Bellator week 6 went down May 8th in Robstown, Texas but it has taken us some time to recover from the blow to our hometown guy Wilson Reis (now 7-1). He not only had his undefeated record broken and was knocked out of contention for the $100K finals by underdog Joe Soto (now 6-0). While most of the media outlets have been focused on the night’s spectacular knockout-YahirReyes‘ Spinning Backfist that leveled Estevan Payan (more on that after the jump), not too much has been made of the Reis loss. It sure as hell made an impact on us; and after procrastinating the phone call to our champ to discuss the loss, we finally manned up and got the interview. First, here is a recap of the fight with a few observations. Stay tuned for the interview coming shortly and you will easily see why, even in defeat, Reis is a Philly champ and Soto is marked man.
Last weekend Roller Derby was back in Philly and once again we wentCP’s own Andrew Amundson to capture the matches live. For a refresher on the rules, the where, and the how of RD clickHERE.
The usual suspects clamor outside the Armory smoking in their too-packed clusters and inside the place feels more crowded than other nights, odd because all the bouts including this one have been sold out at the same capacity. Families with beach towels burrow in by the pink tape, dudes from the bleachers with obstructed views yell at little recycled punk-kids in front to ‘Sit down, sit the fuck down!’ and wives deadeye their husbands for gawking at the Britches’ pretty young thing mascot, all leg and red ruffled hotpant. The crowd seems a bit more drunk than they typically are at the beginning of matches – it was the Warrior Cup though, so maybe they had gotten here early, had been around for a while nursing their Cricket Hill Brewery hops. Strolling around everywhere with cups of beer are Broad Street Butcher girls such as Leggs Benedict, and they’re covered in sweat, covered in bruises.  And where are the Queens of Pain?
BUTCHERS KILL QUEENS
photo credit: Akira Takahashi
132-82
“Take that, New York.” – Black Eye Susan of the Broad Street Butchers
I missed the Broad Street Butchers/ Queens of Pain bout, thinking Saturday’s proceedings were scheduled for later when clearly they were not. My apologies to the Butchers, who proved again to be the fightenist team in the Philadelphia Roller Girls League when they took out New York’s three-time champions the Queens of Pain.
It sounds like I missed an epic match. Afterwards I caught up with the Butcher Girls, match announcers, photographers and game statisticians to get the details.
The Butchers over the Queens of Pain wasn’t quite wasn’t David and Goliath, but it was an upset in its own right. The Queens feature a national derby star in SuzyHotrod, major talents Ana Bollocks and DonnaMatrix and the prestige of being a part of the country’s no. 1 WFTDA- ranked team.  The Broad Street Butchers, conversely, were just 3rd in the PRG, the product of several all-too-close heartbreakers.
The bout kept even for the first half with the Butchers holding their own - Persephone gave a crackerjack performance and ElleViento stepped up – and ended with Butchers up 53-47 at the half. In the second half the Queens’ time in the sin bin, so often the determining factor in derby, left things open for ceaseless Butcher jams and a hometown victory. Congratulations girls.
The 76ers, coming off their first non-losing season since 2004 but in apparently disarray, are facing a problem: what to do with marginally successful but apparently disliked Head Coach Tony DiLeo?
Today we’ll look at the options. In the interest of balance I’ve got four for each side …
Get rid of the bum
He Lost the Locker Room
In the immediate wake of game six Theo Ratliff called out the coaching, Andre Iguodala didn’t exactly endorse his coach, Reggie Evans, who DiLeo hadn’t played at all in the pivotal game, said the teams performance was embarrassing, and the next day Theo and Andre Miller didn’t show up to their final meeting or even provide an excuse, a slap in the face of the rookie coach. If the 76ers intend on bringing either of those guys back it would be a hard sell that DiLeo is the right man for the job.
He Lost Game Six
Speaking of that elimination game, it really did not speak well of the head coach that the young team lacked energy and drive in his first elimination game. For whatever reason the 6ers didn’t respond in the biggest game of their season, instead they laid down in front of their home crowd. As a coach, effort is on you.
He’s not interesting
Last year the 76ers spent money, were marginally competitive, and reached the playoffs. No one seemed to care. The 76ers couldn’t sell out game six of a series that had already had three buzzer beaters.
To be blunt, the fans don’t care about this team. As long as money remains important, and income is dependent on fans, that matters. Tony DiLeo, who is far from a sexy name, won’t change that fact. Getting a ‘name’ coach like Stan Van Gundy or Eddie Jordan might.
