The Dish ... From Ish

By Jarrett Felix

The Philadelphia 76ers are the worst team in the Eastern Conference. The Cleveland Cavaliers are the best team in the Eastern Conference. On paper, it was a bigger mismatch than me vs Brad Pitt in a "who can pick up more chicks" contest. Ok, it wasn't THAT big of a mismatch, but the Cavs are legitimate title contenders and the Sixers are trying on purpose to be horrible at basketball. As opposed to trying not on purpose to be horrible at basketball.

I woke up Sunday morning, excited for the game. Together me and a gang of 7 other men drove over to the Wells Fargo Center for the battle and a chance to see a once in a generation talent. I drove like a grandpa and eventually had my friend parallel park my car for me because I can't drive backwards. I've now had two different friends parallel park my car for me in Philly in my last 3 or so trips to the iladelph. We grabbed some food, entered the stadium and held our breath for 10 minutes while we waited to see if Lebron and Kyrie would come out of the locker room. They saved a riot by emerging to a ton of cheers. I had to double check on my phone to confirm I was still in Eastern Pennsylvania actually.

The Sixers really played tough against the Cavs. I'm quite proud of them. Considering the game started with an ugly turnover and a time out within the first 75 seconds, I'm amazed we were only down one through 3. If you had told me prior to the game, I would be on the fan-o-vision dancing to Hotline Bling and it was not the highlight of the night I would have laughed in your face. But you would have been right you brilliant oracle.

We were blocking a lot of shots, playing hard defense, hitting the occasional three. We had a fan who just yelled "you suck Kevin" at a variety of moments to Mr. Love. It was crazy that this team was the same squad that lost to the Spurs by 60 last time I was in the building.

It's amazing how important Ish Smith was to this team. He just made them so much better. He is an actual NBA point guard. I liked when he would pull up when we didn't have numbers or hold for the last shot when we had the chance and all that good stuff. We still had the occasional wild drive to the lane, fighting through contact, but we also had some nice strings of possession with good, open shots. Not as many open shots as JR Smith, who seemed to be open on every possession, but still. 

It made me question, seriously, is Ish Smith the most valuable player in the NBA? I was actually wondering that. I wanted him to get to the free throw line so I could start an MVP chant. 

Then in the 4th quarter I was reminded about true greatness. Lebron James, who I was begging to shoot 3s, was making threes right through my doubting heart. He got a breakaway dunk and the crowd erupted, causing me to angrily yell at the people in our section about how I thought this was a Sixers stadium. And then, immediately following that moment, he came down the court and hit another dagger three that just broke the backs of our team and me as a fan. As James did his weird raise the roof thing again (no where near as cool as the Harden cooking thing or anything Steph Curry does), I couldn't help but let my anger and hate turn slowly into begrudging respect. Man, Lebron is really good at basketball. Like really, really good. Best player I've ever seen in person by far. Without him, I'm positive the Sixers could have won the game. With him, even when the game was close, you just knew he wouldn't ever let things slip away. You knew the Cavs would win. And not just the fans, but I think the players knew it too.

And that's why the Sixers suck as bad as we do. Because that's what we believe it takes to get somebody that talented. And to win in this league you NEED somebody that talented. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this time next year I will be telling you all about Ben Simmons.

And not because I went to a Lakers game.