For those who closely follow NBA news, or for those who don’t, you may or may not have heard that, for at least one game this season, the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets Fighting Prokhorovs agreed to feature game jerseys with an unconventional twist to them. Instead of the normal last name on the back of the jersey, each player will get to select a nickname to be displayed in its place.  Finally! The NBA has answered the prayers of many and we will at last be able to see Ray Allen wear the jersey of his Hollywood alter ego, famed fictional baller Jesus Shuttlesworth from the movie He Got Game. Other monikers that will be seen include LeBron James as King James, Dwyane Wade as Flash, Chris Andersen as Birdman, Kevin Garnett as either KG or Big Ticket, and Paul Pierce as The Truth. It’s a different approach to the way the game is marketed, appealing to a younger generation of fans.

Although unpopular at the time, fans are slowly coming to grip with losing first time all-star Jrue Holiday in the draft day trade to New Orleans. In return, they have received some very valuable assets in Nerlens Noel and the Pelicans' (it’s still weird to think that an NBA team willingly chose that as their nickname) first round pick in next year’s draft. 

Everyone has heard about the high-profile draft day move that sent Jrue Holiday, the teams' lone all star,  to New Orleans. That franchise-altering day has been discussed to death. But there are other players that the Sixers lost to free agency that may also impact the future of the team.

Ten, nine, eight, seventy-six…losses seems like an all but assured result for the Sixers this upcoming season. Forgoing success, or even mediocrity, in the 2013-14 season, newly hired GM Sam Hinkie is setting his sights on future prosperity by ridding the team of any veterans who do not project to be key contributors down the road. While an obvious tank job on Hinkie’s part, he is quickly showing Philadelphia, and the rest of the NBA, that he means business when he talks about bringing a championship to Philadelphia.