The Ben Simmons hype in Philadelphia is extremely real. So real that Sixers home games are slowly morphing into Friday Night Football at the MCG.
The 21-year-old Australian gun is having some bloody sort of rookie year so far, dropping historic numbers and putting up the kind of effort you usually don’t expect to see until a player’s third or fourth year.
And the young man’s efforts are being frothed on so hard by fans and officials alike that the Wells Fargo Centre is going full-Straya on game day by offering up piping hot Four N Twenty meat pies.
The humble rat coffin is, as we all know, a long-standing staple of Australian sporting culinary fare, but it’s an utter rarity in American sport arenas, which tends to be more cheese sauce and waffle fry-based. Not remotely a bad thing, mind you. Though it’s all certainly less portable.
But despite America’s insistence that pies are largely dessert-based items (why), Philly is now embracing the savoury meat pockets by slinging out Four N Twenty’s finest during the game, as keen-eyed fans watching home feeds of Sixers games have discovered.
@LeighEllis you better get to a 6ers game! pic.twitter.com/t4R5itr1Pz
— JamesTdiery (@Jtdriceman) November 19, 2017
Four’n Twenty pies advertising at the Sixers v Celtics game?!
Aussies really are taking over! pic.twitter.com/xVS5cc0Xi3— Hayley Wildes (@wildes_hayley) October 20, 2017
“The Great Australian Taste” is an unbelievably bold claim, but it’s good place to start. First you get them hooked on the Four N Twenty’s at the game, and before you know it scores of Pennsylvanians will be riding out the 48 hours before pay day on a four pack of Sergeant’s from the supermarket freezer.
Now all we’ve gotta do is sell ’em on the traditional Bushman’s Breakfast of a coffee, a dart, and a good look around.
It’s happening, mates. We’re taking over.
