Phillies weigh in on NBA Rookie of the Year debate

Scott Kingery

The Phillies have really improved with their Twitter game over the past year or so, and that was put on display in a fun way Tuesday night. After the Phillies put the finishing touches on a 6-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds behind a terrific outing by Aaron Nola and with the help of a grand slam by Scott Kingery, the Phillies put out this tweet.

Well played, Phillies social media team. Topical and trendy.

If you are not in-tune with what made this tweet so whimsical, then you were probably unaware of the relevance to the definition of the word “rookie” and the joke flew right over your head.

Earlier on Tuesday night, Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell showed up at the arena before Utah’s game against the Golden State Warriors wearing a sweatshirt that showed off the definition of “rookie.” This was a bit of fuel to the fire in the NBA’s rookie of the year debate that is ongoing with Mithcell and our own Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers the top two candidates for the award. The point Mithcell is putting out there, of course, is that he is a true rookie and Simmons has already been in the league for one season (Simmons has not played a game until this season, however).

To his credit, Mitchell had himself a good performance in a blowout of the Warriors. Simmons helped the Sixers win their 51st game of the season, moving one giant step closer to locking down the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. After the game, Simmons responded.

[protected-iframe id=”223bf9d96e96281f9689f671ddca9db9-142507471-17968074″ info=”//www.clippituser.tv/c/embed_iframe/rvzadn” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]

Knowing this rookie of the year story was floating around online and being discussed all over the place, the Phillies took advantage of the fun and used it to highlight the night Kingery had. His grand slam in the eighth inning extended the Phillies’ 2-1 lead to 6-1 to provide all the insurance runs needed to bring the Phillies to the .500 mark.

Follow Macho Row on Twitter and Facebook.

Arrow to top