James Ennis could have made more money playing elsewhere this season.

But he returned to Philly on a two year, $4.1 million dollar deal (with a 2020 player option), because he felt like he had a chance to win it all with the Sixers.

Here’s what Ennis told Keith Pompey on Wednesday:

“Because it’s a good team, and a good chance of winning. The East is going to be wide open. We had a good chance last year. Kawhi is gone. He went to the West.

“So we are going to walk to the Finals in the East.”

Whoah whoah whoah – red alert? Jinx? Is this one of those comments that’s gonna come back to bite him in the ass, like the famous Vince Young “Dream Team” quote from 2011? Is this going to be twisted and blown out of proportion like Brett Brown’s “star hunting” quote? Are Celtics and Bucks fans going to sit on this Ennis comment and wait for the Sixers to crash and burn in the playoffs?


I personally don’t see it as too big of a deal. Why? Well the Sixers should walk to the finals in the east, and if they don’t, then the season is a failure, and they’ll deserve the criticism anyway. After two straight seasons of Eastern Conference semifinals, if they don’t get over the hump this time, with Kawhi in the west and Kevin Durant on the shelf, then I don’t know what to tell you.

So to me it’s less about Ennis saying what he said, though he could have helped himself by crafting something like this instead:

“So I think the path to the finals is wide open, and it’s on us to get there. We certainly have the talent to do it and our expectation is to do it.”

Now THAT’S a quote I can get behind. You want to be assertive, not aggressive. You want to be confident, but not arrogant. And if the Sixers back it up, then hey, James Ennis will look like the man. But if they don’t, he’ll look more like this guy: