76ers players and fans irate about Knicks supporters taking over their arena during the NBA playoffs apparently have their own organization to blame.
According to longtime Philadelphia radio host and sports anchor Howard Eskin, the Sixers are putting tickets up for sale online above face value with the hope that Knicks fans will pony up for them.
“There’s been a lot of bitching by Philadelphia fans and some #Sixers players about the Sixers home games being overrun by #NYKnicks fans,” Eskin wrote on X Sunday night, hours after Knicks fans made themselves heard during the Knicks’ Game 4 win. “The Sixer organization is in BIG part to blame. Your 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Sixers, 10, 9 , 8, 76ers put thousands of tickets on the ticket sites, and above retail prices knowing Knicks fans will buy them. The organization will likely push back on this, but for that organization it’s all about making every dollar. I have checked this out it’s fact, and they do know those stinkin New York fans will be buying them. So if Sixers players are pissed, blame your own organization.”
The Sixers stunned the Knicks with a comeback win Tuesday night at the Garden to cut their series deficit to 3-2 and force a Game 6 Thursday night back in Philly, where they hope the scene will be different than it was Sunday.
Knicks chants were inescapable during Jalen Brunson’s record-setting 47-point effort in Game 4, for which team legend John Starks was sitting courtside.
Sixers star Joel Embiid was unhappy about it afterward.
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“I’ve never seen it, and I’ve been here for 10 years,” Embiid said Sunday. “Yeah, it kind of pisses me off, especially because Philly is considered a sports town. They’ve always shown up and I don’t think that should happen. Yeah. It’s not OK.”
Dawn Staley, the Hall of Fame player fresh off of coaching the South Carolina women’s basketball team to an undefeated season and national title, is a Philadelphia native and attended Sunday’s game.
She took to social media after Tuesday’s game to implore 76ers fans to not sell their tickets for Game 6.
“I need the @WellsFargoCtr full of @sixers fans….season tickets holders DO NOT SELL YOUR TICKETS to Knicks fans,” Staley wrote on X. “I repeat DO NOT SELL YOUR TICKERS to Knicks fans! Pour into our @sixers! We can really do this ish man!!!”
Rapper Lil Dicky’s message to 76ers fans Tuesday night was a bit more concise.
“Sixers fans stop selling your f–king tickets and show up for game f–king 6,” he wrote on X.
