Rare is the day when the 76ers don’t give us something to fret about, but here we are. And here they are, up 2-0 against Toronto in their first-round playoff series. Joel Embiid is playing Gulliver to the Raptors’ Lilliputians (while “respectfully” giving Nick Nurse advice), Tyrese Maxey has emerged as a trusty sidekick and James Harden’s 9-for-26 shooting has been rendered meaningless.
There’s plenty of time for Sixers fans to worry, beginning Wednesday night in Toronto. But for now, everyone can stand down.
Which leaves us with … clickbait.
On Monday the Philadelphia Inquirer served up a list of the 50 greatest Sixers of all time. And yes, this is the NBA’s 75th anniversary season, but if the Inky would have tried to extend it to 75, we would have been down to Ben Coleman, Jarvis Varnado and Amal McCaskill, more than likely.
Anyway, I have issues with the list. (That’s the idea, right?) So let’s go through it, 10 at a time:
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Julius Erving
- Moses Malone
- Allen Iverson
- Charles Barkley
- Hal Greer
- Maurice Cheeks
- Joel Embiid
- Billy Cunningham
- Dolph Schayes
Hard to argue with any list that begins with Wilt, especially considering he led the 1966-67 club, widely considered to be among the greatest teams of all time, to a title. One small quibble, however: He only spent four seasons with the Sixers. His best individual seasons actually came with the Warriors (including 1961-62, when he averaged 50.4 points and scored 100 against the Knicks in Hershey). Erving played 11 seasons in Philadelphia, and besides being the ultimate showman was one of the game’s foremost ambassadors.
He was also a great teammate, as Bobby Jones once told me:
“You hear a lot about superstars, (how) they put pressure on younger guys to come up to their level. Julius was such an encourager. That’s what stood out in my mind, I think, the entire time I was with him: He wasn’t arrogant. He didn’t consider himself better than anybody. He worked as hard as anybody, if not harder. Didn’t put anybody down for mistakes that they made. That’s easy to do at that level, when the game’s on the line or something’s on the line. He knows he can do it, but you’re in a position where you have to do it and you don’t, it takes strength of character to say, ‘We’re in this together. We win together, we lose together.’ I think that was probably, to me, his greatest quality.”
11. Andrew Toney
12. Chet Walker
13. Bobby Jones
14. George McGinnis
15. Andre Iguodala
16. Doug Collins
17. Ben Simmons
18. Darryl Dawkins
19. Dikembe Mutombo
20. Hersey Hawkins
Dawkins is too high on the list. Yes, he was funny and engaging and broke backboards. He also mailed it in way too often. For my money, one of his contemporaries, Caldwell Jones, should be in that spot. As it is, CJ, who died in 2014, is somehow not on the list at all, which is an oversight. He was never a big stat guy, but rather someone who did the dirty work on three NBA Finalists in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Traded for Malone before the run to the ‘82-83 title (and unnecessarily so, as the Rockets were prepared to let Moses walk), he was sorely missed – so much so, in fact, that Cunningham (by then the coach) offered to give CJ his championship ring.
21. Wali Jones
22. Theo Ratliff
23. Eric Snow
24. World B. Free
25. Fred Carter
26. Tobias Harris
27. Steve Mix
29. Red Kerr
30. Jerry Stackhouse
Weatherspoon was just OK. Jeff Hornacek and Ron Anderson, who didn’t make the 50, belong in this group, while Spoon should be further down. Also, think about this: The Sixers were 42-14 when Ratliff broke his wrist midway through the 2000-01 season, and he was then sent to Atlanta as part of the deal that brought Mutombo to town. While Ratliff wouldn’t have had any more luck defending Shaquille O’Neal in the Finals that year than did Mutombo, it might have been interesting to see if he could have run Shaq into the ground.
One other note: Jones, a wonderful guy, would check the horoscope of the guy he was going against each game night, just to see what might be in store for him.
31. Larry Costello
32. Jimmy Butler
33. Chris Webber
34. Dana Barros
35. Lou Williams
36. Johnny Dawkins
37. George Lynch
38. Thaddeus Young
39. Aaron McKie
40. Luke Jackson
McKie and Jackson are much too low. McKie was the second-best player on the ‘00-01 Finalist, and Jackson was another guy who sacrificed stats to fill a role, notably on the aforementioned ‘66-67 club. I question whether Webber should be on this list at all. While he enjoyed a productive run in Sacramento, he was a shell of his former self by the time he made it to Philadelphia, and is best known for arriving late on Fan Appreciation Night in 2006 (as did Iverson).
41. Jrue Holiday
42. Henry Bibby
43. Paul Seymour
44. Archie Clark
45. Andre Miller
46. Rick Mahorn
47. JJ Redick
48. Mike Gminski
49. Tim Thomas
50. Kyle Korver
Holiday, Redick and Korver should all be higher. So should Miller, whose old-school game was always a joy to behold. You just get the feeling he’s still terrorizing the young bucks on the playgrounds of his native Los Angeles, and will for years to come.
Thomas is another guy whose presence is baffling. The seventh overall pick in 1997, he played for five other teams besides the Sixers across 13 NBA seasons, but never really delivered the goods.
OK, I got all that off my chest. We now return to our regularly scheduled playoffs, already in progress. Feel free to agonize to your heart’s content.
Simmons at #17? 😂 I need to know what stat-obsessed Gen-Z 76ers social media staffer compiled this.
Haha. Was thinking much the same thing. Also, where’s Derrick Coleman? Had his issues, of course, but is certainly among the top 50 guys to ever play for the Sixers.
Simmons at 17 , come on ! The sixers might still have Butler on the roster if not for that cry baby . Any player that made a foul shot has scored more point than Simmons this year , and he has been healthy most if not all year .