1. 1966-67 season (68-13, won NBA Finals)
For a while, the 1966-67 season stood alone in history. It was, at the time, the best record in NBA history — a whopping .840 win percentage. Wilt Chamberlain and the Sixers were 46-4 through 50 games. That’s the same record the 2015-16 Warriors had through 50 games.
It wasn’t until Michael Jordan and the Bulls soared to 72 wins in 1996 that the Sixers’ record fell. For a long period of time, the 1966-67 Sixers were considered the best team the league had seen. They’re still a part of that conversation today.
Wilt deserves immense credit, for obvious reasons. He’s a top-five player in NBA history — a physical anomaly hitherto undreamt of prior to the 1960s (shoutout to Dr. Stange, for no particular reason). In the postseason, Chamblerlain averaged 21.7 points, 29.1 rebounds and 9.0 assists.
It wasn’t all on Chamberlain, though. The Sixers had five other All-Stars in Hal Greer, Chet Walker, Billy Cunningham, Wali Jones and Luke Jackson. In the modern era, that’s what we call a superteam.
Philadelphia was stacked top to bottom, elevated by Chamberlain’s omnipresent greatness. It wasn’t a dynasty — Chamberlain was traded after just one more season — but it was a dynasty killer. The Sixers put an end to the Celtics’ eight-year run as NBA champions.
As the conference finals drew to a close — a resounding five-game series win for Philadelphia — fans chanted “Boston is dead.” It emphatically punctuated the end of an expansive era. The Sixers took down arguably the greatest dynasty that ever was.
While 1983 often gets more credit in modern-day conversations, 1966-67 is the greatest season in franchise history. Both in the regular season and postseason, the Sixers were a dominant force — driven by the prodigious talents of Wilt ‘The Stilt.’ It’s a fitting way to cap off this list.