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As many of you know, I’m a die hard Philadelphia sports fan, and a shameless homer. In my mind, the refs always are making the bad call, my teams never foul, and they are always the best in the league.  I know this is not realistic, but I choose to throw my whole support behind my team, I feel like my guys need me. I’m not proud to say (or maybe I am a little) that I probably boo an official and/or the other team at least once a game. But I don’t boo my teams.

I’m also a Philadelphia Sixers season ticket member, a team that’s not known for their skill on the court, at least not yet. Last season, they had a historically bad record, but one that allowed them to get the number 1 pick in the NBA draft, and bring Ben Simmons to Philadelphia. It’s all part of The Process. Honestly, they’re sometimes a little bit hard to watch, with sloppy passing and missed shots but, I try to go to every game and get on my feet and cheer. And I don’t boo them.

The Sixers had a pretty bad showing last night, falling to the Utah Jazz 109-84.  This comes two days after taking the defending World Champion Cleveland Cavaliers down to the last play of the game before ultimately losing by 1. They only made about 40% of their field goals and had 18 turnovers, almost double what the Jazz had. But I didn’t boo them.

The stars that normally electrify the crowd weren’t on their game last night either. Joel “The Process” Embiid only shot 33% from the 3-point line, after going 4/4 against the Cavs.  Every time Embiid threw up a three on Saturday, the crowd knew it was going in. Last night, not so much. To add insult to injury, he went 6/9 from the line, leaving what should have been ‘gimme’ points off the board. But I didn’t boo him.

You love a team because they’re yours, and you shouldn’t put down the things that you love. Yes, sometimes the Sixers don’t protect the ball, and miss easy shots, and don’t play defense. Sooner or later, though, their going to start winning games. Joel Embiid is going to start putting in more and more shots that he learned from watching white people on the internet.  Ben Simmons is going to come back from injury and make no-look passes that get him compared to Magic Johnson. When they do, I’m going to be able to say I was behind them the whole way, not booing them from the top  of The Center.

This rant was brought on by listening to the guy behind me boo the Sixers for almost the entire game last night. I couldn’t help thinking how much energy he was putting into putting down a team he was supposedly a fan of.  The Center was pretty quiet due to the blow out and he would yell “(Insert Player Name), You Suck”. I don’t know if they could hear it, but if I was a player, having fans like that wouldn’t make me want to fight for them. Players and fans have a special relationship, just watch how Sixers great Allen Iverson talks about the Philadelphia fans:

I want to be apart of that group, not the group booing from the nosebleeds.