The delightful and unique aspects of the Philadelphia 76ers
A blend of personalities, talent, and timeliness has brought the 76ers to the forefront of NBA storylines.
If I’m being honest I don’t watch full NBA games that often during the regular season. I rely on stats, podcasts, condensed game footage, and the trusty internet to piece together my perception of the NBA. The stereotypical blog boy as Kevin Durant would say. Once the playoffs hit, my consistency in watching full games heats up and so does my enjoyment of the sport itself.
That being said, apart from my Pistons trading for the franchise anchor that is Blake Griffin, this NBA season has been so enjoyable to follow. As most are aware one of the surprises of the season was the 76ers and their growth from process to whatever cute term we have yet to come up with for their success.
On the backs of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, a plethora of international shooters, JJ Redick, and more; the 76ers have sprung into the playoffs on a crazy winning streak and now find themselves competing at a high level with a veteran laden Miami Heat team. Alright so now that I’ve given the captain obvious recap, here’s the point I want to make and thought I want to capture.
Most of the time when teams are this young and talented they’re hurt by their youth in the playoffs. The only team that I’ve seen that somewhat resembles this team is the 2012 Thunder, and even then Durant and Russ were older than both Embiid and Simmons.
For some reason this team’s talent and uniformity has transcended the normal rules that exist within the NBA structure. Granted, what they’ve done in winning two playoff games at the time of writing this isn’t anything to bounce your kid on your knee and tell them about. I’m not attempting to prematurely crown them, but they’ve captured the interest of the NBA world and the interest of myself in a unique way. Personally, I think it’s due to the personalities, amount of talent, and the road (just because I don’t want to say process) they’ve taken to get here.
The personalities of both Simmons and Embiid are unique and incredibly entertaining. Joel is interesting in fairly obvious ways, the real fascinating personality to me is Ben Simmons.
The personality of Simmons first became obvious to me when I watched him play PUBG and Fortnite with one my favorite YouTubers and Twitch streamers Hutch. At first I was just delighted to see an NBA player mixing it up with a video game streamer and in a way that wasn’t like Drake playing with Ninja. Simmons is a legitimate gamer and was there to get some good games in.
So now that I have this video game perception of Simmons I perceived his basketball personality in an entirely different light. He was this somewhat quiet guy that carried himself in a confident and dominate way. Like a stare-down LeBron in a must win game way. And not like the Lance Stevenson stare-down or a Stanley Johnson stare-down. His swagger wasn’t backed up by a ridiculous perceived awareness of himself but a reality of class and skill.
All of that personality is compiled into one of the more enjoyable players and teams to watch in the NBA. Seeing how Simmons and the Sixers are carving teams up over the last month has been a joy. How they’re doing so makes it all the better. A mix of youthful talent and a calming veteran presence on the team make things feel real and permanent, not a flash in the pan.
