KorverGate

JJ Abrams is coming out with a new movie called 'Cloverfield' wherein a large and presumably frightening monster rampages into new york harbor, rips the head off the statue of liberty and proceeds to wreak havoc throughout the borough of manhattan, in much the same way as sammy d will punish Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur this evening, in the much anticipated matchup known as 'KorverGate'. Should you be unfamiliar with KorverGate, you may know its close cousin 'HarprinGate'.

What can we expect to see tonight (other than a sammy d goaltend)? I tend to think K-squared will flourish in Utah, surrounded by religious fervor and bigamy. I envision much bunging of treys and banging of hoes in his future, and though i am sad to see him go and not sure how I feel about the uber-conditional pick and expiring slav package we received in return, I am willing to trust stefanski.



Why, after nearly ten seasons of GM ineptitude, am I willing to blindly put my faith in a jolly-looking, somewhat corpulent bald guy about whom I know only that he wants the sixers to become 'more athletic', has shown a penchant for drafting euros, and that the media seems to think is some up-and-coming wisdom-filled 'basketball man'? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps it’s just my belief that any move NOT made by BK must inherently be a good one. Perhaps it’s just the hope that springs eternal in the heart of every follower of sammy d. Because what this move does, in reality, is take the long-overdue step of remolding the 76ers in Sammy's image.


Permit me to explain.

Kyle Korver was a good player, a dead-eye shooter with a good basketball sense and work ethic, the kind of guy that would make great backdoor cuts and finish layups ambidextrously with a precision honed from countless hours in some rural gymnasium. In his absence, and with his place in the rotation presumably filled by some combination of louwill, carney and young thad, the sixers become that much less basketball-savvy on the court, but also that much more free-wheeling, athletic, excitable and jubilant. Is it any coincidence that those are the precisely the qualities that sammy d possesses in such great abundance, and precisely the qualities that make him so endearing?

It’s in this knowledge that I look forward to great and grandiose things from the 76ers, and from sammy d, in this, the year of our lord A.D. 2008.