Sixers

John Kincade Defends Howard Eskin, Wants to Give Him a Perfect Attendance Sticker

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Feb 14th, 2022 · 11:27 AM EST

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Today is Valentine’s Day, so 97.5 the Fanatic is showing 94 WIP some love. It’s not station-on-station love, but it’s John Kincade backing Howard “The King” Eskin after this Friday night exchange following the Sixers’ win over the Oklahoma City Thunder:

Doc Rivers wants to know why Howard Eskin only shows up for pregame and doesn't stay to watch the actual game h/t @NBAKrell pic.twitter.com/4NwMKuTrbr

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) February 12, 2022

The gist here is that Howard shows up for pregame to ask questions, then doesn’t stay for the game itself. He usually walks around for a bit and talks to fans and employees, and then he leaves.

Kincade and his crew talked about this on Monday morning:

At the risk of this sounding like a cop out answer, I’ll say that Kincade and Rivers can both be right. In John’s case, he’s saying, “don’t waste your time being snippy with the media, just worry about coaching.” John is correct with that take because Doc hasn’t been here very long but has clashed with Keith Pompey, Dei Lynam, Austin Krell, and myself. That’s not exactly a murderous gauntlet of reporters, so if Doc has issues with the Sixers media corps, trying doing a press conference in front of 85 people at Eagles training camp. He butts heads with the scribes way too often.

At the same time, Doc is well within his right to clap back at Howard, because Howard only asks him negative shit. Never anything positive. And then when the Sixers win, “The King” is mysteriously absent. He only seems to surface when the team is playing poorly, or they lose, or there’s some sort of controversy going on.

However, John is totally wrong when he talks about Howard’s record of attendance, as if this is elementary school. You don’t get a sticker for showing up every day. You get a sticker for being fair and respectful and giving credit where it’s due, instead of just asking your Negadelphia questions, milling around for a little bit, and then leaving, as Pat Egan correctly notes. You know who else shows up to every game? People like Kyle Neubeck and Rich Hoffman, but they actually watch the game, take notes, and then write quality stories. They can identify a horns set or a UCLA cut while Howard probably still thinks Joel Embiid should “get his fat ass down on the low block.” There are real journalists at the games who constitute “working media,” while Howard isn’t actually doing any work. He is a talking head who wants to see and be seen, in an effort to remain relevant. He doesn’t give a shit about the games and has had a bogus agenda against the Sixers for many, many years now. Howard’s shtick is that the Eagles can do no wrong (because he’s the radio sideline reporter), but everything the Sixers do is terrible and fraudulent.

People always like to say that Howard “goes to all of the games,” and that’s their main defense of him, but if you “go to all of the games,” ask your biased questions, and then go home, then it’s artificial and insincere. There’s no substance in that. It’s more flimsy than a wet paper bag and everybody should be able to see that.

Carry on.