Saying that the Philadelphia 76ers had a rough season, would be an understatement. The team finished the season with a 34-48 record.
Much worse than last season, when they were only a game away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.
The beginning of the season brought much excitement to Sixers fans. Andre Iguodala, Lou Williams, Elton Brand, and Jodie Meeks had been freshly traded and the Sixers brought in “dream player” Andrew Bynum signing him in August 2012. Bynum is a word that currently may leave a bitter taste in Philadelphia fans mouths. However, at the beginning of the season, Philadelphia had high hopes. All that was needed was a key player to lead the team into a successful season; newly acquired Dorell Wright, Nick “SwagyP” Young, or Jason Richardson seemed to be leading candidates. Along with Bynum, this team should have been great.
Let us bring Doug Collins into the mix. First note that Bynum and Doug Collins played the same number of minutes this season, both didn’t score any points, and both didn’t practice on the court with the rest of the team. Oh wait, Collins is the coach! He doesn’t NEED to do any of those things. Collins has recently announced that he is stepping down as head coach of the Sixers. You know what? We might as well bring Bynum back as coach. He spent enough time on the bench last season, so he really should have the whole coach thing figured out.
Out of all this disappointment this season, one positive was Jrue Holiday made his first All-Star appearance. Holiday, Turner, and Hawes all had tepid seasons. Of course they had single great games but never really pulled together as a team to win consistent games.
Let’s break it down, shall we? All-Star center, Andre Bynum came to the team unable to play because of a knee injury. One would think that a knee injury would heel within a few months. “I’m not saying we’re going to bring Bynum back, I’m saying we aren’t ruling it out… We’re very interested and open to Andrew coming back in a way that makes sense for us.” said owner Josh Harris. Is this real life? What could possibly make sense about bringing him back next season? Bynum had such a busy schedule during the season. He got his hair cornrowed a few times, went bowling and injured his knee even more, and took a nice vacation during the middle of the season to California. Talk about a busy bee! Did I mention he was getting paid 16.89 million dollars? Money well wasted.
After this season, the Sixers have no coach, a draft pick and a bunch of holes in the team roster. The aggravation that the ownership, players, management and the fans have endured is immense. The famous Philadelphia fan’s words, “this is a rebuilding year,” will be heard a lot. Who even knows, maybe we will even get a mascot next year! A team can only dream.
