Philadelphia 76ers moral dilemma

In the NBA, there are often compromises of integrity that fall into the “Just Business” category. But have the Philadelphia 76ers emerged from rebuilding with their moral integrity intact?

The Philadelphia 76ers have faced a moral dilemma three times in the past four seasons. The first crisis occurred when the team chose to cannibalize the present to build a future championship team. The second time happened when the team faced the need to operate a second time on the foot of star center Joel Embiid.  Finally, the third time resulted from rookie center Jahlil Okafor’s antics off-court.

The NBA powers-that-be finally had leverage on the owners to abandon the direction of former executive Sam Hinkie, and move towards a more conventional free agent focused roster.

The moral dilemma?  Let’s talk about that for a moment. Moral integrity is the knowledge of right and wrong and choosing right when nobody is looking. So what truly is right and wrong in the NBA?  Doesn’t that depend on where the team stands in the rankings?

Winning teams win, for a reason

Winning teams believe it’s wrong to invest in the future. Play for today, deal for today.  It’s easy to do, because they are winning.  The odds are stack in the favor of winning teams. For every salary cap in the NBA, there are exceptions that allow teams to pay excessive salaries to keep key players.

With the system designed to keep stars on the roster of teams, there are fewer options for the other teams to get better.  The other option?  The NBA Draft.

But even the NBA draft is firewalled. There is the NBA lottery, which affords the worst team of the NBA only a 25 percent chance of choosing the best player in the NBA draft.  So as many discuss the evils of “tanking”, there is already plenty of built in safeguards to keep a team from guaranteeing a great player in the draft.  But that’s another topic.

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Face the charges

This is about three Philadelphia 76ers moral dilemma. So let’s get to the topic at hand.

Did the team cannibalize the present to build a future championship? YES.

Let’s start off by admitting that delayed gratification is a virtue. Aesop had a fable about the grasshopper and the ant, with the “live for today” grasshopper perishing when winter arrived. But the NBA tosses that to the side, despite the fact that many non-competitive teams simply cannot compete for the same limited number of players.

The Philadelphia 76ers were out of draft picks, out of salary cap, had not young players in the pipeline, and had fallen below .500.  The team took the high road by not pretending to be better than they were.

Did the team make the right choice by ensuring Joel Embiid got the best of care with surgery number two? Yes

It was the right thing to do. Not only for the Philadelphia 76ers, but for the entire NBA. Joel Embiid has flashed the type of talent that could be one for this generation. He has skills of all basketball positions, packed into a 7-foot-2 skyscraper.  Plus, he has the passion of Philadelphia.

While some teams may have opted to cut their losses, and others dared not even go there, the Philadelphia 76ers built the infrastructure to harness as much of Joel Embiid’s basketball career as possible.

Did the team handle the off-court antics of Jahlil Okafor the right way? Eventually, yes.

Every plan has a blind spot. The foible to the Philadelphia 76ers plan was obvious, after the fact. By placing so many young players on the same team, there was no anticipation of discipline. Who would keep the young-and-suddenly-wealthy young men in check off the court?

It was not until the reports surfaced that the team had to take action. That was just enough for the NBA executives to impose a change at the helm of the Philadelphia 76ers.  In the end, it opened the door to Jerry Colangelo who opened the door to Bryan Colangelo.

Philadelphia passes with flying colors

To rebuild, did the team simply have the future in mind all that time? Or did the team truly do the unthinkable as charged? Did the team “purposefully lose”?

There is no reason to believe these charges.  In fact, there are plenty of documented articles and data proving that the Philadelphia 76ers played harder than most teams up to the final buzzer. And the strategy for a team with no talent in the pipeline is barren in the NBA.

As the team worked to develop talent in their then D-League affiliate, other NBA teams poached players routinely.  Jordan McRae signed on with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sean Kilpatrick signed on with the Brooklyn Nets.

The system is broken, Jack

As it now stands, the system flaws are numerous.. Horrifically flawed.  While so many debate the NBA lottery, the system continues to offer no incentives to teams which attempt to raise the talent base for all NBA teams to benefit from.

“For the good of the league” has been the admonishment so many have used as the weapon of choice.  They brandish that sword to provoke the city of Philadelphia over the course chosen to restore the NBA francise 76ers to her former glory.  But in the end, they merely accelerate the eventual demise of the NBA.

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The ultimate morale dilemma is not upon Philadelphia nor the 76ers at all.  The true charges of unfairness, neglect, and cannibalism must be levied upon the NBA as a whole.  The Philadelphia 76ers chose not to participate in the consensus, rather trying to make the team and the league better in the long run.

The question should not be whether the Philadelphia 76ers did not choose to do the right thing. Rather, the league should answer why it continues to endorse the wrong things.