We have reached the 21st Century’s quarter pole, an ideal time to assess an NBA team’s fortunes over the past 25 years. And the Sixers can be summed up as follows:
Meh.
Their regular-season win-loss record for the century is 960-1,071. They have made 15 playoff appearances, only one of which extended past the second round. There have been 11 winning seasons, 12 losing seasons and two break-even seasons.
There have been 11 head coaches (including interims) and countless players. Gold star if you remember
Derrick McKey playing for the Sixers in 2001-02. Same if you recall
Corliss Williamson passing through town in ’04-05. Or that a second
Bobby Jones was on the roster in ‘06-07.
There was the parade of mediocrity (to be charitable) during The Process years, when the Sixers employed
Henry Sims,
Casper Ware,
Alexey Shved and many, many others. And there have been the frustrations surrounding such things as the shooting ability of
Ben Simmons and
Markelle Fultz and the health of
Joel Embiid. Perhaps you’ve heard.
By my count Embiid has missed time with over a dozen different afflictions. Now that he’s north of age 30, it is unlikely that that situation will improve markedly.
What follows is my attempt to rank the 25 teams of the last 25 years. You can probably guess which teams rank highest and lowest, but in between there is a whole lotta meh.
25. ’15-16 (10-72)
Pretty easy call. The only NBA team to ever compile a worse 82-game record was that ’72-73 Sixers bunch, which went 9-73. But that team was very likely better than this one. I mean, the long-ago club had a Hall of Famer in
Hal Greer – a Hall of Famer who seldom played that year, but a Hall of Famer nonetheless – and a handful of others who were All-Stars at some point in their careers. The ’15-16ers were led in scoring by
Jahlil Okafor. ‘Nuff said.
(Also, the Colangelos arrived in December 2015, beginning the downward spiral toward Burnergate.)
(Embiid injury: stress fracture, right foot; DNP.)
24. ’24-25 (24-58)
The season began with championship hopes. It ended with hopes only of retaining a lottery pick. That mission was accomplished, and maybe
VJ Edgecombe will be worth all the trouble. Or maybe it won’t matter, considering the infirmities of Embiid and
Paul George.
(Embiid injuries: left knee rehab; sinus fracture; played 19 games.)
23. ’14-15 (18-64)
Tony Wroten was an all-over-the-place kinda guard, someone who would try anything and live with the results. As coach Brett Brown put it at the time, Wroten was
“not gonna die wondering.” Wroten, 22 at the time, was averaging a team-best 16.9 points a game when he blew out a knee in January 2015. He played eight more NBA games in ’15-16, and has since played overseas, most recently
in Iceland.
(Embiid injury: stress fracture, right foot; DNP)
22. ’13-14 (19-63)
It’s hard to remember now, but the Sixers actually started out 3-0, with the first of those victories over the defending-champion Heat. That also happened to be
Michael Carter-Williams‘ debut, and he played what was almost certainly the best game of his career: 22 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds and nine steals. MCW wound up the Rookie of the Year, but because of injuries never approached those heights again during a nine-year NBA run. Now he’s
dabbling in boxing.
21. ’09-10 (27-55)
On media day, new coach
Eddie Jordan arrayed a bunch of media dweebs on the floor at PCOM to demonstrate the Princeton offense popularized by the legendary Pete Carril. Somehow Inquirer beat writer Kate Fagan, who had played Division I ball, wasn’t among them. At any rate, the offense that day didn’t look all that much worse than the one the Sixers ran during the season, and Jordan was gone soon after.
20. ’12-13 (34-48)
At the end of the season, departing coach
Doug Collins admitted he had checked out around Christmas time. Lovely. Also, noted bowler
Andrew Bynum will surely be ramping up any day now.
19. ’03-04 (33-49)
Cameos all around this season. By
Randy Ayers, who lasted 52 games as head coach, never to assume such a position in the NBA again. By
Chris Ford, who succeeded Ayers; it was the last of 10 seasons he was a head coach in the Association. And by
Glenn Robinson, who was another in a long line of
Allen Iverson sidekicks. Over 42 games the Big Dog averaged 16.6 points in his only season in Philadelphia, a career low to that point, and was out of the league after playing nine games for San Antonio in ’04-05.
