PHILADELPHIA — For nearly a month now, the energy had been building. It began as it often does: first hope, then expectation, then demand, then desperation, all of it underpinned by the flippant defiance of a city that has long prided itself on its opposition to the world.
To understand the energy, you need to understand this foundation. Sports in this town are as much a neurosis as they are a form of entertainment. Philly versus Everybody is not just a T-shirt. It is an identity. And, like a lot of identities, it is a veil for a deeper truth. Because what Philly loves more than anything is when Everybody jumps on board.
On Wednesday night, the top finally blew off. After four years of losing, and four years of angst, and six months of rejection by a player to whom the city had offered its world, and two weeks of hectic trade-deadline maneuvering followed by another two weeks of waiting, the saturation point arrived in the form of a standing-room-only-party where the seats were only nominally for sitting down.
