Joel Embiid Returns to Action

The Sixers lost to the Knicks in Joel Embiid’s season debut, SEPTA announced new fare increases and service cuts that could complicate 76 Place plans, and the future looks grim for Villanova basketball.

Happy Wednesday?

In the email today:

• 🤕 Joel Embiid Returns to Action in Sixers Loss

• 🚃 SEPTA Announces Proposed Fare Hikes, Service Cuts Just as 76 Place at Market East Hearings Begin

• 🙄 Hawks Beat Wildcats in Holy Skirmish...Because You Really Can't Call It a War Amymore

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Joel Embiid’s season debut proved to be anticlimactic as the 76ers lost to the Knicks on Tuesday, 111-99. The Sixers fell to 2-8.

On Pattison’s Austin Krell’s gave his game thoughts over on the website. Here’s an abbreviated version of his “likes/dislikes” piece:

Likes

Dislikes

To pour a little salt in the wound, the internet clowned Embiid all night over what looked like an egregious flop.

Everyone wants Philadelphia to be a first-rate city, but no one really wants to pay for it.

Previously we covered Mayor Cherelle Parker’s endorsement of 76 Place at Market East, which will provide the Sixers with the downtown arena the team and many of its fans want.

Public hearings on the new arena are underway. The soft part of the schedule begins today, as Sixers team officials are set to both offer testimony and field questions from members of City Council.

The tone of all of this is apt to turn very sour very quickly on or about November 19. That’s when the public gets its chance to be heard, a process set to continue through December 2.

There is significant opposition to 76 Place at Market East, none more pointed than that of Asian Americans United. Per Vivian Chang, “there are issues of public health, issues of transit, SEPTA is in crisis, Jefferson Station will have to be completely redone.”

Ms. Chang…isn’t wrong.

The bullet points here aren’t pretty to anyone who relies on public transit:

• SEPTA Budget Measures: SEPTA announced plans to implement major fare increases and service cuts in 2025 to address its budget deficit.

• Fare Increases: A near-30% fare increase is proposed, combining a 7.5% hike from eliminating discounts in December and an additional 21.5% increase effective January 1, 2025.

  • New Fare Costs:

    • Bus and Metro fares for SEPTA Key, Quick Trip, and cash will increase to $2.90.

    • Regional Rail fare changes by zone:

      • Zone 1: $5

      • Zone 2: $6.50

      • Zone 3: $7.75

      • Zone 4: $8.75

• Service Reductions: SEPTA plans a 20% reduction in service across all modes of transit.

Obviously, the new arena is a long way from being built. But one of the core benefits the Sixers and civic leaders cited in backing 76 Place at Market East is having a venue easily accessed by public transit.

SEPTA’s recent announcement gives activists an obvious and compelling talking point. SEPTA is actively planning on becoming a lot more expensive and a lot less attractive as a means of getting to games. There’s only one way that always turns out.

The parties involved have time to sort all of this out. But if SEPTA cannot be entrusted with getting suburban fans to and from games safely, conveniently and comparatively inexpensively, one of the primary arguments for 76 Place at Market East becomes moot.

A long time ago, Rollie Massimino and Villanova killed the Big 5 because Villanova kept losing games to unranked city teams. So they took their ball and went back to the Main Line.

Villanova’s penance for such hubris was an extended period of irrelevance. From 1991 to 2004, Villanova missed the NCAA Tournament an astonishing nine times and only made it as far as the second round in the few seasons that they made the field.

Then Jay Wright happened. “Bang,” and all that. The Wildcats won two national championships in three years, and Wright took a game-but-flawed team to the Final Four in his last season.

Wright handed his successor, Kyle Neptune, a well-oiled machine. Two years and four games later, look what has become of mighty Villanova.

They used to call this game the “Holy War” since both Villanova and St. Joseph’s are Catholic universities. But wars happen between nations, or at least between divided halves of nations.

Sure, the Hawks won 21 games last season. It wasn’t enough to make the NCAA Tournament coming out of the wreckage that is the A-10. In the four prior campaigns, the Hawks finished below .500, including a five-win season and a six-win season.

Speaking of .500, the Wildcats are now 37-35 under Neptune. Reactions to what he has done to Villanova are consistent with what you might expect.

So you can’t call this game a war anymore. It’s a skirmish. And when Villanova plays offense, it’s a rock fight.

Can Villanova really afford to take this team with this coach into the Big East this season? Four of the current Top 25 teams in the country are in the Big East. If Villanova is going to lose on Hawk Hill, what on Earth is UConn going to do to them?

There’s a Sixers stench on Villanova right now. The main difference is this: We all know Nick Nurse can coach.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

📊 Poll

Results from Tuesday:

🔗 Links

• 📊 Penn State is No. 4 in the nation, but if the season ended today they still wouldn’t get a bye in the NCAA football playoff.

• ⚾️ Bryce Harper picked up his fourth Silver Slugger award.

• 👀 Meanwhile, Alec Bohm might be a trade piece.

• 📺️ Pay-per-view regular season NHL and NBA games are coming.

• ♀️Jayson Tatum is considering putting a WNBA team in St. Louis.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

November 13, 2024

• Cavaliers at Sixers, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

Be sure to follow On Pattison on social media:

• Follow on X

• Follow on Instagram

• Follow on Facebook