Last week I wrote about some comments Philadelphia 76ers small forward Andre Iguodala made to Sports Illustrated. Iguodala called out the Philly fans for being too fair-weathered as well as his teammate Lou Williams for not playing good defense.
Lately the Sixers have looked awful, falling down to the 8-seed in the Eastern Conference and surely Iguodala’s comments would not make anything better, but it might not be as bad as it sounds. As far as I know, Williams has not said anything but their teammate Thaddeus Young says you should not take what Iguodala said so seriously.
“I think it was all taken out of context,” Young said. “I think it was more of a joke than anything. We have always had inside jokes about Lou not playing defense. But we know what each and every person brings to the table. Dre probably said it, but it was taken out of context. Personally, when I heard it I knew he was playing, just because I know Dre.”
Well unfortunately for the perception of your team, not too many other people know “Dre” like Young does. I will give Iguodala the benefit of the doubt and write him off as a loudmouth who makes poor decisions, but joking or not, the damage has been done.
A team that has usually been able to avoid the drama that tears a lot of teams apart is now going to have their team chemistry under a microscope as they fall down the standings. If the Sixers drop out of the playoff picture, this will certainly be one of the reasons people use to explain it (along with their soft early schedule that may have raised expectations a little higher than they should have been).
Apparently no one is coming to Lou Williams’ defense about his defensive issues, so I am assuming what Iguodala said is true, but still, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
