April 03, 2018
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
The 2016 Villanova Men's Basketball Team approaches Dilworth Park during their victory parade, Friday, April 8, 2016.
I used to be one of those people who complained that the Villanova Wildcats were most assuredly NOT a Philadelphia team. Then, two things happened.
First, came April 5, 2016 when Ryan Arcidiacono dribbled up a basketball court in Houston and flipped the ball to teammate Kris Jenkins, who would drain a championship-clinching three pointer against the North Carolina Tarheels.
Then, came this summer, when I moved out of the city and became a suburbanite with a riding mower.
That reason, of course, is selfish and borderline hypocritical.
The former: A realization that Jay Wright erased all that ill-will about Villanova trying to break up the city hoops institution known as the Big 5.
But here we are, on April 3, 2018, a day after the Wildcats repeated as NCAA men’s basketball champions and a day when the city announced there would be yet another Nova parade down Market Street on Thursday.
The social media debate raged on Monday night right into Tuesday afternoon.
I am not going to sift through the wreckage and offer a compendium of Tweets about whether Nova is a Philly school. Minds will not be changed if they haven’t already been.
What I am going to do is highlight one single Tweet that accurately puts this whole mess to rest.
It came from a gentleman who goes by the handle Crane Kicker on Twitter dot com.
What he did was redefine the map itself and spark a major discussion.
When I told him I planned to write about his craftsmanship, he demanded $500 and/or free tickets for a Flyers or Sixers game.
These are things that I could not provide, so I will not embed his tweet herein as I’d intended. Instead, I will hyperlink it here as this insulates me from the necessity of having to pay a premium price for content available for free online.
Please take a look at it now. I will wait.
See it? OK.
I ask that you look at this Tweet and mull its ramifications. Then, ask yourself this: Is the battle over whether Villanova is a Philadelphia school really one worth fighting anymore (unless you attend or did attend a rival school, of course)?
No, I don't think Philadelphia will annex the Jersey Shore south from Long Beach Island, the portions of Cumberland County (N.J.) where dinger-hitter Mike Trout grew up, Montgomery County, Delco and all the way down to Newark, Delaware. But, spiritually, maybe it already has.
The world is a cold, dark place these days, and we should embrace anything that brings our fellow Delaware Valleyans happiness.
God bless and Go Birds.
(Also, if you have free Sixers or Flyers tickets that I could pass along to CK, drop me an email. His hard work should not go unrewarded.)
