50 Fun Facts About Philadelphia 76ers

Before moving to Philadelphia in 1963, the franchise played in which New York city?

Syracuse had the Nationals for 17 years and saw them win one NBA title, in 1955. Two Philadelphia investors bought the club in 1963 to fill the gap left when their city's first NBA team went west.

Nationals owner Danny Biasone is credited with proposing which NBA rule change in 1954?

The 24-second shot clock came from his arithmetic: he reckoned a good game had about 60 shots a team and divided the playing time to match. Scoring rose by about 14 points a game in its first season.

Whose four-bounce buzzer-beater knocked the 76ers out of the 2019 playoffs in Game 7 at Toronto?

Kawhi Leonard's shot from the corner hit the rim four times before it dropped for a 92-90 win. His Raptors went on to win the championship a month later.

How was the name '76ers' chosen after the move to Philadelphia?

A fan contest produced the name. The winning entry pointed to 1776 and the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, and the team soon adopted the shorter 'Sixers' as well.

Which NBA team had left Philadelphia a year before the Nationals arrived?

The Warriors took their star center west to San Francisco in 1962. Less than three years later he was traded back to his home town, this time to play for the 76ers.

In their early Philadelphia years, the 76ers sometimes played at which Penn arena?

Most home games were at the Philadelphia Arena and Civic Center-Convention Hall; Dolph Schayes was player-coach that first year.

Which Philadelphia high school did Wilt Chamberlain attend before his pro career?

Overbrook went 56-3 in his three varsity seasons. It was there that a local sportswriter named him 'Wilt the Stilt', a nickname he detested; he preferred 'the Big Dipper'.

The 1966-67 76ers ended which team's run of eight straight NBA titles?

The Boston Celtics fell in five games in the division finals. Wilt Chamberlain had been asked by his coach to shoot less and pass more that season, and he won his first title for it.

Which coach led the 1966-67 76ers to the NBA title?

Alex Hannum made a habit of it. He had already won the 1958 title with the St. Louis Hawks, and two years after Philadelphia he took the Oakland Oaks from last place to the ABA championship.

Which arena became the 76ers' new home in the 1967-68 season?

The Spectrum was in its first season when a storm tore part of its roof off in March 1968 and shut it for a month. Its hockey team, the Flyers, had to finish the regular season on the road.

What record did the 1972-73 76ers post, then the worst in NBA history?

9–73 it was. They lost their first 15 games, the coach was fired at 4–47, and their best player had left for the rival ABA on the day that coach was hired.

How did the 76ers find head coach Roy Rubin for the 1972-73 season?

Through a newspaper ad: the team advertised the job after Al McGuire and Adolph Rupp had turned it down, and the ad brought them Rubin. He was fired after a 4–47 start.

In 1976 the 76ers bought Julius Erving's contract from which ABA team for about $3 million?

The New York Nets were in a pay dispute with their star and short of cash after the cost of joining the NBA. They sold him just 24 hours before the season opened.

After losing the 1977 Finals, the 76ers adopted which marketing slogan for 1977-78?

We owe you one turned into a long-running IOU. They lost the next conference finals to Washington and did not win the title they had promised until 1983.

Which center did the 76ers acquire from Houston before 1982-83 to complete their championship team?

Moses Malone signed a six-year offer sheet, and Philadelphia sent Caldwell Jones to Houston to seal the deal. In his first season he was the league's MVP and then the MVP of the Finals.

What did the 76ers' star center mean by predicting 'fo', fo', fo'' before the 1983 playoffs?

Three four-game sweeps was the forecast, and it came within one game: the only loss of the whole playoff run was to Milwaukee. Fans rewrote the line as 'fo', fi', fo''.

Whom did the 76ers sweep in the 1983 NBA Finals?

The Los Angeles Lakers had beaten Philadelphia in the Finals of 1980 and 1982. With a new center in the middle, the 76ers did not let them win a single game this time.

Which 76er won the NBA's first Sixth Man of the Year award in the 1982-83 title season?

Bobby Jones was an All-Star forward who agreed to come off the bench because his coach thought the team was better that way. He stayed a fixture on the league's All-Defensive teams.

Which 76ers guard was nicknamed 'the Boston Strangler'?

Andrew Toney got the name for what he did to the Celtics in the playoffs, above all in Game 7 of the 1982 conference finals. Stress fractures in both feet ended his career at 30.

Which 76ers center broke two backboards in 1979 and claimed to come from the planet Lovetron?

Darryl Dawkins broke both backboards with dunks, and the NBA brought in breakaway rims as a result. Stevie Wonder gave him his best-known nickname, Chocolate Thunder.

Which forward arrived in Philadelphia in 1984-85 and stayed eight years?

Charles Barkley came in as the fifth pick of 1984, nicknamed the 'Round Mound of Rebound' and thought too small to play power forward. A year after leaving Philadelphia he was the league's MVP.

Whom did Cleveland draft with the No. 1 pick it got from Philadelphia in June 1986?

Brad Daugherty gave Cleveland five All-Star seasons. Roy Hinson, the forward Philadelphia took for the pick, was gone again in under three.

Which word did Allen Iverson keep repeating in a famous 2002 press conference rant?

Practice was the word. His coach had criticised him for missing team sessions after a first-round playoff exit, and the league's leading scorer replied, 'We talkin' about practice.'

At which college did Allen Iverson play for two seasons before the 1996 draft?

Georgetown coach John Thompson offered him a place after he had served four months in a Virginia jail. The governor had granted him clemency, and the conviction was later overturned.

Which coach, hired in 1997, led the 76ers to the 2001 NBA Finals despite frequent clashes with Allen Iverson?

Larry Brown left Philadelphia in 2003 and won the NBA title with Detroit the very next season. That gave him championships at both the college and the professional level.

