Sixering: Why some loyal Philadelphia 76ers fans lack faith in Brett Brown

By Stuart London | Feb 19, 2019

Brett Brown | Philadelphia 76ers (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /

The Philadelphia 76ers lost so many nailbiters during the dark days of the ‘The Process’ it created its own word: “Sixering”. It also started the impression to some long-time fans that Brett Brown is a poor game coach.

Definition (courtesy of London dictionary of losing basketball teams):

Sixering: To commit an act during an NBA game of greater than normal ineptitude, lack of common sense or to suffer an unlikely successful play by the opposition at a crucial time that proves costly to the Philadelphia 76ers.

For the most hardy fans of the 76ers, those who actually followed the games during the heart of ‘The Process’ (2013-16,) the phrase ‘Sixering’ brings back painful memories.

The Sixers have a lot more people interested now, both in person, TV or in the media. They are No. 1 in attendance after either being last or next to last during the The Process , when then-general manager Sam Hinkie made sure the roster was weak enough to lose lots of games, so they could pile up assets.

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However, knowing about all the losing and actually watching The Process while it was occuring are two different experiences.

Going against the rest of the NBA with the likes of Henry Sims at center, JaKarr Sampson as your wing and Tony Wroten as the main offensive threat was usually not going to end well when it became crunch time.

However, one of the biggest myths is that the Process 76ers were the NBA version of the Bad News Bears who could barely walk and chew gum, and simply got blown out every game.

The reality was, they were mostly kids, some quite promising, who had no idea how to play together or win. If you look at the roster of the 10-72 Sixers team of 2015-16, which was one loss away from tying for the worst record in NBA history, there are lots of players from it currently in the league. Maybe not stars, but still drawing a paycheck.

Players like Jerami Grant, Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, T.J. McConnell, Richaun Homes, Isaiah Cannon, Nik Stauskas were on that squad, plus a veteran forward named Elton Brand.

And those teams played hard for coach Brett Brown. Since most believed the next stop, if you could not play for the Sixers, was a trip to the D-(now G)-League, those Process Sixers never gave up or quit. They knew Hinkie could replace them as quickly as he buttered his toast.

That meant the Sixers were in a lot of close games that, talent-wise, they really should not have been.

The usual script for a Process Sixer game was: The other team would come out serious, because you never know, and get a big lead. The Sixers would then fight and scrap and make it competitive. Near the end, the opponent would realize ‘Hey, we might actually lose to the Sixers’ and buckle down and pull out the win somehow.

The somehow did vary. It could be a last second shot, Tobias Harris had a nice one when he was with Orlando and Denver’s Emmanuel Mudiay hitting a heartbreaker come to mind. It could be a star player taking over the Sixers were helpless to stop, or a torrent of turnovers or generally stupid plays from the Sixers’ guards as they folded under pressure. There was always something .

And for fans who watched, or those who had to watch because it was their job, it was pretty gut-wrenching. A bad NFL team only plays 16 times but, if following a bad NBA squad, particularly one with a penchant for finding a way to lose at the end, it is 82 games of excruciating angst.

The remarkable thing was, when the Sixers did win, they could do it quite easily. Some teams would get too overconfident and check out mentally for that game, or somehow, the Sixers put it all together for a time.

Let us briefly look at ‘Sixering’ from a statistical perspective.

For the purposes of this article, we will call any 76ers loss by 10 points or less a close game, they had a chance. Let us also classify any 76ers win during this time by more than five points as a solid win, it did not come down to the final minute.

For the three years generally regarded as the heart of The Process, here is how it looked:

2015-2016: 35 close losses, 2 solid wins

2014-2015: 23 close losses, 4 solid wins

2013-2014: 23 close losses, 9 solid wins

So out of 199 losses during this time, 81 came in close games. 15 of its 47 wins were by a solid margin.

So under Brett Brown in his first three years, when the Sixers were in a competitive game, he went 32-81.

This is why fans during that time are not sold on Brown as a championship-level coach. Yes, he almost always had the less talented team, but when they were able to be in the hunt for a ‘W’, they lost most of the time.

The 2015-16 season really stands out. About half their games were close and they went 8-35 in them.

Watching the Sixers lose close game after close game, at some point fans are going to look at the common denominator. It was not the players, Hinkie had a turnstile coming in and out. The one constant was the coach.

This is why people might find it odd that some of the most loyal Sixers fans, the ones who stuck by the team at its lowest ebb, are the ones most vocal in their lack of confidence in Brett Brown as coach.

You may not think it is fair, to repeat, with the roster Hinkie gave him, they probably should not have been in a lot of those games, but when you watch a team lose at the end, again and again, a frustrated fan needs to pin the blame somewhere.

Next. 4 things Sixers learned during 12-game gauntlet. dark

Until the Sixers go a couple of rounds in the playoffs to show the doubters otherwise, the obvious target is Brett Brown.