Philadelphia 76ers ready to kick off most anticipated season in years

The Philadelphia 76ers are ready to begin perhaps the most anticipated season of the franchises recent history and are primed for a deep playoff run.

I remember sitting in the upper level of the Wells Fargo Center on December 1, 2015. It was my first year at Temple University and for obvious reasons, Philadelphia 76ers tickets were extremely cheap. It was a weekly occasion to take a break from the stress of school and head down with some friends to watch the Sixers lose for like eight dollars. This particular night the Lakers were in town, so my friends and I figured why not, might as well go watch the game.

To make a long story short, the Sixers wound up winning that game, the first of the very few wins they would get over the course of that infamous season. Two figures that embodied “The Process” that are no longer here, Robert Covington and T.J. McConnell, led the team in scoring and assists respectively.

I remember walking out of that game in pure joy that the Sixers finally, after 18 straight loses, had even won a game. My friends and I joked back and forth about how the team would probably take a decade to become a contender and how Joel Embiid may very well never even play in a meaningful NBA game.

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Fast forward four years, and we find ourselves at the beginning of what is undoubtedly the most anticipated 76ers season in my lifetime. The 76ers are legitimate favorites to get to and possibly win the NBA Finals on the backs of their two young superstars and a formidable cast of high-level starters and role players.

Joel Embiid is primed and motivated to have his most dominant season yet, while solidifying himself as a top five player in the league. Ben Simmons is looking to take his game to the next level after an incredibly impressive first couple of years.

The team has perhaps its most athletic and defensively imposing lineup of head coach Brett Brown’s tenure as coach. After years of watching players who probably didn’t belong in the NBA and celebrating meaningless December victories against bad teams, our time is finally here.

Now the 76ers have been a playoff contender for a few years, but never has it felt more like “their year” than it does right now. In 2017-2018, the team was good, but had a lot of obvious flaws that became exposed once the team ran into its nemesis in the Boston Celtics in the second round.

In 2018-2019, the team made some massive trades to acquire big time players like Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, but fell just short at the hands of the Toronto Raptors and Kawhi Leonard – who was in the midst of one of the most dominant individual postseason runs the game has ever seen.

But now Leonard, along with LeBron James are out in the Western Coference. The Celtics have also taken a step back this season. The only obstacle in the way of an NBA Finals appearance seems to be the Milwaukee Bucks, who the Sixers match up particularly well against.

All of this is to say that this is the year we have been waiting for as Sixers fans. When we walked out of the Center into those cold Philadelphia winter nights following loss after loss for years. Fans dreamed of a day where this team, led by Embiid, would finally be a legitimate championship contender.

Sixers still have issues with the point guard depth. dark. Next

That day has come for the Philadelphia 76ers and it all starts Wednesday night at home against who else but the Boston Celtics. This city and this fan base has been patient and understanding, but it’s time for that patience to really pay off in a big way. It’s time for championship basketball to make its way back to Philly.