Polarized.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Scanning the news headlines this morning, my wife reported to me that a plot to assassinate Barack Obama was broken up by Federal agents yesterday.

After a reflexive ache in my chest faded, I responded, “Well, that was inevitable. He’s such a —” I was going to say, “polarizing character.” But I stopped myself, realizing how ridiculous that would sound. Like there are millions of Americans pacing around right now, chewing their fingernails, thinking: “Goddamn you, Obama, and your universal health care!”

But in reality, he is a polarizing character, insofar as his race. Sadly, 40 years after MLK gave that historic speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, ours is still a nation that, to a large degree, refuses to judge a man by the content of his character, but rather by the irrelevant color of his skin.

Yes, this is obvious. But for awhile, I’d forgotten about that truth. This morning, I was again reminded.

There’s a cold storm falling on Philadelphia today. And with my eyes reopened, the darkened sky seems all the more dreary.

Hoops will have to wait...

Bill Simmons, Allen Iverson, Elton Brand, etc., will have to wait till tomorrow.

For now, let's channel our karmic energies into support for the Phils. It's been 25 years since this fine city had a world championship in any sport. (Man, read that sentence again. That's just awful. We deserve better. This ain't Cleveland.)

Some of Tug McGraw's ashes were scattered on the mound the other night. I love that. I love that Tim McGraw and the Phillies organization took steps to tie the past with the present. (I also love how Lefty threw out the first pitch the other night. Am I the only one who sees shadows of Carlton in Cole Hamels?)

Anyway...

May Hamels throw 10 Ks tonight. May our bats be mighty. May the Fightin' Phils live up to their name.

(Man, I love October. Go Phils!)

What can we reasonably expect?

The SportsGuy, Bill Simmons, as a part of his recent fantasy basketball article said that Elton Brand looked terrible in the preseason. Then he re-emphasized terrible. Then he said the following:

"Again, that Sixers team worries me. Too many expectations, too many guys making big money, too many guys who have never won anything, not enough crunch-time guys ... and here's Miller entering a contract season without an extension after everyone else got paid. Yikes."

Have we been drinking the Kool-Aid? Cus personally, I'm still hyped and can't seem to talk myself out of my enthusiasm.

Here is wassup.

This is awesome. Just awesome.

The NBA: Where legends dying in a very public, ugly way happens

Apparently, on Friday police in West Chester, NY filed a report that a 47 year old male was taken from Isiah Thomas' house due to an overdose of sleeping pills. When asked by reporters about the incident Thomas denied it was him. He claimed instead it was his 17 year old daughter who had the accidental overdose. Thomas' son, Joshua (20) confirmed his dad's story. West Chester police when asked again about the report said they couldn't imagine why Thomas would try to "throw his daughter under the bus", but that they "know the difference between a 47 year old black male and a young black female".

Honestly, I don't know whether to rant, make a joke or just take a moment of silence. I'm just gonna' leave it for a moment. But I mean, damn. If Zeke did really frame his daughter to protect his own image, what do you say about a guy like that beyond the obvious? If true, you're gonna' watch his games on Classic with a different eye now. He may as well have been using steroids. His character issues are that distorting.

Hindsight is 20/20

As we head into the 2008-2009 basketball season, how would you say we did in the Allen Iverson trade? When it happened, you thought we got 40 cents on the dollar. What would you call it now?

The Big Questions.

Here’s our boy Brand, straight making the fool out of Jermaine O’Neal. Nasty, indeed.



So, the big questions:

1. How much of a difference does Brand make?
2. Will Iggy finally make “the leap” this year?
3. What kind of evolutions can we expect from Thaddeus and Louis?
4. ‘Dre: is he staying?
5. Assuming we can now play both in transition and in the half court (the latter thanks to Brand), can we beat Cleveland, Detroit and Boston, respectively, in a multi-game playoff series?