The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t been able to maintain the hot start they jumped out to at the beginning of the season. At one point they were 18-7 and it looked like they were going to run away with the Atlantic Division. Now they’re 29-25 and if they don’t get it together quickly, they may miss the playoffs.
Longtime 76ers small forward Andre Iguodala recently did an interview with Sports Illustrated where he basically accused Philadelphia of being a “what have you done for me lately?” city, and their fair weather attitude has clearly gotten to him.
“In Philly, it’s not about who you are, it’s about what you do for us,” Iguodala said in the article. “You could be the worst person in the world, but if you score a lot of points or win a championship, you can murder somebody.”
Ouch.
Iguodala says he’s not a fan favorite because he’s a defense-first kind of player, and the people want to see scoring, not smart basketball. That led him to call out one of his teammates.
“It makes no sense to me why so many good scorers can’t defend,” said Iguodala. “Like Lou Williams. He’s one of the toughest guys to guard in the league, but he can’t guard anybody. I don’t get that.”
Definitely not something you want to read coming from someone you share a locker room with.
Williams is the leading scorer on the 76ers, averaging 15.3 points per game. He’s the leading scorer on a team that gives up the least amount of points in the league, so if he’s focused on offense, it doesn’t fit in as well with the team dynamic. That being said, that’s the role that he’s been given and Iguodala would be better off finding positive things to say about it than calling out his teammate in a national magazine. If the 76ers want to focus on Williams’ defense and let his offense suffer, then they can lose their games 80-75.
Teams need scorers, players dedicated to putting the ball in the basket, it’s just how the NBA works. Surely Andre Iguodala can figure that out. He should stop worrying about the fans and the roles his teammates play and just focus on himself. Hopefully for the 76ers, he can do it quickly enough to save them from becoming a lottery team.
