Live Another Day, Thanks to TJ

During this heart-wrenching Eastern Conference Semis series against the Celtics, we have been humbled in a big way. A painstaking way. Yet, while I’d rather not watch 56 year old, Al Horford seal an overtime win with a steal, we needed that to get back to our roots. In Game 4, with this mesmerizing season on the line, who else but TJ McConell brought us back.




Long before we were ever favorites to win a playoff series, only one thing was constant with this team: losing. A lot of losing. As the Sixers sit down 3-1 in the series after a 103-92 victory over the Celtics, it takes me back to a year ago and the final unofficial year of The Process.

 

Specifically, it took me back to the TJ buzzer beating game winner over the Knicks. Fucking TJ McConell. The win that night injected both hope and excitement into our veins that had been infected by losing related negativity. That night against the Knicks, as TJ sunk a turnaround jumper over Carmelo Anthony, there was a hope for a better tomorrow while enjoying today.




The today was obvious: Sam Hinkie ‘liking’ the video of TJ’s buzzer-beater was a subtle moment that only Sixers fans alike could appreciate the magnitude of. The whole moment promoted an outside hope that we could somehow catch the 8 seed. Although unrealistic at the time, it was something to believe in while we were grasping for ANYTHING to believe in. Now, as we try to claw back from a deficit no NBA team has ever come back from, we have that same glimmer of hope. The tomorrow has remained the same: we are going to be okay, our future is bright. When TJ hit that shot against the Knicks, you realized a core of Process players, including Embiid who grabbed TJ’s stone cold face, were going to win a lot of games in this city for a very long time. As TJ McConnell contributed a career high of 19 points tonight to save the season, it was easier to walk away knowing it’s all going to be okay and our future will still be glorious.




So, we live to see another day. Who knows where we go from here and maybe we only live until Wednesday. But, a night like tonight, where TJ McConnell is the star in front of the whole nation, we are reminded of why this was such a fun cult-like movement to begin with, and why this is only just the beginning.

 

Do I think we have a chance? I may be delusional but, yes. Game 5 will be the toughest game this lovable Sixers crew plays all season. If they get over that hump, I like our chances. The game plan to attack the paint both off the dribble and with post touches was very effective and was a great counter to what Boston has been doing defensively. Plus, as it turns out, the guy we needed to breakdown defenders off the dribble, the final piece, was TJ along.




Fucking TJ.

 



By Aidan Powers | May 7, 2018