A prominent 76ers fan has a plan to help his team feel the Brotherly Love again tonight…
…while after this week’s social media stunt, we aren’t feeling much love for Deion Sanders.
Philly, Where Is The Love?
What Happened: Michael Rubin became a billionaire by founding and turning a company called Fanatics into a sports apparel juggernaut.
Apparently, he doesn’t think there are many fanatics in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Why It Matters: After Knicks fans invaded Philly’s Wells Fargo Center for Game 4, a 97-92 New York win, Rubin felt something had to be done and bought over 2,000 tickets in an attempt to repel another invasion from Big Apple supporters.
We’ll see if Rubin’s ploy pays off. The Sixers are still fighting an uphill battle (+290 to advance) after opening the series as betting favorites. They are -3.0 tonight however, so if the hometown crowd can deliver, it’ll at least buy its team a shot in a Game 7…in New York.
How We’re Feeling Today
Sort of grossed out by Deion Sanders’ behavior as of late.
Look, we remember Prime Time from the 1990s. He was brash, he was braggadocio, and he backed it all up. But now, as Colorado’s head coach and a supposed leader of men, he’s belittling former players in an attempt to…yeah, what even is the end goal here?
Coach Prime, respectfully, here’s some advice: when a player leaves your program in search of a better opportunity, or because you explicitly stated you wanted to make players quit, wish them well and move on. Waging a smear campaign over social media is embarrassing stuff.
Oh yeah, and win more — your team went 4-8 with your own son at quarterback.
The Look Ahead
Josh Hart PR – The Knicks guard has a line of 19.5 on PR tonight; he’s exceeded it in both games played in Philly this series, albeit in very different ways. In Game 3, Hart scored 20 points and added six rebounds. In Game 4, he only managed four points, but snagged 17 boards in a tenacious performance. How will he get to his line tonight? We don’t know! But in a potential closeout game, we expect Hart to be all over the place.
Jake DeBrusk SOG – Things haven’t been trending in the right direction for the Boston winger. DeBrusk opened this series with two goals and an assist in Game 1, another helper in Game 2, and scored again in Game 3. He managed multiple shots in all those games, but landed just one apiece in Games 4 and 5. In a road game against the hated Maple Leafs with a chance to advance, it will be all hands on deck tonight for Boston, which is why we think DeBrusk can put in a bounceback performance.
