Tanking advice from Philadelphia 76ers fans

With the Philadelphia 76ers locking a playoff spot after being the worst team in the NBA, Sixers’ fans are in the perfect position to give advice to fans of team competing for the worst record in the NBA.

When the 2017-18 NBA season started, I hoped the Philadelphia 76ers would make the playoffs, but I didn’t get my hopes up. With the Sixers’ record at 42 wins and 30 losses, they have played better than my most optimistic projections and the years of closely watching the standings and even rooting for them to lose are officially over.

But there are many teams in the position the Sixers use to be, and now is the prefect time to give some friendly advice to fans supporting one of the worst teams in the NBA.

Every loss is a win and every win is a loss.

With 10 games left in this 82 game season and your team loses nearly 60 games. While it’s easy to look at that record and be disappoint, what you should really do is look at the other teams close to your team to see if your team has more losses than them.

Fans of the Memphis Grizzlies (19-54) and the Phoenix Suns (19-55), two teams that are basically in a playoff style contest to see who will get the best odds in the 2018 NBA draft, have probably already made checking the standings part of their daily routine.

Worst is just the beginning

Two years ago before the Sixers drafted Ben Simmons with the top in the 2016 draft, they were competing with the Los Angeles Lakers for the worst record in the league. Before the Sixers successfully out tanked the Lakers by losing (or winning in this scenario) 72 out of 82 games to the Lakers’ 65 out of 82 games, people were shaming the Sixers for intentionally creating a team that was realistically competing for the chance to become the worst team in NBA history.

While the narrative around the Sixers being a disgrace lead to then general manager Sam Hinkie losing his job, I was happy that the Sixers managed to keep the Lakers from having the best chance to draft a player I saw on a similar level as LeBron James in Ben Simmons. Since the teams with worst three records ended up having the top three picks in the correct order based on their record after the lottery, having the worst record made all the difference.

Anyone can watch a good team, but it takes a true die hard fan to watch a bad team.

“How can you still watch that team?” That is a question families and friends that know the team you’re supporting is terrible will ask anytime they see you watching the game or you tell them that you’ll join them after the game they are losing by 20 points at halftime is over. It’s understanding that people believe that watching a terrible team and not being disgusted by it is a form of masochism.

But that’s only because people often underrate how boring watching a starless average-to-below average teams whose only goal every season is to make the playoffs and lose in the first round is. Sixers’ fans have grown numb to terrible basketball for over a decade and losing 20 more games doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Fans are fickle

I say it doesn’t make much difference, because I’m sure most people stopped watching the first time Allen Iverson left the team and have recently came back once they realized Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons will make several All-Star games and have the chance to lead the Sixers to a championship.

I don’t say this to criticize anyone. The team welcomes fans who started watching the Sixers again this season, getting to the point the Sixers are at now is why teams and fans support tanking. Having and supporting a pecific team is basically a cultural tradition or a routine you’ve had for years. I had the Sixers game on TV most nights it was on because I couldn’t imagine not having it on. Whether the Sixers team I was watching best player was Andre Iguodala, Jrue Holiday, Michael Carter-Williams, or Jahlil Okafor, the Sixers game was on the TV despite me not enjoying it most nights.

Your team will never be as criticized as the Sixers.

Speaking of things Sixers’ fans didn’t enjoy, trolls from social media and national media were constantly berating the team. They offered endless stale jokes about how the best team in college could easily beat them. Or that their fans are going through physical and mental torture. how? Simply offering support to a team filled with players unworthy of putting on an NBA jersey.

The reaction to “The Process” is proof that the sayings about words never hurting you is a lie. Look at the Orlando Magic, a team that started tanking a year before the Sixers when they trade Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of the Andrew Bynum trade that ultimately to “The Process.”

The Magic have 22 wins and 51 losses and are tied with the Dallas Mavericks for the fourth worst record in the league this season. While the Magic did initially tank, they never stooped to the Sixers’ level and gave up on their “Process” to try to make the playoffs and never succeeded in making the playoffs once or leaving the cellar as part of the NBA’s bottom 10 teams.

The Phoenix Suns planned to tank the same year the Sixers started tanking, but changed their plans when they missed the playoffs by one game after going 48 and 34 in the 2013-14 season. The Suns never made the playoffs after abandoning their “Process” and are currently the worst team in the NBA.

Rebuild takes time, and strategy

The Magic, Suns, and most teams that tried to rebuild during the the years of “The Process” attempted “Respectability Tanking.” “Respectability Tanking” is making the effort to increase your odds at getting the next NBA superstar in the draft. But the team does so without committing to the point where moves become offensive to most people. Teams trying to do it the right way remain a factor in free agency, limit the roster to drafted players, and continue to exhaust their salary dollars. “The Process” had no interest in “Respectability Tanking” and knew it was a weakness that kept teams from achieving true success.

Next: Markelle Fultz becoming Philadelphia 76ers secret weapon for playoffs

At this point of the season, a lot of teams have dropped the respectability from “Respectability Tanking” and are doing whatever they can to lose games. While several teams embarrass the league without having to deal with the backlash the Sixers suffered, know that you’re welcome to benefit from the road the Sixers paved, and the Sixers look forward to beating your teams on the way to NBA championships in the near future.