One NBA Team But Heading Two Different Directions-
The Tale of Joel Embiid: the Anti Andrew Bynum Story
This story primarily involves just one NBA team – the Philadelphia 76ers. But this is a story of two different chapters, of two different rosters, of two different philosophies, and of two likely different outcomes. In each case, the Philadelphia 76ers organization and fan base can be described as a team very desperate to make something positive happen. Each team, faced with their choices, claimed the extreme path-the path with the greatest risk. But it is that great risk path, and that path alone, which leads a professional sports team to the summit of claiming the championship over their competitors.
The similarities end there.
The 2012 version of the Philadelphia 76ers found a team trapped in the oscillating rise and dive of a team who is never quite good enough and never quite bad enough. It’s never quite good enough to challenge for an NBA championship, but it was never quite bad enough to understand that it was never quite good enough to challenge for an NBA championship. The team had a choice to make, and by doing so walked a path of extremism that few other teams would dare to attempt.
But it didn’t need to start this way. It was where the other chapter ended which forced their decision. You see, the quest for a championship in any sport is a driving force that few ever achieve. Sometimes, it would be better never to feel the moment of loss in a championship game. So it was for the city of Philadelphia, so it was for the team whose roster boasted Allen Iverson and Dikembe Mutumbo. Unfinished business can prove more fatal than any other event in professional sports.
From the end of the 2001 NBA championship, the Larry Brown coached Philadelphia 76ers truly believed that they had left a sufficiently recognizable trail of bread crumbs which would lead the team back to the playoffs and to the NBA Championship. After all, the 76ers had just dominated the NBA Eastern conference by posting a 56-26 record, good for 2nd best in the NBA that year and placing them into a dead heat with the Los Angeles Lakers, the defending NBA Champion and the team which would eventually send them home in a five game series.
The 76ers found the way to the championship, Surely they could find their way back?
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