Sports radio can be a lot of things. Some days it’s simply hardcore sports talk. Some days it is guys, and maybe a few gals, having a good time with very little sports. And some days, sports radio is just a big, long therapy session. When I tuned in to the WIP Morning Show with DeCamara & Ritchie in Philadelphia the day after the 76ers ended their playoff series against the New York Knicks, I had a pretty good idea which one I was in for.
If you are from other parts of the country, you may not know this, so let me let you in on a little secret: people from Philadelphia do not handle losing well. With the 76ers, however, they are getting quite used to it when it comes to the postseason. Including this year, the team has lost in the last seven NBA postseasons either in the first or second round. So, I wanted to see how Philadelphia would handle a good, old fashioned, therapy session when I eavesdropped in on the show.
The show started out much how you would expect. Joe DeCamara, who is the strong leading voice of the morning crew which also consists of former NFL fullback Jon Ritchie along with James Seltzer and Rhea Hughes, let the listeners know this would be a day all about the Sixers.
“The Sixers season came to an end after a very compelling series with the Knicks,” DeCamara said. “There is an unbelievable amount to unpack. A little about the Phils and Eagles..but today is mostly a Sixers day.” DeCamara gave out the phone numbers several times in order to let the listeners know today was mostly about them and the lines would be open throughout the show for them to add their takes.
Jon Ritchie added, “Ancient people slept on pillows that were made of stone. I think a lot of us felt that way last night.”
“This one is heavy on the heart and big on the mind,” DeCamara said before they got into all of the various things they wanted to get off their chest about this iteration of the franchise that has not won an NBA championship since 1983, prior to the arrival of Charles Barkley.
Barkley, Allen Iverson and Joel Embiid’s names would be mentioned a bit as the show would go along. Many of the callers seem to believe the Sixers will not be able to win a championship with Embiid as their lead player, similar to the fate of Barkley and Iverson.
A few times, the topic of potentially trading the big man came up. DeCamara was very clear on his stance on that, saying, “Here’s my big picture. Do not, and I repeat, do not trade Joel Embiid. He can be here for the next five [years] or so. I believe your window in the next three years is still real. The objective, to me, is to build around Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.”
One player the hosts, and the entire city for that matter, do want to get rid of is Tobias Harris, who started in Game 6 and gave the 76ers exactly the same amount of points the WIP Morning Show gave them in the game, zero. Fortunately for Philadelphia, the five-year, $180 million contract Harris signed in 2019 will soon expire. Several of the callers and the hosts gave Harris the ‘Philadelphia treatment,’ with a few just flat out blaming him for the loss.
DeCamara went all in on Harris, saying, “Of all the bad contracts in the history of Philadelphia sports—Bryzgalov, Lance Parrish, Nnamdi, Carson…there is NO DOUBT Tobias Harris is number one. He may be number one 50 years from now!”
As for Embiid, who had 39 points and 13 rebounds in the final game, there were very mixed reviews on his performance in this series. Embiid, the reigning league MVP, has been injured with a tear in his meniscus since February. The morning show team went back and forth several times about whether or not they believe Embiid is still physically hurt, or more mentally having trouble going 100% coming back from the injury.
In fact, playing hard and effort was a big part of the discussion this morning as the hosts did not think a few of the players went all out, while the Knicks showed incredible passion and ‘want to’ which ultimately made the difference in the series.
Throughout the show the show played audio clips from the likes of Embiid, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse and they had audio from the TNT postgame show with Charles Barkley weighing in. I appreciated how the show would play a clip and then bring it back later in the show as they realized, especially after a playoff game ended near midnight, that many in the listening audience didn’t hear the clip in the 6 o’clock hour. DeCamara, noting the importance of the audio clips, would later thank producer Joe Wechter for having those ready.
I also liked how they used Ritchie during the show. Having been in pro sports locker rooms and knowing the scenarios, DeCamara asked Ritchie to talk about what it might be like for someone like Embiid, trying to play through whatever he is going through and putting up 39 and 13 in a must-win game, and then sitting across from someone like Tobias Harris who had let the team down. Having someone on the show who had been there to give that perspective was excellent.
Something else the show did throughout was update their sponsored ‘Twitter Poll,’ which of course was related to the series. “What emotion are you feeling most about the end of the Sixers season? Angry, disappointed, frustrated and sad were the response options and after over 3,500 votes, ‘disappointed’ was the winner at over 40%.
Another sore point for the group was the decision by head coach Nick Nurse not to play Buddy Hield in the third quarter. Hield, who had not performed well in the series, hit 5 of 7 three-pointers in the first half on his way to scoring 17 points before halftime. Even during the sports updates in between segments, Rhea Hughes would point out Nurse not going to Hield at all in the pivotal third quarter.
“If it were Doc Rivers doing that, he would be getting buried,” Hughes later said in one of the segments.
Of course, when a season comes to an end, it is time to start speculating about what will happen in the future as they look to rebound next season. One name kept coming up as the show went along as someone who might be able to bring a championship culture to the organization -Lebron James. Several times it was mentioned the amount of cap space the team will have and there were a few moments the group allowed themselves to fantasize about the four-time NBA champion coming in, along with his son, and getting the team across the finish line.
“I would target LeBron James as hard as possible, and I would try to lessen the burden on Joel,” DeCamara said. “I would try to lessen the burden on Maxey, and I would have LeBron, Maxey and Embiid try to win a title.”
That cap situation will most likely give Philadelphia sports radio plenty to talk about over the next several months.
For four hours on this day, the WIP Morning Show provided therapy to their city. You could almost hear them collectively hit all five of the stages of grief in the four hours of the show. The show did not try and do too much and they cut out some of their regular segments on a Friday, to give the city a chance to decompress while DeCamara, Ritche, Seltzer and Hughes were right there with them every step of the way.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
