The Philadelphia 76ers’ bench was a succession of empty chairs at the start of the game against the Denver Nuggets. Had the alternates gone on strike?
There were only two seats taken, while five of his teammates tried to replicate the Denver baskets. Those two seated were the substitutes for the substitutes, because the usual reserves were on the track.
American basketball has come out of the magic bubble at Disney’s Orlando where the NBA encapsulated it to conclude last season. Now it is played in the virtual reality of a country in which the other day 4,000 people died from the pandemic in 24 hours and in which there are around 3,000 deaths on average daily.
The 76ers played against the Nuggets with only seven players available as a result of a double plague: the injured and those confined by the covid.
In fact, to take the field they had to have eight registered, so they pointed to forward Mike Scott on the list, unfit to play because of a bad knee.
He gave Zidane the cry because the aristocratic footballers of Real Madrid were bothered by playing in the snow of Pamplona.
Doc Rivers, coach of the Philadelphia team, also thought that his duel with the Denver team should have been postponed, although his seems more reasonable. In Pamplona everyone competed under the same conditions, in the city of Pennsylvania, no.
The Nuggets drew on their stars this past Saturday. But Anaïs Nin already wrote it, “life shrinks or expands in proportion to the courage of each one”.
Instead of complaining and making excuses, Rivers’s pupils fought to the last breath. They lost with dignity (103-115). In the absence of his two All Stars – Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid – as well as Tobias Harris and Seth Curry, the only one from the starting five on the court was Danny Green. So three rookies Rookies Tyrese Maxey, Isaiah Joe and Dakota Mathias played at least 41 minutes boldly.
Fresh blood. All three took their opportunity, especially Maxey, who last season belonged to the University of Kentucky Wildcats, with 39 points.
If something reminds of the Disney bubble, it is that the pavilions are empty. If something has also made the reality clear, it is that, paraphrasing Mark Twain, some wrote the Stephen Curry obituary too early. The San Francisco Bay Warriors are a long way from the sweeping team they were. But Curry is still Curry: a bubble.
