PHILADELPHIA — The feelings of disrespect and abandonment work both ways.
As Sixers fans whined on social media about Villanova celebrating its alumni on the Knicks, it’s worth remembering that their hometown organization passed on picking all the drafted members of the two-time NCAA championship crew.
Josh Hart, who was picked 30th by the Lakers in 2017, didn’t forget.
“Yeah, I wanted to go here,” Hart said before the Knicks’ 125-114 Game 3 loss to the 76ers. “They were at 25 and did a draft-and-stash, some European guy that I can’t pronounce the name (Anzejs Pasecniks of Latvia).
“But yeah, this is the place I wanted to go. It was right down the street. But unfortunately they felt like doing a draft-and-stash. Draft night I was a little bummed that 25 came and I wasn’t there.”
A year later, the Sixers, who share a home arena with Villanova on Broad Street, passed once on Donte DiVincenzo and twice on Jalen Brunson.
And in that same draft, the Sixers picked Villanova forward Mikal Bridges but quickly traded him to the Suns for Zhaire Smith, who was ultimately taken one spot ahead of DiVincenzo.
It was almost like the Sixers, whose front office was led by Bryan Colangelo and Brett Brown at the time, were actively avoiding taking any of the players from the program that hung two banners in their arena.
Bridges’ mother worked for the organization and he was still traded on draft night.
Hart, who worked out for the Sixers during the pre-draft process, said he was surprised.
“With the pedigree that we were coming in with, the discipline, the winning mentality that we had — so it was probably a little surprise,” Hart said. “Us being right down the street the pipeline is there. But they felt their organization wanted to go in a different direction.”
None of the players the Sixers drafted in either 2017 or 2018 are still on the roster. They quickly renounced Pasecniks’ draft rights. Smith was most recently in the G-League.
Like Hart, DiVincenzo, a Delaware product, was also hoping to get drafted by Philly.
“Yeah, of course,” said DiVincenzo, who was taken 17th by the Bucks. “You’re going through the process. You go to school. You go to school here or ‘a suburb of Philly,’ or whatever. But when you’re going to school here, grew up in Delaware, half hour away, so obviously that’s kinda where you wanted to go. Then you go through the whole process. You meet with different teams. I’m thankful where I started my career. I think God has a plan and I’m on the exact plan that he has for me.”
DiVincenzo’s path took him to the Knicks, who brought a 2-0 series lead over the Sixers into Wells Fargo Center for Game 3.
The 27-year-old guard hit the big shot to win Monday’s Game 2, which prompted a congratulatory tweet from the Villanova men’s basketball account and backlash from Sixers fans.
The relationship between Philadelphia and Villanova is a little complicated. The campus is located outside the city in the suburbs and is considered the elite private school compared to Temple, which is in North Philadelphia.
But according to the former Villanova players, the city had no problems embracing the Wildcats when they were winning.
“People want to claim Villanova when we were winning championships and representing the city because we played at the Wells Fargo Center and whatnot,” Ryan Arcidiacono, who played with Hart at both Villanova and with the Knicks, told SiriusXM NBA Radio on Thursday. “To be honest, we were holding up the Big 5 basketball [which includes Temple, Drexel, St. Joe’s, Villanova and La Salle] for a while. And then we struggled the last couple years. That’s the Villanova way that we appreciate and hold up the guys who’ve done well. I’m sure whoever is running [the Twitter account] is told, ‘Hey, we need it as a recruiting tactic, too. Look at our guys in the NBA and making impacts at the highest levels at the Garden and bringing pandemonium.’
“But it’s not shade towards Philadelphia at all. Everybody knows I’m from there and I’m a Philadelphia sports fan. But they can’t take that personally. The Knicks and the Villanova guys, they’re making all the 50-50 plays, making huge plays, so I fall in line with Villanova on that end.”
