THE EARLY-’80S CALLED: WE WANT OUR SIXERS-CELTS-LAKERS BACK!
Remember the early 1980s?
Sixers fans sure do.
It’s when Philly and the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers dominated the NBA, especially deep into the playoffs.
And 1983 especially, when Philly last won an NBA title with Moses Malone sweeping the Lakers (below).
Well, Tuesday night’s scene at the NBA draft lottery summoned up memories and hope!
There was Magic Johnson, perhaps the greatest guard of all-time for the Lakers, and young Joel Embiid, who in just 31 games last season lit up the sky as a future superstar.
With any luck related to his nagging injury issues, Embiid will more likely carry the 76ers on their rise from the depths of the Eastern Conference, quite possibly in a familiar chase of those Celtics.
And if Johnson’s magic in the Lakers’ front office is as spellbinding as it was on the court while winning five NBA championships, a formula so familiar in the 1960s and the 1980s could reintroduce itself.
“The thing is, I’ve been a winner all my life,” Johnson said, now armed with the second pick in next month’s NBA draft and a possible crack at the flamboyant UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball.
“Pretty amazing — all one great feeling of Celtic pride right now,” said Wyc Grousbeck, a Celtics owner, who basked in the spotlight of the annual game show proceedings on Tuesday as he stood alongside Johnson and Embiid.
The three men evoked cherished images for those old enough to remember or witness the 1960s spectacles of Bill Russell (Boston) versus Wilt Chamberlain (Philly) and of John Havlicek (Boston) stealing the inbounds pass by Hal Greer (Philly) to ice the 1965 conference finals, with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, as usual, awaiting the Celtics out West.
By the early 1980s, Larry Bird’s Celtics and Julius Erving’s Sixers had renewed the rivalry, actually throwing punches at each other on one occasion and staging epic playoff battles, while Johnson’s Lakers provided the primary, and ultimate, opposition.
“Wish we would have gotten the Lakers’ №1 pick, but we’re trusting the Process, and it’s going to be exciting to see where we are going,” Embiid said, reciting the mantra that has outlasted and also validated Sam Hinkie.
On the plus side, Embiid and the 76ers were soothed by the claiming of the third pick in 2017 and the transference to them of the Lakers’ top pick in 2018.
“I think we are building up at the right time and when we start getting good, that’s when Cleveland and LeBron will start slowing down,” Embiid said. “When it’s all said and done, we’ll be ready to compete for a championship.”
And then there’s the 76ers, finally glimpsing daylight from the collapsed mine shaft they’ve inhabited for half a decade, with Embiid as their hub, the rookie power forward Dario Saric as another chip and Ben Simmons, last year’s draft prize, the first selection over all, set to debut next season after sitting this one out with an injury.
Bryan Colangelo, the Sixers’ president for basketball operations, inherited the Process from Hinkie, but he knows his league history. He recognizes the most likely enemy of the future.
“I hate to see Boston wind up with that pick being in our division, but that’s what we’re dealing with,” he said. “They’re a little ahead of us right now in terms of competitiveness — they’ve got some veterans where they’ve gotten them to a point where they are competing in the playoffs. But in a similar vein, you can say that these two organizations are going down the same path.”
Where it takes the 76ers will be interesting to see. But if it’s a journey of title contention that also involves the Celtics, is it a speculative stretch to expect Magic and the Lakers to eventually be along for the ride?
