February 7th, 2017 National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers have created the blueprint to a championship contending team by using one of the most controversial tactics in recent history of the league. Philadelphia's general manager, Sam Hinkie, since the 2012-2013 NBA season has traded all of the team's valuable assets away to sign D-league players in order for his team lose as many games as possible in the next season. The philadelphia organization has dubbed this “the process”. Hinkie was hired in May of 2013 for the role of general manager of the organization. As Hinkie was named GM, days later he had decided to trade Andre Iguodala, a 1st round pick, Nikola Vucevic, and Moe Harkless for Andrew Bynum and an old Jason Richardson. When the trade was announced publicly, Philadelphia fans all over North America scratched their heads wondering why someone would trade their best player, along with two valuable team assets for two “garbage” players as the media viewed them. This led the team to one of the worst records in NBA history(19-63). The outcome of tanking the season was landing them the third pick of the 2014 draft. During the draft, Joel Embiid, predicted number one overall pick, unfortunately got injured before the draft. Joel’s injury scared teams away from drafting him, because no one wants an injury prone player. Fortunately, Sam Hinkie saw this as an opportunity to prolong “the process”. By drafting an injured player, he would not be able to play for the next two years, thus allowing them to tank for one more season, getting them yet another top 10 draft pick. After another year of tanking(18-64), Philadelphia was beginning to look like a joke, but despite the controversy surrounding “the process”, the 76ers got another top 10 pick in the 2015 draft. They used this pick to select college center Jahlil Okafor. Philly fans praised this pick, as they thought he would be the face of the franchise. As the 2015-16 season finished, fans of the sixers were in shock as they had landed the worst record in franchise history, yet again(10-72). At this point in time, NBA and Philadelphia fans alike were sick and tired of this so called basketball the sixers were playing, but as all this complaining came their way, there was light at the end of the tunnel in a future young star. Ben Simmons has been the most hyped draft prospect since LeBron James, and often compared to the 6’7, 260lb behemoth, king James. From journalists to sports analysts, Simmons was the predicted number one overall pick on everyone's list. There was only going to be one team that would be getting the #1 overall pick through the NBA draft lottery, that team so happened to be none other than the Philadelphia 76ers. After years of tanking and horrific basketball by the sixers organization, they finally had something to look forward to in the future, as Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons would be suiting up as 76ers in the upcoming NBA season to create as many called it, a nasty duo in today's NBA.
As The NBA season is about to commence , young stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid have begun training in preparation for the long season ahead of them. As the bad luck of Philadelphia fans struck again, Simmons broke his foot making him ineligible to play in the 2016-17 season. This hurt many fans by not being able to see the soon-to-be dynasty of the 76ers, but everyone would be surprised as Joel Embiid put on a show for all of Philly to see. Joel Embiid stunned the NBA with his ability to shoot, dribble, and score as rookie center averaging only a mere 25 minutes per game. After 50 games of the NBA regular season, Joel Embiid has lead the sixers to 20 wins, already beating their past three records. This has shown Philadelphia a glimpse of what is to come to this young NBA team in the near future. As Joel Embiid is a shoe in candidate for rookie of the year, and Philadelphia already having access to a top 10 pick in the 2017 draft, the Philadelphia 76ers have proven themselves as one of the most ingenious organizations in the league. The Philadelphia roster and employees have already said to look out for them in the future, and as a Philadelphia fan, we can finally say that the wait is over, there will be no more second thoughts, and we will be a force to be reckoned with for the next 10 years to come.
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