Sometimes media outlets do “mailbag” articles to answer questions from fans. It’s like a Q/A or an “ask me anything” concept; i.e. you solicit questions and then people get to see their name or their Twitter handle on your site.

We don’t do mailbags at Crossing Broad, probably because 15% of the questions would be legitimate and the other 85% would be people just making fun of my feet, or Bob’s hair line, or Phil’s Premier League picks, or something along those lines.

But other outlets do this frequently, usually on a Friday, as an easy end-of-week post that helps connect you with readers.

Kyle Neubeck at Philly Voice did a mailbag post today, and he led off with a hypothetical question about trading Joel Embiid for Anthony Davis. He shared the post on Twitter with this description:

“I firmly wouldn’t do it, but I think that’s a fascinating hypothetical at least.”

Yeah, I wouldn’t do it either, but it’s probably interesting to some people to explore the Embiid/Davis thing to see what each guy does well, how they differ, and where their skill sets overlap.

Some people, however, couldn’t get past the headline and/or were so offended that the topic was even broached, so they responded with stuff like this:

Seems a bit excessive.

I mean, the writer clearly states that it’s a “hypothetical” that he “firmly wouldn’t do,” and the guy says he’s going to stop following him.

More after the jump:

Literally written in the first paragraph of the actual story:

To be clear: I did not ask for that hypothetical, I don’t think trading Joel Embiid for just about anyone is wise, and the odds that he would ever be traded for Anthony Davis are slim to none. I want to make sure that is clear from the jump because lord knows I do not need people suggesting I am itching to trade the best and most beloved Sixers player since Allen Iverson.

More:

Here’s the second paragraph from the article:

However, the Sixers mailbag is a product of the people, and this is one of the many questions you folks had for me this week. Since I am a man of the people, and since that is easily the splashiest question I received, that’s where we will start off this week.

Got it?

Okay here’s more:

Right.

So let’s rewind:

  1. writer takes questions for a mailbag story
  2. a reader asks if the Sixers should swap Joel Embiid for Anthony Davis
  3. writer says no, explains that in Tweet, but puts together eight good paragraphs exploring the hypothetical
  4. people can’t get past the Tweet or the headline and whine and complain

This is the world we’re living in.