18. ’06-07 (35-47)
From afar, it was always evident that
Andre Miller was a good player. But it wasn’t until the Sixers acquired him in exchange for Iverson in December 2006 that the full extent of his abilities became evident. How he had one of the great old-man games of all time, augmented by one of the great on-court IQs of all time. “As a player his intellect and understanding of the game is above and beyond – the highest,” Jim Lynam, then an assistant and now a broadcaster,
told me two years ago. There wasn’t much else going on with this group, but Miller was a revelation.
17. ’05-06 (38-44)
Maurice Cheeks was a Hall of Fame point guard and has been a long-time NBA assistant. But he was not a good head coach, going 305-315 while heading three teams over nine seasons, including 122-147 in three-plus years as the Sixers’ boss. And he never seemed quite so defeated as he did when Iverson and
Chris Webber showed up less than an hour before the team’s final home game this season – Fan Appreciation Night. Cheeks stammered out some half-answers when asked about their tardiness, then slumped in his office chair as the media pack dispersed, having told everyone, “I’m done.” (Footnote: In a larger sense he was not, lasting two-plus seasons beyond this one in the job. But Iverson and Webber were jettisoned early in ’06-07.)
16. ’07-08 (40-42)
Somehow this group built a two-games-to-one lead over a 59-win Detroit outfit in a first-round series. Then the Pistons got serious, winning the last three games by a combined 49 points.
15. ’08-09 (41-41)
Seasons like this are the best argument for The Process. Yes, the Sixers played better after Tony DiLeo replaced Cheeks early on, going 32-27 under the interim boss. But it was obvious they were never going anywhere. And indeed they fell in six games to Orlando in the first round. Yawn.
14. ’10-11 (41-41)
Started 3-13 before finding their footing.
Elton Brand, who had come over as a free agent two years earlier, enjoyed his best season in Philadelphia – 15 ppg, 8.3 rpg – but it was clear he was far from the 20-and-10 guy he had been earlier in his career, having suffered an Achilles tear his final season with the Clippers (’07-08).
13. ’19-20 (43-30)
The season, already wonky because of COVID, lurched to a conclusion in the Bubble, with a first-round sweep by Boston. And to this day, it’s fair to wonder if
Al Horford was a double-agent sent by the Ghost of Red Auerbach.
(Embiid injury: sprained left shoulder; torn ligament, left ring finger; played 51 games)
12. ’01-02 (43-39)
The post-Finals hangover was considerable. Iverson and
Aaron McKie delayed offseason surgeries until shortly before training camp and missed some games out of the gate, leading to an 0-5 start for a team that had opened the previous season with 10 straight victories. The Sixers were eliminated by Boston in the first round, but at least AI blessed us with his memorable “practice” rant when it was all over.
11. ’04-05 (43-39)
This was the first of
Andre Iguodala‘s 19 seasons in the league, and given what happened later in his career – i.e., four titles with Golden State as a complementary player to
Stephen Curry,
Klay Thompson and (briefly)
Kevin Durant – he might be a Hall of Famer. My own .02 is that he is one of the best perimeter defenders I’ve ever seen, a guy who because of his athleticism and smarts held his own against the
Kobe Bryants and
Paul Pierces of the world.
10. ’16-17 (28-54)
The first glimpse we had of Embiid was a 31-game cameo this season, and he did not disappoint. Suddenly the team seemed to be on an upward trajectory. Suddenly The Process seemed to be Processing, which is why I would rank this team above some that finished with superior records. Also, remember how we all thought
Dario Saric was gonna be a franchise pillar? Good times. (Footnote: He actually finished second in Rookie of the Year voting this season, one spot ahead of Embiid.)
(Embiid injury: torn meniscus, left knee.)
9. ’02-03 (48-34)
This was the last of six seasons
Larry Brown coached in Philadelphia – the longest he coached anywhere – and it’s notable that he coaxed 48 victories out of this bunch. Iverson (“the little kid,” in Brownspeak) was as good as ever, and somehow the Sixers got by with
Derrick Coleman masquerading as a center. But then again, Brown was always a big DC guy.
