Sixers look to end championship jinx
Phillies, Union, Eagles came up short, so NBA now best shot for title
PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies won the National League pennant, advanced to the World Series, twice took one-game leads and wound up finishing second. It’s a Philly thing.
The Union won the Eastern Conference, fought into the championship game, scored a go-ahead goal in overtime and lost in a shootout.
Philly thing.
The Eagles rampaged through the NFC playoffs, won a spot in the Super Bowl, led by double figures at halftime and fell on a walk-off field goal.
Thing. Philly.
By the way, those were the Stars with a fourth-quarter advantage in the USFL final last July. What happened? Hint: It’s a thing, with a nicknamed city as a modifier.
Not one of those things had anything to do with the other. But there is a connection that cannot be ignored, and because there is, that leaves the Sixers up, batting fifth, with nobody on base.
So … what are the odds that, at long last, a Philadelphia team can halt the cruel waste of shortening that keeps being smeared on lamp posts that no one ever has a reason to climb? The literal answer is about 14-to-1, according to the Vegas illuminati. But just before the trade deadline, the field began to thin, and as it did, the Sixers’ chances to wind into the finals increased. That’s when the Brooklyn Nets officially foreclosed on their failed idea to win a championship fantasy-league style. Already having dismissed James Harden a year earlier, the Nets didn’t make it through the next deadline without offloading Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and any chance of competing for a championship. Worse, they were stuck with Ben Simmons. So they’re out, leaving one fewer problem for the Sixers.
Deadpanned Doc Rivers: “I welcome that.”
Not that a Miami or some longshot couldn’t worm through the Eastern Conference tournament, but the departure of Brooklyn realistically left the Sixers in a threelegged race with the Celtics and Bucks. And as the Brooklyn selloff lessened the traffic in the East, it left a crowd of contenders in the West likely to create exhaustion for the team having battled into the Finals.
“I was surprised,” said Rivers of the Brooklyn process. “I thought the Nets did a good job, honestly, in an extreme situation. They got a lot of good players. So they’re not going to be just some team that you’re going to beat. But the West is in an arm’s race. Phoenix, Dallas, the Clippers. It’s fun. I just enjoyed watching it.”
It’s kind of what the trade deadline is for – to separate the serious from the sellers and the content from the contenders. And at this point in a rebuilding process that has taken longer than most NBA careers, the stakes have never been so serious for the Sixers. This either has to be their year or they will have to find some other way to win a championship.
While the Celtics and Bucks are outstanding, the Sixers are too. Nor are the elements secret, beginning with the obvious: Joel Embiid’s time has arrived. To the deep credit of multiple front-office decision-makers, the often-criticized decisions made years ago – including some famous grumbling from the center his own self – to red-shirt, rest and otherwise load-manage Embiid is yielding interest. Never has Embiid averaged more minutes, more points and fewer unnecessary nights off. At 28, he has peaked, and he recently dropped a 47-piece on the Nuggets, with the other great NBA center, Nikola Jokic.
Embiid is healthy, motivated and surrounded by a good team, including Harden, who well may be in his last season as a Sixer. Not only is Embiid physically unlikely to be better the closer he comes to age 30, but any grasp of modern NBA history will reveal that the longer any superstar remains championship-free in a certain situation, the more likely he is to demand to try to win a champagne bath somewhere else. Though Embiid has not made Noise No. 1 about any such likelihood, there will be diminishing incentive for him to continue to hang around Camden and take the blame for championship-free seasons once Harden goes.
But that’s later. There is still this year.
At the deadline, Daryl Morey upgraded the roster, if only modestly, effectively exchanging declining Matisse Thybulle for improving Jalen McDaniels. Also, veteran big man Dewayne Dedmon is on his way to back up Embiid. There are no health issues. Rivers can coach. Embiid is the best player in the East if not the NBA. Harden has grown perfectly into his role as a shooter and a facilitator. Tyrese Maxey can add instant offense from the bench. The reserves are not young. The accumulated playoff experience is a thing. The laws of average say the Sixers are going to win their way past the second round soon.
“We have put ourselves in position to win the title,” Daryl Morey said. “That’s what you want to do when you get to this point.” Contenders? Why not?
Pardon the expression, but it’s a Philly thing.