Which 76er was the Sixth Man of the Year in 2000-01?

Aaron McKie was a local, born in Philadelphia and schooled at Temple before a trade brought him home. His award gave one team the MVP, top coach, top defender and top reserve in a single season.

Which 76er won Defensive Player of the Year in 2000-01?

Dikembe Mutombo began that season in Atlanta. Philadelphia traded for him at the February deadline, giving up the injured Theo Ratliff, and he finished it with the award for the fourth time.

Over which Lakers guard did Allen Iverson famously step after hitting a shot in Game 1 of the 2001 Finals?

Tyronn Lue was guarding him when the shot went in. Philadelphia won that night 107-101 in overtime, and it was the only game the Lakers lost in the series.

Allen Iverson was known by which nickname?

The Answer was often the smallest man on the court, listed at six feet. He still won four scoring titles and was the league's MVP in 2001.

To which team did the 76ers trade Allen Iverson in December 2006?

The Denver Nuggets paid with Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two first-round picks. Three years later he came back to Philadelphia to play out the last games of his NBA career.

Which 76ers head coach had been the team's No. 1 overall draft pick in 1973?

Doug Collins joined the 76ers a year after the 1972 Olympic final, where he was knocked to the floor with three seconds left, got up and sank both free throws to put his team ahead.

Which Apollo Global Management co-founder led the group that bought the 76ers for $280 million in 2011?

Josh Harris used the 76ers as a first step. He went on to head the groups that bought hockey's New Jersey Devils in 2013 and the NFL's Washington Commanders in 2023.

Which general manager's tear-down rebuild from 2013 became known as 'The Process'?

Sam Hinkie started by trading an All-Star guard for an injured rookie and a draft pick, then piled up picks while the losses mounted. 'Trust the process' became the locker-room mantra.

How did the architect of the 76ers' 'Process' rebuild resign in April 2016?

With a 7,000-word letter, 13 pages of team-building theory that even found a lesson in New Zealand's flightless birds. He had learned that the club was hiring Bryan Colangelo to take charge.

Joel Embiid, taken third in the 2014 draft, played his one college season at which school?

Kansas lost him to a back injury before the end of that season. A broken bone in his foot then kept him out of the NBA until October 2016, more than two years after he was drafted.

In which country was Joel Embiid born?

Cameroon produced him late: he did not take up basketball until he was 15. Luc Mbah a Moute, an NBA player from the same city, spotted him at a camp and became his mentor.

Joel Embiid chose to play for which country at the 2024 Olympics?

USA was his choice, even though France had granted him citizenship two years earlier with its own Olympic team in mind. His team then beat the hosts in the final.

Which player did the 76ers take first overall in 2016?

Ben Simmons missed the whole of his first season with a broken foot. He made his debut a year late and was still voted Rookie of the Year, in 2018.

The 76ers' Game 7 loss in the 2021 playoffs, remembered for a passed-up open dunk, came against which team?

The Atlanta Hawks won the deciding game in Philadelphia. The player who passed up the dunk never appeared for the 76ers again: he held out until he was traded the following February.

General manager Bryan Colangelo left the 76ers in 2018 after a scandal involving what?

Fake Twitter accounts had been criticising the team's own players, Joel Embiid among them. Colangelo's wife admitted to running them, and he resigned within days of the story breaking.

Whom did the 76ers acquire from Brooklyn in February 2022 when they traded away their 2016 No. 1 pick?

James Harden, the league's MVP in 2018, came with Paul Millsap in the deal. He lasted less than two years in Philadelphia before he was traded again, to the Clippers.

Who replaced Doc Rivers as 76ers head coach in 2023?

Nick Nurse had been on the other bench four years earlier. His Toronto Raptors knocked Philadelphia out in a seventh game in 2019 and went on to win the championship.

What kind of animal is Hip Hop, the trampoline-dunking mascot who fronted the 76ers from 1998 to 2011?

A rabbit, and the club gave him a proper send-off. Its announcement said he had fallen in love, married and moved to rural Pennsylvania to start a family.

What is the name of the dog mascot introduced by the 76ers in February 2015?

He was unveiled to 400 fans at the Franklin Institute after a weekend at the All-Star Game in New York.

What was the 76ers' arena, opened in 1996 on the JFK Stadium site, originally called?

CoreStates Center lasted two years. The bank was bought by First Union, which renamed itself Wachovia and was then swallowed by Wells Fargo, and the arena's sign changed with each takeover.

Which 76ers guard won the NBA's Most Improved Player award for the 2023-24 season?

Tyrese Maxey had been only the 21st pick of his draft. When the team traded away a former MVP guard early in the season, he took over the offence, scored 50 in a game and became an All-Star.

Where did Julius Erving say people first tried to call him 'Black Moses' and 'Houdini'?

Rucker Park in Harlem got a firm reply: if they had to call him anything, he said, call him 'Doctor'. By his own account a school friend had given him that name after Erving started calling him 'the professor'.

Which 76ers great was nicknamed 'the Kangaroo Kid' for his leaping ability?

Billy Cunningham jumped leagues too. He left Philadelphia for the rival ABA in 1972, was its MVP in his first season there, then came back to the 76ers as a player and later as their coach.

In 2017 the 76ers traded up to draft Markelle Fultz first; who went third with the pick they gave up?

Jayson Tatum grew into a perennial All-Star and won the 2024 title with Boston. Fultz, the player Philadelphia moved up to get, was traded away in 2019.

The 76ers' 2018-19 'City' uniforms were inspired by which film set in Philadelphia?

Rocky was the stated inspiration, along with the Creed films that carry on its story. The grey base copies the sweatsuits of the films' training runs through Philadelphia, and the waistband echoes Rocky's championship belt.