8. ’17-18 (52-30)
In the end, the Man Bun prevailed. You might remember that the closing game of a second-round series against Boston ended with the ball in Embiid’s hands on the left block. All that stood between him and the game-tying basket was
Aron Baynes, a 6-10, 260-pound New Zealander who Embiid derided as “Man Bun” because of his hairdo. With the clock ticking down they hammered away at each other, and Baynes probably got away with a foul as Embiid rose to fire. His shot spilled out. No whistle. Sixers lose. Drive home safely, if you drove.
(Embiid injury: fractured left orbital bone; concussion; played 63 games.)
7. ’11-12 (35-31)
Took advantage of Chicago’s injuries to win a first-round series, and if not for some clutch 3-point sniping by
Rajon Rondo (?) in Game 7 might have stolen a conference semifinal series from Boston. The team teardown commenced afterward, but what are we to make of the four rings Iguodala has since won, or the two won by
Jrue Holiday? Or that
Nikola Vucevic (who somehow fell behind
Lavoy Allen on the depth chart this season) has since become a double-double machine while playing for Orlando and Chicago? Is it not possible there was more here than met the eye?
6. ’23-24 (47-35)
Tobias Harris‘ stat line in Game 6 of the first-round ouster against the Knicks still boggles the mind: two shots and zero points in 29:20. Yes, the Sixers got hosed at the end of Game 2. And yes, Embiid’s
on-court conduct, as when he tackled
Mitchell Robinson, invites scrutiny. But goodness, how is Tobias such a complete no-show in a closeout game? It’s one thing if you miss shots, quite another if you don’t even bother to attempt them.
(Embiid injuries: torn meniscus, left knee; Bell’s Palsy; played 39 games.)
5. ’21-22 (51-31)
The
Jimmy Butler saga came full circle this season, as he led the Heat to a second-round victory over the Sixers, who by this point featured
James Harden as Embiid’s primary sidekick. Butler scored 32 in the clincher. Harden, acquired earlier in the season for Simmons, managed 11. “I’m sure since we got him, everybody expected the Houston James Harden,” Embiid
told reporters afterward. “But that’s not who he is anymore.”
(Embiid injuries: right orbital fracture; mild concussion; COVID; played 68 games.)
4. ’20-21 (49-23)
As we all remember, the season boiled down to Simmons passing when he should have gone hard to the rim, and the Sixers, the East’s top seed, dropping a winnable Game 7 to Atlanta at home – a game, by the way, in which Hawks star
Trae Young shot 5-for-23. Hey, but we’ll always have Simmons’ summer workout videos to cherish.
(Embiid injury: torn meniscus, right knee; bone bruise, left knee; played 51 games.)
3. ’22-23 (54-28)
Up 3-2 in the conference semis and playing a potential closeout game against Boston at home, the Sixers fully Sixered.
Jayson Tatum, 1-for-14 until late, warmed to the task, and Philly missed nine straight shots in crunch time. And the less said about Game 7, the better. Embiid was named MVP, which was nice, but by this point the fan base was expecting more from the team as a whole.
(Embiid injury: sprained left knee; sprained right knee; played 66 games)
2. ’18-19 (51-31)
Featured the club’s best starting five of the Millennium. But the bench? Yuck. Shoutout to
Greg Monroe, who was somehow a minus-9 in 1:41 of Game 7 of the Eastern semis against Toronto – i.e., the
Kawhi Leonard game. And for the series, the Sixers were plus-89 when Embiid was on the floor, minus-108 when he was not.
(Embiid injury: tendinitis, left knee; illness; played 64 games.)
1. ’00-01 (56-26)
Other teams on this list were better man for man, but none had Brown and Iverson, the best coach and player the franchise have had to offer to this point in the century. Nor has any other club been blessed with the same kind of mojo. Then-Milwaukee coach
George Karl called those Sixers “a proud team” before the Bucks met them in the Eastern Conference Finals, and as Morgan Freeman has said, “That’s goddamn right.”
Get busy living, or get busy dying? They did the former until running into Shaq and Kobe in the Finals. And even then they stole Game 1, which came to be known for
one of AI’s signature moments. There’s been little to write home about since.
EDGECOMBE 
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