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Your Thursday Morning Roundup: La Salle Beats Butler, Brayden Schenn Suspended, Scott Hartnell Hurt, Lousy Inquirer Writing

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jan 24th, 2013 · 8:34 AM EST

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First thing’s first: La Salle knocked off ninth-ranked Butler last night at the Tom Gola Arena. It was the Explorers’ first win over a top ten team since 1980. You’ll have to excuse the video highlights… the game wasn’t on TV. 

Our friends over at Phila Hoops have more. Court storming video from them is after the jump. I would sing the fight song, like I did yesterday for my alma mater, but I don’t know it. One of you La Salle folks should feel free to do so in the comments. 

That’s the good news. Now the bad news.

Brayden Schenn was suspended one game for his hit against Anton Volchenkov on Tuesday night. Brendan Shanahan, the league’s czar of discipline and monotone video explanations, tells us why here. Cue shield!

Scott Hartnell will be out indefinitely with a left foot injury, the Flyers announced last night. Hartnell got hit by a Kimmo Timonen shot in the third period of the Devils game. Paul Holmgren gave this most informative of statements:

"Scott will be out indefinitely with a left foot injury. We will know more on this within a day or two as we await results of tests."

 

Thanks, Paul. CSN’s Sarah Baicker, who dutifully wrote about the injury before heading over to Chickie’s and Pete’s for this week’s taping of the Great Sports Debate last night (airs tonight at 7 on Comcast Network!), has more.

Any other misery? Not really. But Forbes ranked the Sixers as the 20th most valuable franchise in the NBA, estimating their worth to be $418 million. That’s… not as good as having the third most wins in NBA history, but it’s up two spots from where they were in 2012. HOW? Josh Harris paid $287 million for the franchise in 2010, and now Forbes is telling me that the team is worth $418 million, $104 million higher than their valuation from last year ($314 million)? I’m sure there are some league revenues that come into play, explaining a substantial portion of the change, but you’d never know it from awful sports writing like this, from the Inquirer’s John Mitchell:

While the 76ers’ fortunes have gone south on the basketball court, they are standouts on the ledger.

 

STANDOUTS ON THE LEDGER, YOU SAY? THEY’RE IN THE FOURTH LARGEST MARKET IN THE COUNTRY BUT ONLY THE 20TH MOST VALUABLE FRANCHISE. OH, AND THEY'RE OPERATING AT A LOSS, ACCORDING TO FORBES. YEAH, LET’S GIVE THEM A PARTICIPATION PRIZE.

The Sixers saw their value in 2012 boosted by 19 percent increase in their first year under Harris.  The Sixers reached the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

 

YES, AND IT SNOWED THIS WEEK AFTER TEMPERATURES DROPPED. SO WHAT? CAUSATION, JOHN, CAUSATION. I DON’T THINK YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD LAWYER.

Following the acquisition of center Andrew Bynum the Sixers reportedly doubled their season ticket base heading into what has thus far been a very disappointing season.

 

HOW ABOUT THINKING FOR, LIKE, TWO SECONDS BEFORE WRITING WORDS. YES, THEY SOLD A FEW MORE SEASON TICKETS. BUT THAT DOES NOT ACCOUNT FOR EVEN CLOSE TO A $100 MILLION JUMP IN REVENUE, LET ALONE WORTH.

Say the average season ticket is – aggressively – priced at $100. Multiply that by 41. Times 3,700, the season ticket increase reported by Mitchell in September. 100 x 41 = 4,100. 4,100 x 3,700 = $15.1 million. $15.1 million. And that’s top-line. The impact on the team’s overall value would be much less, especially when any reasonable person would look at those number and say, “Hey, those are all based on one guy, WHO STILL HASN’T PLAYED A GAME FOR THE TEAM.”

I am so glad John Mitchell of the Inquirer is here to re-write press releases for us. Even more glad that the Philadelphia Business Journal is here to report ALL THE WRONG NUMBERS. Keep up the good work, Philadelphia scriptuals.

Video of La Salle students and some guy dressed as a Whoopee Cushion rushing the court, after the jump.