There used to be a clear divide among Sixers fans when it came to the subject of rebuilding: you either wanted them to tear it down, or you thought they were close enough to Memphis their way into a semi-contender. Mostly, the latter group didn't want to have to watch the Sixers do exactly what they're doing right now. The level of baldness in the Sixers rebuilding effort is maximum bald. Stone Cold bald. For various reasons, that sets people off on a national and local level. But mostly, Sam Hinkie and co. are simply the butt of a joke on Twitter or waiting for your sandwich at John's Roast Pork or in line to sing Ja Rule & Ashanti at Rotten Ralph's.

And we the Sixers faithful mighty morph into our collective Megazord robot to swarm and attack infidels spouting anti-Sixers propaganda and/or bad jokes. It happens regularly, and it should probably stop.

Look, I'm guilty too -- it's just so easy to be sucked into a passive-aggressive pissing contest with someone who doesn't buy into what the Sixers are doing. Most people's arguments are flawed and can simply be broken down into "well, I just don't like it and I think it's going to fail", which is not an argument at all, but a discomfort with, as Seth Rosenthal of Posting & Toasting called it to me on his couch while his dog Trudy dove headfirst into my nards, "punching a hole through the NBA's loophole." It feels cheap to them, it feels like bullshit, and when you're as excited about the rebuilding process as we are (picks! assets! developmental patience!), it doesn't take much devil's advocating for us to get tanking beer muscles about the whole thing.

But it should stop. We don't want to become the self-righteous fanbase. We don't want to become those guys. I typed and deleted like fifteen examples of who those guys are (one included Gordon Wood), but you don't need it. You know who we're in danger of becoming. And I don't want that to happen, because Sixers fans -- more than most other fans because there are so few of us still clinging onto this basketball team after years of ineptitude -- are usually pretty okay.

Most of us agree with what the Sixers are doing, which is cool and good and a feeling I'm still not used to feeling since 95% of my life was spent waiting for Jason Kapono's contract to go off the books. But what they're doing now isn't what everyone else should be doing or even the Right Way to do it -- it's just the way that made the most sense for this franchise. And they'll succeed or they'll fail and people will react one way or the other. Don't let yourself get trolled into an argument you don't need to have. Don't call people out for not knowing who Robert Covington is -- they don't need to know who Robert Covington is. We can fuck the haters without actually going out and fucking the haters, you know?

Save your breath for a few years down the line when we can argue about playoff matchups and Joel Embiid's MVP candidacy. It's not worth antagonizing ourselves now when they're still real bad and will be for at least another year or two. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Team Chill?