PistonsNationBlog.com - Detroit Pistons News & Views

To culture ourselves to the other guys I lobbed a six pack of questions over to Ricky from Sixers 4 guidos. Ricky is a long time Philadelphia 76ers fan blogging from across the Atlantic, Genova Italy to be exact. There’s a few questions you’d expect to see in a preview and others to keep it fun. Enjoy, and grazie Ricky!

1) No one point no one is picking the 76ers to beat the Pistons in this series. What do the Sixers have to do to keep their overachieving streak alive and advance to the second round?

I am very passionate about my team but I tend do be realistic and I think I know enough basketball to realize that Sixers have ZERO chances to advance to the second round.

It’s general consensus that Sixers already overachieved by making it to the post season (and I am in this group, I predicted 31 wins at the beginning of the season, while many “experts” picked Sixers to finish from last to second last in the Conference) so everything that will eventually come is a plus.

To put is simply, Pistons are a bad match for us, they are deep, experienced, with no weak points, and play slow tempo. In order to win some games (no more than 2, IMO) Sixers need to defend strongly on the perimeter, something we struggled all year, knock down some outside shots (see above, dead last in the NBA in 3pt percentage).

I’m afraid Pistons won’t allow us to run much, and playing in half court offense will expose our weaknesses.

2) Can Andre Iguodala carry this 76ers team to the promise land or is that asking too much of him? Can he be a legitimate superstar in this league?

When he turned down a 5 yrs-57 mill offer last year many thought he did a mistake, but it looks like dude knew what he was doing… the price to keep him will be higher this summer of course.

I think he can be a legit superstar, not sure whether he can carry us to the promise land, by himself I mean. He will need some help around him, but the young core that is growing (Young, Lou Williams, even Carney etc) looks nice. You add a veteran PG (Miller) + a decent center (Dalembert) coming from the best seasons of their careers and you see Sixers fans have some good reasons to be optimistic for, finally.

For Pistons fans, it could be perhaps interesting that Sixers GM Stefanski said many times that he would like to build a winning team with the 2004 Pistons as a model: no real “superstar” but a group of 4-5 borderline all stars that play as a team. In this sense, Iguodala could be our Billups, say, the leader of the squad.

BTW, I was a HUGE fan of that Pistons team,that gave me one of the best satisfacation of my career as a hater (LOL) beating those f’n Lakers. Good times.

3) The Sixers started playing really well after the All-Star break playing themselves into the playoff picture, but they ended the season on a low note dropping 7 of the last 10 including 4 straight to finish the season. Does that concern you?

Not that much. The team plays an excellent season and maybe they relaxed a little bit after reaching the (unexpected, again) goal, it’s kind of normal, especially considering it’s a young team. BTW, two of those losses came in particular situation, the home loss vs Cleveland with that last controversial call that gave Cavs two free throws with 0.2 seconds to go, the last game in Charlotte with starters getting a lot of rest.

It will be a different story in the playoffs.

3) In checking out your site I see that you’re passionate about campaigning for the Sixers to permanently going back to their throwback 1978-91 unis as a means to restoring tradition. (Believe me, as a fan who suffered through his team trotting out in teal unis trimmed in black, maroon, and yellow I feel you). I too dig the retro unis, very clean and classic. If you could pick between the Sixers winning this series or permanently switching back to their old threads which would it be?

This is a tough question LOL. I am 37 years old and I grew up with the red jerseys on my mind. Also I am both European and a soccer fan, this means I really love traditions.

For our sport culture there is NO WAY a storied team can change its colours or its logo for (stupid) marketing or “trend” reasons, every time a team tried that, fans started riots… that’s why I started my campaign, and I was more than happy to see I got so many comments and feedbacks by fans. The Sixers organization is aware of my campaign and they are following this topic, that they defined “sensitive”: it clearly involves identity and business aspects. I hope I will reach my goal next year !!

BTW I think Pistons unis are pretty cool, especially the white ones, I love their simplicity. While I do remember some of the ugly unis you had, like the ones with the horse in the Grant Hill era… did u guys managed to kill the stylist?

4) Here’s an off the wall Guido question for you; compare the Pistons and Sixers to traditional Italian dishes and the reasoning behind the comparisons.

LOL good one.

Sixers are “spaghetti alla carbonara”, an old, traditional dish that you need in every good restaurant (=the NBA) and that people nearly forgot about over the last years. Now everyone is (re)descovering them and thinks “Damn how could we stay so long withouth these fine spaghetti alla carbonara? We were really missing something !!”

Pistons are “pizza margherita”, the simple, basic pizza with tomato and mozzarella that you SHOULD find in any serious pizzeria. The average customer thinks that pizza margherita is lame, boring etc and adds every sort of BS on it (salame, ham, mushrooms etc), while the real knowledgeable gourmet knows margherita is the stuff and appreciates the work that there is behind a good, fine margherita !

5) History Q? – Jason Maxiell is a poor man’s Charles Barkley. React.

Go rehab (LOL).

I hate comparisons but in case I had to make one for him, I would say Jason Maxiell is a younger, perhaps stronger Malik Rose. Not bad, considering Rose’s career and rings.

6) History Q? #2 – Your favorite player to have laced ‘em up for both Philly and Detroit?

I wish Manute Bol played for also the Pistons, so I’d say him… so I will gladly say Rick Mahorn !!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 3:21 pm and is filed under 76ers, Interviews, Playoffs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.