Keep the bum
Where is the team headed?
I mean this as a serious question – what is the goal of this 76ers team? Do you know? Do they? They’re not winning a championship, and with the 17th pick in the draft and no cap relief coming they’re not in a full scale rebuilding mode either. The direction they’re going to take depends a lot on how the offseason shakes out.
Further, Dalembert could be on the move, Miller is probably out of the door, and who knows what else Stefanski has up his sleeve. Because much of this offseason is going to be structured around addition by subtraction, the pieces that come back are far from determined. If the Sixers can move Sammy for a pass first heartbeat they’d do it in a second. Same thing with a shoot first two. Since different coaches demand different personnel (Larry Brown and Mike D’Antoni couldn’t succeed equally with each other’s teams) bringing in a coach before you have an idea of what the team is going to look like doesn’t make a terrible amount of sense.
Enter DiLeo. Always the company man, Tony is going to be willing to be a placeholder until the team starts to truly form. While bigger name coaches obsess over their personal records, DiLeo will do what he imagines to be in the best interest of the team, even if it hurts them in the short term. If Stefanski wants to see if Marreese Speights can play point guard while Lou Williams focuses on his rebounding and some rookie can pull double duty as a Hare Raiser, DiLeo will enforce the marching orders.. On a team where players are expected to be shuffled in and out of their natural positions, that isn’t nothing.
Won’t somebody think of the Children?
Keeping DiLeo signals to the young players that they’re important. DiLeo got chided by his players for coddling the teams’ youth. If he stays on Speights, Young, and Lou Will will know believe that while their coaches faith in them brought criticism upon himself, it was rewarded by management. Just because several vets called out the coach, not everyone in that locker room necessarily felt the same way.
Both teams played hard.
Tony DiLeo had the Sixers ready to play. They did play hard, and putting game six aside it was a rare day that they didn’t show up at all. Besides, even getting to that game six was better than most people expected, and it wasn’t in small part due to the effective defense DiLeo put in place.
Second thought: This makes sense: once again something too good to be true (Manny’s epic postseason run) is, in fact, too good to be true. Now Mannyjoins Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong, Mark McGwire, FloydLandis, Roger Clemens and all the rest as a cheater. As someone who did something humans can’t do … and then we found out why. At this point why doesn’t baseball just take a 50-game breather? I kinda hate sports again.
God, if we find out Phelps or LeBron are doping I’m switching to becoming a knitting fan.
Third thought: $10 says he pulls a Sosa and pretends not to understand English at the presser.
Minutes after the 76ers were eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoffs, Andre Iguodala, the default face of the 76ers franchise, began to rake his team over the coals.
“We weren’t always there,” the young forward opined. “We had mental lapses. … We had inner turmoil.” He targeted the team’s younger players, chiding them for failing to play within themselves. “I’m going to sit down with [76ers President and General Manager] Ed [Stefanski] and discuss what I think will get us over the [hump],” he deadpanned. They’d discuss “all the things that are holding us back, [and] try to get rid of [them],” a statement presumably about people, not practice habits. When asked directly about the future of DiLeo, his boss, Iguodala responded “We’ll see about that.”
And so, with the closest player the 76ers have to a true star calling his team immature and ineffective and then pushing for the non-retention of his coach, the 76ers season ended Still, while it was these attacks that predictably made the headlines, AI2’s main point – “at times, [the team has] tough time understanding the importance of communication as a whole” – rings true. The young guys make mental mistakes, the old guys wouldn’t get in their faces, and no one in management was making either side play their part. On the 2008-2009 Philadelphia 76ers, Andre Iguodala mused, no one seemed to understand their role. Unfortunately, the single strongest piece of evidence towards this claim may be the fact the AI2 himself made it. Iguodala, who has never been an all star nor led his team to a winning record, simply isn’t accomplished enough to presume the general manager should be courting his insight. The fact that he didn’t understand that is an indication of the lack of communication Iguodala chides.
That these 76ers don’t seem to even have a same page to be on is the focus on this week’s column, Andre: “You Suck, Team.” It tries to figure out how this happened, and who is to blame. Money quote:
No matter which young player he was referring to – Thaddeus Young, Marreese Speights and Lou Williams are the three active 76ers younger than AI2 – he was right to say their playoff performance was disappointing. The older guys didn’t exactly set a great example – Andre pointed out that center Samuel Dalembert seems to “enjoy his vacations,” and indeed, Sammy’s never been accused of being a pro’s pro. And no one in management improved the situation.
