Something ruffled Howard Eskin’s fur again (specifically Scott O’Neil saying, “When people say, ‘You’re set back. You’re too slow,’ I’m like, ‘Have you guys lost your [expletive] minds?”). I used to think he was just mad that Sam Hinkie wouldn’t talk to him, but this has gone on way too long for that. I’m a little concerned. It used to be kinda cute, but now it’s like your grandpa telling you the same story over and over again every time you see him until you pull your mom aside and ask if he’s okay. Are you okay, Howard?

Of course, he used his old talk radio tricks, like calling people “a fraud” and saying the Sixers’ tank is a joke:

As you’ve seen before (and above) his go-to move is saying Hinkie is running a Ponzi Scheme. He keeps using that word. I don’t think it means what he thinks it means. Let’s look at what a Ponzi Scheme actually is:

“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.”

Thanks, Wikipedia. Okay, so let’s try to apply this to basketball. A Basketball Ponzi Scheme would try to trick people into thinking the team was doing something by showing them short-term, abnormally high, unusually consistent results.* How could a team do that? Well, by investing in veterans whom they can’t afford to keep or who have no interest in staying (or whom you have no interest in extending). They could then put together enough wins to maybe squeak into the playoffs but not go anywhere, trading on the promise that they surpassed expectations and that it’s only a matter of time until they win a championship.

Come to think of it, that’s actually what Sam Hinkie is trying to avoid. What a fraud.

…

It’s also worth noting that the Sixers lost money for four-straight seasons, according to Forbes, until they made money, ~$25 million, last season. And as Frank Seravalli (!) pointed out in response to the last Tweet, most of the revenue (or all of it?) came from national TV deals, not ticket sales. Howard Eskin is an idiot. This is what happens when blowhard sports talk hosts of yesteryear are fact-checked.

*Like the entire reign of Paul Holmgren as Flyers GM– winning, somewhat, but the cap hijinx wasn’t sustainable and now you see what you’re left with. Or, you know, the Mets.