March 22, 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 on the left side of our Sweet 16. You can vote on the other side of the bracket 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: I wrote about this team during the early stages of the pandemic when we named them the second best team in the city's history. This squad had four All-Stars, beat 10 hall of famers in the playoffs, contended with 12 teams winning 40 or more games and famously were one game away from going "fo fo fo." Here's what I wrote in 2020:
The '83 Sixers had to contend with Larry Bird's Celtics and Sidney Moncrief's Bucks in the East and had a much better and more highly competitive NBA all around when they were able to win the title. They lost just once in the postseason and swept Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Lakers in the Finals. If you look at the NBA champions from 1980 until 1988, it is the Lakers five times, the Celtics three times and the Sixers smushed in the middle. They were the one team in the prime of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry that could stand up and take a championship away from Magic and Bird. [Philly Rank]
VS.
Shamus says: The Athletics’ 104 wins are more than any Phillies team ever and they won the World Series in just five games over the Cubs. The A’s had five Hall of Famers on the roster, including Jimmie Foxx, one of the three greatest right-handed hitters of all time. They finished a whopping 18 games ahead of an all-time Yankees roster to win the American League pennant. This was dominance.
Time to vote:
Nick says: The 73-74 Flyers turned the NHL on its head and won the Stanley Cup. The 74-75 Flyers proved it wasn't a fluke. The Broad Street Bullies came back bigger and better, putting up a repeat performance, this time with Reggie Leach coming in and scoring a team-leading 45 goals and Bernie Parent becoming the undisputed Vezina winner as the league's best goalie.
VS.
Nick says: An absolutely dominant team that saw six of its players go on to the NBA (Hart, Brunson, Jenkins, Ryan Arcidiacono, Donte DiVincenzo, and Daniel Ochefu). They stormed through the regular season and on through the tournament, capping it off with a battle against North Carolina in the National Championship that went down to the final buzzer. Cue one of college basketball's greatest moments. (Here's the link, we know you were gonna go watch it again)
Time to vote:
Shamus says: The best third baseman and left-handed pitcher were at their apex in 1980, as Mike Schmidt grabbed his first NL MVP award and Steve Carlton took home his third Cy Young. In the franchise’s 98th season, the Phillies were finally World Champions because of Schmidty, Lefty, Bull, Bowa and Tug.
VS.
Nick says: The story of the 1985 Wildcats still sounds too good to be true. Rollie Massimino's group came out of the Southeast region as an eight seed and fought tooth and nail all the way to the title game, where the toughest challenge awaited them last: the defending champion Georgetown, which was basically playing with an NBA starting five. Villanova played a "perfect game" to win it. This team looked at the impossible and said "why not?" No wonder they're still so beloved a near four decades later.
Time to vote:
Nick says: Those that were around to see the '60 Eagles tell stories about how great they were to this day, and to the generations that followed, this team is like legend. The numbers back them up too. These Eagles forced a league-leading 45 turnovers, Norm Van Brocklin threw 24 touchdowns, and Tommy MacDonald hauled in 13 of them, then there was the 60-minute man himself, Chuck Bednarik, giving opponent's nightmares on both sides of the ball. They were tough, they were fast, they were skilled. And they have the honor of being the only team to hand Vince Lombardi a postseason defeat.
VS.
Nick says: The '49 Eagles punished opposing teams on defense, then ran the ball down their throat on offense en route to a second straight championship. The defense ranked No. 1 in yards and points allowed, and had three players (Frank Reagan, Dick Humbert, and Pat McHugh) combine for 20 interceptions. The the run game got the job done on offense, with Steve Van Buren's 1,146 rushing yards and 11 TDs leading the charge. It more than made up for a decent at best passing attack, and pushed the Eagles to an 11-1 record and a championship shutout of the L.A. Rams.
Time to vote:
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