What the Philadelphia 76ers can learn from 1983 title team

4. No ‘I’ in team, but there is in title

Julius Erving had been the undisputed leader of the 76ers since they traded George McGinniss after the 1978 season. After all, who is going to big foot Dr. J?

However, Moses Malone was recognized as one of the top players in the NBA. There could have been a tussle for who was top dog when he arrived in 1982 as, at that point, he was the better player.

But Malone squashed any speculation in his first press conference. He said: “This is Doc’s team“.

Internal problems were never an issue as everyone followed Erving’s lead and he was the consummate professional.

Another player who put the team ahead of ego was Bobby Jones. One of the greatest defensive players in league history, and a recent inductee into the Naismith Hall of Fame, Jones naturally had been a starter pretty much his entire eight-year career.

However, after talking with coach Billy Cunningham (who claimed Jones brought it up first), it was decided for the good of the team that he not start in the upcoming 1982-83 season.

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The Sixers had reached Game 6 of the NBA finals with Jones and Erving as the starting forwards the previous year. But Dr. J was just 6-foot-6 and Jones a slender 205 pounds, which left them at a disadvantage under the boards against big teams like the Celtics and Lakers, who had knocked them out of the playoffs the past three seasons.

So Jones now came off the bench. Starting in his stead was 6-foot-10 Marc Iavaroni, a NBA rookie but a veteran of the rough-and-tumble European leagues. He banged the boards, bodied up the opponent’s power forwards and scored a few garbage baskets per game.

Was Iavaroni as good as Jones? Not even close. But, in terms of ‘fit’ and team chemistry, he worked well in the starting lineup. Iavaroni only averaged 5.8 points and 5.5 rebounds in the finals, but he played his role superbly.

On the current Sixers, there has been a lot of debate about power forward Al Horford being moved to the bench. In 2020, you can have too many players in the post looking for the ball. The argument is, for ‘fit’ and chemistry reasons, it would be better if Shake Milton or Matisse Thybulle started and Horford came off the bench.

Now, there are a few differences between Jones and Horford’s situation.

Horford was brought in this summer on a massive $96 million, four-year contract. To have him be a substitute, even one who would play a lot, makes the organization look bad. That is a lot of money to pay a backup center.

It is also the first season Horford has played with this group, while the Sixers had four years of Jones and Erving and knowing the positive and negatives of pairing them.

Also, Horford did not sign with the Sixers to be a sub. In this day and age, where players are also aware of their personal brands, it is much different than in 1983, and moving to the bench has bigger repercussions now.

Horford has always been a professional and he will not start any trouble publicly if he is no longer a starter. but he most likely won’t be thrilled with it. Jones was a special player; he had absolutely no ego (he never challenged a foul call against him in his career) and Cunningham knew he would be fine with coming off the bench if he felt it would help the team.

The other team chemistry problem the Sixers have is point guard Ben SImmons’ refusal to shoot from outside. This has irked coach Brett Brown, who has publicly pleaded for him to shoot more, as well as center Joel Embiid, who feels he has to shoot more three-pointers to make up for it.

The 1983 Sixers had the opposite problem. Young guard Andrew Toney never met a shot he did not like. Coach Cunningham would constantly scream ‘An-drew-w-w-w” as he would put up an ill-advised shot or not play hard on defense.

Of course, Toney made a lot of those shots, especially against the Celtics, who traded for defensive guard Dennis Johnson specifically to stop Toney in the playoffs. Toney was not a bad guy or anything, he just liked to score.

Erving, who had been the offensive leader, ceded part of the offensive load to Toney, who would average 22 points in the NBA finals. They made it work for the good of the team.

Lessons learned: Sacrifice is necessary for a team to win a championship. Stats and pride have to be locked up and the sole focus has to be what is best for the team. It sounds simple enough but, in practice, it is a lot harder to accomplish, particularly in this social media-driven, everyone has an opinion world.

Anyone who makes the conference semifinals has talent, what they do with it is the big question if they want to go farther. If any of the current Sixers players watched the 1983 version play, they saw a team with passion, a hunger for victory, no attitude problems and a sacrifice for the good of the team mindset.

They won mostly because of their great defense, something the current Sixers are also good at. If they can do the rest, there might be another Lakers vs. 76ers finals rematch.