March 18, 2022
It's impossible to compare teams across eras.
The rules change. The quality of the athletes change due to technology, science, training techniques and so on.
The styles change. The 3-point line has only been around since 1979. The spread offense didn't exist a few decades ago.
But who cares. Let's do it anyway.
In the spirit of March Madness, we compiled a 40-team bracket. Managing sports editor Evan Macy, deputy sports editor Shamus Clancy and staff writer Nick Tricome ranked the 40 teams you see in the bracket below and we took the average of the three seedings to create the seedings we will use for this exercise.
coming this week on @thephillyvoice: pic.twitter.com/unti3yYnG7
— shamus (@shamus_clancy) March 15, 2022
How should you vote? Is it for your favorite of the two teams matched up? Which you think is better? Which you think would win a head to head match (if it were possible)? That's entirely up to you.
Today, we'll break down the matchups in our Bernie Regional in the Round of 32. We previously went through our Dr. J Regional, which you can check out here. You can vote in our Schmidty regional here, and for our Bernie region here.
Below we'll give you some facts on each team, and some thoughts on what we think of them. And then it's up to you to help us crown the best team in Philadelphia sports history.
Without further ado:
Evan says: This Sixers squad was the top team in what was likely a weak Atlantic Division. Dr. J was in his first NBA season after playing as an MVP in the ABA. They would eventually lose in six games to Bill Walton's Blazers but this roster did have a ton of interesting names on it. A 20-year-old Daryl Dawkins came off the bench for 12 minutes per game, Kobe Bryant's father Joe was also a reserve and World B. Free started in 37 games. This team was the precursor to the dominant one in the early 1980s.
VS.
Shamus says: Are they the most dominant team in Philadelphia history? No. Are they the most important? Absolutely. Nick Foles almost quit professional football then thoroughly decimated the greatest defensive mind of all time and out-dueled the greatest quarterback to ever live less than 12 months later. Every single thing had to break the right way. It did. I’ve woken up every morning for the last 1,502 days still in disbelief that it happened.
Time to vote:
Evan says: I became a sports fan because of AI and this team. Poor Iverson had no help on offense whatsoever. Though Mutombo was great at the rim as the last line of defense and they had solid role players in George Lynch and Eric Snow, there was no one else scoring more than 12 points per game in 2000-01. The first game in Philly that the Sixers won in overtime was an epic victory and I remember as a 13 year old kid, thinking "Okay, it's 1-1 we are in this... Okay now 1-2, still in it... Okay, 1-3, hmm... maybe it's not happening after all." The Sixers haven't advanced past the second round since.
VS.
Nick says: Two years removed from the '16 National Championship team, these Wildcats were dominant the entire way through. They cruised through the regular season, stormed through the Big East Tournament, then ran right through March Madness, winning each NCAA Tournament game by no less than 12 points. With a starting five that all went on to reach the NBA, the '18 Villanova maybe didn't have the same thrills as the '16 group, but they were a much more talented and methodical squad.
Time to vote:
Shamus says: For a young kid in Philly, Allen Iverson and Jameer Nelson felt like two coolest dudes on the planet in 2004. Though their rivals at Villanova have the rings, no Big 5 team captivated the region for an entire year in my lifetime the way those Hawks did during their undefeated regular season. They covered the 2.5-point spread in their Elite 8 loss to Oklahoma State. Good teams win, great teams cover, right?
VS.
Shamus says: People might say the 2011 squad, but I still think the 2010 Fightins were the best team during that Golden Era. Doc was at the peak of his powers and it felt like fans were witnessing history every day he took the mound. This team was offensively superior to the ’11 team too, as Jayson Werth raked on a daily basis, leading the Phils with a .921 OPS.
Time to vote:
Nick says: The Boston Celtics were the reigning champs for eight years running. The '67 Sixers sent them home in the Eastern Finals, 4-1. The clinching game, a 140-116 blowout to set up a date with the Warriors in the Finals. With a veteran Wilt Chamberlain and Hal Greer leading the way, this team set the best regular season record (at the time) at 68-13, and it's still the fifth-best all-time 55 years later. They also had the best start to an NBA season ever at 46-4, a feat only the 2015-16 Warriors ever matched, which should speak volumes about how great that 67 team actually was.
VS.
Evan says: I am going to rob my colleague Shamus from writing this blurb because old timey baseball is amazing. The stats, first of all, Coombs winning 31 games (of 45 starts) is wild. So are some of the names of the players who suited up for the A's. Home Run Baker, Topsy Hartsel, Stuffy McInnis, Amos Strunk and Heinie Heitmuller were all apparently real people. They should advance based on those names alone.
Time to vote:
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