Bill Simmons Ranks 'Philly Fans' As Biggest Winners Of First NBA Month
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After four years of fighting with our friends, parents, siblings, and co-workers we can finally say it -- we were right.
The Process is working.
And now, national naysayers like Bill Simmons, is admitting we've won. In his latest column, Simmons waved his white flag to the process truthers, naming "Philly fans" as the biggest winners of the NBA's first month.
"They embraced the Process, sacrificed years of their NBA-watching lives for it, kept buying tickets for the worst products imaginable, believed in the great unknown and battled everyone who felt differently about the concept of an NBA franchise intentionally losing for almost half a decade," Simmons wrote of Philly fans. "And when the world finally swung their way, the naysayers (like me) couldn't say anything. They won. They sacrificed nearly five full years of their NBA lives for what we witnessed on Wednesday night. I'm happy for them."
Simmons also proclaimed Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as one of the great building block duos ever.
"With Simmons as The Sure Thing and Embiid as The Great Unknown, the Sixers already have a precocious one-two punch that ranks among the all-time building-block duos: Elgin and Jerry, Bird and McHale, Ralph and Hakeem, KD and Russ, Kemp and GP, Shaq and Penny, you name it," Simmons wrote.
Simmons' column was prompted by the Sixers' 115-109 win over the Lakers, a nationally televised game where Joel Embiid became the first-ever player to record 46 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, and 7 blocks since the NBA began recording blocked shots. And Simmons tallied 18 points, 10 assists, 9 rebounds, and 5 steals, continuing his unfathomable rookie season.
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The Sixers -- despite playing the NBA's toughest schedule to start the season, including 10 road games -- improved to 8-6. Now, they come home for six in a row to a sold out electric Wells Fargo Center, with added pressure for the national attention.
