A popular rallying cry of the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies (WFC) was that they didn’t want to be compared to previous teams any longer, they wanted other teams to have to be compared to them. 

Well, they got their championship, and since we play fair, in this week’s City Paper print edition we held the 76ers to the
Phillies gold standard. We gave out our first annual ‘Chollies”,
a set of preseason awards celebrating the city’s champs.

Money Quotes:

The Pat Burrell Award
for a poorly timed, exceedingly large contract that skews Philadelphia’s view of what a star should be
goes to … Andre Iguodala! In his fourth year in the bigs, coming off an
impressive season and expected to improve, the Phillies signed Burrell to a
then-unprecedented six-year, $50 million contract. Burrell got out to a slow
start under the weight of this newfound pressure, and the Philly faithful
turned on him. He never recovered his pre-contract numbers. Six years later the
Sixers inked should-be star swingman Andre Iguodala to a contract worth $22
million more than any other team could have offered. AI2 is a solid player, but he signed a big
contract, and if he starts to struggle Philly fans are more likely to remember
the latter than the former. Not that all is lost: If six years from now the
swingman is sitting on top of a cart leading a parade, all will be forgiven.

and

The Johan Santana
Award for high-profile signing that won’t actually make a huge difference
in the standings goes to … Elton Brand. 
Like Santana, Brand will really help the Sixers keep points off the
board — he’s an excellent on-ball defender when he’s healthy, and it’s already
become clear that opposing teams are going to struggle to get layups on this
Sixers team. Unfortunately, he’s also like Santana in that he’s not going go
add a terrible amount of offense to the team. Despite being a career 20
point-per-game player, Brand has never had a true post game, and coming off a
season in which he played all of eight games due to knee surgery, he noticeably
lags behind the Sixers’ high-octane fast break. He’s still an accurate jump
shooter, and is a top five offensive rebounder when healthy, but at this point
in his career he shouldn’t command a double-team. As Jimmy Rollins quipped at
the parade: “One player can’t buy a championship.” 

Full article is HERE, and three more online exclusives ATJ.

The Geoff Jenkins
award for a free agent signing that may seem disappointing but will
inevitably pay off big at a crucial moment goes to … Royal Ivey, who can
handle the ball, defend both guard positions, and knows how to play. His contributions won’t always show up on the
stat sheet, but he’ll never hurt the team, and in today’s NBA that means
something.

The Chase Utley award
for soft-spoken, hard-working, do-everything star goes to … Andre Miller. Miller won’t show up in too many highlights
and you won’t see too many of his quotes in the post-game recaps, but when he’s
on the floor — like Utley on the diamond — he’ll work hard, do the little
things that matter, and keep his cool. 
Now if only he ends up a World Fucking Champion …

The Brett Myers award
for a potentially insane athlete whose teams’ eventually success may hinge on
goes to … Samuel Dalembert! Brett Myers
was the Phillies opening-day starter … then he was demoted to Triple A Lehigh
Valley because he couldn’t pitch straight … then he was one of the best players
in the league as he led the Phillies through their second half. The Phillies ended up needing him, but not
before they almost discarded him, and not before the fans started calling his head. Like the Phillies, the Sixers have a
resident headcase as well: effusive center Sam Dalembert. This summer Dalembert obtained expedited
Canadian citizenship so that he could play on their Olympic team, a team he was
promptly kicked off of for quarrelling with the coaching staff. That’s
Dalembert at his worst. On the other
hand, Dalemert at his best, can dominate the boards, anchor a defense that
should be the teams’ strong suit and score just enough to keep defenses
honest. With backup center Jason Smith
injured for year, which one of these Dalemberts the Sixers get could very well
determine where they end their season. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 5:26 pm and is filed under CP Print, Phillies, Sixers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.