Basketball is a team game with ball, the main task of which is to throw ball into the opponent’s basket.
The popularity of sport began to grow rapidly in all US cities, but Philadelphia did not stand aside. She also wanted to create her own squad that would participate in executive basketball. In 1946, the Philadelphia 76ers formed club.
This name is associated with year of inscribe of US government in Philadelphia. In fact, basketball in Philadelphia was founded by ethnic Jews as early as 1917. This is confirmed by fact that all players of the Seven Sixers squad at beginning of their existence consisted of Jews.
It was a very good base for basketball club, because most of teams had just started their development, and this team already had a sufficient amount of skill and experience.
And already in 1955, the club won the NBA championship. It took squad a fairly short period of time to show all power and strength in executive basketball.
In its first season, squad took the final 4th place, which was a massive victory for newcomers. In almost all seasons, the club was in favorite and went to the playoffs.
The players are strong, competition is high among professionals. At the level of other teams, squad seemed like amateurs, which hurt them very much. Influenced perseverance and improvement of the team, which led to victory in the NBA.
While big clubs were growing in the big towns, Philadelphia didn’t have much support. The organization was looking for sponsors for financial and sports support.
In the history of club from all seasons of the NBA, the 76ers team won 3 times and reached playoffs 47 times, visited finals 6 times. In the 1970s, the basketball squad suffered a crisis. Contributed to change of coach and spontaneous departure of players. So in 1972-1973 the worst years in history became for him. The results were 9 wins and 73 losses.
Philadelphia basketball game changer
After worst season in 1972-1973, the club lost hope and morale. The creators decided to radically change approach to kind of sport. The main task was to create all conditions for attracting professional players from Philadelphia, who left the club in search of a better prospect and career.
It was believed that return of professional players would boost morale, and self-esteem and improve performance among competitors. The first step was return of the best light forward Billy Cunningham to squad. After him, the best power forward George McGinnis returned on better terms.
Such events had a positive impact on the squad’s future games and performance. And in 1977 they had already achieved great success and reached the NBA Finals. After such an event, the best forward Julias Irving returned.
In 1980, with fierce competition,defeating many strong teams, club reached the NBA Finals again. But the best heavy forward in history of the club, Charles Brackley, already participated in team.
Based on results, we can say that founders of the club made the right decision, which led to high performance and success of club. Until the 1990s, team was in the top 10 clubs in the NBA. For all time, such promising players have arrived on the Philadelphia team as:
- – Will Chamberlain;
- – Neil Johnson;
- – Moses Melow;
- – Joel Ibid!
It is a part of the athletes who showed high results in club and successfully built a sports career.
But history repeated itself and in 1992 the club experienced a deep crisis. He was not in the best condition and actually survived closure. The team inhabited at the bottom did not show practically any results. The reason for this was the lack of sponsorship. During these years, many squads completely left competitive executive basketball market.
After all, time has come when it is difficult to find support.
The home arena of the 76ers is the Wells Fargo Center. Built in 1996. The original name of the Spectrum 2 Stadium, in honor of the younger brother, where home games were played. Spectrum 1 Stadium hosted the home competitions of Philadelphia’s most famous teams until 1997.
The stadium was sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank. It was built entirely on private investment and on the same spot where the famous John F. Kennedy Stadium stood.
In 1996, everything changed for the better. After all, the best attacker from Philadelphia, Alain Averson, has returned. The old school of basketball raised him to be a top player and he decided to support his squad.
Upon learning that he returned to club, Aaron McKee decided to support his friends and thereby raise team from its knees. So they broke through to the NBA Finals.