Sixers Sisters — 1/24/24

Monday night's win over the Spurs was historic. Joel scored 70 points—a franchise record. Franchise records might be easy to beat on other teams, but not teams that had Wilt Chamberlain play for them. Even in the post game interview, Joel was thrown off that Wilt had scored a maximum of 68 points as a Sixer. This confused me because he scored 100 in Philadelphia, but that was as a Philadelphia Warrior. The Warriors then relocated to the Bay and the Syracuse Nationals relocated to Philadelphia and hence, the Sixers were born. Wow, I'm learning something today too!

Obviously, no one can predict a huge career-defining performance like that... so you might be asking, why was I at a Monday night game against the 8-35 Spurs? Well, the number one draft pick and overall French giant Victor Wembanyama was going to be playing in Philly for the first time. This kid is no joke. He's 7'4", lanky as hell, he's been touted as a generational talent, and I really could learn something from his sleep routine. Thinking about Wemby made me realize how connected two of my favorite things are—France and the NBA! I mean, how cool is it that a player was drafted first from thousands of miles away, without any AAU connections?! 

The NBA has been playing Global Games since the late '70s, although it's recently become an annual event. Every year, an in-season game takes place outside of the USA, in hopes that it will expand the global reach of the NBA. For example, the Sixers played the Celtics in London in 2018. Last week, the NBA held its annual Global Game in Paris, with the Cavs facing the Nets. And you know what? Neither team has one French player, let alone anyone who speaks fluent French! They had Mbappé courtside for what, to watch two totally middling (okay, okay, the Cavs are good) teams compete in a mediocre game??! What a sin! Imagine if it had been the Spurs vs. the Sixers! Wemby vs. Embiid in their first meeting, two French citizens (along with Nico Batum) battling it out. The crowd would have been giving a rooted interest. The media coverage writes itself! Yeah, so Donovan Mitchell dropped his career high of 45 points in Paris... but Embiid dropped 70 points in a game that *should have* been in Paris. Not for nothing, but I'm looking at you, NBA scheduling team, and get this on the books for next year. Yes, I just want to go back to Paris and need an excuse... and this summer's Paris Olympics don't count. Can you imagine the hotel rates!? Give me mid-February bad weather and low prices, merci.

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Bridget's Basketball Bullshit:

Wow, NBA does Paris! Isn't that fun! I know when I've been to Paris, I've been in search of a few things which included: the best champagne, escargot, and impressionist art. What do we think these players were looking for? I think Georges Niang (miss my Sixers THICC king) was looking for all the cheese he could get his hands on. Like the kind they scrape from a wheel over food. I think Donovan Mitchell is a lil artsy boy and would have been at Musée d'Orsay looking at Monet's water lilies with tears in his dang eyes!!!! Jarrett Allen would have been entranced by the engineering it took to build the Eiffel Tower. Ben Simmons definitely did not play in the game, but would have been seen at the flagship Louis Vuitton store spending his dwindling money. While Mikal Bridges would be trying to locate the closest Chipotle and then posted up overlooking the Seine River with an espresso. I hope all these boys did what I envisioned for them on their trip to France!

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Maeve's Question of the Week:

Cleary, I'm drawn to watching an NBA game in Paris. I've been there twice and could not get enough. I think I could live on bread, escargot, and wine. That being said, I think there would be something incredible about playing one of these Global Games on an outdoor arena court. Therefore, I'm proposing a game in the Canary Islands. So I ask, where would you feel so strongly about the NBA announcing a Global Game that you would feel the need to start looking up flights ASAP? This question is pretty dumb, but I'm feeling very wanderlusty right now.