Catching Up; My Ed Stefanski Saga

Hello all, I'm sorry for the delay in posting, however I was home in Philly for the weekend covering SU basketball and found myself a bit preoccupied.

Obviously there's some catching up to do, so here we go.

Being home allowed me to catch much of the Sixers near, 108-106 miss against Orlando on Friday. The positives? Obviously the play of Lou Williams, who pitched in 20 points (although only five were in the second half), as well as that of Thaddeus Young. It's really been amazing how much Thad has improved just within the scope of one season, and his 15 points last night are further proof that he's turning into one of the better rookies in the league. He's certainly deserving of a spot in the Rookies vs. Sophomores game (or whatever it's called) during All-Star weekend, and I hope he gets it.

But as much as this team is playing better and garnering respect, the time is running short on moral victories. First, Iggy clearly fouled Hedo Turkoglu with the game tied to give the Magic a pair of foul shots, and then that terribly designed inbounds play by Mo Cheeks. You have to wonder why Samuel Dalembert was even in the game to drop the inbounds pass, and for Cheeks, a man fighting for his job, this won't look good in retrospect.

However, this team is 18-29, still in it and, to their credit, they hung and played a thoroughly entertaining game against one of the better teams in the East. Certainly we can't get too down from that loss.

Not much noise on the trade front. Paul Gasol is a Laker now, but I doubt very much he had any chance of becoming a Sixer anyway.

And finally, for my grand finale, my Ed Stefanski close encounter. I covered the Syracuse-Villanova game at the Wachovia Center this Saturday. As I'm going through the press entrance, I see the Sixers president himself in front me, in line for credentials.

The following scene ensued something like this....

Ed Stefanski: "Ummmm, Stefanski."

Clueless window guy: (sifting through envelopes with passes to press row): "Ummmm... Ok... Hold on... I'm looking"

ED: "Ummm... it's Stefanski. Ed Stefanski"

CWG: (Still sifting) "Ummm... I'm sorry sir, I don't see anything for you."

ED: (Remarkably retaining some semblance of patience) "I'm Ed Stefanski. I'm the president of the Sixers."

CWG: (Realizing his mistake and hoping to not get fired) "Oh my, I'm very sorry sir. Go right ahead."

Hilarious. Ed Stefanski is the man.

Now, if only he can convince the Hornets to package Chris Paul and David West for Andre Miller and Sammy D.

Until next time.

(P.S. Oh, and apparently while I was away the Sixers beat the Bucks by 43 points? Good times...)