MVN: Most Valuable Network

As I've been paying a close eye to the Iguodala situation (with the latest proposal being five years, 72.6 million), I've come to realize that he is under appreciated around here. Of course, that's nothing new with Philadelphia sports fans. We've gained a reputation as being a tough sports town. We ride our stars and superstars hard and end up riding them right out of town.

Andre Iguodala is a star, but not a superstar. Whether he can become a superstar in the future is something that most people feel would be unlikely. Regardless, he was the focal point of the revitalized Sixers last year and it's been a long maturation process from when he first came into the league as a tenative rookie.

I'm afraid that the criticisms of the fan base are once again going to come back to haunt us. We end up not fully appreciating a player until after they're already gone or they've won a championship or competed at that level. Unfortunately, when it's both cases, the first case happens before the second and they are competing for a title with a different team.

There's been a few cases of players who didn't win titles in Philadelphia, but took us to the championship game and earned our respect in the process. Terrell Owens had a great 2004 season with the Eagles and came back early to star in Super Bowl XXXIX, although his efforts went in vain. Allen Iverson took an unlikely group of blue collar basketball players to the NBA Finals in 2001 and stole Game 1 from the Lakers in L.A. That 1993 Philadelphia Phillies team earned our respect too, save Mitch Williams and his home run ball to Joe Carter.

Then there's the guy who should have had our respect, but earned more appreciation after leaving Philadelphia and taking opposing teams to contend for the title. The year after the Sixers traded him, Charles Barkley won MVP honors and took the Suns to the NBA Finals in 1993. They ended up losing to the Bulls in six games.

Others have won titles after leaving Philadelphia, although they had the respect of the fanbase here prior to becoming champions. Darren Daulton and Jim Eisenreich won the World Series with the Marlins in 1997. Reggie White won Super Bowl XXXI for the Packers. I'm sure there's some application for the Flyers here, but it escapes me completely.

Between Rocky and Billy Penn, there's quite a shadow cast over this town. Actually, you can blame One Liberty Place and Two Liberty Place. That is if you believe Darren Daulton.

For a player who represents the city of brotherly love, the only thing you can do is leave it all on the field, court, ice or diamond. Philly fans just want you to give it your all. Sometimes, your all is not enough though.

Ultimately, it all comes down to championships. It's hard to judge the individual based on team performance, but champions understand what it takes. What Philly fans want to know more than anything else about a player is whether they have what it takes to become a champion.

That is the ultimate question in determining Andre Iguodala's value. There are plenty of other metrics to determine his value, and Depressed Fan does a good job of it with the PER metric and comparing salaries, but the true measurement of a player is something you can't measure. You've got to have heart. You can't put a price on that.