This is just a heads up for Philadelphia 76ers fans. If you feel like Andres Nocioni is simply going through the motions every time he steps onto the basketball court, it’s probably because he is. If he gives you the impression that he cares about the game as much as an office worker cares about their 9:00-5:00, 40-hour per week job, it’s because he probably does. How do we know all this? Because Nocioni basically said it after he won the Super 8 tournament in Argentina.
“It’s just that one must not forget what the essence of this sport is,” Nocioni said according to Hoops Hype. “As much as I play in another world, I like this. I’m very much a small-town man. I’m happy in this atmosphere, with people shouting and supporting us, with the respect showed by my teammates, playing with friends like Leo Gutiérrez and Sergio Hernández. I enjoyed this much more than I would winning an NBA title. I’m happy like this, here I play because I like it and I can feel it, there in the United States I play because it’s my job.”
In an era where fans are constantly complaining about overpaid athletes who don’t care, that probably isn’t the most encouraging thing to hear. We commend Nocioni for the honesty, but fans want to hear that a player’s career goal is to win a title for their team and that playing for their team is about much more than just the money. Clearly, Sixers fans aren’t going to get that from Andres. What they will get is an emotionless six points per game off the bench. Isn’t that enough?
Chest bump to I Am a GM for passing the quote along.
