Philadelphia’s wayward son is back home now that the 76ers have signed him to a remainder-of-the-season contract. Iverson is expected to make his second Philadelphia debut on Monday. Until then, let’s hope he’s ready for some practice. It’s oddly fitting then, seeing how Iverson is back on a team that uses numbers for their mascot, that there are some eerie number combinations in play in relation to his time with the team. Henry Abbot has more:
Your Allen Iverson numerology update: Iverson last played for Sixers on December 6 (2006). On December 8, the Sixers said they were going to trade him. Now it looks like he’ll return on that day in the middle, December 7.
Spooky stuff. Of course, the only numbers the 76ers’ front office is concerned with is wins. And ticket sales. With that in mind, does Iverson’s return improve them or will it make players like Andre Iguodala take a back seat to Iverson’s method of demanding the ball?
The fans will, in all likelihood, turn out in support of AI, but will he make the Sixers a better team? Not everyone thinks so.
This great find from the guys at The700Level of some of the lovely Philadelphia 76ers cheerleaders getting you in the mood … For Christmas, dirty mind. Said video description is unnecessary, of course. The important details are “cheerleaders” and “denim.” The other details are just superfluous.
If there is one complaint to be had, mine would be “too much Cynthia Gouw.”
While the host is bubbly and cute, she’s not one of the Sixers cheerleaders, otherwise known as the reason we are watching this video. Oh and for the one or two female readers out there, there are some tips on jeans-buying.
Over at YouTube, one of the uploads of Andre Iguodala’s nasty baseline jam against the New Jersey Nets called it a “f**k dunk” and you know, I think they’re on to something. If ever there was a f**k dunk, this one is it, because “posterize” doesn’t quite seem to capture all its beauty. When you dunk on three people — in this case, Brook Lopez, Josh Boone and Terrence Williams — in such acrobatically-destructive ways, you’ve passed posterization and moved on to the rarefied air of f**k dunks. For the record, Iggy’s dunk helped give the Nets their eighth straight loss, moving them to a lottery-bound 0-8 on the fledgling 2009/10 season.
Now, you might scoff at the fact a dunk in the first quarter impacted a win in any significant manner, but when you consider the fact the Sixers won by three points, that dunk, while being extremely filthy, was also an important basket for Philadelphia.
Remember, all these points have a tendency to add up.
While the eye candy posts have largely disappeared, we’re not completely above gratuity. Take, for instance, the NBA offseason. It’s not just a time to sign the Hedo Turkoglus of the world, folks. The respective cheerleading teams need to be restocked as well. With that in mind, Mike Hayes has informed us of a quasi-Survivor theme going down at the Knicks cheerleader tryouts. The Knicks City Dancers are down to their 30 finalists, but the next round is going to involve some fan voting for the prize of immunity.
Lost in the hubbub of the Bulls/Celtics and their refuse-to-end series is the Orlando Magic, who laid a surprising beatdown on the Philadelphia 76ers, all while their franchise center sat in his hotel room, blogging about the game. Howard’s absence was due to his elbow-related suspension, a fact that caused most to assume a Game 7 was imminent — everyone except Howard’s teammates, apparently. Rashard Lewis led the way for the Magic with 29 points, but it was J.J. Redick (Really?!?!) who provided some of the scoring the Magic might’ve missed without Howard, offering 15 huge points of his own.
The highlight of the game for the Magic had to be Marcin Gortat’s dunk, whose picture inspired these words from the 700 Level: “Sixers Game Six Loss Summarized in One Picture.” Indeed it was, indeed it was.
Gortat’s dunk was so devastating, some Sixer fans would like their franchise to dump Samuel Dalembert and pick up the Polish Hammer. Hey, maybe a healthy Elton Brand can change these post season fortunes next season. Until then, you’ll always have Marcin Gortat destroying Samuel, punctuating a bad loss to an undermanned team.
As expected, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard has been suspended by the NBA for Game 6 of the Orlando/Philadelphia series. Howard earned his one-game exile by elbowing Sixers center Samuel Dalembert in the head. Game 6 is tomorrow night in Philadelphia, and without Howard and injured Courtney Lee — also courtesy of a Howard elbow — it’s hard to like the Magic’s chances.
Considering the damage Howard’s elbow caused in Game 5, maybe he should register them as lethal weapons, or, perhaps, weapons of mass destruction.
If Stan Van Jeremy thought life without Jameer Nelson was difficult, imagine how he’ll feel when Orlando and Philly go at it in Game 6 — most likely without Stan’s main man, Dwight Howard. As you can see in the video, Howard’s mountain-sized elbow made contact with Samuel Dalembert’s noggin… Because Superman threw it at him. Apparently, the roughhousing in the paint reached an irritating level for Howard, and so, he lost his composure for a moment, which will likely result in Howard being suspended for the next game.
Ah, the YouTube video post. It makes a blogger’s life so much easier — if by easy, I mean lazy (I do). Thanks to Dwight Howard’s relatively benign double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds and a ton of foul trouble) and to Courtney Lee’s impressive 24-point outing, the Orlando Magic find themselves tied with Philadelphia 76ers at one game each.
The highlight(s) of the game came courtesy of Howard and his astounding athleticism, which allowed him to throw down two nasty dunks, one of which is in the lead video. The second is after the jump:
