anyway
JH: So, if he doesn't play... I like the magic in six.
BS: I'm gonna say 5, only because i think Philly just bites.
JH: Okay.
BS: No offense to the Philly fans, but I think they know -- I think they'd be the first to admit. And if Thad young was healthy, maybe 6, but even he's a little banged up, so...
JH: Yeah.
React as you wish. I'm going to keep my cool this time, because last time Simmons said horrible things about the Sixers -- I got super pissed -- and he ended up being right. But you better believe I'll be bringing this up if we upset the Magic, especially if we play the C's in the second round.
P.S. If you want to listen to the blasphemy with your own ears, this conversation takes place between the 14:33 and 16:43 minute mark in the podcast.