Fair warning, I’m jumping into this hot bed conversation about the January 6th insurrection trials with little-to-no knowledge on anything happening besides a Twitter thread. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s take a look at a gentlemen by the name of Andrew Wrigley, who’s defense used the Philadelphia 76ers as a reason for him to be carrying a 1776 flag inside the capital.

Wrigley is being charged with a misdemeanor for the events on January 6, 2020. He is accused of taking a selfie inside the capital building. Wrigley plead guilty to parading inside the capital and by all accounts, accepted the responsibility for his actions. Whatever. I don’t care about any of that nonsense honestly.

Here’s some backstory from this article which you can read here if you care, again, I do not.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set Wrigley’s sentencing for Dec. 2. In addition to possible jail time, Wrigley will be required to pay $500 in restitution toward the more than $1.4 million in damage rioters caused to the Capitol, court documents say. Wrigley’s attorney, Ann C. Flannery of Philadelphia, said her client was protesting peacefully and the conduct to which Wrigley admitted shows his involvement in the riot was limited.

I just want to talk about what his defense lawyer said. According to this Twitter thread, he was inside the capital for roughly one minute and he brought an American flag with him that had 1776 on it. The feds did not like the flag because it’s often associated with the far right.

In defense of having the flag, his legal team said that Wrigley is from Pennsylvania and that “In Philadelphia, 1776 is a point of civic pride.” The defense continued by saying “our basketball team is called the 76ers.”

Mr. Wrigley is from Jim Thrope, that’s hardly Philadelphia. I don’t want to be a “gatekeeper” of Sixers fandom but maybe we should in this situation? I don’t know if I like a guy using the 76ers as a reason to hold a 1776 flag while storming the capital. Seems like that’s a lie.

If I was the prosector, I would have asked Wrigley how he felt about Ben Simmons and what he currently thinks about Tobias Harris as the second scoring option on the Sixers. If he said anything else besides, “The 76ers need Ben Simmons and should trade Tobias Harris“, I would throw him in federal prison until Simmons suits up for the 76ers again. Jokes on you, Andrew, Ben Simmons is never coming back to prison, enjoy life in prison.

Anyways, that has to be the first time an NBA team was brought up in reference to the dumb American 1776 Flag that these weirdos like to carry around at protests. Even that doesn’t make sense to me but again, this isn’t about politics, it’s about Andrew Wrigley crying wolf and pretending he’s a Sixers basketball fan while storming the capital.

Is there a way we can get the 1776 flag back on the side of basketball fans? It would be cool to have at tailgates without being seen as a terrorist insurrectionist. Who do I need to talk to in order to get that flag back in the hands of Philadelphians who simply like the 76ers? At the very least, get it back to Betsy Ross and the city of Philadelphia and away from the far right.

At the end of the day, we simply can’t have the 76ers being brought up in insurrection trials. The 76ers have been through enough over the last six months. We don’t need the insurrectionists using us as scapegoats.

Just got word that Andrew Wrigley will be sentenced to 18 months probation, which is the minimum sentence for these trials. Good thing they didn’t ask him about Ben Simmons.