There is no denying that the relationships between NBA players on and off-the-court has changed over the last 15 years.  In this era of AAU basketball, powerhouse sports agents, mega sneaker contracts and social media, the majority of today’s NBA stars are well connected to each other and former players.  Thus, they have no problem texting an on-the-court rival for advice or working out with a division foe in the off-season or reaching out to a retired hoops legend in order to learn a new move.

Magic, Larry and Mike would never have dreamed of doing such things.

Again, times have changed and so today we are launching a new series here at Philadunkia.com that works off the above premise regarding current NBA players and applies it to the members of the 76ers roster.  Which current and/or former players should key members of the Sixers pursuit gym time with in order to develop and improve their game outside of Brett Brown’s watch?

Today, Michael Kaskey-Blomain offers his ideas for the super-athletic Nerlens Noel.

Continue Reading >>>

There is no denying that the relationships between NBA players on and off-the-court has changed over the last 15 years.  In this era of AAU basketball, powerhouse sports agents, mega sneaker contracts and social media, the majority of today’s NBA stars are well connected to each other and former players.  Thus, they have no problem texting an on-the-court rival for advice or working out with a division foe in the off-season or reaching out to a retired hoops legend in order to learn a new move.

Magic, Larry and Mike would never have dreamed of doing such things.

Again, times have changed and so today we are launching a new series here at Philadunkia.com that works off the above premise regarding current NBA players and applies it to the members of the 76ers roster.  Which current and/or former players should key members of the Sixers pursuit gym time with in order to develop and improve their game outside of Brett Brown’s watch?

First up, is arguably the most polarizing youngster on Brett Brown’s team — Tony Wroten.

Continue Reading >>>

Long before the NBA’s marketing juggernaut placed it’s time, money and television network fully behind the Orlando Pro Summer League and the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, the only time a hoop head like me got to watch his favorite pro ballers in the off-season was on the rare occasion where one of them would drop in for a run at the local summer Pro Am.  

Back in the day, tales of appearances by NBA players at the Drew League, Rucker Park, the Goodman League (a.k.a. Barry Farms), Seattle Pro Am, North Carolina Pro Am, etc., were passed on by word of mouth.  In the 90′s and early 2000′s grainy mixtapes preserved the efforts of guys from the League at “playground” games against eager local cats.  In the era of the iPhone and Go Pros, Youtube is now filled with crisp, clean HD video of these summer basketball sightings.

After the jump I pulled together a few of my favorite legends of summer basketball that involve former or current players from Philadunkia’s home team.

Continue Reading >>>

Who is Emmanuel Mudiay?

With Sam Hinkie executing the double tank for 2014-15 in hopes of securing yet another high lottery pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, it’s time you learned his name and his game.

Arguably one of the best high school point guards in the Class of 2015, Emmanuel won’t be seen by the casual basketball fan this upcoming fall.  Instead of playing for Sixers’ legend, Larry Brown, at SMU this season, Mudiay will be headed to China to play professional basketball.  The 6-5 guard would’ve been plenty fun to watch at the collegiate level this upcoming season.  Some have compared the electric guard to both John Wall and Russell Westbrook.

Continue Reading >>>

The double tank may be on for the 76ers, but the team’s bid to be crowned double summer league champs came to an end last night after a slow start to the 4th quarter produced 79–68 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

The Summer Sixers were led by Jordan McRae who scored 25 points on 7 of 8 shooting and 10 – 10 from the charity stripe. Nerlens Noel posted 14 points on 5-13 shooting from the field. Former Clemson star KJ McDaniels tallied 11 points in the loss.

Still the Sixers loss and McRae’s outstanding performance took a backseat last night after Noel went down hard and hobbled to the locker room late in the game.

Continue Reading >>>

Despite not having Nerlens Noel, K.J. McDaniels and Jordan McRae — all out with ankle sprains — the Summer Sixers posted a  85-63 win over the Los Angeles Lakers last night to advance in the elimination round of play at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

After a stalemate first quarter (20-20l), Casper Ware and the 76ers summer reserves opened the 2nd qurter with a 16-0 run that extended out to a 24-4 stretch.  That 22 point cushion helped the Sixers (2-2) keep the Lakers at arm’s length for the rest of the game.   

The Sixers were led in scoring by Sean Kilpatrick and Elijah Millsap who each posted 19 points.

Continue Reading >>>

Sixers rookie Joel Embiid might not suit up for the team this season, as he recovers from surgery to repair the navicular bone in his right foot, but for now fans of the player have been thoroughly entertained by his Twitter presence in this past month.

First, Embiid did his best to try and lure LeBron James to Philly, now Embiid has taken to Twitter to try and lure Kanye West’s wife Kim Kardashian to the bedroom.

Continue Reading >>>

The 76ers brass decided last night to sit Nerlens Noel and with K.J. McDaniels  out because of injury (left ankle sprain), the Summer Sixers reserves got their chance to shine last night.  Unfortunately those members on the roster shot a combined 36% from three and allowed Suns 1st round pick TJ Warren  to post a double-double (28 points and 11 rebs) in a  97-88 Suns Phoenix win.

Jordan McRae paced the 7-6 with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting and Adonis Thomas contributed 15 points.  In addition to the loss, the other bad news is that McRae appeared to suffer a sprained left ankle late in the loss and he could miss Wednesday’s game.

Continue Reading >>>

“Tyler, you always get to the airport 2 hours before your flight…ALWAYS.” That’s the wise words of my old man for you. With the Orlando Pro Summer league ending and my journey back home beginning I have a lot of time to think about each Sixer individually and how they preformed this past week.

Nothing is certain in professional sports, especially the guys that are playing their hearts out just to be invited to training camp. That being said the 76ers Orlando summer squad played surprisingly well and it will be interesting to witness how they perform in Las Vegas.  But before we movbe on to Sin City, let’s wrap up the action in O-Town.  Without further delay here is my assessment of the individual players and how they faired down here in Florida.

Continue Reading >>>

The 76ers have brought a championship back to the City of Brotherly Love!

While it might only be the Orlando Pro Summer League championship the Sixers have continued to showcase their young talent and win all week long.

The Sixers played in the OPSL championship game this afternoon against another strong contender down here, the Memphis Grizzlies. Coming into this game the Sixers had won three straight games, only losing too the Orlando Magic the first game they played this week.

Continue Reading >>>