Dribblings and Scribblings:

…What with the 76ers playing the Hawks in Atlanta this week, it brought to mind the myriad connections between the two clubs. The trade that brought Dikembe Mutombo to the Sixers for Theo Ratliff, Toni Kukoc and Nazr Mohammed is the obvious one. A closer look at the rosters reveals the Sixers Matt Harpring, the Atlanta native who played for Georgia Tech (along with Sixers rookie Alvin Jones, currently on the injured list, who also played at the Atlanta school). On the Hawks side, guard Emanuel Davis is a Philadelphia native who played for the USBL’s Philadelphia Spirit, forward Mark Strickland who played with Aaron McKie at Temple and Atlanta assistant coach Rick Mahorn, a two-time former Sixer player…

…Congratulations to Eric and DeShawn Snow and older brother Eric Jaron on the birth of Darius Michael Snow on December 10. Mom and baby are doing great, and Dad is ready for his first action of the year after a broken left thumb…

…Even though he’s 35 years old, Dikembe Mutombo shows no signs of slowing. He is producing terrific numbers (averaging 13ppg, 13.5rpg and 6bpg), since his 10th career triple-double at Chicago on December 1st. He also playing with pain in both knees as he continues to display the resilience he has shown throughout his NBA career…

…Who’s the second-best per-minute rebounder on the 76ers to team leader Mutombo? It’s not number two rebounder Derrick Coleman, nor even Matt Harpring, who’s averaging a stunning career high eight rebounds per night. It’s free agent signee Michael Ruffin, who’s close to averaging a rebound every 3.1 minutes, right behind Mutombo who’s averaging a carom every 3 minutes…

…When reserve guard Vonteego Cummings dropped a career high 28 points last Saturday night at Memphis, he bested his previous career high of 23 points which he had done three different times before. One of those came during Cummings rookie years with the Golden State Warriors against the 76ers, in which he had a career high five 3-pointers…

…By the way, Cummings first name is quite an original. It seems his mother liked both the Volkswagen and Mercury Montego automobiles. So when it came time to naming her son, she simply took the ‘V” from Volkswagen and used it to replace the ‘M’ in Montego, hence the name ‘Vonteego…’