For the last three seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers have been the laughing stock of the NBA, compiling wins totals of 19, 18, and 10.
The man who was behind the rebuilding process, Sam Hinkie, made it clear that he was going to do it his way, and if that meant tanking, so be it. Eventually, the tanking got old, and the Sixers’ ownership brought in Jerry Colangelo to help steer the franchise in a better direction.
Hinkie would step down as the team’s general manager in April, leaving the team he had constructed in the hands of a basketball person. That basketball mind would be Bryan Colangelo, who was the general manager of the Toronto Raptors, and now has the tall task of pushing the Sixers’ rebuilding process to greater heights.
On Tuesday night, the rebuilding process got easier for the Philadelphia 76ers as after years of poor play on the court, they landed the first overall pick. You could feel a sense of excitement and jubilation across the Delaware Valley as the Sixers finally got the pick they’ve been coveting for years.
Over the last couple of years, the Sixers have been close to getting the first overall pick, but have came away with third overall pick in consecutive years. Who could forget the summer of 2014’s Winless for Wiggins campaign?
Everyone thought that the Sixers were going to come away with Andrew Wiggins, but somehow, someway, the Cleveland Cavaliers received the first overall pick to draft him. But little did we know, the Cavs used Wiggins and the 2013 first overall pick Anthony Bennett as trade pieces to acquire Kevin Love from the Timberwolves.
The Sixers at third overall that year decided to go with the best player on the board, who was Kansas’ Joel Embiid to pair with Nerlens Noel. Now while, Embiid hasn’t played a single NBA minute yet, the Sixers could not pass up on a player whose game has been compared to Hakeem Olajuwon.
Then in the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery, the Sixers got unlucky again this time failing to third overall but drafted Duke big man Jahlil Okafor, who has all the skills to be a special player.
Overall, this is only the third time in the team’s history that they have received the first overall pick. The other two times they got the first pick, they selected Doug Collins (1973) and Allen Iverson (1996). Iverson was apart of a star studded 1996 NBA Draft class, and was exactly the star the Sixers needed to turn the franchise around.
In the 1995-96 season, the Sixers finished with an 18-64 record, and were looking for a spark in that summer’s draft class. In a draft class that had Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Steve Nash, and Kobe Bryant.
The Sixers opted to take Iverson, which propelled them to new heights as we saw in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Allen Iverson gave the Sixers new life. We saw that as a rookie, and when he helped take the team to the 2001 NBA Finals to go against the vaunted Los Angeles Lakers that had Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Iverson embodied the mentality of the city with his never backdown attitude and wearing his heart on his sleeve every game, giving his all. On Tuesday night, when the Sixers landed the first overall pick, Iverson responded with this reaction on Twitter:
Yes! @Sixers
— Allen Iverson (@alleniverson) May 18, 2016
Yes, Iverson all of Philadelphia feels the same way as the Sixers now have a bright future that was once desolate a few years back when they had Jrue Holiday, Andre Iguodala, Lou Williams, Arnett Moultrie, etc. If you look at all the young talent they have acquired in Embiid, Noel, Okafor, Saric, Covington, Grant, Stauskas, and Holmes over the last few years, you have to be excited for what’s to come.
What’s coming to Philadelphia is the number one overall pick, and it could be LSU’s Ben Simmons or Duke’s Brandon Ingram. Both players are fantastic in their owns and are playmakers.
Simmons has been compared to LeBron James, while Ingram compared to Durant. This season, Simmons averaged 19.2 PPG, while Ingram averaged 17.3 PPG. Simmons can be the new generation of 6-foot-10 points guards, while Ingram’s can be one of the NBA’s best young scorers.
Whoever the Sixers select with the first overall pick on June 23 will not disappoint because they will be walking into a historic franchise that is looking to bring back the same fire that a 6-foot guard from Georgetown brought every night.
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