It’s Hard to be a Sixers Fan
by Sean Lerman
It’s really difficult to be a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers right now. This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the team is bad, at least not directly.
First off, a few things that I should make clear from the jump:
1) I love the Sixers. My dad had season tickets when I was a kid during the Iverson era (he has season tickets now too…poor guy). I fell in love with basketball while watching one of the most exciting players of all time nearly carry Philadelphia to a championship.
2) I am 100% on board with the process. From day one, I was in favor of Sam Hinkie blowing up the team and tanking for the chance at a superstar.
3) I recognize that there are people out there who are not in favor of what the Sixers are doing, and I do not blame them for feeling the way they do.
Great, now that that is out of the way, I can explain why exactly I am finding it difficult to be a Sixers fan at the moment.
It has nothing to do with the product on the court, which is not good. It has only a little bit to do with the fact that watching Isaiah Canaan play basketball makes me sad.
The problem is having to explain things over and over and over again about why I am a Sixers fan.
When someone finds out you’re a supporter of the team, they have a few reactions. First, they are surprised that you are a fan. This is not a problem at all. Feel free to be surprised. I will happily explain that I love watching basketball, have been a Sixers fan all my life, etc.
Then, they ask how you are a Sixers fan. Not why. How. How can you support what is happening on the court? Sam Hinkie is laughing his way to the bank at my expense and how can I not see that?
It is at this point where the Sixers fan has to explain how over the course of NBA history, very few teams have won championships without a superstar and there is really only one guaranteed way to get a superstar, which is through the draft. Look at the teams that have won NBA championships recently. It has been more than 10 years since a team without a legitimate superstar won an NBA Championship. The last team to do it was the Detroit Pistons, who are widely considered one of the weaker NBA Championship teams in the history of the league.
Since the Pistons won the championship in 2004, there has not been a single team to even make it to the NBA Finals without a superstar. Here is a very interesting graph that shows the value of each draft pick in terms of win shares for players drafted between 1985 and 2010 from an article by Tony Manfred from Business Insider that discusses how valuable the first pick in the draft actually is.
Clearly having the top pick in the draft is hugely valuable. That is the goal of this process. Get the top pick, get a superstar, and win championships.
Once the Sixers fan explains that, then it’s time to explain how on Earth the team ended up with Joel Embiid. The next few players taken after Embiid are as follows:
Aaron Gordon – Averaging fewer than 20 minutes and fewer than nine points per game for an Orlando team that is in last place in the Southeast Division.
Dante Exum – Averaged just under eight points per game as a rookie, blew out his ACL in the offseason.
Marcus Smart – Shooting 33% this season from the field, 24% from three-point range, and averaging less than 10 points per game despite playing almost 30 minutes per game this year.
Julius Randle – Actually playing decent basketball for a terrible Lakers team, but it would have been crazy to take him over Embiid because Randle was also an injured big man on draft night, which is why he fell to the Lakers at the 7th pick in the first place.
Nik Stauskas – And we’ve come full circle! Sauce Castillo is a Philadelphia 76er.
Other than Andrew Wiggins, the number one draft pick in 2014, the only player from that draft who is currently among the top 65 scoring leaders in the NBA is Jordan Clarkson, who was taken with the 46th overall pick.
Embiid was a fine pick. It probably isn’t going to work out and I’ll be surprised if he has a productive NBA career, but nobody who has any actual knowledge about the 2014 NBA draft can fault the Sixers for selecting him.
Finally, the non-sixers fan asks the Sixers fan why they should watch the team. This is the hardest question of all, because the answer is that they shouldn’t. Unless you are an enormous fan of basketball to the point where you can get excited about JaKarr Sampson’s defense or how much Nerlens Noel has progressed in his offense off the pick-and-roll, there really is no reason to watch the Sixers right now.
They are bad at basketball. The basketball they play is ugly. They turn the ball over at an alarming rate. The only legitimate reason to watch the team is to marvel at Jahlil Okafor as he dismantles opposing big men in the post.
That’s what really makes it hard to be a Sixers fan. When something fun does happen, when Okafor puts up 21 pints and 12 rebounds against the Spurs, there is nobody to share it with, because nobody is watching, and I can’t blame them.
I love the 76ers, and I’m going to watch no matter what. Unfortunately for myself and the other die-hard Sixers fans out there, you won’t.
Sean Lerman is the sports director at 1490 AM WBCB. You can find his blog updated weekly right here on wbcb1490.com or follow him on twitter @seanlerman.
