The Best Thing That Happened This Week: Jahlil Okafor’s NBA Debut

The Sixers' rookie center scored 26 points, 10 of them in the first six minutes.
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76ers center Jahlil Okafor shoots the ball against Boston Celtics forward Amir Johnson during the first half at Verizon Wireless Arena.

76ers center Jahlil Okafor shoots the ball against Boston Celtics forward Amir Johnson during the first half at Verizon Wireless Arena.

It’s a tribute to the unfathomable depths of the cynicism of Philadelphia sports fans that following the remarkable NBA debut of Sixers center Jahlil Okafor — he scored 26 points, 10 of them in the first six minutes — the conspiracy theorists were already hard at work. So what if Okafor’s point total was the third most ever for a Sixers rookie, behind, oh, only some guy named Allen Iverson and somebody known as Jerry Stackhouse? So what if those 26 points were the most ever scored by a rookie NBA center, other than basketball footnote Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? The ever-present haters claim the team is force-feeding the ball to their new big man to inflate his numbers so he’ll make a run at Rookie of the Year and fill the echoing empty seats at the, um, It-That-Will-Not-Be-Named Center. Listen, Cynical Philly Fan. We know it hasn’t been easy with the Eagles. We feel how the Phils have hurt you. But daggummit, back off and let the young man have his moment in the sun!

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