Philadelphia has a history of, well, overreacting to the fortunes of their sports teams. I will be the first one to tell you that I understand the emotion behind being a fan of the Sixers, or the Eagles, or even the Phillies. My apologies to The Liberty Yell, I simply cannot watch hockey intently. All that aside, the playoffs erect even more emotion from fans in this city, and unfortunately everybody wants to tweet and thinks their opinion will resonate with the entire fanbase. Sadly for all of us, we are subject to having to seeing all of the tweets, and the podcasts, and the breakdown videos of whatever we watched last night and are force fed the all encompassing solutions brought to you by any local imbecile who logged into Twitter that day.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some high quality creators in the realm of Philadelphia sports, they are just so drastically outweighed by the average Twitter user who spews tainted view points and pushes narratives that fit their brand. What is usually my favorite app turns into a literal war zone where fans of the same team scream at each other from their keyboards arguing over the reason for the Sixers loss.

Take the loss, digest it, and move forward for the love of God. The Sixers are damn good, they haven’t been this good since I was in diapers and I am not exaggerating. So take a step back and unravel your undergarments for a minute to realize how much more difficult we all make this.

As a fanbase we all fall into this made up bi-partisanship where you have to be either a fanboy who sees the team do no wrong, or just an outright miserable human who can only point out how terrible everything is at the moment. News flash, you’re both in the wrong and you’re ruining it for everybody because we force each other to pick a side when in reality we are all rooting for the same thing.

In my very short, and minuscule time being part of the 76ers coverage here, and navigating through this season, I have really only learned one thing and it is that the Philadelphia media is the worst. The bad reputation that is mostly false about Philadelphia fans is brought on by the talking heads of the media, and the bickering amongst fans is harbored by the sad sacks of shit that call themselves reporters in this city. I mean, just take a look at this tomfoolery:

Ever since I started using Twitter as a means of communication and a media outlet, I have had the realization that I hate all of you. I avoid that app after a loss because there can never be any rational discourse, there can’t be a logical reasoning behind anything other than that you were right all along about something and you have to be right regardless of how wrong you are, shout out Spike Eskin who has mastered this tactic.

I used to be an overly emotional fan who would yell and use Twitter fingers to resolve the issues I saw arising within the organization until I realized that nothing I say matters. Doc Rivers isn’t listening to you, trust me, he doesn’t care. Watch the Sixers play basketball, enjoy them when they win and relish in the opportunity to share their success with your fellow fans and stop being so damn annoying about everything, I promise you that we all want the team to win.

I believe in the natural good of fans and the blame can fall onto the shoulders of a handful of people. Whether it be the Eskins and WIP, or just the modern era of Stephen A. Smith wannabes, but I do not think you’re bad people. Getting wrapped up in a team and how they play is natural and genuine, it is the root of why sports are so important to people, but using the success or lack thereof to put down the “other side” of your own fanbase is ludicrous. They play again tomorrow, and after that they play on Friday, and eventually the season will end and you’ll all look like morons trying to make something out of nothing regardless of the outcome.

The childish, petty meltdowns that consequently follow a Sixers loss is tantalizing to a group of people that have no impact on what a basketball team does. I am always eager and willing to talk basketball, specifically the Sixers, and I can recognize the flaws within the team or players, but the rhetoric of every minor detail being the downfall of this team has got to stop.

Root for your team, take pride in being knowledgeable about your team, but stop making this a fatuous competition of proving your point, it helps nothing and it makes it impossible to enjoy the game.

Listen to Process to Progress