Over the course of the 76ers’ four-game, nine-day Western Conference road trip, we’ll be compiling a collection of short stories involving members of the team, and its traveling party.
Be sure to check back regularly for updates to our ‘Reflections From the Road’ series.
• Part I: Hard to Leave Home
THE ALTITUDE, IT’S REAL
You’re covering the visiting team at a sporting event in Denver.
Of course you’ve got to talk about altitude!
The question is truly timeless:
Is altitude for real?, we media types tend to ask athletes when we’re in the Mile High City.
Hey, one way or another, it’s a story, cliched as it may be, that - in the 76ers’ case - comes around once a season.
But seriously, Is altitude for real?
Depends on who you ask.
Poll a few of the Sixers, and the answers vary. The morning of the Sixers’ January 26th match-up with the Nuggets, Brett Brown wondered if too much is made about it. Corey Brewer, who played in Denver for two seasons, thinks a lot of people have to adjust to elevation - just not him. Later in the evening, Ben Simmons noted it was a factor.
One member of the Sixers family, however, has an unequivocal take on the matter.
Alaa Abdelnaby is in his fourth season as the Sixers’ television analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia. Before embarking on a 10-year professional basketball career, he played at Duke from 1986 to 1990. His senior year, the Blue Devils reached the Final Four, which happened to be held at Denver’s old McNichols Sports Arena.
In the National Semifinal against Arkansas, Duke won, with Alaa going for 20 points and 5 rebounds. Two days later, in the Championship Game, the Blue Devils fell to a stacked UNLV squad, 103-73. Alaa finished with 14 points and 7 boards.
Nearly three decades later, he remembers all too well the particular set of circumstances that surrounded that night, and revisited them in good-spirited fashion when the Sixers were in Denver.
To be clear, Alaa wasn’t trying to make excuses. He can joke about the experience now. But make no mistake - his first bout with altitude stuck with him for a while.
What about now, when he calls games, an activity that involves a different type of physical demand? Is altitude still a thing?
Alaa laughed.