Yesterday, at the AMA hit for hearts benefit, John Gonzalez brought up a fantastic bar question. I know he’s going to use it for a column eventually so I won’t burn the heart of the question (UPDATE: he ran it today, check it out) but the jist of it was this: who are the most recognizable current athletes in Philadelphia? Considering that some of the most obvious answers – AllenIverson, Brian Dawkins, Bait Burrell) have all recently walked away its an intriguing question, and one everyone seems to have their own unique opinion on.
Personally, I was one of the guys advocating for Dalembert, merely because the minute he walks into a room you know he’s a basketball player and your mind starts racing in an attempt to figure out who. There is a real cross section of the city who could sit complacently while ChaseUtley strolled by. Conversely, if the same thing happened to Sammy D they’d all immediately start prying their brains trying to figure out who the big guy was. Anyway, its one of those questions that will keep you thinking for the next week or so, so, enjoy.
(for those of you keeping score, this totally counts as a ‘read’)
the most recognizable nose and eyes in Philadelphia sports
“The NBA’s amazing. That’s all I’m going to say, other than I think it’s way out of line and crazy.’” – George Karl
This morning City Paper EIC Brian Howard, myself, and a contingent of media types headed down to Citizen’s Bank Park to take a few cuts in the Phillies’ batting cages and drum up support for the 12th Annual Richie Ashburn Home Runs for Heart, an event that holds special meaning this year after the passing of Harry the K to heart related issues.
The event, scheduled to be held at Citizens Bank Park on May 20 and 21 with all benefits going to the American Heart Association, pays tribute to Phillies’ Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn, who died of a heart attack in 1997 and gives fans a chance to swing for the fences at CBP.
We, like most of the group, mixed in some decent cuts with some, well, not so decent cuts, but that story (and accompanying pictures) are for another day. Today I just wanted to tell a quick tale of shock.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure I should probably admit that, at times, I’ve taken the occasional shot at womens sports. Â I’m a pretty firm believer that any competent high school off guard could be a WNBA all star and I find the fact that one of my friends works for a women’s soccer team hilarious. I literally just took a break from writing this to mock her. So, with that in mind please take this following point with appropriate seriousness: the Phillies’ ball girls can absolutely rake. Irena and Kelli, the two ball girls working the event, both took a couple swings with the rest of the media, and both absolutely showed the boys club up. The girls peppered the cage (alas, we were forced inside due to concerns about the weather) with frozen ropes right up the middle. While the best of us were content with a couple hard drives the other way, these girls were like mini Placido Polanco’s out there. For a couple minutes it looked like I was going to have to directly follow one of them and I seriously considered pulling up lame with a fake injured hammy rather than face the embarrassment of getting obviously out hit by a girl.
Anyway, the full story of that event is forthcoming, so keep hitting refresh time and time and time again until we eventually decide to actually write it and toss it up.
** For more information about getting involved and joining the program, helping to raise money for the disease that is the No. 1 killer in Pennsylvania, contact Deborah Dixon at the American Heart Association. She can be reached at deb.dixon@heart.org or at 610-234-2415. Individuals and teams are both encouraged.
I wonder if we can somehow hypnotize Ryan Howard into thinking every game is played in his hometown of St. Louis. After last night’s 2-3 performance and 7th career grand slam the big first basemen is a .383 career hitter there with seven homers and 28 RBIs in 60 at-bats in his home town.
I know his struggles exist, but when Howard is swinging the bat god damn is it fun to watch him hit.
“I was going to get your name on there,” Ron Artest to Yao, in regards to what appeared to be Aztec designs shaved into the side of his head
Look, we know your hometown 76ers have been eliminated and that it would take a superhuman performance for any non-Lakers or Cavs team to stop LeBron and Kobe from meeting for crown, but if you’re a hoops fan, you just can’t help but enjoy what you’ve been seeing in the NBA playoffs. We know we’re being a bit fanboyish with this one, but here are four reasons, in no particular order, why you really need to be paying attention.
The Legend of Rajon Rondo. I know Rondo plays for the hated Boston Celtics, but his evolution has been nothing short of epic. Back at Kentucky, Rondowas a skinny athlete who couldn’t take minutes from Pat Sparks, a chubby local Kentuckian best known for hitting a tournament buzzer beater and mocking Billy Packer directly after. Now? You gotta talk about him when you talk about Chris Paul, Deron Williams and DerrickRose as the next guard of standout point men.
