The Sixers, winners of the unlucky lottery

January 18, 2006 | By Dennis Bakay | Discuss

So, here we are in January and it’s another frustrating season of Sixers basketball. They are a team spinning their wheels, giving up points at alarming rates, and looking like a dysfunctional team. This didn’t happen overnight. Does Billy King deserve blame for this mess? Sure, there is no doubt that he deserves some of the blame. However, I would be remiss to point out the key to the Sixers downward spiral. And, it began before their title run of 2001 believe it or not. We can trace the Sixers’ state of perpetual mediocrity of a fateful day in May 1997. It was one Sunday during the NBA Conference Finals at halftime when the lottery took place. May 18, 1997 would prove to be a day that would mark the downfall of this team in the beginning of their rebuilding stage.

Tim Duncan was the overwhelming choice to be the number one pick that year. He was a big man coming out of college that came along once every 5-10 years. He and Shaquille O’Neal were the two most dominant big men to come along in two decades. The ping pong ball bounced in favor of the San Antonio Spurs and not the 76ers though. This would prove disastrous.

Let’s look at the events that followed here. Keith Van Horn, who was a great college player at the time refused to play for Philadelphia. He was the overwhelming choice to be the number two pick in the draft behind Duncan. Looking back on it Tracy McGrady (chosen 9th) or Chauncey Billups (chosen 3rd) would have been light years better than Van Horn or Tim Thomas-the player they ended up with. Thus, they traded the number 2 choice along with Lucious Harris, Michael Cage, and Don Maclean to New Jersey for the number 7 pick (Tim Thomas), number 21 pick (Anthony Parker), Jimmy Jackson, and Eric Montross. Five months later they shipped Montross along with Jerry Stackhouse, and their 2nd round pick for Theo Ratliff, Aaron McKie, and a first round pick. This turned out to be a good trade. But, we’ll come back later to where this trade ultimately led them. Tim Thomas lasted nearly two seasons and was traded on March 11, 1999 along with Scott Williams to Milwaukee for Tyrone Hill and Jerald Honeycutt.

Ratliff, McKie, and Hill would prove to be three key components to the Sixers’ run to the NBA Finals in 2001. Larry Brown figured out early that the way to win with Iverson would be to surround him with a bevy of defensive role players. This would work to perfection during the 2000-2001 season when they went 56-26, upon starting a 30-9. However, Ratliff’s All-Star season ended after just 50 games, leaving them in a lurch. Larry Brown pulled the trigger on a blockbuster deal netting them Dikembe Mutombo, who would be the defensive force in the middle the Sixers needed to go up against the Lakers in the finals. They had to part with Ratliff in the deal, who was out for the season. At the time the trade was brilliant. In fact, it got them to the NBA Finals. They even defeated the vaunted L.A. Lakers in the first game in L.A. after they won their first 10 games in the playoffs. The Sixers eventually went down in 5 games though. Following this season the trajectory of the franchise took a dramatic turn.

The critical mistake that Larry Brown made was signing Dikembe Mutombo to a 4-year contract extension worth $68 million. Now, lets step back for a minute and think about this. They signed an aging center to a long-term deal for $17 million per season. Yes, he led them to the finals. However, it was obvious that he maybe had 1 or 2 more good seasons in him. A basketball layman could have seen this. This signing would turn out to be disastrous. Mutombo spent one more season in a Sixers uniform before being jettisoned for Keith Van Horn. Ah, the irony. The man who this all started off with. Van Horn would last one season before being traded for Glen Robinson and his bad contract. Robinson lasted 2 seasons (he only played one) before being traded for Jamal Mashburn and Rodney Rogers. This might have been one of the worst trades in the history of the NBA. They could have allowed Robinson’s contract to expire, but instead they picked up Masburn who was set to retire. However, he had a player option in his contract, in which he elected to employ. Now, the Sixers have his money on the books until the 2006-2007 season at close to $11 million per season.

It is this type of chronic bumbling that has put the Sixers in the position they are in today. However, we can trace this back to that fateful day on Sunday May 18, 1997. Had they drafted Tim Duncan, it’s a foregone conclusion they would have won at least 1-2 championships with a triumvirate of Duncan, Iverson, and Larry Brown as head coach. They may have won 3-4 titles. There’s no telling what would have ultimately happened, had they not been screwed by the lottery gods. The Sixers are left with Jamal Mashburn’s contract for one more season. Think about this for a second. The Sixers could have one of the 20 greatest players in NBA history had that lottery ball spun in their favor. Instead what they have to show for is one really fun season and years of perpetual mediocrity thereafter.