When you live in a city like Philadelphia – a city that tends to overreact when it comes to sports topics – you have to learn to tune out some of the nonsense when you see it or hear it. Ignore “hot take” media, and call it out said nonsense and point it out to the masses for what it is: ridiculous.
This tweet from 97.5 The Fanatic commenting on Sixers’ rookie Ben Simmons was just that. Ridiculous.
Did you see Ben Simmons in his 1st summer league game yesterday? 10 pts, 6 rbs, 5 assists in 24 mins. Was the “tank” worth it?
— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) July 5, 2016
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What is the sound of one city facepalming? Generally, you might leave calling out such nonsense to Kyle Scott and Jim Adair of Crossing Broad, but those boys already have so much on their plate these days. Take a breather, boys. Let me grab this one for Sixers fans out there that have a red palm where their face used to be.
Now, Jake Pavorsky of Liberty Ballers more or less summed up my initial reaction with this tweet.
The man played one summer league game, fam. https://t.co/0mdypbnAPC
— Jake Pavorsky (@JakePavorsky) July 5, 2016
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Of course, I had to laugh at that because it’s the perfect reaction for such a blazing Sixers hot take. (As a side note, it’s also funny to picture an 18-year old Jewish white kid using the term “fam” in perfect vernacular. It tickles me.) Don’t get me wrong. The reason to pose such an insane narrative after one summer league game is obvious: radio ratings. As pointed out by Crossing Broad yesterday, hot takes like these and other programming helped 97.5 The Fanatic absolutely slay WIP in the ratings recently.
Not everyone will fall for such tactics. There are those Sixers fans that see a line like that and think, “Yeah. Maybe three years of losing wasn’t worth it. Maybe it was an epic disaster.” If you’re one of those people, nothing said or done will change your position until Ben Simmons messes around and gets a triple-double. That’s fair, and you’re free to do so – even if it’s completely and utterly misguided.
Since so many Sixers fans like myself and many Total Sports Live contributors and columnists who recognize themselves as “Process Trusters” were labelled as nerds or “strapezoids” as Tony Bruno put it one day, allow me to put it in terms us nerds will understand – at least the ones that would get the metaphor.
Pick your game: Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons (depending on what you’re familiar with). When you see tweets and headlines like that or other idiocy from Philadelphia sports quote/unquote “columnists”, you just have to hope that your “sense motive” skill is high enough to where it’s easy to see what kind of agenda is being pushed. Many new school Sixers fans are pretty skilled at not succumbing to such lunacy. It’s the classic or “old guard” that needs to step their game up a little bit.
Jake Pavorsky summed it up best. “Fam. It was one summer league game.” That’s a perfectly acceptable line for a kid that hasn’t been on a court since early March. Instead of lazy hot take radio journalism, why don’t you boys consider simply asking folks what they saw in Simmons’s first 24 minutes of (technically) NBA action? Ask callers and colleagues what they thought – not continue to push a negative rhetoric by bringing up the idea of something that actually worked. The “tank” was totally worth it. Ben Simmons has the potential to be a generational superstar.
Judging him after 24 minutes of a summer league game is lazy.
I’d challenge sports radio in Philadelphia to do better, but I’m pretty sure it would fall on deaf ears.
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