The Death of the Big Man. Every year since the Bulls started their dynasty, the argument can be made that the NBA championship was won by the team with the most dominant big man — think of course, of Michael Jordan (who may well have been the best post player in the league for his last three chips) or the 2005 Detroit Pistons. It’s a fun trend for gamblers, but an annoying one for NBA fans. But this year, barring a huge shock, the best big man will not. This means one of two things: first, and most likely, we’re entering the age of LeBron. Beware. The other possibility, however, is far more exciting: It is possible that the new set of rules that allow quick, penetrating guards to basically go where they want on the court have finally made the positions more equal. For years, everyone assumed that games slow down in the playoffs. This year, that may not be the case.
Mavs v. Nuggets. It’s far from the marquee matchup of the round, but the Mavs and the Nugs have the potential to provide the best seven-game series of any matchup until the finals. The Mavs have no fears, they just beat San Antonio, which still carries as much playoff clout as anyone out there. In the wake of the playoff series, you heard Andre Iguodala complain that the 76ers’ younger players weren’t ready to contribute. It was a dick move, but it had some validity to it — in the playoffs, younger players often have a hard time adjusting. Think of it this way: For young players, the road to the championship is an unexplored one. Often, even though their cars are faster and slicker, they have a harder time getting to the final destination that some older, slower models who know where all the potholes and dead ends lie. Well, J Kidd, Dirk and the gang certainly know the route to a loss in the finals, which has to be worth something.
On the other side, you have the fantastic dynamic that is Chauncey Billups being put in charge of a team of unrepentant troublemakers. Carmelo is Paul Pierce with a DUI, Kenyon Martin’s locker sticker reads “730″ (think Big L), J.R. Smith thinks he’s open right now and Chris Anderson had a well-known heroin habit. They’re also all really talented and now have a guy leading them who knows how to do it. Add in the fun individual matchups (Kidd and Billups, Meloand Josh Howard, Dirk and a suddenly youthful Martin) and you got yourself a series that could end up being pretty good.
The Evolution of moneyball. Earlier this year, Michael Lewis made waves when he wrote a gushing New York Times Magazine cover story on Shane Battier, the Houston Rockets and the moneyballization of the NBA. Put simply, the league is now full of awesome super-secret stats that measure much of the intangibles we’ve been striving to figure out for years. Two teams at the top of this curve — the Rockets and the Mavericks — will enter round two heavy underdogs to teams that conventional wisdom has judged way better.
If you’re an obsessed sports fan in this city, you’ve probably been gasping for air over the past few weeks. With two local teams starting their second seasons, the Eagles making news in the draft, and all of the hoopla around the start of the Phils’ title defense there hasn’t been a lot of chance to sit back and catch your breath.
Now, with the Phillies game pushed back due to weather, the Sixers and the Flyers watching the playoffs with the rest of us and all the relevant Eagles reporting to mini-camp on time then leaving healthy (including JimJohnson) maybe you’ve finally had that time to catch up. All the loudest sports talk in the city is either second day stories (When will Cole return? Will the 76ers be able to trade any of their untradeable contracts? Andy Reid made a joke!) or national ones. Lets focus on the latter.
The NBA playoffs, predestined to end up as LeBron v. Kobe for all the marketing deals, have been, and remain, shockingly entertaining. Yes, the Rose/Rondo first-round matchup may not have been as elegant as here-and-now historians are making it out to be, but it was every bit as entertaining as they say and deserves its new place as the East Coast Chris and Deron.The excitement hasn’t ended there — all four conference semi finals have provided reasons to watch.
Further, it was a hell of a weekend for a few of the once-a-years. El Classico wasn’t the barnburner everyone expected but that didn’t stop the world from tuning in, if only to keep the Yankees busy until the ponies ran and Manny Pacquiao made himself the favorite in Money Mayweather’s non-warm-up return bout. I guess what I’m getting at is that during weekends like this past one sometimes it’s kinda nice to have the Phils and the Mets pushed back (not that I wouldn’t love for the Phils to keep squaring off against a Mets team that looks allergic to clutch) and be able to, as a sports fan, not really care for a couple days.
Of course, with the Phils headed to St. Louis to get Ryan some home cooking and take down the Cards, the battle is back at 8:05 tonight. About time.
“Year-round? I think Sammy enjoys his summers.” – Andre Iguodala, answering if he believes his teammate is truly dedicated to basketball
Staff Blog
