The Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball club in the National Basketball Association (NBA). They’ve been in the league since 1949 (when they were known as the Syracuse Nationals), and they’ve had players like Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Wilt Chamberlain among their ranks.
The team was created in 1939 in Syracuse, New York, although they were more often known as the National or Nats. The Nationals were initially an independent club, unconnected with any professional basketball organization, but they joined the NBA in 1946. (NBL).
The National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America united in 1949 to become the NBA, and the Nationals were defeated in the first NBA championship by the Minneapolis Lakers. After losing in the finals again in 1954, the team won its first championship the following season, thanks to the outstanding play of forward-center Dolph Schayes.
Syracuse Rebranded as Philadelphia 76ers
The Nationals were not a competitive club, although never missing the playoffs in their fourteen years in the NBA, so they were acquired in 1963, transferred to Philadelphia (where the Warriors had abandoned for San Francisco in 1962), and rebranded.
Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals hit the first triple-double on February 8, 1951, as per the long-time Philadelphia statistician Harvey Pollock. Schayes had 18 points, 22 rebounds, and 13 assists to lead the squad.
Because stat keeping in the NBA was not an exact science in the early days, and many of the early box scores have been lost, it’s impossible to tell who had the first triple-double. Furthermore, the NBA did not keep track of steals and blocks before 1973. However, Schayes’ triple-double was preceded by four others.
The Nationals were an absolute hit in the NBA, dominating the Eastern Division with a league-best 51–13 record in 1949–50. The Nationals kept playing well in the playoffs, winning two games in a row against the Philadelphia Warriors. The Nationals advanced to the Eastern Finals, where they faced the New York Knickerbockers, defeating them in a three-game series.
The Nationals played fellow NBL alumni, the Minneapolis Lakers, in the NBA Finals. The Nationals lost their only home game of the season in Game 1 of the Finals, 68–66. The Nationals were unable to come back, falling down 3–1 before losing in six games.
The 1967 NBA playoffs looked to be identical to any other NBA playoffs in the 1960s, with the Boston Celtics winning the title. Nothing appeared to be able to stop the Celtics from claiming their seventh consecutive NBA title.
The Celtics had removed the Sixers from the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons, and the Warriors, who had been in Philadelphia before the Sixers, had also been eliminated. The Celtics, on the other hand, have claimed Wilt Chamberlain. His playoff hopes and goals were being crushed by the green machine.
Chamberlain got an unofficial quadruple-double in game 1 and 41 rebounds in game 3. The Sixers would go on to win the series 3-0. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in NBA history, but the Celtics, headed by Bill Russell, had a shot.
Boston won game 4 to avoid a sweep, but Chamberlain and the Sixers were too much for the Celtics, who lost their first series since 1958 and watched their 18-game winning streak, the longest in NBA history, come to an end.
The Sixers would face the Warriors in the NBA finals. The Sixers would avenge an old rival, winning the NBA title in six games against the previous Philadelphia team.
Unfortunately for Sixers fans, Boston regained its composure and defeated the Sixers in the playoffs for the next two years, en route to winning two more NBA championships in 13 years.
The appearance of four players from both teams in the same NBA game was one of the oddest instances in NBA history. This was the result of a protest of a game between the Nets and the 76ers on November 8, 1978.
This is the first and only time in NBA history that players have begun on one team and then switched to another. Several matches have been replayed due to injuries, suspensions, and trades, with players who were not originally on the teams taking part.
The misfortunes of the four main Philadelphia sports organizations were attributed to Billy Penn’s curse. When One Liberty Place was erected in 1987, the curse began. There had been a voluntary agreement for years that no structure may be taller than Philadelphia City Hall, yet One Liberty Place was about 400 feet taller than City Hall.
A monument of William Penn, the founder of the Pennsylvania colony, stands atop City Hall. The construction of One Liberty Place seemed to have enraged either the monument or the ghost of William Penn, as the Philadelphia sports teams began to lose ground.
Philadelphia’s teams have had a lot of luck prior to the curse. The 76ers had won many NBA championships, the Phillies had won the World Series, and the Flyers had won the Stanley Cup. Only the Eagles of the National Football League have never won a championship in their hometown.