the last time the 76ers won the championship was 1983.
the last time the 76ers won the championship was 1983.
when was the last time the 76ers won the championship?
1983
in the first round of the playoffs, philadelphia faced indiana yet again. in game one, the 76ers wasted an 18-point lead and lost, 79–78, when reggie miller hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds. philadelphia fought back, however, and took the next three games to win the series. in the eastern conference semifinals, the sixers squared off against the toronto raptors and their superstar, vince carter. the teams alternated wins in the first four games, with iverson scoring 54 points in philadelphia's game two victory. a game five win (with iverson scoring 52 in a 121-88 rout) and game six loss set up a decisive game seven, which the 76ers survived as carter missed a long jump shot at the buzzer for an 88-87 victory that sent the sixers to the eastern conference finals against the milwaukee bucks. after the teams split the first two games of the series in philadelphia, it was learned iverson would miss game three due to various nagging injuries that had plagued him late in the season. though most predicted a milwaukee cakewalk, the 76ers kept the game close before falling, 80–74. philadelphia seemed to gain momentum despite the loss, and they would win games four and five. milwaukee put any sixer celebration plans on hold by building up a 33-point lead in the third quarter of game six, but the 76ers would make a furious fourth-quarter rally before falling 110–100. struggling in the series up to that point, iverson scored 26 points in the final quarter to finish with 46 on the night and appeared to have gotten a second wind. in game seven, the bucks jumped out to a 34–25 second quarter advantage before seldom-used reserve raja bell scored 10 points to spark a 23–4 run that gave philadelphia the lead for good. iverson scored 44 points and the 76ers pulled away in the second half, winning by a 108–91 score to put them in the nba finals for the first time since 1983. as had been the case in their three previous finals appearances, their opponent would be the los angeles lakers, who had run up an 11–0 record in the first three rounds of the playoffs and were expected by many to make quick work of a worn-down 76ers squad. because of a seemingly meaningless loss to the lowly chicago bulls in the regular season finale (both the sixers and the lakers finished with identical 56–26 records, but los angeles was awarded a higher seed based on tiebreakers), the nba finals marked the first time in the 2001 playoffs in which the 76ers had to start a series on the road.
history of the philadelphia 76ers
the bottom fell out in the 1972–73 season. for all intents and purposes, the season ended when cunningham bolted to the aba, leaving the sixers with a roster of greer and little else. the 76ers lost their first 15 games of the season, and a few months later set a then-record 20-game losing streak in a single season. their record following the 20-game losing streak was 4–58, and the team at that point had just lost 34 of 35 games. the 76ers finished the season with a 9–73 record, leading the skeptical philadelphia press to call them the "nine and 73-ers". under coach roy rubin the 76ers went 4-47. it was his first and, as it turned out, his last nba coaching job. he was succeeded by player-coach kevin loughery, who went 5-26 the rest of the way. the 76ers finished an nba-record 59 games behind the atlantic division champion boston celtics. the nine wins by the 1972–73 squad is the fourth fewest in nba history, and remains the fewest for a full 82 game season. the 73 losses, although threatened several times, remains the all-time low-water mark for any nba franchise. the 76ers' 0.110 winning percentage was a record worst at the time, and is still the second lowest in nba history. this record was broken by the 2011–2012 charlotte bobcats which was shortened due to a lockout. (that bobcats team finished 7-59, for a .106 winning percentage.) only six seasons earlier, the 76ers had set the nba record for most wins in a season. the 76ers of 1972–73 is considered to be the worst team that ever played in nba history.
history of the philadelphia 76ers