By Bert Harbinson / December 23rd, 2021
At the end of PHL IV, we all heard the news of Snakes's and Elbakry's retirement. Snakes leaves the PHL as the all-time leader in games (31), games played (30), losses (17), points against (355), rebounds (168), fouls (48), and fouls drawn (55). In four seasons, Snakes made the playoffs each season and made the Cup Final twice. He was a 2x All-Star, including one ASG win, and a 1x points leader, block leader, and rebounds leader. Snakes led the PHL in fouls drawn all but one season. Snakes had more double-doubles (7) than any other player; he was also the only player to achieve a triple-double, getting two in his four seasons. His retirement leaves Hammer as the only remaining player from the Dead-Ball Era. Minnesota Mystery, Youssuf Elbakry, only played in one season: PHL IV. Elbakry was a captain in the All-Star Game and won ASG MVP. He was the #2-seed and swept Colorado in the Semi-Finals before falling to Howell in the Infinity Cup Final.
In the wake of these two retirements, the League is gaining two expansion teams: Andre Marrou's Albuquerque Coyotes & Jonathan Dolson's Lakeland Destroyers. Albuquerque's logo is a powder blue, red, and black coyote head looking to the right. Lakeland's logo is a blue and orange battleship with three cannons firing basketballs. Albuquerque and Lakeland will join Colorado and Howell for a 10-game fifth season of the Penthouse League. This will be the longest season the PHL has ever had. PHL I was originally going to be 10 games but after Cris's retirement and COVID cutting the season short, no team played more than 9 and the average non-Cris team played only 8.2. The two western teams, Albuquerque & Colorado, will play each other four times, the two eastern teams, Howell & Lakeland, will also play four contests. Every other matchup will occur three times.
Colorado will host the All-Star festivities. Seattle was in-line to host the next ASG but with their retirement the role fell to the Crushers. This will be the third PHL All-Star Game. Zack hosted and won the first game playing with Snakes. Hammer hosted the second game, losing to Elbakry & Stone. This edition is expected to be East vs. West (HWL/LKL vs. ABQ/COL).
The playoff format will be the same as PHL IV. #1 will host #4 in a twice-to-beat (#1 needs one win, #4 needs two wins (both potential games will be hosted by #1)) and #2 will host #3 in a best-of-three. The Infinity Cup Final will still be best-of-five with the higher seed hosting games 1, 2, and 5.
Comentários