Hip-again ‘01 Sixers would not hang with ‘21 team

PHILADELPHIA >> Moments before the Sixers would begin the postsesaon, Dikembe Mutombo was handed a rubber mallet and a script.

There to participate in a newer franchise pregame custom, the one-time Sixer happily struck a replica Liberty Bell three times, then looked to a floor director, who prompted him to do his signature blocked-shot finger-wag. Mutombo complied, a crowd of 11,160 applauded, and the Sixers went out and showed they were better than two teams.

One of those teams was the 2021 Wizards, who so lack in talented big men that Mutombo could start for them, and he’s 54. The other was the 2001 Sixers, who seem to be enjoying a popular rebirth, with Mutombo the bell-ringer Sunday and effervescent former acting owner and Delaware County sports treasure Pat Croce set to give the thing a martial-arts chop before Game 2 Wednesday night.

It’s all honest fun, and it’s all better than earlier this season, when there literally were no celebrities in the building and the Sixers themselves had to take turns keeping the ritual. Then again, who will ever forget Dakota Matthias night?

Anyway, the Sixers are determined, at least in the first of what likely will be four

rounds of their postseason, to link themselves to what happened 20 years earlier when they went to the NBA Finals. Why not? Even if that team was dismissed in five by the Lakers, its legendary competitive streak of those Sixers was compelling.

But no sport other than pickleball grows as quickly as basketball over the years, let alone over the decades, let alone over the eras. And the hip-again 2001 team would be out of it against the 2021 Sixers almost before arena custodians could wheel the Liberty

Bell display off the court.

How about a reason? OK.

The 2001 Sixers couldn’t shoot.

Is that enough of a reason?

Under Larry Brown, a self-absorbed salesman who kept the industry convinced he had every answer and nobody else had even one, the 2001 Sixers had a 32.6-percent threepoint percentage. The 2001 Sixers have a center who shoots 37.8 percent from the arc.

And while it was true that the three-point shot wasn’t as popular at the time and thus was not as vital a tool, there were 27 other NBA teams who shot it better. So some other coaches had it figured out. One was Phil Jackson, whose Lakers shot 48 percent from distance in the Finals. The Sixers shot 29 percent and had a coach mumbling how his team played the right way.

Not that pro basketball is much of a matchup exercise any more, for it has become mandatory for just about any player to be able to defend at all five positions, but this is how the 2001 and 2021 Sixers would compare, man for man:

• Joel Embiid against Mutombo: Mutombo is in the Hall of Fame for his rim protection, which would make a difference for about two possessions against Embiid, who would pop to the outside and swish triples. At the other end, Mutombo would demand the ball, turn and be smothered by Embiid, one of the best two defensive big men in the game.

• George Lynch against Tobias Harris: Though Lynch had a broken foot during the Finals, he was known as one of the best defensive forwards of his era. But even when healthy, he would be outscored, two to one, by the versatile Harris.

• Aaron McKie vs. Danny Green: Technically, McKie was a sixth man, among the best in the history of the game. But any reasonable analysis of the top five players on the 2001 Sixers demands his inclusion. McKie’s defense would neutralize Green, a vital 2021 piece.

• Seth Curry vs. Eric Snow: A dedicated defender, Snow was something of a cult favorite at the Wells Fargo Center. But even if he pestered Curry into 22-percent three-point shooting, which would be unlikely, that would still be better than his own 21 percent.

• Ben Simmons vs. Allen Iverson: Simmons won’t shoot, but he is the kind of long defender who would keep Iverson from controlling a series. Iverson famously took 162 shots in the 2001 Finals and missed 96. Against Simmons, he would scuffle to shoot even that well.

From there, bench contributions would matter, and coaching would help, and injuries would be a factor, and there would be bad bounces, sour whistles, rookie mistakes and exhausted veterans. No one will ever know how all of that would work in a matchup of the Sixers of 2001 and the Sixers of 20 years later.

Give the 2001 team this much, though: It did win three playoff series, while the 2021 nucleus has never won more than one. And that can’t easily be finger-wagged away.