Posts for Sixers Category

During his decade-plus tenure as general manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey has cultivated a reputation for being one of the smartest minds in basketball. Morey pioneered the use of analytics in the NBA, and his disciples have since spread the gospel of advanced metrics to every corner of the league.

Morey also has demonstrated a penchant for pulling off franchise-altering trades in an effort to keep the Rockets in contention in the crowded Western Conference. After the Golden State Warriors dispatched Houston in six games in the Western Conference semifinals, Morey signaled his willingness to overhaul his roster radically. Out went Chris Paul and in came Russell Westbrook. It was a daring gambit, and perhaps a desperate one, given the draft pick ransom the Rockets had to pay the Thunder in order to commence the deal: two first-round picks (2024 and 2026), plus the Thunder reserving the right to swap picks in 2021 and 2025.

However, it seemed for a time that Morey’s career with the Rockets might not survive long enough to enjoy the fruits of his all-in bet on the 2019-20 season. Morey’s tenuous job status has had nothing to do with questionable basketball decisions or mismanagement of the organization.

Like so many modern tragedies, it all started with a tweet. On Friday evening, Morey fired off a seemingly innocuous message on Twitter expressing his solidarity with democratic protesters in Hong Kong who are engaged in a protracted clash with mainland China over perceived intrusions on the former’s limited democratic rights:

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Crazy how this Daryl Morey tweet turned into a full-bore NBA disaster. We’ve had fans kicked out of Philly and Washington preseason games, protests outside of arenas, and the uber-rare occasion of liberals and conservatives joining together to rip the league for kowtowing to China. I mean, we had Laura Ingraham and Will Bunch on the same side, for Christ’s sake.

All because a general manager expressed support for the democratic movement in Hong Kong.

Now the NBA is putting the kibosh on communications until the preseason China trip is finished, per ESPN:

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Tuesday night, a pair of Sixers fans were kicked out of the Wells Fargo Center during the preseason matchup against China’s Guangzhou Loong Lions. Sam Wachs and his wife sat about five rows behind the visitors’ bench, holding signs that said “Free Hong Kong,” and found themselves getting the boot during the game’s second quarter.

In a statement, both the Sixers and the WFC (run by Comcast-Spectacor), explained that the couple were issued warnings for their “disruptive behavior” before tossing them from the arena.

Guangzhou continued their U.S. tour with a trip to Washington last night, where the fallout from the NBA’s China debacle continued.

These guys had their sign taken:

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Last night two fans were kicked out of the Wells Fargo Center for holding up signs that said “Free Hong Kong.” They told their story to various local news outlets, explaining that they were booted during second quarter after their signs were confiscated.

Here’s the Sixers’ side of the story:

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The Philadelphia 76ers clubbed the Guangzhou Loong Lions by 58 points last night in the 2019 preseason opener.

But the big story on Action News is Ben Simmons, who pulled up from downtown for a three pointer that hit nothing but net, sending the Wells Fargo Center crowd into rapture. The building might have been half full, but the calls to “shooooot” right before half time drowned out anything that Flyers fans have ever yelled at Jake Voracek.

After the game, Ben Simmons did what he does, downplaying the significance of hitting a three-point shot in a professional basketball game.

Here’s the entire exchange with the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey:

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